God speaks to us in subtle ways. After church the other Sunday, a member
stated that he and I had something in common.
He kind of surprised me with his statement as I had no idea what he was
talking about. Then he pointed to his
midsection. Yeah, yeah, yeah . . . I
know, I could lose a few pounds. Then,
while visiting with my fifteen month old granddaughter I discovered that she
liked to pat my belly . . . sort of the Jello-efffect
. . . you know, watch it wiggle, watch it jiggle, and watch the granddaughter
giggle. I could use a little work on
getting the ol’ Dunlop down. I guess
that I should be thankful that God is a little more subtle in getting the
message to me, and I appreciate that God did not come right out and call me a
fatty . . . the world does that enough!
I get the point! I need to lose weight! The only problem with that is in the fact
that it entails dieting and exercise . . . two things, which in these later
years of my life, I am not really thrilled with taking on. They are both work . . . hard work . . . and,
I have gotten used to my lazy existence. So, what is a middle-age, overweight guys
supposed to do? Well, surf the net
apparently!
According to an article I read on MSN Living using Twitter can actually help those of us who are overweight lose
weight. You can read the article here: http://living.msn.com/tech/social/how-twitter-can-help-you-lose-weight. Basically the article talks about a study
that was done with two groups of people attempting to lose weight. One group went about the business of trying
to lose weight primarily on their own;
the other group was set up using the social media of Twitter. Those who used Twitter lost more weight. Why?
Because they had a natural support group from which they could receive
support, encouragement, and motivation.
The old adage is that misery loves company, and Twitter was providing the company . . . and, it could be done
fairly anonymously.
I will be honest, when I went to read
the article I was hoping for something a little more miraculous. You know, something like I could hold my
belly up to the screen of my computer or cell phone, and it would be zapped
with fat melting ability . . . that I could watch the fat slowly
disappear. Something without much effort
. . . but, no! No, the work still has to
be done. The dieting has to take
place. The exercise has to take place. This wasn’t much of a diet at all . . . just
a bunch of “let’s all feel good about suffering together” stuff that I did not
want to hear.
I didn’t want to hear it because . . .
well, because it is work. I am
tired. I don’t want to work that hard. Also, because I am an introvert . . . this
little support group means that I have to do this with other people. I have always appreciated the Job model of
suffering . . . alone! I don’t want
someone else lamenting more than me . . . I want my lament to be number
one. If I have to share it with others,
well there is always someone who thinks they are worse than me. And, I thought technology was supposed to
make one’s life easier and more efficient . . . I think that this is false
advertising. Diet, my butt!
The results shared from the research
are good . . . using social media to find support and encouragement while
trying to defeat the battle of the bugle does work in losing weight. True, it still involves dieting and exercise,
but there are positive results. Since
the Twitter diet is not some
miraculous save the fat man method . . . doesn’t even melt the fat sort of
thing . . . but just one part of a successful weight loss program, it might be
worth a try. But, I must also admit, my
number one solution to this problem still works—denial. The only problem with that is that I keep
getting these subtle messages . . . when the granddaughter gets to the talking
stage is she going to call me “jelly belly” as she pats my mid-section? I sure wish they would hurry up and invent an
app that really does create weight loss . . .
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