The initial denial:
"What?! Now I don't even believe this! I...but I just bought these pants. This is the only size that I wear. I tried them on in the store and everything. I mean, yeah, it was, like, 3 weeks ago. But still. I can't believe they shrunk like this. I need to take them back, then."
(looks around)
"Let me see if it's just these pants."
(tries on favorite stretchy jeans)
"That's odd. These aren't as stretchy as they normally are."
(snaps fingers)
"Ah ha! I know what it is. I knew better than to put these in the dryer. The tag clear says, "Hand wash only", and when you hand wash something, you should never put it in the dryer. Duuuuh! Who doesn't know that? Let me see what else seems off."
(looking through closet)
"Ah! My favorite blazer! Haven't sported this in a while."
(struggling arm into sleeve)
"Hmm. My undershirt must be too thick. Let me take it off."
(stripped down to bra)
"There we go. I just need to wear thinner shirts under this, then. It looks better, anyway."
(tries to hug herself and rips the back of the jacket incredible Hulk style)
"What the?! I can't believe my clothes are shrinking like this! I told that dang landlord that he needs to fix these vents. There is clearly not enough air circulating through this apartment! The humidity is causing my clothes to shrink! This is ridiculous."
(sweat is beginning to drip profusely from her forehead)
"Whew! Oh my! This feels like a workout. Now I need a bath."
(13 minutes later, after a failed attempt to fit into the tub, she turns on the shower)
"Whatever. I prefer showers, anyway. Baths are kind of gross, when you think about it. All of your dirt just crawls back on you. And I didn't realize how small this tub was. That's crazy!"
(chuckles and mocks herself at the thought of her previous statement)
'This feels like a workout.'
" Okay, that was a tad bit exaggerated. I am in great shape. I was sweating because I'd worked up such a thirst, if nothing else. And, now that I'm thinking about it, it is getting pretty close to dinnertime. That pizza did not fill me up.
(breathing heavily)
"Man, but taking a shower really does feel like a workout!"
(After her shower and getting dressed, she enters the kitchen. She steps over two bags of potatoes)
"I need to cook those potatoes before they go bad. I've been craving fried potatoes like crazy! I just don't feel like peeling them right now."
(chuckles to self)
(thinks to herself)
"Okay. If I make a sandwich, then I have to have chips with it. If I eat a bowl of cereal, I may as well leave it out because I usually want a second bowl. If I fry that chicken, then I'll need to make the sides to go with it."
(shakes head at the thought of frying anything)
" I don't feel like cooking. What's in here?"
She opens the pantry and, for the first time in months, she realizes that maybe her pants, blazer, and tub didn't shrink, after all.
THE PANTRY: One shelf is dedicated entirely to chocolate(Hershey's kisses and bars, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, 100 Grand Candy Bars, M&M's all separated by color in jars, Oreos in a zip lock bag with the cream scraped out of the middle, and a package of fun-sized Snickers), Nacho and Spicy Chilli flavored Doritos, Chicken and Waffle flavored Lays Potato Chips, 6 boxes of cereal(all opened), Chip Ahoy cookies with M&M's, Ritz crackers, Chessman cookies, Campbell's Soup(13 family-sized cans), 2 full cases of Ramon noodles stacked on the floor, Canned vegetables (approximately 31 cans), a bag of refined sugar, a bag of refined flour, cake mix, and Vitamin Water (zero calories).
Sometimes, weight gain sneaks up on you. It doesn't happen overnight, necessarily, but the subtlety of it can cause denial in your mind. "I'm couldn't be gaining weight! I workout everyday! I go to work everyday! I walk up and down the stairs!...yada, yada, yahhh!". Even if our daily activities don't change, our relationship with food can. Believe it or not, we have relationships with things that are involved in our everyday lives. They can be good or bad.
In this case, it was bad.
Before she could even make a decision on what to eat, she already had predetermined how to eat the food. She's obviously gotten used to telling herself, "That won't be enough. You'll still be hungry." and it causes her to gravitate towards overeating without even realizing it. You can bet that she doesn't even know the difference between being full and being satisfied.
Now that she has realized how bad her relationship with food has gotten, it is up to her to make the necessary changes in her life. If she choses to continue to overindulge and be careless with her food intake, then the pounds will keep stacking. If she choses to take back her self control, then she will be back in her clothes and her tub in no time! But more importantly, she will lead a much healthier lifestyle.
If this story reminds us of ourselves, our best bet is to take responsibility for where we are. Denial will only extend the amount of time that we are in a place that we don't want to be. Denial can take away our power because, when we don't accept our part in something, we forfeit our ability to change. When we point the finger at everything other than ourselves, we give ourselves permission to be failures. Why? Because blaming others for where we are in life is like saying that they are in control of the outcome. We should not let other people or things determine our success. We are in control of our own lives. Every decision that we make, ultimately, determines where we will end up. Not to sound cliché, but the choice is ours.
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