How Fear Keeps the Extra Weight On

Fear. It comes in different forms. There’s the fear you feel when watching a scary movie. Or the fear you have of being stung by a bee. Fear can also be somewhat healthy, like the fear in making that big presentation at work. However, there is another type of fear that holds us back. Prevents us from living our best life. That fear is difficult for many of us to even admit. Because if we do, then we are admitting we are aware of our situation yet have denied its existence. A great example of this type of fear is with our weight.

There is absolutely no denying that a majority of us are not healthy. Statistics validate this fact time and again. Many times the trends in data show an increase in the number of people who are overweight and obese. This extra weight causes several weight related conditions, too, from type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and inflammation. If we know this to be true, why does the trend continue to grow? In one word, fear.

It is difficult to admit that there is a problem. If we do admit that there is a problem then that means we must do something about it. Otherwise, we look and feel worse. We may think that people perceive us as failures or that we let them down by acknowledging we need to lose weight but don’t. Revealing our health issues to others and ourselves means we accept responsibility for our current state of affairs. We look awfully foolish if we own our obesity yet continue with life as if we never did.

The fear of admitting to ourselves how unhealthy we are creates a ripple affect that can be overwhelming. So, rather than deal with the problem, we bury ourselves in life. We pretend we are fine with our body. Fear can keep us stuck exactly where we are. But that fear can rob us of a longer life. It can also rob us of living pain-free. Choose to look at your current health as an opportunity to become the best version of yourself and put your fear in a corner. Today.