At the very least in order to take responsibility for our own health we need to be given reliable information. The information given to people trying to lose weight has been, over many decades, simply wrong and people who try to follow that advice and get on the lose gain roller coaster are made to feel that they are to blame when all they have been doing is following the advice they have been given. When I weighed 245 pounds I was ravenously hungry all the time. I was also tired, sick with various ailments and in constant physical pain. I was also seriously depressed and frequently suicidal. I am also independent minded and a good researcher, not likely to blindly follow experts like doctors, perhaps because my father was a doctor and I knew him to be, on occasion, fallible. So I finally did take responsibility for my own health because I was lucky enough to have the skills and personality that made this kind of self direction possible.

I try to be grateful for what I have been able to achieve without getting judgmental about what other people seem unable to accomplish. As Teaser said, we can't really know what goes on inside another person's mind and body. It is impossible to know what exactly drives them. Before my dietary changes I was hungry all the time and didn't have the energy to exercise plus my body was in too much pain. To others I probably just looked like a glutton. It is hard sometimes for me to remain non-judgmental when I see people acting in ways that go against their self-interest but kindness towards all others and humility about one's own circumstances goes a lot farther than arrogance and criticism. This is something I try to keep working on.

Jean