Another Viewpoint On Obesity

I want to explore an alternative viewpoint on obesity.

Having come out of the Fitness Industry, the ongoing attitude is that people who are overweight simply eat too much of the wrong stuff and don’t exercise enough.

Maybe that is so. But I am more interested in why that is.

For the past couple of weeks I have been working in Daytona Beach in Florida. Traveling to the US a lot, you get to see obesity in all of its glory. And you get to watch the astounding dietary habits of a nation going broke on its health care bill.

But I feel there is something underneath all of this that drives the laziness and the over eating, and the addictions to sugar, aspartame, caffeine, alcohol, nicotine and a variety of other substances.

The underlying problems seems to be a combination of discouragement and boredom.

How many people out in the world are in a career that does not touch their heart, a career that lights a fire in their soul? I would say that very few have achieved this and are simply trying to find some level of joy and fulfillment working to support what is ultimately some other person’s passion, or worse still, working to sustain and grow a share price for faceless investors.

It is not that I feel any of these things are wrong. They just are, but there are cluse here as to why people wind up feeling unfulfilled and unmotivated.

Unfortunately, we often find that young adults aged 18, who are choosing a University Course, are picking what seems most stimulating from a set of options. It is so cool that there are so many more options today. But still, they might end up making a “next best” choice simply because nothing really spoke to them.

So they step into the world and focus their lives on making a living. It is the common and standard line we all use – making a living. Very few really go for creating a life. Soon, boredom drops in.

Once the boredom comes, a deep sense of dissatisfaction can follow and a feeling of deep discouragement follows soon after.

Things cannot get better from this place. Life becomes painful and the hunt for pain relief turns to things that distract us or make us feel temporarily good.

I feel that when I am really inspired, I do not need motivation and I do not need to go looking for energy pick-me-ups. I am simply full of beans and do not wish to stop. Life is exciting, exhilarating. And I create good stuff.

When I am working on things that do not come from my inspiration, it is always a challenge to focus my attention and I find my mind constantly wandering toward food or taking a break or even feeling tired.

When I am inspired, I run on full steam and love my work. When I am not, I am in some level of struggle.

I have a strong sense that over 80% of people in our society live in this category, locked in place by their own beliefs about how much they should earn, what suburb they should live in, the size of the mortgage they should have and the number of outfits they require.

When I get bored, I get an overwhelming urge to eat; to snack. It is like I feel unfulfilled, so I have to do something to fill it up. My motivation for exercise dries up too. It has a “what’s the point” feel about it.

The junk food industry would probably not exist if most people were inspired by their life and living their fullest potential, living out the deepest level of their inspiration.

Not living an inspired life will eventually lead to boredom and deep discouragement. The oft muttered ‘note to self’, quoted over and over in the back of the mind, “Is this as good as it gets?” or “Next year will be better”.

I read many amazing quotes about this very topic on Facebook. But I get the sense they are being posted by people who are aching deeply to find their inspiration and switch on their own excitement for life.

What would you do if you knew everything was going to turn out ok?

So I am wondering if we are “barking up the wrong tree” when it comes to solving the obesity epidemic. Perhaps the real starting point is to spend quiet time with people, helping them to see past their current life limitations and disappointments until they get a connection with their true inspiration for this lifetime. And it will never be about being rich and famous or having more stuff. They are just boredom relievers. It will be about using their own unique talents to make life better for others.

What do you think?

About John Toomey

I am a Queenslander who lives in Victoria. Born on a Cattle Station out near Roma, we moved around a bit first to a dairy farm, a country pub and finally, at the age of 10, we left the bush and my Dad took over a pub in the heart of Collingwood. I suppose after that change, nothing really shocks me, so I am a pretty relaxed customer. As a kid, I loved Football and Cricket and loved being fit. I had a crack at every sport. Underneath all of that was a deep sense of wonder. My religious education didn’t give me the answers so I developed a ‘yearning for learning’; to find out; to know. Whether it was the pub upbringing, or something in my genes, I developed a capacity to use words to help others to understand. With a passion for story-telling and a deep desire to explore, I went down many roads.

Since completing my Phys. Ed. degree in 1981, I have served 7 AFL teams as either a conditioning coach and/or nutritionist, partially completed a Masters, I’ve written books, e-books, 100’s of articles, lectured in Universities, studied with people who live on the edge of discovery and have presented over 1500 seminars in the corporate arena. My quest for answers led me to The Avatar Course where I found completion in my search for understanding. I now teach the course in Australia, NZ and the US. In recent years, I have taken my extensive skills sets in Wellness and Athletic Performance and molded them into an extensive and powerful Fatigue Prevention Program of businesses across the world. So far, I have taken the work into Mining, Construction, Road Transport and Rail with great success.

Visit my web site

Email me at jt@johntoomey.net or call me on +61 3 9005 7553, I'd love to have a chat!