To Thyself Be True

'To Thyself Be True'



I say this a lot; the reason being that whether you are at work or in your private life, unless you are being true to yourself then you are living a lie. If you can't even be honest with yourself about where you are in your life, what goals and aspirations you have, what baggage and past you have, what your real issues are then you certainly won't ever solve them or be truly happy and at peace with yourself.

I was chatting on Sunday to a man who was easily as big as I was  at my biggest. He must have been around 30 stone (450 pounds).  When we met socially, he spent an hour telling me that he eats virtually nothing, that he has fruit during the day and then a healthy meal and yet he can't shift the weight.

Eventually, and I was very patient, I quizzed him on it. I said to him if he wanted the answers then the first thing was to stop the lies and to admit that you are eating too much. At that weight, you have to be consuming thousands and thousands of calories every day to maintain a big body like that. Therefore, when you tell me that you don't eat anything, are you trying to convince me or yourself? It sounds tough, and I was firm but I did ask him first if he was ok if I offered some honest advice. You have to be true to yourself, you have to admit that maybe what you are doing now isn't working for you and therefore you need to go and do something else instead.

When I was big I was living with my head in the sand. I was never one to admit my failings and my problems and therefore I just got bigger and bigger and more and more unhappy until eventually my head went 'pop'. But life isn't about diets, weight, clothes sizes, calories, carbs, and fitness. Life is about being who you really are, doing what you want to do and fulfilling your dreams. Nobody laid on their death bed wishing they had done a diet better or beating themselves up because they had a dessert 34 years earlier. We are on this planet for a brief time and we get one shot at life, if your life isn't what you want it to be then there is only one person who can change that and that is you...and the first step is to admit to yourself that some things need to change.