I've really got to stop being such a pussy.

[teenage_hustler]

A girl on my facebook I've known vaguely for a year or so posted something about hating how fat she's becoming in Germany and how she really badly wants to lose weight so she comes back to England not being the fatty she was when she left

Comments

[gfeather]

Numbers on a scale drive me batty! Really, life is happening, no matter what you weigh. I'm a fat girl who ran a marathon a few months ago and I plan to do it again this spring. Sure, I'm fitter than I've been in a long while, but I'm under no delusions. That said, it really bugs me that places selling fitness clothes and equipment are always geared towards the svelte and superfit. It makes lifestyle changes that much harder for those how want to make them. /fitness rant

I've had some really rough times this past year and finding a way to not let the stresses other people bring to your life is simple in theory, but hard in practice.

Truth 1- No matter what you do, you cannot control what other people do.

Truth 2- No one can 'make' you do something or 'make' you feel or react a certain way. Don't give your power away. You're the one in control with the choices you make.

Truth 3- It's just information until you decide to do something with it. We all have references in our head for how we think things should be. When the information (imput/feedback/whatnot) we recieve doesn't match, it's still just information.

Truth 4- gfeather has spent far too much time learning Perceptual Control Theory.

I really like the way PCT and ACT comes together and it has made a big difference in my life. Even if things are falling apart, I feel far more in control than I ever did before. You are, however, welcome to tell me to go stick it in my ear. It's just information, after all.

[teenage_hustler]

running a marathon = AWESOME, regardless of your size. Good work!

I think you've got the right idea happening there, and I ABSOLUTELY agree with you about fitness clothes. It's insane. They want us fatties to exercise, yet they provide no nice fitness clothes for us? Come on, guys!

PCT sounds like a branch of cognitive behavioural therapy. Is it?

[gfeather]

The biggest problem with the clothes is finding stuff that isn't oh say 80% cotton. Running in the heat in stuff that doesn't breath sucks the big one!

PCT isn't quite the same as CBT. It's based on the work of William Glasser and William T Powers. E Perry Good's book In Pursuit of Happiness is a good book to explain it or Power's book Making Sense of Behaviour. It's pretty straight forward and sensible (not fluffy bunnies stuff) but applying it to your life is more challenging than first glance would indicate.

I've been taking training in Applied Control Theory for about 18 months and if all goes to plan I should be a certified reality therapy councellor by June. Scary, isn't it? I have many serious concerns about my own mental state sometimes, but I guess I'm making myself strong at the broken places.