No, this post isn't about how I gained a ton of weight on my recent trip to the Caribbean. It's about a personal trainer in Australia, Paul "PJ" James, who has decided to put on a ton of weight so he can feel what his overweight clients feel.
Read the article here
Basically, he is living many people's dreams of a bacon and chocolate milk diet as he's looking to put on a whopping 88 lbs of fat onto his body (he's halfway there already). After three months with the hard-fought weight, he's going work it off with his clients - again, so he's able to feel what his clients feel.
What do I think? Noble, but misguided.
The biggest difference between PJ and someone who's fought with weight their whole life is exactly that - the clients have probably fought with weight problems their whole life (or a significantly longer time than 3 months).
What am I getting at?
That putting on a bunch of weight, then losing it shows that it can be done - we all know it can be done. But I don't think it addresses the underlying issues.
Whether an overweight individual is a highly stressed professional, or perhaps uses food as a reward at the end of the day, you'll often find that there are many underlying issues that need to be addressed before someone can work towards a new, healthier them.
Deep down, people really know what needs to be done to get healthier (or at least move in that direction). The problem comes in actually applying it to their lives. It's tough, trust me!
So while PJ has the best intentions, I'd warn him that he needs to look at all the factors in his clients lives that are making them overweight, not just the extra weight itself.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
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