Warning:: this post is NOT aimed to destroy your assumptions about certain persons, nations or cultures. This isn't a post where I'm purposefully making things up to prove a point. This post is totally based on truth and effect that the truths of others have had on me. This is a post where I'm writing my dealing with what a few individuals have said to me. These people aren't not all Dutch, so I'm not trying to pick a fight with them… I'm being honest here about a struggle I've been having, and I know I'm going to dip into a huge European taboo. If you read on, you do so at your own risk.
The words 'diet' and 'weight loss' are huge taboos in the western world, as is the subject of money and how much you earn (but this post isn't about money. I'm not going to break that taboo today). You just don't talk about dieting or weight loss, and if you do, you can expect to have some huge reputations. So by saying what I'm about to say, I'm breaking a taboo, like Fu Yuanhui (who swam in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio). In my journey through life I feel it's important to talk about this taboo… the taboo called weight.
I'm trying to loose weight. A lot of weight. It's built up over the course of about a year and a half due to unhealthy eating habits. I'm out of those people with a very slow metabolic rate. My body breaks food down slower than most so I gain weight quickly. Getting it off takes longer, a lot longer with a lot of hard work. It generally involves radical choices, in what I eat and how much I exercise. Both these two points have come under severe scrutiny and prejudice from people, who I'm assuming, feel guilty that I've realised something needs to change and I'm doing something to change it. They don't seem to like the fact that I'm doing something about my weight and they aren't.
People think that because they know me a little bit they can share with me what their thoughts are on a given topic, be it the dangers of running daily or putting skimmed milk in my breakfast, my tea and my coffee. This is something that greatly offends me as I already have trust issues* and don't appreciate people I don't really know telling me their point of view about something without asking if I'm open to it. I know this is going to cause shock waves through the web, but I like to think that honesty is one of the important aspects to life, even when it hurts.
As I write this I know there will be people who will likely go up in arms about what I've said. There are some people who tend to take offence for things that have nothing to do with them. I haven't even begun to understand why they feel they need to do this, especially over things that don't concern them; I'm just asking that if you're one of those people, please don't take offence over this post and contact me.
So as I bring this post to a close, I hope that you understand a little of where I'm going from... and a little of my mindset in the regard to my weight and trying to loose some of it.
*Over the last few years I've really been struggling with trusting people. Writing this is a big thing to post on such a public place. I'm more open to receiving advice or health tips from people I trust over those I'm not close to (and don't really trust yet). I've had a lot of bad things happen resulting from those I've trusted. I am working on this.