What is self esteem? - The pressure of dieting

Pressure put upon plus-size people to diet in order to lose what others see as excessive weight, is terrible in its ferocity. It is constant and never lets up.

It’s not only GPs and other people within the medical profession; it’s the health and fitness clubs (but do they REALLY understand the subtle differences between ‘regular’ sized people and the plus-sized and the resultant issues pertaining to overtaxing the heart, other organs, and the body as a whole?); it’s the media - newspapers, magazines, television; it’s the entertainment industry - be like ..... from Desperate Housewives and be sexy at 40 kgs; - it’s films; it’s documentaries like “The Biggest Loser”; it’s “You’re killing yourself by eating too much” and so on.

Then there are family members who insist you’re not bothering about your weight and health; little innuendoes like if you changed your eating habits and only had two meals a day (and make them snacks!) you’d feel so-o-o-o much better (rather it’s that they’d feel so much better because you’d be doing what they tell you to do!). So-called friends also put in their piece of advice, and sometimes this becomes so insidious that the words play around in your head over and over again. “Why don’t you go to the Health Club - you’ll enjoy it! And you’ll lose weight as well!”

The pressure never stops!