I can't tell you how many emails I get from people who claim to be addicted to food. They can't stop eating sugary, salty and fatty foods and are desperate for someone to help them. They feel utterly powerless and end up spouting the old line, "You're the only one who can help me!"
I've been training people and writing about health and fitness for long enough now to see right through these cries for help. I know that what they're really trying to do is make somebody else (me) responsible for their situation, so they can carry on making dumb food choices and excuse themselves for their destructive behaviour while they do it.
These days, the word "addiction" is used to cover a whole gamut of vices - gambling, sex and even shopping - but the addicts I see most are self-described "food addicts". These are the people who feel they are so powerless to control their eating habits that they are prepared to risk chronic disability and even death. But are they truly powerless?
We all know what we should eat, and what we shouldn't. It's not as if the information is locked away somewhere; in fact, it's never been more accessible. So here's my contention: many of these people aren't real addicts; they're wusses.
Yes, it's true that if you have suffered severe hurt or trauma in your life you may reach out to anything to fill the void - be it gambling, sex or, yes, even shopping - to alter your mood until it becomes a compulsive activity. So, the need to eat sugar and fat in order to make yourself feel good, or at least feel better, can become compulsive.
However, there needs to come a time in your life - and this is true for all of us - when you realise that whatever psychological wounds you have, they do not define you and neither does food. Food is not ruining your life - you are.
On The Biggest Loser we see some people who get it, and change their lives forever, and some people who, well, just don't. They simply don't have enough will power to make significant long-term change for themselves, even though they know it's destructive not only to them, but also to their loved ones.
Now, I'll stick my neck out here and say that by the end of a typical Biggest Loser season, I'll have a pretty good idea of who will stick with it, and who won't. Because will power is dead easy to pick. People who have it exude a sense of resolve, of quiet self-control. It's just that there doesn't seem to be much of it around these days.
Michelle's tips
Will power: Improving your will power is a lot like improving a muscle - the more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes. If your will power needs a workout, try exercising it in your day-to-day life. Before you tackle things that are truly addictive (such as cigarettes), start with something simple - have only one sugar in your coffee instead of two, or get out of bed 10 or 15 minutes earlier. Importantly, give yourself a pat on the back every time you say no.
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