Tech Blogging Meets Fatblogging, Universe Does Not Explode

First an aside, I'm not really sure I like the term fatblogging. I've seen it a few different places this week and it's stuck with me every time. I'm not sure what term I like better but I'm pretty sure I don't like fatblogging.

Jason Calcanis is internet famous for lots of reasons (founding and selling Weblogs, Inc. being one of the most well known). He is a very successful entrepreneur. Over the past year he's lost 20 pounds and is hoping to lose 10 more. He says he's learned five important lessons for losing weight. They are:

1. Learn your weaknesses when it comes to food
2. Make working out easy
3. Change your mindset
4. Realize the deck is stacked WAY against you
5. Lift weights

One, two, three and five are pretty common mantras among weight loss advocates/fatbloggers/weight loss bloggers/health professionals and just about anyone else not living in either a cave or under a rock. It's number four that I find interesting. "Realize the deck is stacked WAY against you." If you want to live a healthy lifestyle which includes eating a healthy diet and being active in the typical modern society that most of us live in, particularly Americans, then truer words have never being spoken. The deck is totally stacked against you.

you have to realize that society has stacked the deck against you. It's helpful to look at the issue as if you're at war with the world. Everything in our society is designed to make you fat--that's the truth. Major companies don't care about you or your health, they care about your money. When I walk through the airport I look at the stores in the terminal as a bunch of drug dealers trying to get your hooked, because that's the truth. Fast food companies are trying to screw you, entertainment companies want you sitting in your chair consuming their entertainment for hours while you eat their sponsors food. It's a war and you are out-gunned--big time. You have to walk like the master in Kung Fu and not let these folks impact you. Our whole society is designed to get you fat and you have to optout of it.

I want to give Calcanis like three gold stars for that paragraph. When women, and it seems it's always women, talk about how hard losing weight is people tend to spring up say stupid things like "buckle down" "just eat less" "being that fat is harder than losing weight" "just go for a walk" and on, and on and on. I'm thinking about this in light of a post I saw over at Big Fat Deal about some rampant fat hatred on Facebook, namely a group called "You're not 'full figured,' 'plus sized,' or 'voluptious,' YOU'RE FAT BITCH." Ah, you're not just fat, you're a bitch too. Classic. So it's refreshing to hear someone to whom success is no stranger talk about not only how hard it is to lose weight but that it's made significantly harder by the fact that the deck is weighted against you. He can make a ton of money on the internet but dude still had a hard time losing 20 pounds and he was trying, he was working hard at it. He wasn't being stupid or lazy. He was fighting a battle for his weight and health against an evil empire all of us live with. I'm glad he came out and said it. It cancels out some of projectile hatred that fat bitch people put out onto the internet every day. OK it doesn't really cancel anything else out but it isn't it nice to read something different once in a while?