Go Kaleo’s Amber Rogers on her Facebook page:
The reason I struggled unsuccessfully with my weight for 25 years was because I was struggling with my weight.
My weight wasn’t the problem. My weight was a symptom of the problem.
The problem was my habits. I treated myself poorly. My internal dialogue was abusive and unkind. When I exercised I did it to punish myself, and when I dieted I allowed myself an inhumanely small amount of food. These are not behaviors and habits that will produce a healthy body. These behaviors tear a person down, reduce self esteem, trigger binge eating, make exercise unpleasant, reduce a human to nothing more than a collection of body parts that are treated with contempt. And I did it to myself. And I bet many of you reading this do it to yourself.
Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our modern culture -- especially diet. Beth writes about ancestral health, health policy, & mindfulness. And cats! 
This is SUPREME. The heart of the issue!
Wow, That is so profound. It’ll take me a while to fully digest it. You always find the best quotes. thanks, I always enjoy your blog.
Thanks Kathy!
This quote reminds me of a blog by Seth Godin (I couldn’t find his blog entry but this one talking about it): http://impruvism.com/seth-godin-dieting/
He made a great analogy about two different types of jobs you could take - one that is truly miserable but pays millions and if you can put up with it for X years you get to keep everything, but if you bail you lose it all and a second job you don’t exactly love, but pays well enough, and you get to keep everything you’ve earned as you go.
He says a reasonable person would take the second job, not the first… and yet for dieting most people seem to go for the first - all or nothing approach. I think he’s right and it really does drive home how lifestyle changes, not diets, are what is important.
A while ago you also had a great quote from Scott Adams about goal setting versus setting up a system and I think that really ties into it. Too many people only see a goal of X pounds down and go to ridiculous extremes to reach it, only to fail because it’s not sustainable. Success is the healthy lifestyle, not the weight loss goal, imo.
It’s just too bad the larger part of the diet industry doesn’t approach it this way.
LOL … Armi’s blog was my quote of the day on September 10th … great minds think alike ;). BTW, I think Seth’s contribution was the quote about the job (“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.”). All the rest was Armi’s (terrific) analogy re overly restrictive dieting.
And yes, I think that a big problem is being caught in the cross-fire of a culture that demands unrealistic body weight and a diet industry that profits from that, and IMO, often leads to higher weight over time than if a person didn’t diet.