Why and wherefore?

Working away this week, so a bit more difficult to post. Calf injury progress: saw a Sports Injury specialist on Monday evening and there seems to be some progress on both root cause of my problems (seems to stem from back problems I didn't even know I had) and treatment of the symptoms (painful deep tissue massage).

This reminded me a lot of the general battle with weight loss. The question of how much effort to focus on dealing with the symptoms, and how much on the root causes, is a constant dilemma.

Being overweight is a symptom.
To lose weight you have to tackle the root causes.

If your battle is with the symptom only, you will never achieve long-lasting success.
The battle with the root causes is much deeper and more complicated. Why do I eat too much? Why do I eat the wrong things? Why is it so easy for me to change my plans and go to the supermarket to grab some food instead of going to the gym to work off some calories?
The "what" is pretty straightforward. It's the "why" that makes the difference.

And that's why blogging about weight loss is so important. There's only so much "what" to blog on about until you've run out of things to say. "Another day of eat less and exercise more..."
Blogging forces you to address the "why" questions and tackle the root cause of weight issues.

This is also what frustrates me so much about people who have never been significantly overweight telling those of us that are how easy it is. Just eat less! they say. How often have you heard someone (usually skinny as a beanpole) say "when I put on weight I just stop eating until my jeans fit properly again". Yeah but, no but, yeah but...I bluster in return. For them, weight gain means a pound or two, and not eating until it's gone means a day or two.
Try doing that to lose 20kgs (or 100 pounds or whatever) and there's only 1 result. Death.
And it only talks to the symptoms, not the cause. If you are skinny and put on a pound or two, there's really no need to go into the whys and wherefores of your minor temporary blip. Actually more important is why you are skinny normally and why one or two pounds is a disaster. And that's a whole different ball game from shifting 20% or more of your body weight.

I talked with my Sports Injury guy about "why" a lot. Mostly while he was massaging my calf and I was sweating a serious pig sweat from his efforts.

The proposed solution, is so simple and so far removed, it seems a little strange. But as it also ties in with a conclusion from a previous post, it's got to be done. I am buying a new mattress!