No Gimmicks!

Sunday is infomercial day.  This morning at the hotel, I was flipping channels, and somehow got distracted and stopped on an infomercial for a weight loss plan. 

Now, I've seen my fair share of infomercials, and have even caught myself thinking "Wow, I wonder if that really works" or "Hmmmm, I could give that a try".  Fortunately for me, my thrifty nature (and common sense) pulls me back to reality before I can whip out my credit card!

This particular infomercial, however, seemed especially far fetched.  You sprinkle what looks like powdered sugar on "all your favorite foods" (as the annoying voice-over man explains), and you miraculously lose weight.  Um, yeah right!

As I tuned in and listened to what the magical pixie dust claimed to do, I realized how many gimmicks there are for weight loss. 

Sprinkle this on your food and you'll lose weight.  Eat this special combination of food and the pounds will just melt off your body.  Use this machine (or that one) and you'll be tone in no time. 

No matter how bizarre and unbelievable the claims appear, there are people willing to give the product a try.  I'm sure if there was someone out there claiming that if you eat a soup while standing on your head whistling the Star Spangled Banner you'd drop 10 pounds, there would be a line of people signing up. 

It's not so much that people are gullible (though many are), but I think it's more to do with laziness.  We just don't want to do the work to lose weight.  We want there to be a magic solution, a secret trick, a breakthrough that changes everything without any effort on our part.  

We forget that we didn't gain the weight overnight, so how can we expect to lose it overnight? 

As I return to my daily routine in California, I look forward to continuing with my daily exercise, and hope (please, oh pretty please) to continue to see the numbers on the scale go down. 

No gimmicks for me, just good old fashioned blood, sweat and tears (but mostly sweat).