This past weekend included a trip to the movies. We were not in the mood to hear lots of noise, see blood and witness humanity at it’s worst so we avoided an R-rated action picture. We were too lazy to read subtitles, hence we took a pass at the Academy Award’s best picture, Parasite. So, also being in fragile moods, we elected to go to one of our favorite movie theaters in the area, University Mall, near GMU. For those of you that have never been, great movies are shown a few weeks after their initial release, but rather than spending $14 bucks or more, $5 bills gets you in, I believe $4 if you are 60 and you cannot even do a pay per view movie at home for that low cost.
We saw Tom Hanks’ wonderful performance in “A Beautiful Day in The Neighborhood” and this was based on a true story. The story was not a historical look at Fred Rogers, but rather, a unique relationship Mr. Rogers developed with a journalist sent to interview him. The journalist was quite a broken person from a horrendous relationship he had with his father. Mr. Rogers sensed this “brokenness” and was able to help the journalist confront his feelings of anger, abandonment etc to become a much more caring person.
Okay, I just wasted 2 minutes of your time on movie stuff, so here is the reason I am bringing this up in a blog meant to encourage/help your weight control efforts:
One of Mr. Rogers’ famous quotes is: “Feeling good about ourselves is essential in our being able to love others.”
There is no better way to feel “good” about ourselves than to accomplish a task that is difficult, has many challenges/barriers thrown in front of us, carries low odds of success and is not fun along the way. Losing weight and keeping that weight off empowers people to not feel just “good” about themselves, but rather, feel GREAT about themselves. The internal feelings of health and the external improvement in the appearance as well as self-esteem rise markedly.
When we are not consumed with worry/time spent addressing our own medical problems and low-self esteem image, we are much better positioned to “love” others as per Mr. Rogers. So, Mr. Rogers joins me in encouraging you to stay steadfast on your weight control efforts. By the way, by swimming and other interventions, Mr. Rogers always maintained 143 pounds. Go see the movie!
