Truth be known, the scariest movie I ever saw was the 1977 flick “The Exorcist”. Written by William Peter Blatty, the story was about a young girl in D.C. that was possessed by a demon and her mother (played by Ellen Burstyn) turned to the church for help when doctors could not figure out what was wrong with her daughter. The young priest (played by Jason Miller) and the older, experienced priest (played by Max von Sydow) teamed up together to perform the exorcism. The movie was actually nominated for an Academy Award and the horrifying scenes led to the flick being banned in a number of countries, including England. There were a number of instances of viewers in the theaters having heart attacks, vomiting and other medical reactions to watching this very scary film.
One of the definitions of “DEMON” is “an accompanying power or spirit”. In the context of this blog entry about weight control, the accompanying “power or spirit: is the one that compels a person to:
- Pour those several glasses of alcohol every night
- Go into the pantry or freezer after 8 PM and reach for a high caloric/high sugar snack
- Reach over to your children’s unfinished late of food and ensure none of those fries, pasta or mac and cheese are left
- Stay in bed on that dark, cold morning and grab some extra sleep instead of heading to the gym for a workout
- Plan that vacation on a cruise ship because you know how much fun those meal buffets and all-night pizza stands are
- Spend all of your rest time on a Sunday as opposed to devoting 15-30 minutes to planning/prepping meals for the week
In reality, none of the above bullet points, and others that could be listed are “demons”. However, these are the types of behavioral patterns that do lead to the lack of success of losing weight and keeping that weight off. To an extent, we all need to expunge these behaviors and incorporate new ones that are more conducive to shedding the weight.
Although you do not need a young priest, an old priest and an old house in Georgetown to “exorcise” those behaviors, we all need an internal “exorcism” of sorts to rid ourselves of the deleterious behaviors that lead to serious health issues.
SCARE ALERT: Please do NOT watch this video if you still have nightmares from this 1973 movie. Hearing Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells” song evokes lots of scary memories!
