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The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America QUOTES

The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America QUOTES

1 " We’ll sacrifice most anything for speed and convenience. When researchers noticed that cereal sales were going down, they did a study to figure out why. It turns out millennials don’t eat as much cereal because it’s too much trouble to wash the bowl. They grab protein bars or yogurt cups and scarf them on the way to work. Cooking shows are more popular than ever—you can find Bobby Flay putting meat on a fire twenty-four hours a day—but it seems like people are watching instead of cooking, in the same way people watch Fixer Upper a lot more than they fix anything up. The proof is on the shelves. The stuff you used to find in the 7-Eleven is now in the grocery store: Lunchables, protein packs, quickie meals packed in plastic clamshells. Life, to go. "

― , The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

2 " A diet is no good if it works for just a week or ten days or a month. It has to be something you can live with (apologies to Shakespeare) tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. "

― , The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

3 " The surest sign of an adult is the ability to accept delayed gratification. "

― , The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

4 " In our fractured country, we all agree on one thing: second helpings. "

― , The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

5 " I’m almost never hungry in the physical sense. But I’m always craving an emotional high, the kind that comes from making love, or being in the crowd for great live music, or watching the sun come up over the ocean. And I’m always wanting something to counter the low, when I’m anxious about work or arguing with family or depressed for reasons I can’t understand. "

― , The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

6 " Here are the two things I have come to believe about diets:
1. Almost any diet works in the short term.
2. Almost no diets work in the long term "

― , The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

7 " Losing weight is not the hard part. The hard part is living with a diet for years, maybe the rest of your life. That’s why almost no diets work in the long run. "

― , The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

8 " I always hoped I would find someone and we would fall in love. But I didn’t think I had much to offer, especially in those first few moments where you make an impression or you slink back across the room. I came to believe I was just a fat guy with bad teeth, and I pretty much quit trying. The only reason my heart didn’t get broken is because I rarely took it out of the box. "

― , The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

9 " I don’t pretend to know how love works. I can tell you a thousand things I love about Alix, but none of them are exactly why I love her. The why, I don’t have words for. It’s a code we decipher every time we hold hands, a secret song we hear when we look in each other’s eyes. It’s really true. You just know. "

― , The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

10 " Telling a fat person Eat less and exercise is like telling a boxer Don’t get hit. You act as if there’s not an opponent. "

― , The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

11 " What I want you to understand, more than anything else, is that telling a fat person Eat less and exercise is like telling a boxer Don’t get hit. You act as if there’s not an opponent. Losing weight is a fucking rock fight. The enemies come from all sides. The deluge of marketing telling us to eat worse and eat more. The culture that has turned food into one of the last acceptable vices. Our families and friends who want us to share in their pleasure. Our own body chemistry, dragging us back to the table out of fear that we’ll starve. "

― , The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

12 " I’ve never done hard drugs, but on the worst days I feel the way I’ve always imagined a heroin addict feels—blissful on the outside, self-hating underneath, chained to an anchor in a bottomless ocean. No way to make it to the surface. Might as well let go. "

― , The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

13 " At some point we have to own our choices. If not, we’re eternally children. "

― , The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

14 " Every fat person, and every fat person’s family, pays with anger and heartache and pain. For every one of us who can’t shed the weight, there are spouses and parents and kids and friends who grieve for us. We carve lines in their faces. We sentence them to long years alone. "

― , The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

15 " Making a fundamental change of any kind is the hardest thing an adult human being can do. "

― , The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

16 " I tell myself that a quick stroll around the block is enough exercise, and I believe it. I tell myself that the mound of peanut butter on my sandwich is just a couple teaspoons, and I believe it. I tell myself that a cheat day is just a onetime thing, and I believe it. The worst lie I tell myself, and the most powerful one, is about tomorrow. Tomorrow is the golden day. That’s the day when I’ll quit overeating and start working out and set the course for a new version of myself. "

― , The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

17 " Anthony Trollope, the nineteenth-century British writer, wrote for three hours every morning before going to his job at the post office. If he finished a book with ten minutes left in his three hours, he grabbed a blank sheet of paper and started the next book. He wrote forty-seven novels that way, plus many volumes of short stories and nonfiction. "

― , The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

18 " Here are the two things I have come to believe about diets: 1. Almost any diet works in the short term. 2. Almost no diets work in the long term. "

― , The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

19 " What I want you to understand, more than anything else, is that telling a fat person Eat less and exercise is like telling a boxer Don’t get hit. You act as if there’s not an opponent. "

― , The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America

20 " Being fat made me a kid who turned inward. Being fat made me stand out to people inclined to be cruel. Being fat made me think I’d never find love. Being fat made me doubt every good thing about myself. Being fat made me. "

― , The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America