Why do we "hang onto it" perse? My best explanation is that change produces extreme feelings of angst for our own responsibility. We know we are unhealthy or overweight and should change but the possibility of change reminds us that we are in charge of our own life (something which probably scares most of us, myself included).
Perhaps the most annoying thing I hear from people who haven't seen me in some time is that they ask me "do you feel as though you've gotten your life back"? Why is it that if I'm overweight I must not be in control of my own condition? Its not as if someone tied me down and forced me to eat nothing but cake and cupcakes for a year. Quite the opposite in fact. In the same way in which I took control and lost the weight did I take control and gain the weight in the first place. The difference is negligible and rests only on how I choose to spin the story.
When I first started losing weight the biggest change wasn't that I lost 5-10 pounds. It was that I was doing something for myself. I was extending some of my passion towards my own situation. By taking the easy route and constantly saying oh well I'll just always be fat is to shy away and never believe that I am both the possibility for change and not changing. Either way action is always required and I am always the one responsible.
Sorry this got a little philosophical but I firmly believe that the greatest truth one can find comes from their own resoluteness. Whatever form that may be.
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