And now for something completely different.  I was considering calling today’s post “Super Eclectica:  A Retrospective” and doing a whole thing about what fun I’ve had joining the blogosphere this week.  I was going to take a look back and say things like, “Hey remember that time when I posted about 12 Things You Say to Your Preschooler and What Your Preschooler Hears.  Yeah, those were good times.”  But I’m not going to do that.  Instead, I decided to introduce another topic that I’ll be covering from time to time on Super Eclectica – lest you think that this blog was not going to be super eclectic.  So, here it goes… “Weighing in on Weight.”

The moment is forever burned into my brain.  It was blunt.  It was harsh.  It was irrelevant.

During the second semester of my freshman year of college, I took an introduction to Communications class.  Being an Intro class, it was a too-large class of 150 to 200 students held in one of the campus’ biggest lecture halls.  PowerPoint presentations abounded.  The professor was high energy, charismatic, and maybe a little bit full of himself.

He was introducing us to how marketers shape their message in order to appeal to consumers’ egos.  He argued that marketing leaves little room for honesty because – he asserted – people can’t handle the truth.  He said, “Take weight loss for example!  You can’t just be honest with people about why they are overweight.  You see, the fact of the matter is that if you are overweight it’s because of one thing – you just eat too much.  That’s it!  You just eat too damn much!”

There was an audible gasp.  Two students got up and walked out.  Others looked like they wanted to punch him in the throat.

He was right, of course.  That marketing approach would never work.

Though the reason that it wouldn’t work is not because it is honest, it’s because it is wrong.

Many factors contribute to our weight.  Yes, how much we eat is part of the equation, but so are heredity, how well we eat, exercise (or lack-there-of), and about a-billion-and-a-half psychological factors from self-esteem to the chemical reaction that happens in our brains when we eat something that tastes really. freaking. awesome.

I’ll be discussing weight gain and loss in the coming weeks, among a plethora of other topics.  It’s an important issue.  I’ve had my own weight problems over the years as have many of my friends and family members.  I seem to see something about people’s weight concerns every day on Facebook.  And it seems we can’t turn on the news without being reminded of the fact that it’s a problem in the US and becoming so in other parts of the world.

We’ll explore the factors that make us gain weight and the healthiest ways to take it off.  I’ll do my best to be honest, and in doing so, you can rest assured that I won’t tell you that weight gain or loss is just anything.

So, stay tuned!  Let’s explore everything.