Plastic sewn onto your tongue

By Kelly Clark / Understand

Having plastic sewn onto your tongue makes you gain weight
Short-term weight-loss methods trigger a viscous cycle
The only way to become SOMEBODY is to believe in your choices

Having plastic sewn onto your tongue is one method people use to lose weight.

When you have plastic sewn onto your tongue eating solids is painful. So everything you eat has to be liquefied.

The plastic sewn onto your tongue method has been covered in tons of stories, including a Daily Mail article about a beauty queen’s urgent desire to be thin.

Maya is one of thousands of young girls desperate to be crowned Miss Venezuela and their families will do virtually anything to make it happen.
-The Daily Mail

Why having plastic sewn onto your tongue makes you gain weight

Having plastic sewn onto your tongue is self-defeating because:

if you take extremes to lose weight you won’t be able to continue the extreme behaviour
extreme behaviour denies your body basic needs and eventually you’ll overeat
overeating leads to weight gain
weight gain after weight loss is yo yo dieting
yo yo dieting builds bad habits
bad habits create barriers between you and your goals

After all this you end up back where you started, except you’ve gained more weight and bad habits. The only thing you’ve lost is time. Time you could have used to build healthy eating and exercise habits.

When you have healthy habits, you naturally reach and maintain a healthy weight.

Short-term weight-loss strategies set you up to fail

Unfortunately short-term weight-loss approaches lead you to being on and off diets. This viscous cycle is incredibly preoccupying and slows down your metabolism which makes it harder to lose weight and easier to gain weight.

Having plastic sewn onto your tongue is just one example of a quick fix. Eating prepackaged meals, following any diet, over-exercising or anything else you can’t keep up long term and in everyday situations, will trigger a yo yo dieting cycle.

The saddest part of this weight loss story is when Maya said:

My wish is to be recognized …
– Maya Nava, 18 years old, Venezuela

We all want to be recognized.

EVERYBODY wants to be SOMEBODY

We need to teach young people to build respect in a way that’s earned and lasting. For instance, by discovering their interests and using them to connect with the world. When you build your identity on interests, you’re investing in things that get better as you age.

Focusing so much time and energy on being recognized for superficial things makes the recognition superficial. And fleeting. It also makes you vulnerable to how the world receives you. Instead, make decisions you believe in, so you can believe in yourself.

Activities you’re genuinely interested in connect you to people, your passions and your potential.

Stay away from short-term weight-loss strategies like having plastic sewn onto your tongue. Alternatively, focus on building healthy eating and exercise habits and developing your interests. That’s a recipe for being SOMEBODY who is healthy and happy long term.