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Curled up with my coffee this morning, checking email, absentmindedly rubbing sore spots in muscles worked days ago, I came across an email with the subject line: Lose 15 Pounds Before the Holidays! I expelled a disgusted lung full of air into the quiet living room. It is December 10th. What holidays are they talking about? 2009?

My eyes narrowed, and I hovered the cursor over the email. I DID NOT want to click into this. It gives attention to ridiculous, money-hungry opportunists capitalizing on the desperation of the helpless weight-challenged. I know. I have tried it all (in college I subscribed to weekly vitamin B shots in the hind region guaranteed to help melt away the pounds--they worked--temporarily). 

Yet I could not resist. Almost involuntarily my finger clicked the link and up popped a horrifying website. I was greeted by an image of a flawless female body in sports bra and biking shorts. The face was blotted out and the caption read: Your face here! In another sidebar the text said: Get the slim, sexy body you want, right now!

And therein lies the problem: RIGHT NOW! The dollars we in this country throw at instant weight loss and quick fixes could probably put a respectable dent in our national debt. If I could reel in the money I have spent over the years on gimmicks--from weight loss schemes to tummy tucking clothing--and invest that money in my retirement, well I am certain there would be room for more than a few Carribean cruises in my golden years. 

So why do we keep falling for stuff like this? Why do I even look at sites like this anymore? Unless you chop off a leg, or strap yourself to the elliptical trainer continuously between today and Christmas, it is utterly impossible to drop 15 pounds in 10 days. 

Hope springs eternal in our skinny souls, I suppose. The problem is that when you even entertain the idea of this kind of radical weight loss, it warps your understanding of what is healthy, what good progress is. We believe we are failures when we cannot attain what is actually unattainable. Crazy making. And it opens the door wide open for that nasty voice inside us that says, "You are worthless and weak."

It is for these reasons that I get so incensed by these messages in my inbox, in all media that tells us there is still time to get into our skinny jeans by Saturday. 

It took me years to finally sign up for the long haul and give myself the gift of time, and only then, after a lot of time and true focus, did physical change occur. I did the workouts with effort. I stopped just going through the motions and grumbling about how unfair it was that my body wouldn't listen. I stopped berating myself when I digressed or slipped. I forgave myself. I kept going back to the gym for more. It worked. Period. And it took years.

I stared at the images on this website and found at the bottom, in small words, the direction I was looking for: Click here to unsubscribe. I followed the directions and received the message I'd been seeking: 

You have been unsubscribed.

And I say we ALL get unsubscribed to this mindset.