Paper Towel Theory

Someone posted this in another forum that I visit. I think it is VERY applicable to all of us in our weightloss journeys no matter what we're doing to get there. This was posted with Body For Life participants (a 12 week challenge created by Bill Phillips) in mind as the audience so there are some references to the Body For Life workouts and eating mannerisms. No matter what approach you're taking to lose the fat it can be applied to all of us and it is something all of us need to keep in mind as we go along this journey!!

Blozzom :-)

ALL-IN Inspiration...........PAPER TOWEL THEORY!!!

A guy by the name of Bob White gets credit for this AWESOME theory. Here’s a little inspiration for those of you who are worried about not seeing any changes in your body so far. It’s what I call the “Paper Towel Theory”.

Let’s assume you go out and buy two rolls of paper towels, each with only 84 paper towels on it (one for each day of the challenge). You put one aside, and keep it for future reference (your “before” picture). The other one represents you (I’ll call your paper towel you “Ed”). The core represents the lean Ed. The towels represent the fat that is covering the lean Ed. For sake of argument, let’s say that Ed wants to lose 21 pounds of fat, so (84/21) each sheet represents a quarter-pound of fat lost. Let’s also assume that Ed loses his fat equally during each day of the challenge.

Each day during the first week, you tear a sheet off of Ed, representing the fat he has lost for the day. Next, you put Ed next to the full roll (“Big Al”) for comparison. No noticeable difference!!! Even at the end of the week! This can’t be working for me!

But, being a good Ed, you continue to follow Body-for-LIFE. At the end of weeks two and three, you continue to compare Ed to Big Al, and still notice very little difference. That stinkin’ Bill Phillips MUST be a liar!

But Ed is determined! He works hard! Hitting his 10’s…eating his 6 daily meals. Three more weeks go by, the sheets peeling off day after day, before Ed gets up the courage to stand next to Big Al again. Holy Myoplex! Ed is skinny! OK, not skinny, but less huge!!!

By the end of the 12-week Body-for-LIFE program, Ed is down to his lean dream, or somewhere near it. Ed is happy. We are happy. Big Al – well he’s not so happy.

The lesson to be learned is that fat, like paper towels, comes off in sheets. When you are heavy, you are big around. And when you are big around, that fat is spread over a MUCH larger area – just like that outside towel sheet. The closer you get to the lean you, the more each lost pound of fat shows, because it is spread over a smaller area.

While the outside sheet may only cover 1 layer of the roll, the inside sheet may go around 4 times. That last sheet looks like it gives you 4 times the results of the first sheet, but in reality, the results are the same – your perception is just different! And you’ll never see the inside, if you aren’t patient while the outside is coming off! - Bob White

Thu. Mar 16, 7:34pm

What a great analogy! Thanks!

Friday, March 17, 2006, 9:23 AM

very inspirational

and not in a "Teamwork" poster framed over your managers desk kinda way ;)

Friday, March 17, 2006, 11:23 AM

"bump" for evening/weekend crowd

Friday, March 17, 2006, 8:26 PM

I love his analogy. Makes lots of since.

Saturday, March 18, 2006, 7:41 AM

I love this ! I was feeling a little down about my weight loss efforts, and this has really motivated me ! Very simple , but a great thing to visualize !

Wednesday, April 18, 2007, 10:00 AM

bump...

Thursday, February 10, 2011, 12:48 PM

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