"Follow your dreams, you can reach your goals, I'm living proof. Beefcake, Beefcaaaaaake!"
-- Eric Cartman, South Park
This is how I feel today, like large big-boned Eric... extolling something that in reality can make one sick. In this episode, Eric uses this "high energy" drink mix to beef up -- normally meant for underweight athletes to help their muscles gain mass and volume (water weight? turgor pressure?) and look better. Instead of course, Eric becomes even fatter and looks horrible. He is carted around on a wagon or pallet car because now he is so heavy he can't move on his own. His dream was to be a bodybuilder, without doing the work.
Well, there are no real shortcuts. All the shortcuts are harmful, detrimental. No little white lies "to ease the pain", nothing will cover up the fact a shortcut is hurtful. Nothing but hard work, determination, persistence and perserverance. It helps to have emotional and maybe medical support, but still one has to do the work. One has to choose not to be the addict, not to be the couch potato, not to be the murderer or his/her accomplice. Don't be a victim.
Eric really didn't have goals, he had this twisted little dream to be a bodybuilder, just because he could. But too many goals make acheiving them hard too. There are only so many hours in a day and so much you can do. Hard choices have to be made. And once they are made, hopefully you don't look back. Move on. Move forward, not backward.
Steady on.
