I need a word, please.

[jeneralist]

When do we want to lose something?

There are many times we might want to get rid of something. We can talk about getting rid of junk, cleaning out our closets, getting past old ways of thought. "Losing" is not used for these examples. We lose football games, we lose $10 that fell out a hole in our pockets, we can even lose hope. "Losing" is bad.

Why, then, do we speak of losing weight?

I'm looking for a word or phrase that refers to intentionally lessening one's mass, that makes it sound like a good thing to do. "Shedding" a few pounds is close, but I know you can come up with something better.

Donating extra carbon to the global Goodwill?

Comments

[persipone.livejournal.com]

My favorites are "noncompliance" and "drug seeking behavior." They're are usually understood as: "patient doesn't really want to get well," and "patient is an addict." More often, I think they mean: "I didn't manage to come up with a treatment that worked for the patient," or "the patient is in chronic pain and wants to be treated."

[jeneralist.livejournal.com]

A-yup.

Back when I was in med school, I had to give a 15 minute talk on how to improve "patient adherence." I think the preceptor expected me to talk about the precontemplation-contemplation-etc model for behavior change. Instead, I suggested that patients might be more likely to accept the advice of a doctor who hadn't just kept him waiting until 5:30 for a 4:00 appointment.