Losing weight in spite of myself.

I began this blog in February 2011 as a way to help me not quit trying to lose weight, and to learn a few things. It's been an interesting and powerful experience. It certainly confirms what I've long suspected--that although I am a genuinely happy cheery person in the main, I am NOT a happy cheery dieter. I DETEST losing weight. I resent being overweight in the first place and I am a virtuoso in the art of self-sabotage. And YET--I'm doing it! I'm fighting and kicking and EATING all the way down, but the weight is finally going down. The plan I was following in February was a half-baked one largely based on wishful thinking. I gained a little weight and decided to get real. I knew I couldn't just join weightwatchers or count calories or do any one plan and expect to be successful. I decided if I was going to bother to make the effort to lose weight I was going to throw everything I could think of at the problem. And so I do. My real "Day One" for this blog is April 1, 2011. I joined weight watchers, I joined caloriecount.com (awesome website), I read the blog losingweighteveryday.blogspot.com religiously, I keep this blog faithfully, I joined the health programs sponsored by my insurance, I use the principles from overeater's anonymous, I use my church's 12 step program as well, I subscribe--and use--Healthy Cooking Magazine.



The result of all this? Painfully slow progress (About 20 lbs in 10 months). But it IS progress and like the little engine that could I keep on trying in my rebellious way. I have no intention of quitting. This is by far the longest sustained weight loss effort I've ever made in my life. Successful I think, because for the first in my life I've done this MY way--which I've discovered, involves a lot of pizza and restaraunt food. I'm convinced this is the only way to lose weight. For me it must be MY way. For you it MUST be YOUR way. Not weight watcher's way, not your doctor's way, but YOUR way. Any plan or idea I use is only a tool.

The latest plan to lose weight my way began on Oct 29, 2013. It really is my own crazy plan. As you'll see if you read that post. I've implemented the best ideas of all sorts of eating plans and thrown out the scale. A couple of months in and I'm definitely healthier. I'm actually enjoying myself. I won't weigh until April 1, 2014, so I'll see then if this works the way I hope it will.

There is no magic weight loss bullet. But there IS a great deal of magic in the discovery of what I can happily live with (very different from what weight watchers tells me I can happily live with) and still have the body and health I want.

Good luck to all of us on this journey. It's quite a trip!







Wednesday, March 26, 2014

This from 300 pounds down today:

” An addiction is more than just a behavior.  There is a thought behind the choice that is driving it.  The addiction is the hook, but the bait came before in the form of some deceit and trickery.  Perhaps a person has come to believe that no one will ever love them, and so they debase themselves with those who use them.    In order to get over an addiction by God’s grace, we need to ultimately uncover the bait that we have sunk our teeth into.  Until we forsake that, we will never get off the addictive hook.”Relevant Bible Teaching

OH yes!!!!  This is the comment that I left for her:

I love the concept of bait. I need to think more about this. For me, I absorbed way too much responsibility waaay too young before I realized that it wasn’t up to me to fix my family. By the time I was old enough that I might have been of real help to my sisters, it was too late–I believed that nothing I could do would make a difference–it was better to run away from painful things. And food? ESCAPE!!! I treat food like a literal vacation—I don’t have to deal with whatever just now, because I’m eating. And if I am working on something I don’t particuarly want to do–then food soothes me and makes that thing easier. I misuse food in a lot of other ways too, but I think escape is primary for me. Thank you for helping me to realize this a little better.  

There will be much more on this topic. I'm very excited to go to the temple tonight because last time I went--I felt the load of responsibility lifted like I never have before.  I'm really going to try hard to think about the why that I'm eating. For sure, it's often because I'm wanting a mini-vacation and that means food. 

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