How is it that we are to lose weight and keep it off. I am going to randomly vent some theory out today about various aspects of the weight loss journey. It is a little long winded but it feels good to let it out. It’s all hyped up into something spectacular when in reality it is just normal, this journey. It is the same as every other journey we partake in. Only the results are life changing. This is why we make it into the impossible when it really is not impossible at all.
Is food bad?
Food. Why is food such a problem? It is crazy that a relationship with food can be so distorted and unhealthy. Weight Watchers has really helped me with my relationship with food. Blogging has helped with this also. I am learning and becoming comfortable with not using food in an unhealthy way. I mean what is food anyway. Food is energy. Food is survival. But also food is emotional. Food is relational. Food is attached to memories. I am rambling here but food is not the center of the universe even though I think it is sometimes.
Weight loss efforts BETTER HELP ME eat in a real world
This means no avoidant behavior. Sure in the beginning of the journey it is good to avoid lots of things, but in the long run I have to learn to ease back into life in a healthy way. On weight watchers, you can eat whatever you want as long as you count the points and follow the good health guidelines set up by the government. You know, the food pyramid people. They devised good health guidelines that people should follow. It is a baseline of healthy living basically. It is odd because for me just to read even in my own blog that the government (USDA) is telling me what healthy eating is almost makes me not want to eat that way. I won’t go into that though. I say all this because it is so important to take advantage of the variety that weight watchers offers. Even if you don’t do weight watchers it is important to get variety. It is essential to eat the things that you like, even the things that are special to you because of some memory and such. To deprive yourself and become super strict with your eating seems to be one of the main behaviors that bring people to failure in life long health. Look at skinny people, they monitor what they eat for the most part but they don’t refuse to eat a donut for years on end either. They eat donuts but they don’t eat 4 or 8 or 12. They just eat one and move on in life. To them a donut is a donut. It is a tasty treat that is ok to eat. This is what I want for myself. I want to learn and become more effective at eating many foods. I want to learn how to eat 1 donut and move on. I want to learn how not to be afraid of going out to eat or walking into a See’s Candy and losing control. I have to learn how to do this. It is just not realistic to think I am never going to eat a particular food again or be in a particular food situation again. I am tired of hiding from the situations that scare me. I am going to avoid any diet/eating program that is too strict as if it were a life threatening disease.
Accepting a less than perfect weight loss and health lifestyle
Perfectionism will either bring the weight back on or stop us from losing it in the first place. I know first hand what it is like to act like an addict and eat one donut, then call it quits for the day/week/month because I just messed up. I am tired of this. I don’t want to live perfect anymore. I don’t want to set myself up to fail once again at keeping the weight off all because I have this construct in my mind of what a perfect journey should look like. My journey will never be perfect and I want it that way. It is insane for me to think that I want to be perfect but at the same time get mad about having to be perfect. In all reality, it is not fun to be perfect and I don’t have to feakin be perfect. It is not real life to be perfect. It is not sustainable to be perfect. The sooner I realize that being perfect will only cause me to not be perfect, the healthier I will become.
Settling into a life of love and mercy
I want to settle down. Much like a person wanting to settle down, get married, and stop living the wild single life anymore; I want to settle down into a health groove. Where things have the spice of life but at the same time have a little more predictability and stability. I want to live in a health groove where I experience love and mercy on myself and my efforts. No more jumping around from one diet to another, from one gym to it’s competition. No more being blown to and fro by the prevailing winds of popular “diet” culture. No more listening to the hype and sensationalism. This is much like how TV glorifies the single life. It shows people getting laid here and there. As many different people as they want. It shows the people loving it. It depicts that non-truth that joy is at the bar with a buzz on, that joy is the things of life, in the beauty of appearances. So the diet world goes. Get skinny fast with this, lose 10 lbs a week with that, try the new this, get your culo cleaned by this program, etc. I am settling down, getting stable, and getting healthy with my eating, exercising, and health program. I am settling down into a satisfying life of health where I have enough mercy on myself and my program to stick with something rather than move on to the next thing.
Fighting off the self-pity of THE FUNK.
When I get into an emotional funk I will help myself to pity. I will listen to sad music, talk about sad things, watch a sad movie, and isolate myself. WHO CARES!!! Everyone gets down. I don’t need to feel sorry for myself because I am having a blue day. I don’t need to eat a bunch of crap because I am a bit on the depressed side. Life is gonna move on whether I feel good or bad. In fact, I am going to move on. There is no stopping time. I am getting older no matter what. I am going to start fighting off the spiral that occurs with food and emotions when I am feeling bad. I am going to step up to the realization that I don’t have to keep on feeling horrible. I am going to make new decisions to be thankful, grateful, and full of appreciation. I am not giving THE FUNK any more gosh dang power.
That is all folks!
My angle on weight loss 
“The sooner I realize that being perfect will only cause me to not be perfect, the healthier I will become.”
I can’t tell you how much that line just helped me out. I’ve had a very bad eating day. Typically I move on easily from these days but today it’s different and I’m having all the emotional reponses to what I’ve eaten: the guilt, the remorse, THE FUNK.
But this line, this is what I tell myself and others all the time. I neeeded a reminder today. You reminded me. Thank you!
*Kicks THE FUNK out the door*
Great job Michelle. I just saw “The FUNK” flying by at rapid speed. HAHAHA 🙂 Good kick
Jason, I have not even read this blog yet. I came here directly because I am craving potatos…and I seem to recall reading somewhere here that you have some great way of slicing and cooking potatoes..or baking them or something….do you know which post it was in that you wrote out a recipe?
Kim, I don’t think I did a recipe so to speak. I talked about sweet potatoes. Anyway. Here is what I do with regular and sweet ones.
Microwave them until they are done
Slice them thin long ways after the microwave part
Spray them with PAM or similar
Season as you like. I use Greek seasoning, garlic salt, etc. What ever you like. Both sides though.
Spray PAM on pan and fry to your hearts content.
I love love love love love love these potatos like this
I have pretty strong feelings about “diets,” including WW just b/c I don’t think that they are sustainable practices for a healthy, overall lifestyle. I do not want to be counting points (or calories) until I’m 90 to make sure I don’t gain weight again. But the thing is that WW and other programs are really good to grow people’s awareness about what and how much they are consuming and what and how much they should be consuming. The tricky part is transitioning back into a “normal” lifestyle once (if) weight is lost. This is where we go back to the basics: portion control. That’s pretty much all it boils down to! Everything in moderation. It’s perfectly fine to have a donut once in awhile, as long as you aren’t hitting the Krispy Kreme everyday. I think that once you have struggled with your weight and overcome that, you realize that you don’t need to have 6 donuts to be satisfied and one would more than suffice. And you also start thinking, “If I eat this donut, that’s essentially the equivalent of running a mile and a half.” Having that perspective makes it a whole lot easier to exhibit self control. Yes, everyone will still struggle from time to time and have their weakness for certain foods and beverages but we do need to live a little. 🙂
That’s just my ramblings on the topic, I suppose.
And another thought: You may want to look into reading the book Intuitive Eating. Interesting read!
Thank you so much for a wonderful contribution to the post Leah. I apprciate it. 🙂
oh YAY!! I am excited now….thanks..I will read this post soon….and let you know my thoughts!
Thanks Kim
Hmmmm I know what you mean friend. When I choose to have something that I have deemed “bad” or I think others my deem “bad” I then feel bad and of course my spiral leads to silence and secrecy. Not owning what I have done and doing it in secret. THis happens even if it is only a perception of bad. Granted there is probably never going to be a time when MCDOnalds cheeseburger could be considered healthy…but if I am craving one and count it…what is the big deal..I choose to eat less that day because of it, right? It is cool to see you being a the end of the weight loss piece of your journey and moving into what maintenance will look like for you, mentally, emotionally and practically. WHile I still have fears of foods, it is because I know I am still at the beginning of my journey and have a long way to go before I can have a free for all or let up a bit on certain things. BUt watching you…I know what is coming down the pipeline and that is neat to see. I know it won’t always be this way. THanks for going before me and blazing a path….now my path won’t be so full of weeds and thigns to trip me up….because you already marked them for me to see or in some cases are moving them off teh path! You rock!
Kim, that is such an encouraging comment. I really feel good about my journey especially when you talk about me blazing a path. That is a great way to put what I really hope to do. And you are right, if you want the cheeseburger and you count it, that is great. I have had many a night where all I ate was veggies because of a food choice earlier but hey, you live with it. That is real life.
Don’t get my started with the food pyramid! LOL! Anyway, I think most diets, even fad diets, are based on some element of truth however distorted it may be. I think they’re an opportunity to learn but not an opportunity to actually try one of them! I’m sticking to clean eating :). I did weight watchers at work because I felt counting points would help me to plan my meals with healthier foods. That is the one biggest thing I like about weight watchers and the points. You can’t get good nutritious food in the alloted points if you also eat a ton of junk. “Cleaner” foods are typically less points and therefore by default a person eats more nutritional items. It did help me to start out.
That is true. I found that out fast forthelife. If I wanted to feel full, I needed to get smart on eating good foods that were big in size but low in points. Well, we all know what those foods are. They tend to be real, raw, from the ground or an animal, and take longer to prepare. I still get my junkyish food in too but mostly I eat the good stuff. Great contribution