Yesterday I attended a great training session for volunteers on self care. The training was to make sure that as volunteers we are all taking care of ourselves first. They provided the 7 pillars of self care and I thought 2 1/2 years ago when I started this journey I could honestly say I was only ok in 2 of the pillars. About a year ago it might have moved up to 3. However, I realized yesterday all 7 were covered and I have made myself a priority. It was a pretty good feeling knowing that is what I have accomplished.
Last fall I read The Diabetes Code written by nephrologist Dr. Jason Fung. Now I have to say his analogies of diabetes and how the body works with insulin resistance was very interesting. Dr. Fung had a lot to say that I didn’t agree with. For example, he feels portion control doesn’t matter. As I have mentioned before I believe it does ultimately matter because if you are taking in more calories than you are putting out each day then you can gain weight. Besides, I found with the more weight that I lost the amounts I needed to eat to feel satisfied just got smaller. Don’t get me wrong, occasionally I have that one last thing at a meal that pushes me beyond just not longer being hungry but it is rare and I usually regret that whole I overate feeling. Another of his claims is that exercise is not important to weight loss and controlling diabetes. This one I really disagree with. How can you maintain a healthy body without making that body healthy? I believe that a strong, healthy body works more efficiently and helps with weight loss.
Where I really struggled was his support of intermittent fasting. We’re not talking just no snacking between meals (though I did take that piece of advice and it did a lot to move me along), he advocates for 24, 36 or 48 hours of fasting (by the way, I don’t think 48 hours is by any means ‘intermittent’). Basically you do this several times a week or if you can’t sustain this then he said at minimum do 12 hours of fasting a day. There are a lot of opponents to intermittent fasting for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it can be unsustainable. The thought of wandering around starving several days a week tell me that it would not work for me (nor my family as I can’t imagine how cranky I would be). Secondly, there are studies that showed people who did intermittent fasting regularly often gained weight. This was often caused by overeating during the window of allowable eating. Therefore, the lack of calories during fasting were more than offset by the amount of eating done during the non-fast periods.
While I don’t fast, I also only eat during a certain window each day, 5:30am-6:30pm. I eat my meals at regular times whenever possible and keep the intervals between meals at a fairly consistent amount of time. I don’t snack in the evenings nor take in any additional calories (hence the avoidance of wine as many days as possible) and have even gotten into the habit of only having clear herbal tea after dinner. Does it work? For me I think it is the combination of all of the changes I have made to my diet and exercise. While I don’t consider myself to be dieting, I know doing things like removing sugar and lowering both sodium and carbs has meant I just changed what I was eating and those changes are more than sustainable going forward.
If you have a chance read one of Dr. Fung’s books (he also wrote The Obesity Code) and determine for yourself. The one thing I will stress however, if you decided to do any ‘diet’ including intermittent fasting please do so in consultation with your medical professionals.
Yes, I have once again successfully done my training 3 days this week. Looking forward to getting back to it next week.
Nearly a year ago I realized I was bored. My business had tanked, I was on pre-retirement leave from my job and because of the pandemic I was barely leaving my house. I reached out to the CEO of the United Way of the Lower Mainland and asked if he could find me some volunteer work. Because of the health situation in our household, I couldn’t help with the food hubs as there could be exposure and that was too risky. However, I could do any sort of administrative work and was more than willing to step up and help my community. He put me in touch with the Seniors Come Share Society and what happened next transformed me.
I was asked to phone isolated seniors once a week. The task was simple, just check in with them and see if they needed anything. Well, they all did, they needed social contact. From the first call it was obvious that these were not going to be quick ‘how ya’ doing calls’ but rather it was more about just chatting. As the months have gone on I have developed close relationships with all of these seniors. I know a lot about their lives and families and they know the same about me. I finally had to cap the length of these calls to 30 minutes so that I could get through all of them. I know I have helped lift these seniors up during a time that has been so trying for them. I know their names, their children’s names, their grandchildren’s names, what they used to do for a living and much more. They know the same about me.
One of these seniors in particular has had a significant impact on me. She is in an assisted living home and we hit it off right from day one. I like to think that we are now friends and I do know one day we would like to meet for just a cup of coffee. But what really hit me was a few months ago when she told me on a call that she has some dark days but when that happens she just reminds herself that I will be calling in a few days and she knows that will make her feel better. I nearly cried when she told me that but promised her I would keep calling and be there to always support her.
Because this has impacted me so much I have now stepped the volunteering up a notch. I became a volunteer with the Community Volunteer Income Tax Clinic through Seniors Come Share. Each week I do taxes for low income seniors over the phone and electronically file their taxes with CRA. The appreciation I get from doing this has been amazing and I have already committed to coming back again next year.
So what does this have to do with my weight loss journey. In earlier posts I told you that I have gotten fit not just physically but mentally. I gave back to my community, to those who really needed my help but ultimately they have helped me even more. It is hard to let yourself get down when others depend on you for just 1/2 hour of your time each week especially when at the end of that time you just feel so much better about yourself. I know my mental growth has been caused partly because of my improving health but I think the real culprit has been knowing that right now I am making a difference.
Next week I will be stepping it up a little more by starting training to do peer counseling for other volunteers. If it is anywhere near as fulfilling as my current volunteer roles I know it will have an incredible impact on me. I recommend everyone try and find a little time each week to help those that need it most in your community. You will never regret the change that you will see in yourself.
So today I hit the 90 lbs lost mark which leaves only 2 more to go. To celebrate I went shopping and bought size 8 jeans (yes, they fit). That puts me down 10 dress sizes from the start of this journey.
I want to talk about the scale. I’ve been reading some articles that say you should weigh yourself every day. I don’t do that, I weigh in 2-3 times per week and that keeps me happy. But there is some rationale for weighing in daily. Apparently there was a study done that found people who weighed in daily were more likely to successfully lose weight as compared to those who only weighed in once per week. Weighing in daily will show you trends of the impact of what you are eating and how much you are exercising. That allows you to make changes in fairly quick response if you gaining weight.
For me, that doesn’t work as I become obsessive. When that scale doesn’t move or if it goes up I beat myself up. I tend to put so much pressure on myself that dealing with that scale becomes harder than the workouts I do and those are pretty hard. Let me give you an example, Tuesday I weighed myself and I had gained 2 1/2 lbs. I was livid! But, as I usually do I analyzed and regrouped. I realized that I had weighed myself at a different time of day than usual which meant I had done a lot of hydrating by that point (I read an article that a large glass of water can equate to 1 lb on the scale before your body fully absorbs or eliminates it). Today I weighed in at the normal time and the scale had dropped 3 1/2 lbs. So the lesson for me is to be consistent when doing my weigh ins.
The real problem is letting that scale discourage you. There can be all sorts of reasons why the scale hasn’t moved or has moved in the wrong direction. I’m sure you have heard that saying ‘muscle weighs more than fat’. Ok, let me tell you I hate that saying because 1lb of muscle weighs the same as 1lb of fat. What is different is that the same size bit of muscle weighs more than the same size bit of fat (you know, 1 cup muscle would weigh more than 1 cup of fat). It’s the density of that mass. There’s a great statement from the American Heart Association that says if the scale hasn’t moved but you have lost 1 lb of fat and gained 1lb of muscle (hence canceling out any weight loss) you should think of it of advancing 2 steps and not staying the same.
Well, what should you do with your weigh ins? Here’s my advice, weigh yourself as frequently as you are comfortable with. If you are like me and have to do deep breathing exercises to calm yourself before getting on the scale then weighing yourself daily is probably not a good idea. However, if you like to see the impact of the choices you made each day so that you can adjust yourself accordingly then it is a good plan to do frequent weigh ins. One article I read said to just not let the monster back into the closet, face your fear and step on that scale. Again, doesn’t work for me but if that daily weigh in helps you be successful on your journey then I say go for it!
Per the advice of my coach today I bumped up my 8 interval times from 2:00 minutes of walking/2:00 minutes of running to 1:30 minutes of walking/2:30 minutes of walking. Got through those intervals without wanting to quit. I know, there are still small intervals of running but if you told me a year ago that I would be running for 20 minutes during a workout I would have thought you were crazy. Seriously, a year ago I would have laughed at the concept that I would be working out.
So let’s talk pandemic. My family has taken COVID-19 very seriously. As my 2 siblings who live with us have very serious health issues we really didn’t have a choice. The first 3 months of the pandemic I barely left my house unless it was for a necessary appointment or shopping. Even now going out remains a luxury and we are very careful to check into COVID protocols before we go into any premise. I found the spring and summer weren’t too bad. I had started walking by June and I found it was amazing of just having social interaction by saying hello to someone who walked passed you (and the vast majority of the time I got a hello in return). As a matter of fact walking the beach on the promenade early in the morning I soon realized there was a large number of us that were passing each other each day. It didn’t take long for that simple hello to become smiles, waves and how are you doing today. We are lucky here as we have a beautiful promenade by the bay that allows for plenty of social distancing. It helped me keep sane and motivated me to keep walking.
During this time we also had the 7pm noise. Our little neighbourhood hit the street every night at 7pm to acknowledge the work being done by first responders. Every night one neighbour would play O’Canada on his guitar and we banged our pots and pans. There are many kids in this neighbourhood and all of them love our dogs so each night the dogs got lots of cuddles and treats. We even had several nights where a friend of mine came by and made balloon animals for all the children (and some of the adults). We were all cognizant of social distancing but it was just nice that every night there was someone to talk to. By the end of the summer we had gone from being a neighbourhood to being a tight group of friends. We were way past giving a quick wave hello to the point where we have all stepped up to help and care about one another. Sadly, as the weather turned and our COVID restrictions were tightened so that we are only allowed to be with people from our own household, standing far apart on the sidewalk getting caught up on occasion was the best we could do.
But there are good things that have come out of the pandemic. For me it was not just about getting to know all these friends but it was got me moving. Once I started my daily walks I realized how wonderful that fresh air felt and it became addictive to be outside. By the end of the summer I had the darkest tan I think I have ever had in my life (though note, walking during the summer always involves strong sunscreen, sun glasses and a hat) and I can’t wait for the weather to be a little better so that I can go back to those outdoor walks and to get off that treadmill in my garage.
There has been a major downside to changing so significantly physically during the pandemic. Unfortunately, no one sees me. Ok, occasionally I might run into someone but mostly it is just my family. Don’t get me wrong they have been very encouraging about how I look but they see me every day. Ego wise, it does a lot when I bump into someone I haven’t seen in a while.
I guess ultimately I have to be grateful for this pandemic. It got me moving and me to truly enjoy this beautiful city that I live in.
I want to start with some positive news, the scale moved! Yes, this week I lost 1.4lbs. that puts me at 89lbs lost and only 3lbs to go. This last 10lbs are going very slowly but really, I gave myself a year to get there and I am so close I can taste it.
But today I had what I think is a bit of a breakthrough. It was a training day today and that always starts with a 12 minute walk to warm up. As I was doing that walk I thought, I’m looking forward to training today. Wait, what? Normally it is, I can’t wait until this is over. I have no idea what happened but for some reason today I felt really good about being on that treadmill and seeing if my interval training was as easy as it had been Thursday and it was. Tuesday I go from 8 intervals of 2 minutes running to 10 intervals and I can’t wait to accomplish that increase. I’d love to be upping things even more but I listen to my coach who is adamant that we are going to take things slow. Since it seems to be working I will follow everything she tells me to the letter.
I have had a lot of excuses for many years as to why I couldn’t physically do a lot of things. Let’s start with the dreaded knee issues. Nearly 30 years ago I fell through a ceiling (long story) which resulted in numerous injuries including cracked ribs, damage to my spine, a broken thumb (didn’t learn about that one until a few years ago but hey, I spent a lot of time after the accident wasted on morphine) and a completely blown right knee. The knee took 4 surgeries to get it to the point where it was at least tolerable but after that many surgeries it meant early onset arthritis and I’ve been told by multiple specialists it will need to be replaced. That knee became an excuse for a lot of things and it was easy to use those excuses to stop me from having to put a lot of effort into my fitness.
The back was a whole other issue. I had back issues ever since the accident but they culminated in 2010 when I was in such debilitating pain that even walking to the bathroom in my little rancher was an exhausting effort. After 6 weeks of intensive physio and chiropractic treatment I was at least able to sleep but doing anything including walking more than a few hundred steps was painful. My doctor told me it was the weight and lack of activity so I worked to strengthen my core and build some support for my spine. 6 months later that doctor realized it was a little more complex than that so CT’s, MRI’s and a referral to a neuro specialist. Turns out I had severe spinal stenosis which often happens with age but I was only 44 years old at the time. The neuro specialist advised me that it was congenital and only exacerbated by my weight. Eventually I had a nerve block done on my spine which took the edge of the pain but it was still there every day especially if I stood or sat for too long.
Obviously neither of these major issues went away so how then did I have success in so much walking. I can’t really answer that in terms of how I was able to physically overcome them but I can tell you how I was able to do so mentally. When I first started walking it was to just get me out of that isolation jail also known as my house, I just wanted to try to slowly work up to 10,000 steps a day so that I wasn’t sitting around drinking wine and playing games on my iPad. But as I increased my steps and got up to huge numbers I started reflecting on how I had let those excuses keep me down. As more of the weight left me I started to realize that years of pain could have been mitigated but just moving. For decades those excuses were my crutch but now I have thrown that crutch away. Do I still have knee and back issues, of course. However, I now have amazing muscles in my leg and my back that support those damaged areas. Moreover, they are having to carry 89lbs less weight so they don’t work as hard. Toss those damn excuses, get your head in the right space and start moving the best you can! Build up slowly until you hopefully can get to where I am today, relatively pain free and feeling great.
As I have said all of this I want to reemphasize the importance of doing this journey with the support of your medical professionals. Other than that one repetitive strain injury I have done all of this without any problems. However, I have sought professional advice throughout this journey so that I could be successful and it seems to have worked. please do the same so that you can find your success on your journey.
Last week I took my final blood pressure pill. My doctor had been weaning me off these pills since the summer and we were both a bit cautious as I had been taking those pills for nearly 20 years. I’ve been taking my BP each day since that last pill and it averages 93/73 with a heart rate of 61-64 BPM. I think I am officially out of the hypertension category.
Today I wanted to talk about making food taste a little better especially if you keep your sugar and sodium low. First, let’s talk about sugar. There are all sorts of sugar substitutes out there. However, most have a fair amount of chemicals which I acknowledge aren’t the best for you. But let’s be honest, sometime you just need to have a sweet treat. I should start with the fact that I am really not a dessert person but every once and a while I like something sweet. This for me is often quelled by eating some fresh fruit (actually I eat fresh fruit everyday) but I have become a master at converting recipes to use Splenda products. Again, I don’t recommend using artificial sweeteners on a regular basis, this is for occasional treats. I have made low sugar versions of a variety of desserts including cheesecake, angel food cake, cookies, cakes etc. Most of these have turned out fantastic though a few have failed (Splenda marshmallows weren’t great). I try to find recipes that don’t call for a lot of sugar to begin with and that seems to convert well to a 1:1 exchange of sugar to sugar substitute. Don’t be afraid to experiment with some recipes to see what works and what doesn’t. I do know that my low sugar cheesecake is a big hit at parties where I have come to realize there are often diabetics present so I make sure to label my goodies as diabetic friendly. As for fruit pies, here’s a hint, often you can skip a sweetener all together by simply adding extra spices. My favorites are apple or peach pie both I heavily flavor with cinnamon and nutmeg. They turn out amazing.
As for skipping things like syrups, I have a great recipe for no sugar added blueberry sauce which can be made with apple juice (though if you get good blueberries you can replace the apple juice with water). The recipe is simple;
2 c blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1/2 c water or apple juice
2 tsp arrowroot flour
1 tbs water
- Place the berries and ¼ cup water (or juice) in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook for 5-10 minutes, until bubbling. Slightly smash some of the blueberries with the back of a fork.
- In a small bowl, stir together the arrowroot powder and 1 Tbs. of water. Remove the saucepan of berries from the heat. While stirring constantly, add the arrowroot mixture into the blueberry mixture. Let cool until no longer hot and serve. The sauce with become even thicker when chilled.
- Store the sauce in the fridge for a few days.
Note: I have made this with cherries, strawberries and peaches and all have turned out great. This sauce goes really well as a topping for this such as pancakes or french toast.
But what about replacing salt. This one is so easy. Firstly, one of the best ways I have found to add flavor and skip the salt is adding heat. In my home that usually means adding jalapenos but that is not for everyone (both my husband and brother are not fond of spicy foods). But there is so much more you can do. Garlic and ginger are wonderful flavors to add to perk up your food. If you are not a lover of these then try whatever fresh herbs that work for you. I am partial to rosemary, basil and oregano while my sister is obsessed with parsley and cilantro (I will tolerate parsley but despise cilantro). You can also go for that old standby, Mrs Dash, which comes in a variety of flavors. Since it is naturally low sodium you can use as much of it as you like. Once you start adding all these additional flavors to your food you will realize you don’t need that salt and staying low sodium just becomes easier.
Since it is Tuesday it means it is a training day for me. This week my 3 training days will be 8 intervals of 2 minutes running and 2 minutes walking (training is always started with 10 minutes of walking followed up by another 40 minutes of walking then stretching). Yes, the length of my intervals changes very slowly because my coach is bound and determined to increase my endurance while protecting me from injury. The way I look at is walking 3.5 minutes then running 0.5 minutes seemed impossible to start where as today I though wow, this isn’t too bad.
I want to talk about some significant changes I have seen along this journey. The first is some very unexpected mental changes. After I started walking I was able to build up enough strength to walk down to our beach, along the promenade and back up the hill. If I did the full walk it was 4.5 miles (about 7km). I admit, I am a fair weather walker meaning I only walk outside during the nice weather. However, I am fortunate enough to live in White Rock, BC which allowed me to walk the beach nearly every day last summer for over 4 months (remember I didn’t start walking until June of 2020). What I noticed pretty quickly into those walks was how light I felt. I don’t mean in the terms of weight but rather in terms of the burden that seemed to leave my shoulders. I spent the hours I walked everyday looking at the beautiful nature (ok, not so fond of the rats you sometimes see at dawn). To keep myself positive I greeted everyone I saw along the walk and I have to say the vast majority responded. Eventually I realized there was a large number of us who walked at about the same time each day so we started to recognize each other. The bottom line is my head got clear. I let go of the useless things that I had let bother me for a long term. I focused on how I was feeling and appreciated the beautiful city I live in. There is nothing better to clear your mind and lift your spirits than doing a big inhale of air spiked with salt water from the ocean. I swear it changes how you look and feel everything.
The physical changes are more obvious but at times were subtle to see. That first year that I lost 37lbs I swore most of the weight simply came from my face. I knew I had lost a few sizes because of how my clothes fit but it was nowhere near as noticeable. But then as more weight came off there were some other things I started to notice. It was kind of like, hey, are those hip bones? Wait, I haven’t seen those collar bones in nearly 3 decades. Holy crap, are those really my arm muscles that are showing? I admit, I have become a bit obsessed with the fitness of my body in particular those collar bones. It was the reappearance of those collar bones that made decide to keep going along this path. I think much of my body is now more toned that it has ever been. My legs are like tree trunks, I can see ab muscles and I joke about the ‘guns’ in my arms.
I think in order to fully feel the success of weight loss you need to have both the mental and physical change. I know I needed to find a way to not be guilty about spending some time on myself. Once I did that and started getting serious about all this I realized that it wasn’t only by body that had been so unhealthy for so long, it was also my mind. Now, I appreciate the changes in both and my overall goal is to keep healthy mentally and physically long into the future.
Today was weigh in day. For the 2nd week in a row the scale hasn’t moved, I am stuck at 88 lbs lost. Now I could take 2 different paths with this. The first is I get frustrated and let the negativity get to me mentally. Really, I don’t like that path, it’s dark and gloomy. Instead I turned it around. Wahoo, I have still lost 88 lbs, 51 of those pounds has been in the last 9 months. Moreover, right now I only weigh 4 lbs more than I did when I graduated high school at 18. Hmm, I think that’s pretty good for a 55 year old woman. Yep, I’m going with that 2nd path.
I want to talk about a couple of downsides to achieving weight loss and getting fit. Please note, the upsides are so more important but I don’t want anyone to think there aren’t some things that kind of suck. The one downside that can be off putting is the expenses that come with being successful on this journey. Now I don’t have the added expense of going to a gym, I do all my workouts either on my treadmill or outdoors. Walking/running, doing strength exercises and using weights can all be done without added expense. But, when you lose 8 dress sizes there will be a new wardrobe required, for me that happened twice (ok, for those of you who like shopping and have the money this one might not be a big deal). The more significant one is the cost of food. It would be far cheaper to live off of KD or Ramen noodles every day but that certainly wouldn’t get me to my goal. Instead it is healthy food which sadly costs far more than processed food. I eat a lot of fresh fruit and veggies every day. If I am going to have things like pasta I try to make it myself (note I have not had a lot of success with making whole wheat pasta but I am determined to find a recipe that works for me). I focus on healthy carb choices. Instead of processed food I make as many things as I can from scratch (just the sodium decrease from doing that is amazing). Yes, it costs more and can be a lot more work (especially for someone like me who is not a big fan of cooking) but the end result has been worth it. So, if you are on a tight budget, be prepared.
The 2nd big downside to me is the excess skin that I now have. When you have been obese for as long as I have, not to mention my age, skin does not bounce back. Instead I am left with elephant skin thighs and a very wrinkly tummy. There are a couple things that can be done about this. I read about a treatment using oral collagen medications that may have some success. However, it apparently can be inhibited by things like the amount of weight loss (the more weight lost the less effective it may be), the length of time that weight had been carried and age. Pretty obvious to me that isn’t an option as I would not be the best candidate in any of those categories and really, I don’t like the thought of pills just to maybe make my skin look better. The second is skin removal surgery. This option is expensive and quite frankly after having 4 knee surgeries I have no interest in going under anesthetic for cosmetic reasons. Further my experience with surgery is that it severs your nerves leaving you without sensation in the area of the incision. Apparently sometimes those nerves will grow back but in my case I have a fairly large area of my leg that has zero sensation. Now don’t get me wrong, I understand that people with significant weight loss may need this surgery for medical reasons, it is just not going to be my thing.
What then will I do instead? Easy, I wear that excess skin as a badge of honour. I worked damned hard to get where I am and I am going to remain proud of how I look. Instead of that loose skin, I look at the muscles that I have developed, I see the strength in my face, I see the person I want to be. All those positives outweigh the negatives and that helps me to keep going.
I got on the treadmill this morning to do my first workout. It’s an interval training day so I did the first interval and thought, I really don’t want to do this today. I still walked for 1 1/2 hours and then walked the dog so by 9:30am I had walked 6 miles and for 2.25 hours. So the day wasn’t really lost and I was was proud that I kept moving. Then I went to do my afternoon workout so got on the treadmill again. I thought, wait a minute, for the past 6 weeks you have done your interval training 3 times a week without fail, why would you want to wreck that? I did my interval training and at the end of that workout I felt pretty good about myself.
But I have done this for nearly 10 months and some ask me how I can stick to it like this. Let me be clear, it’s ok to occasionally give yourself a mental and physical break. Yes, there have been times that I have said I’m taking a couple days off and I do. Except when I do that I commit to myself what the break will look like and when I will get back to it. I have managed every time to do exactly what I committed to. You need to recognize that this is hard work and sometimes regrouping gives you that resolve to move forward. That combined with celebrating the accomplishments has given me motivation. When I reach a goal, and that can be weight loss, dress size or workout achievements, I brag about it. I use that amazing network of people that I have to lift me up and encourage me to keep going and I have to say it works. So celebrate your accomplishments and get your network to celebrate with you (of course in today’s world celebrating tends to be virtual).
That’s the easy part, it is the disappointments that can be hard. Really, when you have done everything right and that scale goes up it can be devastating. When I had to take a few weeks off because of my repetitive strain injury I was so frustrated I wanted to scream. But you know what? I worked through it. Yes there will be disappointments so get yourself mentally prepared for them. What I now do is when something upsets my journey I look back at what I have accomplished and use it to keep me positive. I refuse to let disappointments derail me and quite frankly the accomplishments are so much bigger than those small bumps in the road.
A final note, I was asked today how much water I drink each day. Now I am not someone who likes drinking water so I find other healthy fluids to make sure my intake is a minimum of 64 ounces a day. Yes, 24 of those ounces are water but I also drink decaf coffee and tea as well as herbal tea (I avoid caffeine whenever possible but I still love my coffee). This fluid intake keeps me well hydrated and works for me. You may find you require more fluids (or maybe even less) and you might be ok with keeping it to water. Do what works best for your body just make sure you are listening to what it tells you.
This was not the topic that I originally planned to write today. I was going to talk about keeping going but then Sunday I saw a tweet that made me freak out about overcommitting to this journey. The tweet was retweeted by someone I follow and I don’t know the originator. The person who wrote the tweet was talking about significant weight gain and the impact on their mental health. I scrolled through the comments and saw one that said ‘let’s commit to us each consistently losing 2lbs a week’. Noooooooo!!!!!!! I decided not to go crazy on Twitter but did provide a link to this page and encouraged the struggling tweeter to have a look at my blog as it might provide some support.
Why did I go crazy? I’ve posted before about how important having support is to being successful on this journey. It was great that someone reached out to work together on a goal and I encourage that. What really bothered me is saying ‘consistently’ losing 2lbs per week. This simply is not realistic. Yes, 1-2lbs per week is a healthy weight loss but the one thing it will never be is consistent. Weight loss can vary due to a number of things, eating the wrong things, eating too much, not eating enough, not enough exercise, too much exercise, water retention, dehydration, and the list goes on. Weekly weight loss, to me, works better as an average over say a month. However, I will note that I have had plateaus where I know I was doing everything right but my weight either stayed the same or sometimes even increased slightly. I learned to realize, that was ok. There is so much going on with your body when you truly work on weight loss and sometimes the body’s response is not what you expected. I know I did the right thing when my body seemed to be rebelling, I sought help, made the changes recommended and just kept moving.
But the real important thing here is the mental pressure that you put on yourself. Last week I talked about goals and failures and trying to force yourself into a commitment that you can’t keep is like setting yourself up for failure. I can picture in my head me seeing the scale hasn’t moved 2lbs and I convince myself it is my fault. That would just lead me back down the path that got me to obesity in the first place. It has been a lot of work dealing with my mental health along this journey. I had to learn to give up on a body image I had had for a very long time. I had to acknowledge that there was no easy fix to my weight and it would only be if I put in the hard work that I could make a real change. I had to stop with unrealistic goals and accept that if I just kept trying to do everything right that at the end of a long road I would be where I wanted to be. For me, making some of the mental changes that I needed to do were at times harder than dietary changes and exercise but I knew they were as important (if not more important). So yes, hold yourself firm to realistic goals and commitments because that is how you will have success but don’t make this journey so mentally detrimental that you can’t complete it.
gwennefarrell 