Losing Weight Slowly

I was sitting on my couch this morning, after eating my yogurt and granola for breakfast, feeling pretty proud of myself and I picked up my Women's Health magazine. The title of the article was "When Fat Comes Back". Intrigued by the title, I read the entire article in just a few minutes. I like to think of myself as a split personality, but in a good way. I always have two sides of my brain fighting for control over my thoughts, and therefore, my behavior. One side started to get anxious. After reading all of the information in this article, I began to worry if all of my weight loss efforts would come back to haunt me. What if I lost all the weight, just to gain it all back, and then some. According to this article, statistically, it's a very high possibility.

Luckily, my other side, the good (more positive side) took over. It's been doing that alot lately :) I started thinking about the flip side of that statistic. What if I lost all the weight and kept it off? What if I finally reached my goal and got everything I ever wanted from my body? That's the kind of statistic I want to be. This article had alot of good information and it's intent was not to scare women out of losing weight, but to be careful of yo-yo dieting. I've blogged about this once before, but it needs to be said again: This is not a diet, but a lifestyle change. You see women losing 60 lbs. in 3 months or other radical numbers. Of course they're gaining weight back.....3 months is not enough time to change 25 years of poor choices. In this article, they did a study on 2 different groups of women. They ate the same, exercised the same, but one day out of the week, one of the groups had a behavioral therapy session while the other group exercised. Guess which group kept the weight off? That's right....the group with therapy.

Losing weight is so much more than a physical battle. It's a mental WAR! You are battling years and years of habit. You are going against what used to be considered normal for you. That's gonna take time. You have to set reasonable goals and understand that mistakes are going to be made. Example: I was driving in Canyon yesterday and started craving a coke.....terribly. I hadn't had one in....I don't know how long....and the craving was strong. I kept telling myself that I didn't need a coke and that I could go to Sonic and get a tea, unsweet, and that would be much better for me. I was not allowed to have a coke! Instead of driving to Sonic, this train of thought led me right to McDonald's for a coke. The more I told myself I couldn't have one, the more I wanted one. I pulled through the drive thu and got my coke! I yanked the paper off the straw and took a drink! Finally....a coke!!!

Oh, my Lord!! It was like drinking whiskey from the bottle. Who knew coke was that acidic? The minute I drank it, I didn't want it anymore. It was my mode of thinking that made that coke irresistable to me. I had made it "off limits" and that is a HUGE mistake. Making something "taboo" or "off limits" makes it that much more attractive to you. I've learned so much in these last few months. I've learned that there isn't anything I can't eat, just stuff that I shouldn't eat, and there's a big difference between the two. Knowing that I CAN have something, gives me back the control. I can eat whatever I want! I can eat a hamburger from McDonald's, but I choose to eat grilled chicken with carrots instead.

After reading that article, I was so proud of myself. I may be losing weight slowly, but that's how I am going to change my behavior. If it takes me til 2011 to get to my goal weight, then that's fine, cause it's not coming back. It's gonna take more than 3 or 4 months to change how I've been eating for 27 years.....and I dont' have anything....but time!