It's January 1, 2015, and some of you will be starting a New Year's Resolution today to lose weight. I've had some success, but it has taken time and the biggest challenge has not been knowing what to eat, but how to be consistent and how to separate myself from some destructive habits. If you are struggling with that, I hope you will be patient and keep trying. It doesn't come easy and you will fail MANY TIMES. If you can get comfortable with failing and just see it as a temporary issue, not an end to your efforts...things get easier.
Not everyone knows me or my whole story but I also don't want this to be a novel. Here are the bullet points:
- I was close to 400 pounds at my heaviest. I was binge-eating on an almost daily basis. I felt terrified and out-of-control.
- On 04/25/2011, I started the South Beach Diet and lost just over 100 pounds in the first year. I learned that eating so much refined starches and sugars had been keeping me in a constant craving cycle, like a drug addict. When I ate more whole, unprocessed foods, the cravings were easier to manage.
- Things slowed down the second year as I started losing focus. I lost another 25 pounds. My story was on the South Beach Website and I appeared on the Dr. Oz Show, but I was starting to struggle and binge occasionally, again, but I was maintaining.
- The third year, I started to really slip and gain weight back. This was terrifying. By the summer of 2014, I had gained back about 35 pounds. I recommitted myself and I have been doing Diet Bets with a group of friends [The Fit Girls of GB!], back-to-back in four-week cycles, since this summer. Focusing on losing 4% of my body weight every 4 weeks has really helped keep me focused, while keeping the goals manageable. I've lost 44.8 pounds since this summer. As of this morning's weigh-in, I've lost 135 pounds, total.
To those of you starting today, if I can...here's some advice:
- Don't make excuses to let yourself off the hook. Be the boss. Consistency is the key and you won't get there by giving in. #1 key to success: NEVER QUIT. As soon as you realize you are struggling, strategize and get back on track.
- Pick a plan that is backed by science, that you can live with. Make sure you understand WHY you are eating what you are eating. You can't follow someone else's menu forever. YOU need to understand what the portions and proportions should be, so you can make good decisions anywhere.
- Be prepared and responsible. Plan. Shop. Chop. Prep. Set aside time for making things. Get up earlier. Set aside a couple of hours on Sunday for prepping some meals if weeks get stressed and busy. When you get lazy and complacent, you WILL order a pizza.
- If you have huge crazy cravings for sugar and bread, try cutting them out of your life completely. Lots of people love to throw around the word "moderation," but no one tells an alcoholic, "Quit getting drunk, but you should be able to have one shot every day, right?" If moderation works for you, fine. But it doesn't work for everyone.
- Ask for help. Tell the people around you what kind of help you need. Frank hides his junk food from me so I never know it's available.
- Clean out your kitchen. It is almost impossible to eat healthy when temptation is around every corner. Stock your house with healthy foods. Get rid of the unhealthy ones. If you can't get rid of them, at least gather them all in one location that is out of sight. Make healthy foods easier to get to.
- Increase your plant intake. Try to eat fruits, vegetables, and/or greens at every meal and snack. I lose best when I MAKE SURE I am eating 5+ cups of vegetables and greens a day. I won't say everything else doesn't matter when you do that...but it's close. (Check out Frank's green smoothie recipe in the notes if that sounds challenging. Big lunch salads also help.)
- Get comfortable with being uncomfortable for a while. You'll get used to it and it will be fine, but it's not going to be the same. You're going to miss your old ways and old tastes. You'll miss comforting yourself with food on a hard day. You'll get sick of eggs (or whatever it is you eat) for breakfast. You'll long for the simplicity of take-out when you're tired. You will flat out hate eating a giant mountain of broccoli sometimes. Tell yourself to shut up and eat. What did being comfortable all the time get you?
- You cannot out-exercise a bad diet. You are not an Olympic swimmer. Exercise helps, but what you eat is going to determine a majority of your weight loss.
- You cannot hate your body into changing. Stop being mad at your body. There are so many people who would count themselves blessed to be in your body as it is RIGHT NOW. You're the one who hasn't treated IT well. Make amends. Try harder. Be loving and and proud of what you have today.
Good luck, my friends. 2015 is our year!
reposted from https://www.facebook.com/CynthiaCallahanWeightloss