Sometimes I get angry with myself for allowing myself to regain the weight I worked so hard to lose. But when those moments hit me I have to remind myself to be gentle and kind to myself and to not beat myself up over being human. You see, the unfortunate part about the weight loss process is that there is a very small percentage (2% – 3%) of people who manage to keep the weight off once they lose it. That means that 97% to 98% of people who lose weight fail at keeping it off and it pains me to be in that number.
Now I could let my story end right there, but I’m not! I’m not the “lay down and take it” kinda girl. Instead I’m going to use this as a learning opportunity by looking at the mistakes that I’ve made so that this time around I won’t find myself in the same boat.
One of the first things I’ve learned is that when I say this is a lifestyle I have to treat it as such. Even though I’ve said over and over, “I’m not on a diet”, deep inside I treated my journey as if I were. Lifestyle means it’s something you do everyday of your life. It’s who you are and the “normal” things you do, period! Instead I went about my journey from it’s start date with a very clear end point in mind, when the reality is that there is no final destination…just more of the same.
Here are a few more mistakes I made but will not make again:
1) I blew off my workouts multiple days in a row, rather than establishing a “no more than one day off rule” for myself.
2) I gave myself permission to overindulge when I was stressed, overworked or PMSing, which was most of the time.
3) I stopped tracking and measuring. For me, I need the assistance of tracking, counting and measuring to stay on track. Eyeballing it just doesn’t work.
4) I stopped blogging on a consistent basis, which was a form of accountability for me.
5) I slowly reintroduced soda back into my diet. One sip led to one can. One can led to one bottle. One bottle led to one a day, and so on.
6) One by one I stopped participating in the activities which I enjoyed and which kept me busy and distracted from food: attending Weight Watchers meetings, teaching Church Bible Institute classes at church, writing my book, participating in 5K races, etc.
7) I ignored the tight waistband on my pants and skirts. The minute it became a problem to zip up my pants, that should have been a red flag. Instead I turned to spandex, which expanded right along with me.
8) I stopped weighing myself weekly. Although I hate the scale because it doesn’t measure the whole story, it is another form of accountability for me and it keeps me honest.
9) One quick fast food convenience meal turned into one a day.
So, as much as I would like to say that “it just happened”, clearly it didn’t. I stopped being conscious. I stopped being intentional. I stopped planning and preparing AND I started gaining weight.
Your Turn To Share
What lessons have you learned on your journey. Do you have any “I’ll never do that again” lessons to share?