You know what's worse than not losing any weight?
Gaining weight.
I gained ten pounds this month, and now weigh 230. I don't get to start my sentences with "Seventy five pounds ago..." anymore, because I've no longer lost seventy five pounds. I've only lost sixty five, because I managed to find ten of them again and put them back on.
I knew this was going to be a bad month when I finally got on the scale the other day. I took about a week off from meeting my step goal, because I was on vacation. I've been off diet for two months because I was off of it for a month and nothing terrible happened. I didn't gain any weight, so I convinced myself that it was ok to just keep maintaining, except that I didn't just maintain. I had extra snacks. I ate snacks while watching television. I had a big lunch and a big dinner, several times. I let myself get back into bad habits.
And I gained ten pounds.
Venice is ten pounds further away, rather than ten pounds closer. I am still obese, rather than just overweight. I weight 230 pounds, rather than 220.
So, here I am, backsliding. This month I worked against my goals, backslid, and undid some of the really hard work that I've been putting in for the past ten months, or at least for eight of them. I'm not proud of this, and I shouldn't be proud of it, but I'm also not beating myself up over it too much. I am a little, because this was preventable. There's a program, and I've been off the program. Behavior has consequences, and I am sitting around with ten pounds of extra consequences, and I'm not happy about it.
So where do I go from here?
I get back on the horse and start riding. I made fantastic progress for months because I was focused, determined, and dedicated to my process. Ten months ago, I had a choice to surgically constrict my digestive tract or to exercise and I chose the exercise. I argued that I would be able to do this, and for eight months I was doing this.
I just needed a slap in the face to remind me that this thing, my journey, my goal, my quest to become a better person, is not done.
This is a bump in the road. I have a choice to look at it, accept it, and move on, or to sit on my couch and brood and beat myself up over it. I'm going with the first choice, because I really have no choice. I was very clear that I can either lose weight or die, and I still don't want to die. I want to be a healthy person. I want to be able to take stairs, and walk long distances, and go to a store and buy clothing off of a rack and be comfortable with the idea that those clothes will fit me. I don't want to have diabetes, or to have my feet cut off, or to have a heart attack.
I gained ten pounds this month.
Now I'm going to lose them.
Keep in mind you've been exercising a lot, and have probably generated a pound or two in muscle mass at least.
ReplyDelete@ Justin - he just said he's been lying around eating for the past two months. I don't think it's muscle. Anyway, walking doesn't build that sort of muscle, lifting weights builds muscle.
ReplyDelete@Joel - Buck up, man. It's going to be fine. The best part about this is that you know you can lose the weight, because you've already done it and you know exactly how to do it.
I've been there, done that, and it's all part of the great journey that is "getting fit". We, as humans, never go in a straight line to success. We are all weak, we all want to lie on the couch and eat (insert favorite junk here). But we all have that wake-up-factor, and we can all make the decision (again) to do the right thing. Which is what you're doing.
My one suggestion is this: change up your routine. The reason I always fall off the fitness wagon is boredom. At first, your new walking program was - well, new. And thus exciting. And so were the results. After some period of time, our bodies and brains get bored with the same old plan. So. Start looking into different forms of fitness, different ways of achieving the same goal. Also, get some new cookbooks - perhaps Asian or some other style that focuses on fresh vegetables and healthy balances of ingredients, and learn to cook some new dishes. Keeping your palate entertained (the right way) is just as important as keeping your body moving.
You can do this.