Healthy For Life--not just for the duration of my diet

The problem with a lot of weight loss programs is they are a lot like using a hairdryer on a snowman. The pounds melt away quickly, often at the cost of over all health. And then most people just put the weight back on once the diet is done (once the snowman stops using that hairdryer, another snowstorm is just gonna add it back on). That's why I've shied away from diets.

My goal is to be healthy. I can't be healthy if I'm overweight, but damaging my health to get skinny seems just as bad. And if I go through all the trouble to lose the weight and get into a healthy range, I don't want to just gain it all back again. I want it to be gone for good.

Once upon a time I was a circuit coach at a women's only gym. I tried to help ladies lose weight (all the while pretending I didn't need to). One 70 year old lady there told me she didn't lose weight. She BURNED FAT. "If I lose weight, I'm bound to find it again. If I burn fat, it's gone for good." I liked her idea. I didn't want to just lose weight to find it again somewhere down the road. Diets seemed like a system of losing weight, not burning fat.

This program I'm on is different. It's goal? Help you develop "Habits of Health". Almost immediately I was in what they call the "fat burn" state (sounds a lot like what my elderly friend said). Honestly, that part is much like many HEALTHY diets. It's the purpose behind the program and what happens when you reach your goal weight that change things.

Like I said, the purpose of the program is to help people develop healthy habits FOR LIFE. So, it doesn't end when you reach your goal weight. Really, that's just the beginning. When you reach your goal weight you enter the transition period. It helps you take the habits you've been developing on the diet and put the food you eat day to day in there--but healthily. Once you've "transitioned", you'll be eating healthy normal food instead of their program food and MAINTAINING your weight and healthy habits. It's not about losing weight, it's about getting rid of the old habits of disease and replacing them with habits of health.

Weight loss is just one of the benefits.

And I've benefited. As of Sunday I am 12 lbs lighter than when I started. I've also had to buckle my belt tighter twice. That means my waist is a good 2 inches smaller. My face looks thinner. My chest is smaller (sigh), and I'm almost ready to go down a size in pants (my thighs aren't sure they want to let that fat go away--but like it or not, there it goes!).

I have more energy than I had before I started this program and I eat better. I eat 6 small meals a day, more vegetables than I did before, and I feel great. I can't imagine going back to how I ate before. Thinking about it makes me feel sick.

The point of this post isn't to be a commercial for the program I'm on (note I never mentioned the name of it). It's to say that while I don't want to be a snow-woman who feels she has to torture herself to be skinny I'm done "weighting", and I'll never "weight" again. I'm developing healthy habits NOW, habits for life so I never have to look at myself in the mirror again and realize I'm on my way to being obese.