Are you "WEIGHTING" to get Healthy this Holiday Season?

I've talked with a lot of people about getting healthy in the last several months. My own path to health has inspired some, made others curious, and probably seemed silly to others. But it's started some interesting conversations. It seems like since October I've been hearing excuses for why people are going to "weight" to get healthy.
"Thanksgiving will be hard."
"The holidays are a bad time to start a diet."
"I just have so many family/friend parties, it's too much temptation."
"I don't want to offend people by saying no."
And they all end with "I'll start in January."

My question is simple: Why "WEIGHT"???

The reality is the HoliDAYS are just that: DAYS. Yet I've met so many people who are putting off taking care of their health for 3 MONTHS because of 3 DAYS!!

I overheard on the radio the other day that the average 5 lbs that people used to gain during the holidays is no longer accurate. Now people are gaining 7-10 lbs. And most aren't losing it the next year. That's 7-10 lbs in 2 months every year, not to mention whatever else they gain during the year.

People are "WEIGHTING" to get healthy this holiday season.

Are you one of them?

Every other year of my life, my honest answer would have been yes. I even wrote a poem about it when I was about 12.

I am so awfully bored
I have a lot of food to hoard
So I'll stack it neatly in my room
And dread the awful doom
Of getting fat by gaining lard
So I'll be on my guard
By trying not to eat so much
Though I know it can't be such
I know I'll eat over my share
Even though, in the end, I really will care
It happens when Holidays roll around
And temptation is to be found
Oh, I am so awfully bored
And I have a lot of food to hoard
(Dec 31, 2000)

Yes, as a 12 year old, I was already living the unhealthy lifestyle that got me in the place I was a few months ago: Overweight, unhealthy, and discontent.

This year is different though. I'm at my ideal weight. I am healthy. I'm happy with who I am and where my life is headed. And I'm not going to let 3 little days get in the way of me staying this way!

Thanksgiving is a good example: I was so motivated by being almost where I wanted to be weight/size/health wise that I stuck to my program like glue. My family thought I was a little crazy, but I did it. And when everyone else was sitting around lethargic or complaining about stomach aches, I was bouncing around feeling great. That next week, I lost the weight to put me where I wanted to be and I moved from being on the full program to being on transition.

Even though I'm not on the full program anymore I'm not worried about Christmas/New Years. I know that they're just days. Even if I "mess up" I'll be in a better spot this New Years than I was even as a 12 year old (and by the way, I only weigh 10 lbs more than I did then--I definitely wasn't healthy!!). I stopped "weighting" and started living.

What are you going to do?

The Best Birthday Present

Technically, it's my birthday. It's been my birthday for 1 hour and 37 minutes as I write this. I'm officially 23. Yay for birthdays! But more so than any birthday for the last couple years I'm excited for this one. I get a chance to start out on a new foot, begin again, and live healthy. It's a good feeling. And as part of that good feeling, I wanted to share with you guys a story of how miracles happen, and dreams come true....



Ever felt that way? I sure have. Scales used to be...scary. They even have a scary name. It reminds me of lizards and snakes and dinosaurs. And if you've ever heard a little kid talk, scale can sound a lot like scare...

But today the tears I felt like crying were tears of joy. I'm sure you want to know why, but first I have to back up.

Remember that workbook I mentioned a few posts back? It's helping me retrain my thoughts about food and habits and goals and health. In one of the first lessons it asked me to put down goals. One of my goals was to be 125 lbs and in size 6 pants by my birthday. At the time, my birthday was a couple months away so the goal seemed achievable. It was just a goal anyways. I don't normally actually reach my goals. Especially not health related goals.

Well, the last several weeks, my weight loss has slowed down a bit. Most weeks I lost maybe a pound. Some weeks the scale said the same thing. I knew I was losing inches, but my weight wasn't reflecting. And most of the inches weren't in my legs/bum, so I was still in size 10 pants. Last week I weighed in at 129.

So Sunday I was flipping through what I'd already done in the workbook and I saw my goals. I reread them and laughed because there was no way in heck that I was going to get to size 6 pants and be 125 lbs by my birthday. That was 5 days away. Not happening. I then promptly forgot the experience.

On Monday I got on the scale to discover I had lost 4 lbs! 4 lbs in one week! That was more than I'd lost any week but my first week on the program! I was so excited to be down 4 lbs I didn't realize the significance of the scale saying 125.

On Wednesday my sister commented that my pants were too big. I saggy bum syndrome (you know, when the bum of the pants is bigger than your bum). I laughed about it and said I didn't have any size 8 pants so I was just going to have to have saggy bum for a while.

Thursday morning while getting ready I had a spontaneous urge to try on my jeans from my box of too small pants. They fit. They're a little tight, but they fit. They're size 6.

Even then, the importance of this didn't dawn on me. I rushed out the door and about my day. Because I'd been running late, I didn't get to take a shower until the afternoon. It was the first time I'd had a breather all day and my brain wandered through different things that had happened to me and then, FINALLY, it clicked. A few tears might have trickled down, but it's hard to tell in the shower. I know I felt like crying. A lot.

I had reached my goal with less than 24 hours to spare.

Call it a blessing, a miracle, fate, karma, the universe, whatever you want, it was pretty amazing in my opinion. Dropping 4 lbs almost 2 sizes in less than a week was probably the best birthday present I'll get this week. Not because I'm thin, but because it proves I can do it. I can achieve my goals and get healthy. I am officially DOING, not "weighting." It's a good feeling. I am starting the 24th year of my life as a new, healthy me.

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.

My subconscious thinks I'm fat

....and that I'm going to fail in my goal to be healthy.

I'm not kidding.

Over and over I keep dreaming that I fail. It starts out small (just like it would in real life). I eat something not on my diet. And then I have another. The next day I have more. Soon, I'm not following the diet at all. Instead of losing weight, I'm gaining it again.

All of them aren't that drastic or detailed, but when I wake up, I feel fat. I feel like I'm already a failure. Before my last weigh in (I do it once a week right now) I was terrified I had GAINED weight instead of lost it.

When I picture my body in my mind, it's bigger than it really is. As I get dressed in the morning, I expect to not fit into my pants right. Some days I wear skirts just so I don't have to think about pulling my pants over my thighs.

None of these started as conscious thoughts. When I jumped into the program, my thoughts were so focused on the idea of success. I knew I had the willpower and motivation to succeed. I never doubted that I could do it until the dreams started. The first one didn't make me doubt, but after several of them, I can't help but finding myself wondering if I just don't have what it takes to succeed.

And how do you tell yourself you can lose weight when your body is determined that it's fat and it's going to stay that way? Not because it wants to, but because it doesn't think it can do anything different.

Sitting here today I know all of this stems from fear. I'm afraid of becoming like my sister. I'm afraid of being 30 years old and 300 lbs. I'm afraid that if I don't succeed now, I'll end up like my dad, almost 60 and fighting diabetes and sleep apnea in a nasty cycle of not being able to lose weight. Or I'll be like my mom, always busy and moving about but still over weight. If my mom couldn't lose it, how do I expect to?

The answer is simple. I'm not them. I'm 23 years old and I'm staring NOW to combat these problems. I'm not going to 'weight' until I'm diabetic before I start eating right. I'm not going to 'weight' until I'm 300 lbs before I dedicate myself to losing weight. And if I am doing everything I can to lose weight and be healthy and I still am overweight and sick, I'll go see a doctor, not just 'weight' for my body to sort itself out.

I am optimistic and motivated. I've decided that instead of giving in to my fears, I'm going to combat them. I realize that while weight may not be the only sign of healthy living and should not be the end all goal, weight matters. And I will fight the weight. I will become healthy now.

I'm done 'weighting' for my fears to be proved right. I'm done 'weighting' to become like my sister, my dad, my brother, or my mom. I'm going to be me. And I'm going to be skinny and healthy.

I'll prove my subconscious wrong.