Losing Weight

In order to give a little background on my philosophy of eating to lose weight, I’m going to try and explain a bit about my history and why I do and think, as I do. Since I was a preteen, I have had the tendency to gain weight, and I did. Luckily, I grew tall and for a while, that fact kept my size in relative balance. From the time I stopped growing, I have attempted any and every diet that I’ve come across.

In my early twenties, I became obsessed with “no carbohydrate” dieting and going to the gym. This served me well, and I attained my goal weight! Then, in my mid-twenties, I became a personal trainer, certified by the American Council on Exercise. Then life happened, and I got pregnant. In my mind, this gave me license to “eat for two.” My delivery weight was 100 pounds more than I weighed pre-pregnancy. It took me close to a year, but I did lose the weight.

About ten years ago, I started to feel the symptoms of what ended up being an auto-immune disease. I became disabled and unable to work or do much of anything. Of course, these circumstances changed my life. Depression came on slowly and ended up totally taking over; then came the weight. Between the depression and the medication, I gained weight until I was back to what I weighed post-delivery.

Two years ago, after umpteen doctors, I finally found the right one. She changed some of my medications, and I began to come to life. Now, I am beginning to feel like my former self and have lost 60 pounds. Oh, happy day!!!

I initially lost 20 pounds just from the change in medication. That’s when my son and I started trying to lose weight. Within two months we both lost about 20 pounds. My son stopped at that time, but I kept going. I’ve been maintaining my weight for the last few months, but I feel like it’s time to lose more.

Well, that’s a condensed history of my weight gain and loss. I wanted to say all of that to explain my personal struggle and now I can explain why I feel like I do about dieting. In my opinion, D-I-E-T is a four-letter word. If I say I’m on a diet, my brain immediately feels as though I’m depriving myself. I believe that if I use positive self-talk, the chances of being sabotaged in my efforts decrease.

When I feel like losing weight, I give myself a week or two to ease into it and get my mind ready. This “grace period” is essential when it comes to getting motivated and easing off of the foods I won’t be eating for a while. Doing this gives me a chance to clean out the pantry and the refrigerator by eating or throwing out all of the high-carbohydrate foods.

Okay, I need to say that the methods I use to lose weight may sound extreme in some cases. My metabolism is very sluggish and sometimes my body needs a good kick in the pants. I am not recommending that anyone utilize these tactics, especially if they have a medical condition.

That does it for this page; I will be posting the rules I follow in another called “It’s Only Food.“