Sunday, January 10, 2010

Beware of the Highs of Dieting

Things have been going well on the old diet front. I just marvel at how far I have come in my thinking from years ago when I tried to lose weight. I no longer go by the daily weigh in. Its been months and months since I have let the scales dictate my feelings for the day.

I came to a huge realization of this today when a friend of mine, who started a diet a week ago, told me that she has lost 8 pounds this week. She is very overweight and she has never really dieted so that will indeed stand her in good stead if she can keep up her momentum. She hasn't thrown her metabolism off with odd diets and fasting and such. But.....

This friend just told me two weeks ago that she has to see huge losses or she will never be able to diet! I tried to explain to her that huge losses are not realistic nor will they last long term.

So today she was proud to inform me that she had lost 8 pounds in one week. In her mind she had proved me wrong. She can do it and this is how she is going to lose her weight. I congratulated her but inwardly I felt quite sorry for her. Huge losses are easy the first couple of weeks and the heavier you are the greater the losses!

I have lost three pounds this week. I am more than happy with that. But I know that there will be many weeks ahead with only 1 pound lost or even no pounds lost.

I guess I'm trying to say this; if you have made a New Years resolution to lose weight and you have started out with a bang I'm happy for you. But I want to caution you. Those kind of losses are not going to happen every week and prepare yourself for that.

Resolve to lose weight when a week goes by with nothing lost. Resolve that you will lose the weight when the weight is coming off a quarter of a pound at a time. Resolve to lose the weight when a month goes by and you haven't lost.

You have to change your thinking to lose weight! You have to be ready to go through the dry seasons. You cant rely on the big losses to carry you through! If you cant get your mind around these things and if you need to see the 8 pound weekly losses then you are going to fail.

Okay, I'll get off my pulpit now. You can go back to eating those carrot sticks.

2 comments:

  1. Hi

    Nice post and good on you. I agree that good losses can be very motivating and when they stop we sometimes have to dig really deep to keep going. I find this much easier if I am eating really nice food that doesn't leave me hungry or create cravings.

    lucy

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  2. That's what i have to work on. When i don't see a loss i tend to give up. Must work on that!!

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Thank you for taking the time to encourage me on my journey! Your comment is appreciated!