Becoming Part of the "Winning 15%"

...or maybe I should say 'LOSING' 15%, because I'm referring to the very small percentage (actually I've heard for weight loss in general, the figure is closer to 5%!...but for TSFL/Medifast I was told it's 15%) of folks who lose the weight and get to goal and actually KEEP IT OFF.

Obviously this is a big concern for me as I'm in maintenance now...and once you get to maintenance, you lose that motivational 'boost' you got while seeing the numbers on the scale go down and the clothes getting looser. If you're 'doing it right' you're simply staying the SAME!

So you have to find 'other' reasons to stay motivated. And just continuing to look good sometimes isn't enough! I mean, again, there's that old logic (I've been guilty of using this one, too!) of thinking 'Hey, I can always lose it again, I've got Medifast now, in my back pocket!'

Boy, is THAT a slippery slope to go down. "Been there done that"...and it's not pretty. In fact I would venture to guess that many of the 'restarters' felt that way....only to find it's not so easy to go back on the 5/1! Oh boy...no way is it easy! It NEVER gets easy.

So why not PREVENT that in the first place, right?

Anyway, I think you have to find other, even STRONGER reasons to stay motivated. The whole world, it seems, is telling you that you look good so 'you can eat now' (ARGH). But HELLO? That's how you regain it, right?

For me, I think it's more about staying IN CONTROL than anything else. Seriously! The thing I HATED, I loathed, more than anything else about my life before was that I felt totally OUT OF CONTROL of my eating.

It was always "all or nothing" for me. Either I was trying some new diet (and starving, because I wasn't getting the right nutritional components in -- usually I was eating too many carbs, even if they were from fruit! -- or not enough fat, believe it or not (we all get into thinking 'fat is the enemy' and go non-fat all over the place and that just raises the carbs! BIGTIME!)
-OR-
I was 'no holds barred', eating anything and everything in sight.

And no matter which way that pendulum was swinging, I hated myself.
I either hated myself because I was so HUNGRY (on Weight Watchers, for example) because "there must be something wrong with me"  because I wasn't losing weight (again, I blamed myself and figured I must be 'doing it wrong' because other peple were standing up at the meetings and proudly announcing they's lost 5 lbs...whereas I only lost 1/2 lb. and was pretty sure that was water weight!)  -OR-
I hated myself because I was stuffing myself.
I knew I was gaining weight by the SECOND, I could FEEL it, and yet I felt powerless to stop it. My bloated stomach and face would MOCK me in the mirror and yet I'd still be hungry and still would have to eat. There was never 'enough' for me. It was always moremoremoremore....sigh.  And meanwhile my self-esteem was in the toilet!

So CONTROL is very, very important to me.

And I LOVED how the simple rules and strictness of the 5/1 helped me to understand and feel that I was (finally) in control. I was 'doing it right', because there isn't a whole lot of interpretation, is there? I mean, 5 MF meals are 5 MF meals! LOL....Plus an L&G that also was pretty simple to follow....OK, 6 ozs. chicken and 3 veggies...let's see 1 cup broccoli = 2, 1/2 cup veggies plus 1 cup lettuce = 1 veggie that totals 3, plus my healthy fat of an MF approved salad dressing.
VOILA - DONE.

No points to count.
No calories to count.

And the miracle was, by doing this, I lost weight!

Over time, of course, my weight loss slowed..and even stalled sometimes like it does for most of us.

And I got frustrated, sure...but I knew in my heart of hearts that if I stayed OP I would get 'rewarded' sooner or later.

"There's always tomorrow" I would say to myself. You never know what the next day will bring!

Towards the end of the program, a weird thing started happening. I found i was able to STAY motivated...NOT by thinking and dreaming and fixating on how gorgeous I was going to look once I got to goal...but on how COOl it was to HAVE CONTROL over my eating!

No more krazy diets. No more starving myself. And no more stuffing myself, either.

Instead, I was learning how to feed my body on a regular basis the right nutrients it needed -- and NOT overdo.

And I learned how to feel pleasantly 'full', NOT stuffed. I learned how I would LIVE if I hadn't eaten in 3 hours and my stomach was grumbling. It fascinated me but I could get through it!
What a MIRACLE!

So now? For me in maintenance? It's definitely all about control. It's not about losing weight anymore. The clothes are what they are. I don't think my sizes will go down any further. But that's OK! Simply having a closetful of clothing that's all the same size is a miracle to me. Knowing I can grab virtually anything and NOT have to worry 'will it fit'? is a wonderful, wonderful feeling.

But an even better feeling is being able to go out to dinner and order a healthy meal WITHOUT feeling like I'm 'suffering'. Because I'm NOT suffering! I'm feeding my body RIGHT! I'm LOVING myself and taking proper care of myself. I'm NOT a human garbage can anymore.

YES, it's all about CONTROL. Control over this vicious food addiction that held me in its grip for too long. Many, many years. I was stuck in the muck and mire and I wanted to get out of it, I really did -- but I didn't have the right TOOLS to get the job done.

The MF meals were my 'tools of the trade' to get my eating under control, once and for all.

That's probably what I STILL love many of them and still eat 3 or 4 MF meals a day. They keep me sane. They give me 'just enough' nutrition without being too much.

Experimentation in maintenance is nice...but it's also RISKY. 
I never know when a new food is going to make the carb or hunger 'monsters' reappear. By and large I think I've got a handle on it -- 'PROTEIN' is my big buzzword -- and as little sugar as is possible -- but once in awhile I can still get tripped up so I have to be aware of these things and be careful.

If you're struggling to stay OP, I submit that you should stop fixating on the scale, and START fixating on the CONTROL aspect of it.

Seriously, how do you FEEL when you go off program?
I always feel LOUSY. Those '3 minutes of pleasure' I wrote about the other day pass awfully quickly, and then you're just left with that same ole "Well I screwed up AGAIN" feeling.

Hating yourself. Questioning....'everything'. Why oh WHY did it happen? Then you start looking for blame. "It was work - they shouldn't have brought those stupid donuts in". "It was stress". "I was out with friends". "I couldn't say NO". "I don't know WHAT happened!"

But you know what happened...you know EXACTLY what happened. You made a conscious CHOICE to eat off plan. For whatever reason, and you know it deep-down and that makes the self-loathing 'script' in your head get kicked off all over again. Now you start with the "I'm not good enough". "I have no willpower". etc.

What helped me survive my toughest cravings (and STILL helps me) is just to think to myself "How will I feel 10 minutes from now if I give in?" "How will I feel tonight knowing I went off program?"
"How will I feel on weigh-in day -- regardless of what the scale shows?" (I've felt lousy even when the scale still showed a loss! Because I let MYSELF down. That's all it is).  I didn't love myself or respect myself enough to stay the course and instead 'ran for comfort' at the first sign things were going to get rough.

I think, in order to be part of that 15% that makes it, you've got to DECIDE, in your heart, deep deep down in your SOUL, that YOU ARE WORTH IT and you CAN gain control over your eating and that feeling of control is worth more than all the sludge you can think of!

It's knowing you will NEVER treat your body like a human garbage can again. Following through on what you believe in.

I believe I'm worth MORE than those horrible 'highs' and near-suicidal 'lows' I used to experience when I was abusing food. Because make no mistake, I was ABUSING food just like some people abuse alcohol or drugs. I was ...and am... a food addict.

But I'm in CONTROL over my addiction now. I can MANAGE it. Every single day, one meal at a time.

I can laugh at all the sludge because my core is solid, my resolve is firm. I'll never be a skinny fashion model, I'll never be a size 2 and I can't turn back the clock and make all my stretch marks (and wrinkles!) go away....but I CAN take care of the body and the years I have left and I can be -- I AM -- in better shape now than I was at age 28. (by the way I weighed 145 back then....but I had to STARVE to do it).

Because now I'm in CONTROL of my eating!

You can do it, too. You CAN overcome this horrible thing called a food addiction. But it takes a total COMMITMENT from deep inside your heart to take CARE of your body and your heart and soul by being KIND to it...feeding it the right nutrients at the right times and not abusing food anymore...no matter WHAT happens in your life.

YOU CAN DO IT! We ALL can do it.
We have a chance now...thanks to this program.

Keep on keepin' on!