Catlovers Tough Rules to Keeping the Weight Off!

A friend was asking about the book 'Refuse to Regain', which I have recommended to people who make it to goal -- and whether or not I agreed with all of the author's '12 tough rules for keeping off the weight'.

Well, the truth is, I DON'T agree with ALL of the rules the author gives. 

You see, I believe in taking from each book just what WORKS for you, what resonates with you.  I don't subscribe to ANY one philosophy 100%.  I take and choose based on what makes sense for me!

So for example, in 'Refuse to Regain' the author says to 'Eat Primarian' (I don't go that far) and 'Don't eat after 8 pm' (nope, sorry, I eat my last snack of the day right before I go to bed, which may be as late as 10 pm, and I don't worry about it. Having a full stomach when I go to bed prevents refrigerator grazing in the middle of the night!) and 'Weigh yourself every day' (No No No....this is a sure way to drive yourself NUTS!)

So.......I got to thinking, what are MY '12 Tough Rules to Keep the Weight Off'? 

Well I came up with a list...and actually I've got 14 rules! 
LOL... but be that as it may, I thought it would be fun to publish them.

So here they are, in no particular order:

Catlovers 14 Rules to Keeping the Weight Off

1).  Be tough, not moderate. 
Moderation is impossible for me.  PERIOD. Anytime someone says to me, "What's wrong with you? Just cut BACK, that's all!" I laugh and shake my head and walk away.
They just don't get it, and they will NEVER get it, because they have no idea what it's like to be a food addict.  If I had 'just one' chocolate mini-muffin at a gathering, I would eat MORE of them as soon as everyone's backs were turned.  Fat Brain would be unleashed....and I'd find reasons to sneak back and grab a 'few' more....squirrel them away, and gobble them up when I was alone. Once the sugar-monster gets set free, that's IT....I'm off and running.

Sugar is OFF THE TABLE.  Period.  I've been down that road too many times....and it always leads to 'binge city'.  Don't need it in my life, don't want it. And NO, I'm not 'suffering', not one bit.  I enjoy the healthy foods I CAN eat that do NOT 'set me off'.
 
2).  Weigh yourself on a set schedule....but NOT daily. 
Weekly...or even MONTHLY if you can.  If things are going well and you feel great and your clothes fit or are even loose....that may be a sign that you can switch to monthly weighing!  Maybe even....(gasp...!)  Annual weigh-ins?  (and I'm NOT at this point yet.  I'm at weekly!)  Whatever....but I don't weigh in daily.  NO WAY.
Weekly keeps me in touch with what's happening in terms of my weight, and I keep in mind that if I hit my 'Scream Weight' (a weight about 8-10 lbs above goal) I know what to do....switch to the 5/1 -- or decide to live at the higher weight until I'm strong enough to do the 5/1 again. Again, the key is to know yourself. That takes some trial and error.

3).  Set a REALISTIC TEE and STAY there.
For me, the TEE (Total Energy Expenditure - basically the total # of calories I can eat every day and maintain my weight) calculation in the HOH books was just too high.
My metabolic rate is obviously slower, because I slowly GAINED using that figure.
Even with all the exercise I do!
So I use goal x 11, and that's my TEE.  Those are the calories I shoot for...and YES I still 'count' calories, simply by inputting into the Food Log herein and making sure I'm at or below my TEE, that's all. 
I also have a basic food plan which means I'm 'sort of' counting the types of foods I eat, but I try not to obsess about it.  For example on fruit, I limit myself to 2 per day because I know I can go overboard with them, even though they are low in calories.  Grains I'm careful with, mainly because they can make me hungry, so it's one per day (if that);  proteins (at LEAST 2 per day), fats (only 2 per day, I still watch the fat), and dairy (two per day, not counting my Almondbreeze which is a condiment).  I do NOT measure or count condiments and spices. (never did, don't tell anyone LOL). 
I think this is the hardest part of Maintenance and one that requires some experimentation...and that can be scary....which is why I was very happy to have finally gone for a Coach by that point. She kept me SANE!  LOL....but again, it's trial and error and everyone is different. That's the tough part about maintenance....there are no rules 'set in stone' like in the 5/1.  It's a different mindset and it's a little intimidating at first, but you eventually get the hang of it when you realize that you're NOT going to 'balloon up again' overnight as long as you stay in CONTROL of your eating!

LIES we tell ourselves

I'm reading a new book (surprise, surprise .. I'm ALWAYS reading 'something'...LOL).....and this one is definitely good enough to add to an 'arsenal' of tools for ongoing weight-loss/weight maintenance journeys. 

It's called "You are not your Brain", by Jeffrey M. Schwartz, M.D. and Rebecca Gladding, M.D.  Both are experts in the science of neuroplasty (changes in the brain) at UCLA.
WOW.  It's definitely worth a read! 
ANYTIME a book causes me a lot of 'Aha!' moments...I sit up and take notice. 
And this one definitely does.
So I HAD to share....in fact, I was so excited after reading just the first couple of chapters of this book that I HAD to write about it....even though I'm not even finished with the book! 
The premise of the book is that our brain sends out deceptive messages which create deceptive emotional sensations, that we can easily confuse with 'real' emotions and thus act on them in inappropriate ways (i.e., overeating, drinking, drugging, whatever). 

A REAL emotion would be sadness over the death of a loved one.
Or ANY emotion based on REALITY. 
But what a lot of us here (definitely myself included!) get, are deceptive 'emotional sensations', like sadness, anger, depression, loneliness, frustration, hopelessness, helplessness, it runs the gamut...that ORIGINATE from FALSE (deceptive) THOUGHTS!
(i.e., LIES we tell ourselves....read on...)  

One year ago today....

Exactly one year ago today, I posted the following blog on the Medifast Community website.

July 23, 2013

OK...now I KNOW for certain that God has a sense of humor.
Check this out. I get on the scale this morning...as usual, prepared for 'anything' (sigh)....and it said...

Are you ready for this?
...160!  ...but wait! in actuality....160.2
.2.  I am .2 lbs away from goal!

And I just stood there, grinning from ear to ear. DH walked in, and I started laughing. He said "What's so funny?" Still shaking with laughter, I pointed down to the scale and started laughing even harder.

"So...umm....so that's good, right?" he ventured (as if talking to a SNAKE who might bite his head off at any moment in time...knowledge is power, after all, LOL.....)

....and by this time, I was laughing so hard that I had collapsed onto the toilet seat, and was doubled over in hysterical laughter, tears running down my face. "Ye....ye...yes" I stammered.

"What's wrong?" he asked...still a little terrified of this crazy woman in her underwear shaking with laughter.....

"It's just...the..." I gasped....."the ..." ....".2!"...more laughter.
"I can't be...believe it!" I cried.  ".2 lousy pounds...oh my God it's so FUNNY!"

He shook his head (you know, sometimes I feel sorry for him, trying to figure me out...LOL...) ...and then he looked at me again and realized (duh!) ...how long I've been at this....and he smiled.

"Congratulations, babe".

 OK, gang, so NOW what do I do?    :)

OK I can hear you thinking "So THIS is a problem? This is NOT a problem. Wars, death, destruction and despair are problems. Being OBESE is a problem...But being .2 lbs away from goal is NOT A PROBLEM".

And you're right.

So......................

HAPPY DANCE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you say it and believe it?  (YES, I believe I can!)

G O A L!

I'm 'calling this' one...declaring VICTORY...for a number of reasons:

1) The biggest is that I just took my BMI and it says 24.7! That's NORMAL, folks!  NORMAL!!  When I started I was in the extremely OBESE category!

2). I know everyone's getting a little sick and tired of my blogs, whining about being so close and yet so far, etc. ENOUGH already!

3). LoveCats, you are right...at this point it's statistically insignificant. Even with rounding it comes to 160, right?

4). I really don't want to end up having a nervous breakdown over .2 measly pounds, for pete's sakes. I can see it now:
"Doc, she checked herself into the psycho ward a few hours ago. She said something about .2 lbs, and kept muttering under her breath about her scale...plus she keeps collapsing into hysterical laughter...she's obviously seriously delusional....she also mutters "gotta stay on MF", whatever MF is..." 

Want to hear something even MORE strange? Now I keep thinking about all those veggies...and how I can't wait, cause now after a week I'll be able to eat even MORE of my fav....veggies!

Oh it's too silly, isn't it? (actually that's a 'signal' that my food addiction is far from conquered, by the way...'too much' of anything, even a GOOD thing, is not good...but I'll avoid lecturing today...)

Seriously, though...my journey is NOT over. I feel like I've just crossed a boundary, from one country to another, but there's a whole new country to explore, to get to know, and to enjoy.

Ups and downs in my moods, how my days are going, and whatever else life hands me.  Without (hopefully) a lot of 'ups and downs' on the scale. NOT taking my problems to 'foodland'. Because that's a trap. A SCAM. A LIE. An excuse. And the 'wrong way' to handle stress and problems in my life.

And always, always, always mindful that I have a food addiction...and always will. It's the DEGREE OF CONTROL that matters now. Every day I learn another new healthy habit, every day I move one step closer to 'normal' eating, is a step in the right direction. And constantly watching myself, being careful -- knowing,
all too well -- how long the struggle has been and how painful it's been.

...the nights I cried myself to sleep, begging God for an answer
...the days I went from bedroom to recliner with only a stop in the kitchen to 'stock up' in between
...eating myself into oblivion and HATING myself the entire time
...the times I tried SO HARD to stay on program only to ruin it all with one lousy tablespoon of peanut butter (which of course led to another and another and...soon I was off and running on another eating binge which could last hours...or days...or even weeks)
...with the accompanying guilt and self-hatred and shame and "sneak eating" along the way.

NO, THANK YOU. I'm done with that.

I am planning to write a special 'thank you blog' to all my friends here at MF who have helped me along the way....but I'm far from 'done'. That's for sure. As long as I'm alive, the journey CONTINUES.

NOW begins what I've long awaited...my transition into a new life, a life composed of healthy eating instead of gorging.

A life that I pray provides inspiration and HOPE to others. Not just on this website but all around me in my life.

You never know the impact you might have...on your children, your family, your friends, even total strangers who see you trying so hard to stay on program. The changes we are all making here are not just important for US. They are important for EVERY person who comes after us. Who has reached 'rock bottom' and finally takes the first step and starts lurking on this website, wondering..."Can I do this?"

YES, IT CAN HAPPEN. It can be done.

- Even though you're in your 50s.
- Even though you have a 'lifetime' of bad habits.
- Even though you've practically given UP on yourself.
- Even though your doctor told you you have "metabolic syndrome" and can 'never' lose weight.
- Even though you have tried every diet known to MAN.
- Even though you are 'all alone' in your household insofar as your meals are concerned...you don't have anyone close to you that's doing this, you are going it alone. (BUT you aren't alone if you're here on this website! You have lots of friends and potential friends...people just like you who are battling their food demons)

Never, ever, ever give up. In your darkest hour...that's when you need to take heart, grab that helping hand, and pull yourself up little by little.

IF I CAN DO IT, YOU CAN DO IT.

I'll say it again (did you hear the scream from the Eastern seaboard of the US?  LOL...)

because I LOVE saying it.

G O A L!

=======================================================

Yep, I made goal ONE YEAR AGO today. 

And I'll never forget how awesome that felt.  I'll never forget that entire day.  Reading all the comments people made, so wonderful.....all the well-wishers....I even got a 'happy dance' from Sunshine (thank you SO much!) .... I'll cherish the memories of how I felt that day.

So, what about today?  Well, I'm celebrating my Mediversary with all of you, because I'm still here, and I’m still maintaining, and I’m convinced one of the reasons ‘why’ I’m successfully maintaining is because of the camaradarie and support and encouragement of the many friends I've made on this website. 

A special HUGE hug of thanks goes to my amazing Health Coach, Chris.

I thought I was getting a Health Coach when I came to her during Transition (because frankly, I was terrified LOL).  I reached out to her because she inspired me with her blogs as well as her performance (she's maintained for six years, guys).  And she has been a wonderful Coach.

But she became even more than that. A life mentor, a friend, and a true kindred spirit.  A kindred spirit in so many ways it makes BOTH of our hairs stand on end at times LOL.  So much so that I am absolutely, 100% positive that I was 'destined' to find her at this point of time in my life, to walk with me these next steps in controlling my food addiction for the rest of my life.

And she has become such a source of wisdom, guidance, and kindness in ALL aspects of my  life that it blows my mind on a regular basis! 

So Chris, thank you. I know you don’t always get the kudos you deserve…and I know (from experience now LOL) that it’s not easy sometimes to be a Health Coach. But you do it with grace and kindness and always always always with LOVE.  And that’s priceless. Truly priceless.

Yes, overall it’s been an interesting, exciting year with many ups and downs.  And there were times when I wondered if maybe, just maybe, my success on this program was just an 'illusion'....a DREAM that would evaporate, just dissipate into thin air, and I'd wake up one morning and find I could not stop eating and would regain all the weight. 

And I DID ‘experiment’ a bit….as I think many of us do when we reach maintenance. We relax the reigns a little because everyone is saying “You look good now. Why are you still DIETING? You’re getting anorexic!”

So Fat Brain pokes her head out of the closet…and she starts whispering in your ear that you ‘deserve’ this, you can handle this, look at you you’ve got LEEWAY now, you could eat this and it won’t show up on the scale….and even if it does, you’ve got Medifast in your corner, you can always go ‘right back’ on the 5/1 and re-lose it.

How FOOLISH is that? That sets up the ‘feast or famine’ mode again….bingeing one day, dieting the next.

I took a few very dangerous steps into this cycle and it’s a horrible place to be. A vicious circle that keeps repeating itself….you feel bad so you eat (old habit), then you hate yourself for eating because OMG you probably gained weight (scale fixation), then you force yourself to go back on the 5/1 and it’s very very hard once you’ve had a taste of ‘forbidden fruit’ (literally LOL), then you fall ‘off’ the 5/1 wagon and hate yourself MORE, so you eat to ‘punish’ yourself, then you resolve to restart again, and now you feel bad again and the circle revolves again.

Yes, indeed, Fat Brain had been biding her time….and she sprang out bigger and stronger than ever, and it was terrifying for a few months there.

And I realized that part of me thought (even though I knew better)  – that “all my troubles would be over” if I reached goal.  I had this fantasy in my head that everything would be GREAT “if only” I could get to that “magic number”.

But I had to come to terms with the fact that losing weight was just, well, losing weight!  It didn’t mean suddenly I’d have a mountain of money, or never have another problem again. 

It’s silly, sure….but Fat Brain isn’t exactly a grownup!  She’s a child and she’s emotional and spoiled. She wants what she wants and she wants it NOW. And what she wanted was for me to RETURN to my unhealthy eating habits. It was easier.

So I had my problems….and my wake-up call, that this is TRULY a battle that I will have to fight the rest of my life. OR….better….ACCEPT, really ACCEPT the fact that I’m a food addict, and design a food plan that doesn’t set off the sugar-monster carb-monster thing, and KEEP ON ignoring Fat Brain, no matter WHAT she said.

So I stayed on this website, I was honest about it, I even started a binge eating thread about my binges and shared what I learned as I continued to read and work on my emotions and my ongoing 'war' with Fat Brain....and as a result I got hold of myself, I got control again, and I never looked back.  My binge eating thread morphed into a full-fledged Group that now has more members than I could've dreamed....and I hope people are reading and learning and getting ideas on how to regain control over their binge eating.  I know lots of you don't want to post or feel you 'can't write'....but you're reading and you're learning, hopefully....and that's all that counts.

And as hard as it was to swallow my pride after the fact, I stayed in touch with my Coach and listened to her advice. Since she is a food addict herself, she KNOWS about the internal battles we all wage, and she had lots of insights that opened my mind a little bit further and got me to “get real” in terms of my eating. 

So I was able to “pull myself out” of that binge cycle that is so totally self-destructive, in terms of emotions AND in weight.

It’s not easy, it’s one day at a time, and sometimes it’s one MEAL at a time….sometimes I still have to argue back to Fat Brain and tell her to SHUT UP already….but I do it. 

And it gets easier and easier every day. It’s become the way I live.

PERIOD.  I have a food plan that doesn’t bring out the sugar and carb monsters…..and I STICK to it.  Like GLUE.  No matter WHAT.

I also have a wonderful team of clients that keep me focused and on target because I find, the more I 'give back', the more I receive in return, in pure knowledge and insight sometimes as well as validation that it's all WORTH IT.  And when I see someone succeeding, it brings those same tears of joy to my eyes that I had when I reached goal! 

Today I'm thrilled to report that my latest 'trial by fire' a few months ago is behind me and I'm totally OP with my food plan, every single day.  I feel awesome, I look awesome, and my DH still chases me around the house (LOL).  And yes, my goal jeans STILL FIT.  I'll never be a size 2, but I'm very very happy being a size 12.  Especially since I started at a size 22/24!!!!

I work out at a gym 3-5x a week and I actually can STAND to see myself in those awful gym mirrors that are everywhere (LOL).....and I love working out. I really do.  I don't do it to keep my weight in check, I do it because it’s become part of my LIFESTYLE and because I honestly LOVE the way it feels!  It FEELS SO GOOD to be able to move, to bend, to do leg lifts and sit ups and Spinning class (!!! Still a challenge, always a challenge LOL), to get through a Body Pump weight lifting class, to do twists and yoga poses in Body Flow, it all feels amazing because I could NOT do half of this stuff when I was obese.

It feels awesome. And challenging myself....and meeting those challenges....also feels awesome.  I can hardly believe myself now when I finish a Spinning class or get through Body Pump class.  It's amazing.

 
And my self confidence and patience and PEACE inside has grown exponentially as a result. I sleep better, I stand taller (my posture has improved BIGTIME), and my internal PRIDE is off the charts.  They all know me at my gym now. My picture is on the wall as a success story!  I LOVE that. I especially love it when someone stands and looks at it and then sees me ‘in the flesh’ and does a double-take. “Wait! That’s YOU, isn’t it?” “Yes it is, thank you very much!” I reply with a huge smile.

And sometimes – OFTEN! – I have to stop myself from babbling because once I get on my TSFL soapbox, look out!  LOL….

I've 'found' myself....at age 59!  Who'd a thunk it?  :)  But it's true.  I have a new job I love, new friends, and I'm not afraid of going out anymore. I'm not afraid of cameras, or holiday gatherings, or even of food pushers.  My family all know that I will eat what I choose to eat, not what 'they' give me to eat. I'll bring my own if necessary and I'm perfectly happy and have a wonderful time.

I think maintenance is a time when we all have to experiment a bit...in a good way (to see what foods are going to kick off that sugar monster so you know to avoid them) and a bad way (to see what you can 'get away with', which is dangerous territory).  It is indeed, sometimes, a 'slippery slope'...an ICE COVERED slope....and I am putting myself on that slippery slope whenever I have 'just one extra'....of ANYTHING. 

Therefore, my food plan 'rules'.  I plan in advance and I work my plan. I know what I can and cannot have on any given day....I still plan in advance, I still log all my foods, and yes, I still eat MF meals (they make great snacks, and I still love my cereal + almondbreeze for breakfast).  I eat other foods as well....but now, FRUIT is my 'treat'.  My MF brownie at night is still my treat!  REALLY!

Maintenance taught me that control is possible, but it still requires thought.  I’ll never be a normal eater.  But I had to go around in a circle.....back to the sludge (briefly, VERY briefly) and right back off again to really realize how dangerous it is for me.  I am a food addict. That's for life.  I also have binge eating issues and I have emotional eating and compulsive overeating issues.  

So I CONTROL IT.  ALL of it.  Every single day.  It keeps me happy, it keeps me satisfied, and the bottom line is, I like myself more at the end of every day when I stay on my food plan. 

Otherwise I'm in trouble.  I know it, I accept it, and just like when I quit smoking, there is no 'one won't hurt'. 

One WILL hurt. I know that so I don't go there. PERIOD. 

I'm not starving....I'm not dieting...I'm eating at a maintenance level for my goal weight and I'm perfectly satisfied and NOT HUNGRY.  And I do NOT feel deprived....I enjoy every single bite of every single meal.

Best of all, I can go into my closet at any point in time and pull 'anything' out of it (and it's all the SAME SIZE, by the way)....and know it will FIT.

The fat clothes are GONE.  The fat lifestyle is GONE.  My FMS symptoms are lessened with less weight to drag around. I sleep like a baby. I don't have as many hot flashes. I can move, bend, lift, carry, walk up the stairs, even RUN up the stairs sometimes, and I don't feel like I'm 100 years old anymore. In fact I can't remember when I felt this good. 

Best of all, I now have a new purpose to my life. I know what I'm here for. I'm helping others to discover what I've discovered, and there is no greater reward than hearing someone say "Thank you, that helped me!" 

My only regret is that I didn't find this program SOONER. 

But then....everything in life happens in its own good time, I think. 

On some level, I think I needed to get to the “desperation point” I was at when I started, way back in Feb. 2012.  And I needed to have all the failures I've had along the way....because I learned from each and every one of them.

So ... my message to all of you is STILL the same message I've been giving since my very first weigh-in....that magical moment when, after my first week OP (the longest hardest week of my LIFE LOL)....I got on the scale saw I lost 7.4 lbs. After failing on every diet under the SUN. 

And that message is.....IT'S WORTH IT!

It's worth all the frustration, all the planning, all the preparation, all the money for your meals, all the TIME you invest.....because it's all an investment IN YOUR LIFE AND YOUR FUTURE.

Good health and actually LIKING what you see in the mirror, combined with the freedom from all the chains that obesity places on your everyday life, is PRICELESS.  Absolutely priceless. 

I love how I feel, I love how I look, and I love my NEW LIFE.  And it IS an entirely new life because I look at everything differently! 

I have a life where I can CONTROL my eating.  Oh my Lord I'm crying as I type this....tears of joy....yes, CONTROL!  

That is what it’s all about. Control.

I can say NO and mean it!  And NOT 'sneak eat' it in the middle of the night after everyone else has gone to bed.  And sometimes I get so busy with my new, wonderful life, that I (gasp!) forget to eat!  But believe me I still eat 6x a day, I remind myself....because hunger happens. It happens every day, to EVERYONE.  Normal people as well as food addicts.

The difference is, for food addicts, once the physical hunger comes, it opens the door for Fat Brain’s illogical ideas as well. And suddenly ‘one’ isn’t enough. Even though….maybe it IS enough! 

When we listen to Fat Brain we get led astray. ALWAYS. 

So I shut her up, I argue back, and I have my small snack or meal and quell the physical hunger.  Reminding myself that cravings and urges are TEMPORARY.  That’s all. They are temporary. They WILL go away if I don’t respond to them.

If you're struggling, if you just started or you're hitting a wall or a plateau....DO NOT GIVE UP.  No matter how many times you have to pick yourself up and start again.  Your brain IS learning.  Read read read....listen to the advice from the veterans....open your mind to some new possibilities in your food choices and in your decision-making processes.  You CAN change.  It IS possible. 

As long as you never give up on yourself, you have a chance to make it 'all the way'.

And if you haven't seen the scale move in awhile, put your head down and try HARDER.  Plateaus will happen, it's inevitable.  The only way out is 'through'.  This program taught me much more than 'how' to eat healthy.  It taught me patience!  It taught me determination and persistence toward a goal I really wanted.  It taught me commitment.  And it taught me to develop new skills, and new tools and ways to handle myself when my thoughts turned to food for 'comfort' or 'entertainment' or....whatever. 

It IS possible.  For all of us!

So above all..I will continue to…..(here it comes LOL)….

KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON!!!!  

Quality of Life....because Life is SHORT!

I was on my way home from the gym when suddenly it seemed that every cop car and emergency vehicle in the County was racing past me, lights ablaze, sirens howling.
 
Something heavy-duty was going on....but I had no idea 'what'.

Well, just a few miles from home I came upon the source. There was a bad accident....traffic was stalled in both directions, and there were emergency vehicles all over the place.  As my lane 'crawled' by I could see them strapping someone into a stretcher to take away in an ambulance, and it appeared that a dump truck had careened off the road into a tree ....there also were several OTHER vehicles involved.  Yikes! 

I whispered a prayer for those involved, and continued home, thankful that I had decided to stop at the store on the way home, because had I been just a few minutes sooner, I would have been in that exact SPOT when whatever happened, happened. And it could've been me that was being strapped onto that stretcher. 

Makes you think, doesn't it? 

LIFE is so short....and so precious.  We need to cherish and value every SECOND of it. 

It reminded me of the "Quality of Life" thing I finally came to terms with when I quit smoking.  Before I quit, since I had tried (and failed) numerous times before, I would tell anyone who'd listen that I would 'die happy with my cigarettes' because I 'didn't care' anymore. It was just too HARD to quit. And in a lot of respects it worsened my binge eating problem, too...because when I'd try to quit I'd immediately start overeating to compensate.  UGH.

Weekenditis!

Do you have trouble staying OP over the weekends? 

You do fine during the week, perfectly, 100% OP all the way Monday through Friday....and then, it's like a 'switch' gets set ON along around Friday night sometime...into Saturday morning, and 'something happens' to your resolve and you find yourself on that slippery slope DOWNHILL again. 

Eating off plan foods, eating too much food, forgetting your water or even to get your meals in on time, maybe drinking alcoholic beverages, a few snacks here and there, etc.....

And then come Monday morning you're FURIOUS with yourself...because you KNOW what you just did.

You just NEGATED whatever progress you made during the week by "blowing it" over the weekend!

Treating Myself!

I've learned plenty of lessons while on this program.  Lessons that would seem to have nothing to do with my weight loss journey.  After all, we don't come here to restructure our lives, we come here to lose weight, right?

I mean, it's simple.  It's just a diet, right?

Ho boy....if that's what you think, have I got news for YOU!

This program, when you embrace it in its entirety and follow it faithfully, is about much much MORE than a 'diet'.
Yes yes it's a lifestyle, not a diet....yada yada LOL....We've all heard that stuff before LOL -- a diet is something you go "on" and "off" -- and on this program we never truly go "off", instead we change our eating habits completely and start to love to eat healthy food instead of junk.  With the end result being sort of a metamorphosis instead of and 'end point'.....
But that's not what I'm talking about.

A little humor goes a long, long way!

Sometimes we have to laugh at ourselves.
I mean, we take things so seriously!

I've been guilty of that more times than I can count.  But the older I get, the more I realize that this is all temporary;  and it's just food, it's not the end of the world!

Over the weekend -- which, let's face it, weekends can be harder (more leisure time on our hands!) to stay OP -- I was getting dinner ready one night, and I was tense. Stressed. There was no reason for it other than my ongoing war with Fat Brain, but I was expending a lot (too much!) of emotional energy fighting her instead of just ignoring her. 
So I was standing at the kitchen counter chopping up veggies, and DH came up to me and said "What's wrong?" 
"Nothing", I growled.

With that, he gently took me by the shoulders and turned me to face him, and looked deep into my eyes with his own dark eyes shining with love and compassion. 
Well, I'm only human, right?  The man loves me. And he may not be a food addict like me, but he tries to understand and he's always supported me.

So as hard as it was to say, I took a deep breath and simply blurted out, "I'm HUNGRY, damn it!"

How do you choose to FEEL today?

NOTE: Abbreviations used:
OP - 'On plan' or 'On program', meaning the Take Shape for Life program using Medifast meals, which is how I lost all the weight
Sludge - Any junk food, sugary sweet food, cakes, cookies, chocolate, fattening food! Food that causes me to gain weight, is unhealthy, and can result in a binge because (especially in the case of sugary foods) it 'wakes up' the sugar craving and makes it even harder to stay on my healthy eating plan.

I think a large part of what is needed to stay the course and control our food addiction is to remember how we FEEL after a 'good' day as compared to a 'bad' day! 

It really can be as simple as that.

On a bad day, I am eating basically 24/7.  Because I'm either eating sludge, planning to eat sludge, getting ready to eat sludge, or dreaming about what I'm going to eat 'next'.

And while I'm doing all this, I HATE MYSELF. 

I hate the fact that I have 'no self control'. I hate that binge mentality. The whole "I know I'm not hungry but I have to keep eating anyway" business.
God knows what kicks it off sometimes....it's hard to analyze it (but not impossible, as I'm learning through my reading!)....but once a binge starts, it's next to impossible to stop it. At least until the next morning. And it used to be, my binges lasted all weekend....or even all week! 

Declaring MY Independence!

…aka “Breaking up is Hard to do!”
 

Everyone comes here because they want to get slender (don't you LOVE that word? ‘Slender’....Ahhh...it brings to mind visions of lithe, beautiful fashion models gliding down runways in fashion shows....or maybe the "Girl from Ipanema” ... LOL). 

We want to lose weight. Period.

NO ONE comes here thinking "I'll do this, I'll lose the weight and then I'll eat it right back on again".  Right?

…but that's exactly what many of us wind up doing!

I finally realized, 2 years and 4 months here, and after 1 year in maintenance…. that in order to be slender the rest of my life, I'd have to break up with my oldest and dearest friend. 

SLUDGE!

It just isn't working, this relationship. Feast or famine....binge or purge....diet or no-holds-barred-eating-fest....it's SO not worth it.

Looking back on it, and on my life, I can see that this has parallels to my own history with MEN! 

Seriously!

I got married at age 23 to a man with big blue eyes and a big smile. (Think "Magic Man" from Heart, and you have the right idea).  "Fun" was his middle name. He made me laugh. He was easy to be with. He made me feel loved and needed.  Life with him was going to be one long party, and I couldn't WAIT! 

On Hunger!

I have to say, for the longest time, I've been afraid of the 'H' word.

Hunger.

I really have!  Hunger was something I'd do anything to avoid. One of the reasons I joined this program was the fact that I could eat 6x and day -and- have a full L&G meal every night.  I figured, that was going to be good for me because I love to eat! 

And then when I got into the "groove" of doing the 5/1 correctly, I noticed my hunger pangs decreasing bigtime. What was happening here? Why?

It was 2 things, really, working together. First off, the increased level of protein in every meal helped keep me feeling fuller longer, coupled with the lack of the carbs/sugar that always sets off a physical response in me to want 'more'....but it also had to do with just feeling 'lighter' and having more energy.

And I'm not alone -- lots of folks report that they seem to have more energy while OP. 
One possible explanation for this is that our normadic ancestors may have had to travel long distances to obtain food, and they literally "ran on empty" to survive. It is well known that hunger triggers increased physical activity in most creatures, large and small. Our ancient ancestors used this restlessness to travel hundreds of miles on foot between meals.

But after awhile, of course, Fat Brain reared her ugly head....and she told me I was 'depriving' myself, and that I was soooooo....Hungry... with a capital "H", and that I needed to eat, I'd DIE if I didn't eat soon, etc.

Great new Book that can HELP!

Oh I am a happy girl this afternoon.....because Amazon just delivered a wonderful ALLY to help me in my ongoing "war on weight!"

It's a new book called Taming the Feast Beast by one of my favorite authors, Jack Trimpey (he wrote Rational Recovery which really helped me to turn things around and get to goal). 
This time his wife, Lois, chipped in on the writing as well. She's a compulsive overeater herself.

It's about Jack's AVRT (Addictive Voice Recognition Technique) and applying it to weight loss.  FINALLY.  
(You see, AVRT wasn't designed for food addicts but for alcoholics. And so was his first book, Rational Recovery).

That said, just substituting 'food' for 'drink' enabled me to get his message and it was a powerful one, because it taught me all about what I call 'Fat Brain'.
And apparently I wasn't alone....because the need to apply AVRT to overeaters was definitely there, and obviously Jack (and his wife) heard about it and decided to apply it more cohesively to overeating.