I was told by my grandmother when I was in first grade to wear girdles. This was her way of helping me not gain weight. Alas, this form of weight control didn't work. What it did do was give me a stomach ache for the next seven years as I wore them. As I entered high school my weight skyrocketed. I started using food as way to deal with emotional issues I didn't know how to handle. By the time I was a senior in high school I was 250 pounds. I had accepted that I was going to be overweight the rest of my life. Eventually it was time to do something about it. In 1996, I lost 115 pounds. I went from 270 pounds when I started to 155 pounds. I thought when I lost all of the weight my life would be happier and I would have awesome adventures. My life was the same except I was 115 pounds lighter. From 1996 to 2011 my weight went up and down. I couldn't seem to stick to any program to take the weight off and keep it off.
August of 2011 I came home from work and just stuffed myself with whatever food I could find. Then I sat down and started to cry. I asked myself what did I just do? I realize now I was feeding my emotional hunger. Does any of this sound familiar to you? Have you ever felt like your life was just out of control not just with food, but with finances and relationships? In December of 2011 I decided to try yet again to take the weight off. Something was different this time. I didn't care how long it took but I was going to create a plan to do this in a healthy way that fit into my life. So I sat down at my desk and started to inventory my eating habits. I looked at what I had done in the past to lose the weight and why it didn't work. Then I started to take small steps to start the journey again. Here are some of the steps I took this time:
I started paying attention to portion sizes
Found makeover healthy recipes of my favorite foods
Started exercising regularly
I was proactive in dealing with any emotional issues I knew I needed to address.
Started evaluating my relationships. Were they positive or negative.
Almost four years later, I am still doing the same actions that I started in December 2011. Today I'm 70 pounds down and have lost 11.5 inches from my waist. My original goal was 100 pounds. I could still lose that amount of weight but that's not my focus. My focus is creating the healthy behaviors I can do for a lifetime not a short time. You should be eating and living the way you plan to live when you reach your goal weight-that's The Maintenance Mindset. The changes you are making won't happen overnight. This is not a quick fix get it off way to lose the weight. When you get into this mindset, other parts of your life come together also. My relationships improved, I started sticking to my budget consistently, and I learned to love myself at whatever weight I was. I started creating a life I didn't have to use food to escape from. It's your life, don't let someone else create it for you.