Losing weight is easy ... I've done it a dozen times
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You know that old line about how quitting smoking is easy - I've done it a dozen times? I am starting to feel that way about weight loss.
I think of myself as experienced at weight loss, even though I'm staring down the barrel of a hundred more pounds to lose, because I have lost significant amounts of weight (~40 pounds) twice before.
Unfortunately, when I started this time around I weighed more than I had before either of those periods of loss. That's right, folks, I'd put it all back and then some. So that experience of mine is missing a key component.
I'm sure many of you have been there too. How many times have you tried before? And I don't mean those attempts that last a day or two and crumble at the first close encounter with a donut. I mean real sustained attempts of months or even longer, where you've gotten a significant fraction of the way to your goal before losing your way.
What are you doing differently this time to avoid being waylaid? That's what I'm starting to think about as the months stretch on and that voice in my head starts to whisper at me about those previous attempts.
I'm focusing on the simplicity of my plan. I am taking a Rabbi Hillel approach to weight loss: "Eat less and exercise more; all the rest is commentary." By this I mean that eating less and exercising more over a sustained period of time is all I need to do to lose weight; everything else is just the strategies and tactics I use to achieve those ends. Every time I am tempted to waver, I remind myself of this simple plan. Eat less. Exercise more. What could be easier?
I'm hoping it sticks this time. What about you?
I've been fortunate to not have gained it all back.
I gained 100 pounds with my first pregnancy (180 to a delivery weight of 280, ouch). At my 6 week check up, I was still 260 pounds. By the time I got pregnant with my second daughter, I had slimmed down to 216. Held steady, skimmed 215 right before I got pregnant with my third, continued to hold steady...then ballooned up to 255. Since I was 5 pounds away from "gaining it all back," I took action.
So, thusfar, I've been lucky...vigilant, actually, to give myself credit. I've only done the yo-yo once. I'm not counting all those times I lost 5 to 10 pounds for a high school dance and gained it back after the fact. Even during this last pregnancy (number 4!), when I hit 251 in my 9th month for a gain of 26 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight, I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight within 6 weeks. The "weight" was actually "baby + baby goods" not fat.
I'm following very strict Atkins induction until I hit 195 pounds. Then, I'm switching to Pollan's Manifesto - Eat food. Not too much. Mostly vegetables. A very restrictive, low-carb plan just isn't realistic for me in the long term. Real food, though...I can do REAL food. Processed foods are just so bad for us, in general. I'll be happy to switch from "enriched whole-grain white bread", which is a contradiction in terms, to bread I make myself with stone-ground whole-wheat, bran and rye. The latter just tastes better anyway.