I’m finally ready to admit why I stopped losing weight.
My first year on my healthy lifestyle, and the pounds were dropping like crazy. I was trading in my size 18s for 16s, then 14s for 12s, and finally 10s for my very first pair of “single-digit” jeans in a matter of months. I was hitting the gym every single day, like clock-work, and meticulously keeping track of every morsel of food that passed my lips. I was working the Weight Watchers program to a
“t,” and my rapid weight loss proved it. I was on top of the world.
And then, 2009 happened…and as you fine readers probably know by now, I got stuck. Plateaued. Leveled out. Whatever you want to call it, I just stopped losing weight. My progress last year consisted of a half-pound loss followed by a one pound gain, followed by another half-pound loss, and then a .2 pound gain. For weeks and weeks and weeks on end, that’s the game I played with the scale. Up, down. Plus, minus. Gain, loss. I kept telling myself that as long as I didn’t give up, that it was going to be okay…I’d start losing again eventually.
But then an entire year flew by. To be honest, I even allowed a few pesky pounds to creep back on. And that’s when I really had to start thinking about what I was doing wrong. Yes, it definitely gets more difficult to shed pounds as your body shrinks smaller and smaller, but surely someone with another 40 pounds to lose shouldn’t be struggling this much. Right?
It only took me this past week or two to come to terms with reality.
In 2009, I got cocky. I was prancing around with a 90+ pound loss under my belt, and I thought I could do no wrong. Meanwhile, my workouts were slipping (in both frequency and intensity), I was skipping two, three, and even four or more weigh-ins at a time, and I was adding up POINTS values in my head instead of taking the time to write everything out. The honeymoon phase of weight loss was over, and I was smacked with the reality that this was the way I’d have to live out the rest of my days on this earth if I wanted any chance of experiencing life at a healthy weight.
That scared me. So, I thought I’d prove myself wrong by dialing things back a notch. I allowed myself to regularly indulge in what had become once-in-awhile treats. I relaxed a bit at the gym. I tried to stop being so obsessive when it came to my POINTS values.
In hindsight, I think I wanted to prove to myself that I wouldn’t have to work that hard to keep myself safe from obesity. I wanted my days as a plus-size person to be over for good, and I needed the comfort of knowing that I could never, ever go back there again.
Wrong.
Last week, I lost 1.4 pounds. This week, I shed another 1.4 pounds. That’s roughly three pounds in two weeks. It may not seem like a lot (especially to The Biggest Loser addicts), but last year it took me MONTHS to net that kind of loss. And that’s because I am working HARD again. I’m tracking my food, working out religiously, and being mindful of just how quickly those glasses of wine or nibbles from the bread basket add up. I’m pretending like I’m a newbie to the world of weight loss again. And I’m finding success.
Long story short? There is no quick fix, easy way out, or shortcut when it comes to losing weight and leading a healthy lifestyle. You don’t do the work, you don’t get the results. Period.
Loss to Date: 86.8
