Unfortunately, it’s not my body mass slipping away; rather it’s my resolve. I’ve lost nearly 15 pounds, then maintained for a long time in spite of injuries and illness often making exercise impossible. For a while I just thought:
I’m not going to be really strict with myself while all this is going on. Weighing myself is still one good thing I’m doing—keeping my awareness so a big weight gain doesn’t creep up and catch me unawares.
Well, for the last two weeks or so, the numbers on the scale have been creeping back up again. I have been weighing myself every day (only once), and noticed that I was going over the two-pound variation limit that I just assume is fluctuating water weight.
For the last couple of days I haven’t even weighed myself. I found myself taking a second piece of birthday cake and thinking how nice it felt to say yes to myself—in other words, how nice it is not to think of weight.
There was a point last year where I had almost decided not to deal with the weight at all. As I mentioned, I am a foodie, from a family of foodies. A large part of our recreational activity is cooking, baking, eating, or sampling each others’ recipes. This week I could feel myself slip-sliding back to that state of blissful denial.
Then I remember a line from a diet book:
You can eat the way you used to eat if you want to look the way you used to look.
I need to remember this, and also to apply it to other wants: I can eat spontaneously all the time if I want to have my feet hurt, if I want to abandon my goal of playing pickleball with my son next summer, if I want to run the risk of leaving my kids early, or not being able to enjoy my grandchildren and my hopes of travel.
I want to be intentional about eating. I need to make meal plans that include the best foods for me as well as healthy lunches and snacks for the kids. I want to be a good role model for them in matters of exercise and of eating healthy but not obsessing over food.
I also need to get enough sleep to maintain this motivation.
Sleep is also related to weight loss in direct biological ways. Too little sleep affects the production of hormones which control appetite and metabolism.
And so, I wish you all a healthy week….and now to all a good night.
Please see this related blog: