...some inspiration

Thanks to Jack Sh*t, Gettin' Fit - his post this week on the stages of dieting are so, well, bang on!

Hope you don't mind if I adopt your words and tailor them to fit me......


Sunshine’s Stages of Dieting

Denial - At my heaviest, I remember that I could look at myself in the mirror and, at certain angles and with the proper lighting, convince myself that I looked pretty much all right. Sure I could stand to lose a few pounds, but I didn’t look half-bad, even though I felt like day-old crap most mornings. I felt like I was okay… and then I’d see a snapshot taken of me at a picnic or party and my self-image would deflate like a soufflé during an earthquake. I do remember the AHA moment, March 28th, 2005, when I finally said ENOUGH! I joined WW on-line and lost 28 lbs in 8 months and kept it off for almost 2 years! Now, the frustrating thing for me is that until I hit my 40s, the only weight problem I had was that I was under weight….and could basically eat anything I wanted!

Anger - I can’t tell you how many of my attempts at eating healthy were initially fueled by feverish anger… getting mad at myself, at my weakness, at my inability to get my act together – I was great at starting, but it never stuck. But here’s the thing about anger: it burns white-hot for a short period, but it’s simply not sustainable, not something that can carry you over the long haul. Anger is an all-out sprint from the starting gate of a marathon…..and right now I’m finally through the anger, again….

Bargaining – I’ll just have one more reckless weekend, one more bust-a-gut free-for-all before I really, really and I mean really get serious about it. That's what I told myself over and over and over since the end of last November….somehow or other I’ve managed to regain 15 lbs….mostly around my mid-section. Funny how those “last meal” gorge-fests don’t really get the job done as a diet booster… well, not all the funny when you stop and think about it……and right now I’m over this too!

Depression - Overwhelming feelings of hopelessness and crushing levels of frustration, bitterness and self pity. That’s what a lifetime of not being able to get the deal done generally brings about. You feel like there’s nothing you can do to engineer a U-turn on the healthy living highway. You feel down and out, lower than low. This is the darkness before the dawn……..and the sun came out for me yesterday – it’s been peeking through the storm clouds for a few days even weeks, but not been brilliant the way it is now!

Acceptance - I doubt that there’s a single one of us that doesn’t know exactly what we need to do to lose weight and get more fit. We know it. We know it like we know our own names, yet we stumble and struggle to eat the right things, do the right things. Then one day (if we’re very lucky) it clicks – did you all hear it click yesterday? It was a LOUD click! in our heads and in our hearts, and we realize how all the parts and pieces fit together, how energy, effort and enthusiasm can come together to create extraordinary circumstances. That is when the magic happens...

I don’t really know how appropriate it is to appropriate the “stages of grief” idea for a discussion about losing weight and getting more healthy, but I will use anything I can get my hands on–rants, rhymes, riddles or rabid rambling–to help drive these points home. I’ll use anything and everything at my disposal to keep pushing myself (and you, I hope) to a better place. Thanks for these words, Jack, I can definitely relate to this.

Wherever you are on this journey, I hope you’re finding yourself making progress. I hope you've left behind your anger and self-doubt. I pray you’re done with the bad bargains and the pity parties. I am so over it….I am ready to re-embrace MYSELF!

I hope you’re in a good place, ready to face your challenges, your opportunities and your future head-on, with courage and conviction.

You can do this. I KNOW I CAN!

Accept that fact and let’s go. GOING, GOING…….WIP - stay tuned!