I’m not going to eat between meals and I’m not going to take seconds. Just today. And I’m going to try this for a year to see what happens.
(I am so sorry — I overslept and just woke up a few minutes ago!)
The thing that’s so cool about this commitment is that weight continues to slowly (very slowly) melt off even though I’m not counting calories or eating less than I want or foods I don’t like. I think if I’m careful, I could really do this for the rest of my life.
At the end of July I’ll have done this for a year. And it will be time to make a new affirmation — one that can carry me through the next 50 years or so. I thought I’d start today by listing some of the things I’m doing everyday that I think are important:
- Don’t eat between meals
- Don’t take seconds
- Drink 2 liters of water
- Weigh-in
- Walk 3 miles
- Touch base with a support group
At first glance, it’s a long list. But, I don’t think it’s too daunting. Most of the things on that list can be done with very simple changes in behavior. The hardest is the first two — and those are probably require the last one for real success. Because we’re used to eating whenever we want and as much as we want. And they’ve found that it takes the support of others who are making the same changes for us to really succeed.
I’ve written about my love/hate relationship with Weight Watchers in the past. Weight Watchers is a wonderful support group for the losing weight part of our plan. It’s especially wonderful for those of us who haven’t had to lose weight before. Because they’ll teach you about portion control and measuring and calculating values. And all that will help you get control of your life again.
But, Weight Watchers is almost useless once you’re on ‘Maintenance.’ Their meetings focus on those who are losing weight. And although Lifetime Members can go to meetings free for life, I’ve never seen more than one Lifetime member at any meeting. The meetings aren’t designed for the Lifetime members and eventually they stop going. And face it — Weight Watchers makes a lot of money from Lifetime Members who regained their weight. Those are some of their best customers. Those customers can honestly testify to new members that they lost weight successfully on the program.
Are they really so successful though? It seems to me that almost any program can help you successfully lose weight. And, in fact, most of us can even do it all my ourselves if we are sufficiently motivated. The hard part, the part where 90% of us fail, is keeping it off forever.
And that’s where all those commercial weight loss programs fail. Because they are weight loss programs, not weight management programs. They succeed in their advertised mission. But we need more than that. We need a service they don’t offer.
And we’ve waited long enough for someone else to invent it.
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[...] I think part of it has to do with walking. I haven’t been as enthusiastic about it as I should. I’ve been lucky to get the 3 miles in and certainly haven’t done more. If you’ve read my article, 6 simple things you can do to keep weight off forever you know that daily weigh-ins and walking 3-4 miles a day are two important things people do to keep weight off. I’m letting myself down on both of them.e And the payback has been almost immediate. [...]