Category Archives: Obesity

Yoyo Dieting – Never again for me!


Posted by katiebird

According to Wikipedia, yoyo dieting is when -

The dieter is initially successful in the pursuit of weight loss but is unsuccessful in maintaining the loss long-term and begins to gain the weight back. The dieter then seeks to lose the regained weight, and the cycle begins again.

The article goes on to talk about what happens and considers possible reasons for why, but the sentence, “Over time, however, the limits imposed by such extreme diets cause effects such as depression or fatigue that make the diet impossible to sustain.” is simplistic in my opinion.

I think that it isn’t the extremeness of the diet that results in it’s ultimate failure. I think that failure comes because we just don’t have the support for weight maintenance that we have for weight loss. It is assumed that losing weight is the hard part (“I lost 50 pounds!” someone might say) — that’s the achievement. And that’s what all the commercial diet programs are aimed at. Continue reading →


Questions without Answers Department


Posted by katiebird

Why do people think they are fatter than they are? Are women more likely to do this than men? Why do we label ourselves as fat at a point much lower than doctors or insurance companies do? Is it really because of the actresses we see in movies and TV? Or is it something else? Was it our mothers doing it to us when we were young? And are we doing it to our daughters now? Do we insult women on TV for being too skinny, or too fat? Do we do the same for the men?

Is there anything we can do differently so that our children have a healthier attitude toward weight issues? We know there is an obesity epidemic, but how does that affect the children who aren’t obese? Do they know they aren’t?


Eat 4 Today – The Commitment. You can make today a real victory


Posted by katiebird

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.

If you’re like me and haven’t taken care of yourself as well as you should have, you might also (like me) be dealing with some serious consequences. For me those are obesity and diabetes as well as other irritating, but not life threatening conditions. Diabetes is known to be incurable — I’ll always have that. Obesity, is not so widely acknowledged as a permanent condition (yet) but as I’ve said in previous articles, I believe it is a permanent condition that must be controlled forever.

And forever is just too much time — it’s unmanageable. And it’s way to easy to stop trying. Which is exactly the wrong thing to do.

So stop looking at forever. Don’t think about next year or next month or even next week. Just Today, think about a goal. Write it down if you can, but it’ll work if you just think about it real hard. Make The Commitment and do something positive that improves your situation just today.

Because you can do it today. Focus on keeping your commitment, just today. Think about it as you reach for vending machine change (and stop.) Think about it as you walk into the kitchen for an afternoon snack (and stop.) Think about it as you reach for another helping of tonight’s main dish (and stop.) Think about it when you get up to make an evening treat to eat while you watch TV (and stop.)

Just Stop. And with that victory, you’ll go to sleep tonight feeling a little more powerful than you have in a long time.


Obesity. Is it curable? Or am I stuck with it forever?


Posted by katiebird

Some people call it The YoYo syndrome. It’s that popular pastime where we gain weight and lose weight and gain weight, and more weight and lose weight and gain. Up and Down. It’s so predictable no one is surprised when it happens. It seems that only the person directly affected notices.

I’ve been Eating 4 Today for almost 8 months and I’ve lost a lot of weight. And mostly things go pretty smoothly for me at this point. I’ve got a routine and I’m happy sticking to it. But I’ve been here before. Continue reading →


My Love/Hate Relationship with Weight Watchers. Pt. 5 – What’s a lifetime membership worth?


Posted by katiebird

I was totally into the Weight Watcher’s thing that last time I joined. I was looking through my Weight Watchers kit at it’s filled with little notes, goals — quotes from the ‘Leader’ — ideas to make Weight Watchers even more successful. I remember a conversation I had with my sister where I described one idea to make it work as a permanent weight control solution.

(I didn’t realize that this was the beginning of the end of my association with them.)

Continue reading →