WOW MEG...
This is IMPORTANT STUFF. I hope
everyone here at 3FC gets a chance to read and ABSORB this info.
I think for me, it's something I've kind of known (subconciously) all along. I always thought as a pre-pubescent girl - drinking my Diet Coke while my three skinny, gorgeous sisters were eating Baskin-Robbins - that it was SO not fair...
But ya know...life and genetics deals everyone a different set of cards and we should all play ours with an eye towards maximum quality of life. Even though a lot of the time I've had to pass up what 'everyone else' is having - still it's WELL worth it to me. Life not-fat is SO much better than my 'previous' life of sitting at home with the TV and the contents of the fridge...
Quote:
Maintenance IS harder than losing! Not just psychologically, but for real, measurable physical reasons. Our metabolisms are slowed down by weight loss.
True - but with practice - LOTS of practice - it DOES get easier over time as living the maintenance lifestyle becomes 'second nature'. I think it's kind of like people who have gone through severe accidents where they have lost an appendage and have to learn to live using artificial aids. Anyone remember that guy, Harold Russell (he played Homer in the classic 1946 film
The Best Years of Our Lives - one of my all-time favorites - and won 2 Oscars for his role) - during WWII he got in a training accident where both of his arms were blown off at the elbows - he lost his hands and forearms. The Army fitted him with artificial arms - basically hooks that he had to LEARN through lots of time, trial, and error - to manipulate. He could have spent the rest of his life sitting on his butt, being depressed and feeling sorry for himself...but instead one of the first things he did was star in an Army training film about his rehabilitation...which was seen director William Wyler who cast him in
The Best Years of Our Lives. Mr. Russell used his newfound fame to advocate for the disabled and disabled veterans - he just died a few years ago.
Anyway...he didn't sit on his butt and moan about how unfair life was to him. You take the cards you're dealt and do the best you can, with a POSITIVE ATTITUDE
That's my opinion anyway...
Therefore, the diet’s not ever going to be over – we’re going to have to eat thoughtfully for the rest of our lives in order to defeat our bodies’ biochemical mechanisms to regain fat.
The worst possible way to maintain a weight loss would be to try to eat intuitively because our bodies will be cueing us to eat more with lowered leptin levels – we need to eat non-intuitively to outwit our bodies' desire to return to obesity.
The times I've attempted to 'eat intuitively' have been an utter failure for me - resulting in weight gain which I had to take off (only like 5-10 lb but that's because I stopped before gaining anymore). I have read the books about the topic and overcoming overeating and all that, and I can see in THEORY where it might make sense...but it just doesn't work for me. The closest I can come to 'eating intuitively' is to have a fairly limited mental 'staple food list' of stuff that I keep around the house - fruits, veggies, skim milk, oatmeal, eggs, lean meats, light salad dressing, light yogurt, and so on. There's no way I could keep, say, a package of Oreos or Chips Ahoy around the house - for me a bought cookie is an eaten cookie (besides...neither I nor Jim NEEDS that crap around the house - there's enough of that floating around the office!
) - even if I bought those new 100-calorie snack portions that I've seen in the stores, they'd likely be GONE in a flash. I'm pretty much a sugar addict - I've never been able to eat 'just one cookie' - it's an all-or-nothing deal for me. I'm not sad about it - I have SO MUCH joy and stuff happening in my life that I'm not going to let myself get all depressed about freakin' COOKIES.
So the 'diet' is never over...that's not a problem. I LIKE my staple foods. I think that ATTITUDE is a major 'make or break' factor with maintenance. Accentuate the positive!
That's my motto anyway
Sorry I'm rambling...
But Meg...this is GOOD STUFF!!! And you know, I think that KNOWLEDGE is a huge key. It might not be what people WANT to hear but it's IMPORTANT to know this!!
So...like I think we've said over and over and over and over and over again...find a 'diet' that's not a fad/crash/one time thing...something that's a LIFESTYLE CHANGE...make up your OWN 'diet' - the information on good nutrition and exercise is out there, easy to find - starting right here at 3FC - start exercising - even if you can't afford a gym, get out those old Keds or splurge on a pair of comfortable athletic shoes, grab a pedometer and start WALKING - if it's raining go to the mall and walk and then take it from there.
You know, when I was 265 lbs in 1990 and I couldn't even go up a flight of stairs without stopping for breath - in my big tent-like knit cotton Lane Bryant dress which was my outfit of choice at the time (because I could just slip it over my head and it hid my body like a tent) - THAT's when I decided it was time to CHANGE, and I started by going out the door and walking around the block. That one step lead to another...and now I'm here today, fit, healthy, and HAPPY...
Sorry to ramble...off to the gym with me!