No More Diets – No More Pity Parties

No More Diets

Let’s start off by ditching the word ‘diet’. They don’t work, for the majority of people and if they do, the results are temporary. It is said that over 90% of people who lose weight gain it back within a few years. I know. I lost weight twice before. Each time was a two-year cycle. Year one I struggled to lose the weight, year two it slowly crept back, each time adding a couple of pounds to the highest point I was at before I lost the weight. and year three I was back where I started.

This time it’s different. I’m at year four and I’m close to my ideal weight. What’s different this time? In a word: lifestyle. I devised my own lifestyle, adapted from the book, as well as listening to my own body, and came up with a lifestyle I am comfortable with, that allows me to pretty much eat what I like when I like, in the quantities I like, and even have some of the things I shouldn’t have now and again – enough so I don’t feel like a monk – and I never feel ‘guilty’ – more on guilt in a second.

No More Pity Parties

I frequently used on line forums for support and ideas (I’ll mention the ones I used and which ones I didn’t use) and there was a particular type of posting that would drive me nuts – I called them the ‘pity parties’.

They usually had a title ‘I Cheated!!!!!!!’ and went on to outline the quantities of cookies and ice cream they ate the night before, and the worthlessness and self-loathing they felt today and how they needed ‘support’. Well-meaning forum members would write and essentially say: “oh, you poor dear. It’s OK, you can do it.”

Stop it.

I ate pizza, white rice, an entire quart of Hagen Daz, cookies, candy, cake – all the stuff I’m not supposed to have. But I didn’t add to this a huge bowl of helplessness and self-loathing. I looked at it as what you do as you live your life. I know I can’t do it every day, but I can do it some days, and after my quart of Hagen Daz binge I go back to my normal lifestyle. No burden of guilt to shoulder. Maybe I reached my weight goal maybe a little slower than others, but I didn’t get there deprived and exhausted like I had just climbed Mount Everest – I arrived relaxed and confident.

I also try not to be too sensitive. It’s a waste of energy to care too much about what other people think. A lot of people say dumb things to fat people. The funny part is they are frequently trying to be helpful

There is an old saying: never attribute to maliciousness what can be explained by stupidity. Don’t let ’em get to you. It’s your life and your goals that matter.