Weight Loss 2016. Week 2. Setbacks and Backsliding

Weight Loss 2016

Week 2

SetBacks/Backsliding

It’s my goal to get a weight loss blog out every Monday in 2016.  I put these together quickly.  They are published in real time, no delay.  The blog helps me, like DietBet.com helps me, with accountability.  If it helps you too, that makes me happy.    

In 2013-14 I lost 110 lbs.  In 2015 I gained some back.  Then came the holidays and I gained more.  I’m not divulging my current weight, because I can’t stand it.  It is an abomination.  Gaining weight pisses me off because I don’t seem to be able to maintain the weight I want without constant dieting.  So here I am, in 2016, again, working to get down to where I want to be and then figuring out how to stay there.  And I am doing it publicly because, for me, it’s even worse if I fail and embarrass myself (so it won’t happen) than it is to be fat.  I read every book the great trial attorney, Gerry Spence, wrote.  In one of those books he explained how he won every trial.  He said something like he would rather die and have his limbs torn off one by one than lose a trial.  Those were his options die horribly or win. 

I came back from New Year’s weekend 10 pounds heavier than I left.  But then came the first week of dieting and I took off 17 pounds. How do you achieve a number like that?  I have no idea.  It’s astonishing.  At the end of that week I celebrated my birthday where I ate cake, nachos, fish dip and pretzels.  I gained 8 pounds.  How does that happen?  Beats the hell out of me.  Last June I went to dinner at the Melting Pot.  I gained 11 pounds with one meal.  People tell me that is impossible.  It’s not.  I did it. 

How do I put on weight so quickly?  I have a theory.  I’ve written it before and I am sure I will write it again.  Fat people and thin people all have the same number of fat cells (fact, not theory).  Fat people’s fat cells are bigger (fact).  I believe I eat certain foods and a signal is sent to those cells that says hold on, as in hold on to fluid.  They feel endangered.  The solution is to avoid foods that make them feel endangered. 

So how long did it take me to take off the 8 pounds I gained at my birthday party?  I’ll let you know.  I wish I had the answer for you today.  Next Monday I anticipate you will be reading I got back to and surpassed my January 9^th weight, because that’s the current goal, get back to where I was the morning of January 9^th.  Why was it so easy to take off the New Year’s weekend weight but not the birthday party weight?  I don’t know

It has taken me every year of my life to figure out what works for me in terms of weight loss, and I was raised on diets and diet books.  I can’t stress enough how important it is to pay attention to yourself.  Weigh yourself daily.  Learn your body trends and what works for you.  Rely on your own data.  Be careful of what other people tell you about weight loss.

When you are a fat kid and become a fat adult with no long term weight loss success you think there is something seriously wrong with you.  The society in which we live is ever ready, willing, and able to tell us so many things are wrong with us.  I remember years ago sitting in some group weight loss meeting where obesity was viewed as a menacing, ever lurking demon ready to get cha.  I listened to a woman sob and explain she never allowed herself to leave the house with money because she would end up at a McDonald’s.  I left that meeting thinking never in my life have I been afraid to carry money because I feared I would spend it on food.  I am not like that.  Then I realized the people at that meeting would tell me I was in denial if I did not admit my powerlessness over food.  I am not powerless over food, and neither are you.  Pay attention to yourself.  If you make a conscious choice to do something that will result in back sliding power yourself back up to get where you want to be.