Diets don't work

Diets don't work.  Well, let me be clear.  If you google the definition of diet, the first definition that you get says "the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats".  But I think when most American's hear the word "diet", they are thinking more along the lines of the second definition, "a special course of food to which one restricts oneself, either to lose weight or for medical reasons".  See, the first one works, the second one does not. Not only have I seen it time and time again, I've lived it.

Apparently my body is naturally most happy (and my eating habits are most like) a person who weighs right around 140 lbs.  Mostly because I love sweets.  Even when I am not working out regularly, I am fairly active.  But not active enough to burn off candy, bars, cookies, fudge and ice cream.  Dang I love a Culvers custard, a DQ blizzard, or Coldstone.  Personally the cake batter ice cream with white chocolate chips and heath chips is my go to heart attack in a cup.  So periodically I realize that I don't want to weigh 140 lbs and I don't like how I look when I weigh 140 lbs and I do something about it.

Here's what doesn't work:  patches, pills, and special eat this/don't eat that kinds of diets.  Let me explain why.  They may work for a limited time, some of those patches and pills are just the placebo people need to kick start their new diet and exercise plans.  But as soon as they stop taking them, pretty soon they go back to their old eating habits and guess what, that weight comes back.  Temporary fixes do not work.  Whatever changes you make, are you prepared to make them LIFE CHANGES because that is the only thing that works.  If you can promise to always use those patches, pills, etc... for the rest of your life, you're a stronger person than I am.

What does work, is work.  There is no magic solution.  It's simply a matter of calories in and calories out.  It's hard work and it sucks sometimes.  Especially at the beginning.  It is incredible to me how much we can stretch out our stomachs.  Tim and I happen to love the same buffets; Star Ocean, Hu Hot, Pizza Ranch, even the Eyota Cafe on Friday nights.  So when you stop eating enough food for 3 people and start eating just what one person needs, you can be hungry for a while.  Like a lot hungry.  And when you start eating better and stop eating so much sugar, you can really miss that Hershey's at lunch, that ice cream, that cake.  Ugh - it all sounds so good.  But it only takes a couple of weeks and you realize something.  If you stop eating once you're full, you don't need to fill your plate (or refill it).  When you stop drinking soda and sugary drinks and switch to water, it's amazing how many other things start to feel better.  And the weight starts to come off.

So yeah, it's not much fun not having the cupcake that the little kiddos bring for birthday treats.  It's not as much fun to skip the donut on Friday or the ice cream on the way home.  But it is all about choosing to look and feel better.  And just when you think you can't skip one more Snickers for fun on an afternoon, you realize that you have some more tough choices to make.  Looking and feeling better isn't just about passing on the sweets, the buffets or the chips.  It's choosing to exercise when you're tired.  It's choosing to walk a couple of extra miles a day.  It's choosing to get up early or skip your favorite show for some treadmill time.  It's volunteering to walk the dog when it is cold and the wind is blowing.  It's getting up early before the rest of the house and logging an hour.  It's spending your lunch hour walking or cycling.  The more you move the more you lose.  And again - it has to be a lifestyle change, not a temporary fix.

Yes, you can have your cheat days or your cheat snacks, but stop rationalizing.  You need to stop saying, "I'll start my diet on Monday."  Stop telling yourself it is okay to eat that cheesecake because you ran an extra mile (a cheesecake is sooooo many miles....).  You can't work out extra long tomorrow, you can't make it up on the weekend, you have to start now and you have to work on it every single day.  Keep your cheat days or snacks little and treat yourself to feeling and looking better! 

I've been working on changing myself, again, since January.  I feel a little like the Grinch from the book and the movie, "Down a size and a half, and this time I'll keep it off." But I have to believe that I can and will do it.  It's a matter of wanting it enough.  This time I want it enough.  Remind me of that this summer when the family makes the pilgrimages to buffets and ice cream pit stops, okay!