Still Focusing on Health, Never "Done With This Thing!"

Have you ever said to yourself "Man, I can't wait until I'm DONE losing weight, I can't wait until I'm OFF this thing I can't wait until I REACH my goal!"

I used to say that all of the time to myself.  It was my common chatter in my brain, the way I viewed my "weight-loss journey."

That was when I was a yo-yo dieter.  I had an oscillating pattern of "lose-gain-repent-repeat" and would white-knuckle it for so long, stuck in the realm of a deprivation mindset which made me anxious to be "finished."

This journey to attain and maintain Optimal Health has been SO different on SO many levels, I can truly say that although I am the same person my mind is NOT even CLOSE to being in the SAME oscillating weight-cycling pattern of my 20's and 30's. 

You see, when I made it all about "weight-loss" I was hyper-focused on getting something OUT of my life that I didn't want there anymore.  I was wearing size 28 Women's Stretch Jeans (well, actually I wasn't because they didn't fit me anymore and I was down to wearing my 3XL Men's sweatpants and 4XL Men's T-shirts), I would huff and puff simply walking in to the grocery store from the as-close-as-I-could-get parking space that I had spent 15 minutes waiting for, and I rarely played on the floor with my son because I could never get up off the floor without having a piece of furniture to lean on for support. 

I try to remind myself where I've been occasionally, because it really puts me in a gratitude mindset.

I am so grateful that I found Take Shape For Life.  You see, I had tried EVERYTHING in the past.  I had just come off the heels of losing 140 pounds in 14 months and gaining it all back in the same amount of time, and my confidence was shattered, my heart was broken.  I felt completely incapable of bringing lasting change into my life.  Sure I could "diet" with the best of them.  I could get results.  But as soon as I hit my "goal weight" or got relatively close, it's like a switch would flip in my brain and I would become overwhelmed with life and circumstances and turn to my old friend "yummy food" to just make it through a day or a week or a month.  And guess what?  My body continued to respond to the instructions I gave it.  It always has, and it always will.  There is NO magic wand that comes in and changes my internal physiology and makes me a "normal person" who can "eat normally" and remain a healthy weight.  So what's a girl to do if she desires to live life as a fit and healthy woman but has been given the body I was given, complete with limitations and boundaries on my food intake?

I chose health.

I chose health, and I did what I needed to do in order to LEARN the limitations of my body that would NEVER change and I learned to co-operate with them joyfully.  I utilized the Take Shape For Life system and all that it had to offer to LEARN Habits of Health.

My story, while unique to me, is not unique to me.  It is available to anyone who makes a fundamental decision to CHOOSE HEALTH.

I put food in it's proper place in my life, and didn't simply put my relationship with it on "hold" for a time "while I lost my weight" but I CHANGED my relationship with it.  I learned to LOVE vegetables, and I PREFER them over just about anything else.  I got rid of the junk in my house PERMANENTLY.  I created a micro-environment of health around me, because the macro-environment of this country is so obesity-promoting it almost gives me PANIC attacks when I go to stores like Walmart or even Big-Chain grocery stores such as Safeway or Fry's to SEE all the "junk" that is being passed off as "food" these days.

It's funny, as I sit here and ponder how people can actually say to me "I want to eat "real food" and not out of a packet for my nutrition.  Let me tell you something, the stuff that is being churned out for mass-consumption in this country is killing us.  We say we want to eat "gluten-free non-GMO organic" then we go buy the box of crackers, cookies, or smoothie drinks that say "gluten-free non-GMO organic" on it thinking we are doing ourselves a favor, when what we are ACTUALLY doing is infusing super-high doses of sugar into our systems.  The forces of marketing promote obesity in this country.  Period.  And if I had never made a decision for health I would be stuck in the mindset that I was doing good things for my body while still exceeding my calorie limit every single day and growing larger and larger.

I say these things because they are on my mind these days.  I say these things because I am striving for optimal health for myself AND for my family.  I hope it is helpful to someone.   I realize this is a very wandering blog today.  Partly because I got up in the middle of it and made my Lean and Green and therefore my mind wandered on to other things. 

Basically, I am NEVER "Done" with this thing because then I'd be "Done" with pursuing health.  And that is not going to happen.  People ask me all the time if I'm still using the Meal Replacements even at a healthy weight.  I tell them "heck yes!"  Not because I HAVE to use them.  In fact many people maintain beautifully without utilizing the Meal Replacements.  But I happen to ENJOY them.  I happen to love the convenience and portability of KNOWING that I will be able to keep my blood sugars stable all day which will KEEP my cravings virtually non-existent and allow me to easily stay in a place of good decisions regarding my food intake.  So, yes.  I use them.  4-5 per day I use them.  I have never grown tired of them.  I love me a good HEALTHY Brownie Soft Bake knowing that I am assisting my body to remain at a healthy weight and ALSO enjoying a little bit of Brownie!  I keep using the products because I WANT to keep using the products.

I was talking about the "limitations of my body" and the fact that it will "always follow the instructions I give it" with regards to losing weight, gaining weight, or maintaining weight.  I think it is important to make a solid distinction here, and to give some evidence-based data to support what I am about to tell you:

After losing 150 pounds utilizing the Take Shape For Life Program, I did not "screw up" my metabolism.  This program didn't leave me with a really LOW metabolism.  As a matter of fact, my metabolism, when ACTUALLY measured with indirect spirometry (they put a mask on you and measure YOUR individual oxygen consumption over time while in a resting state and they TELL you what YOUR Resting Metabolic Rate is) came in HIGHER than predicted for a woman of my age and height/weight.  That is right, HIGHER than predicted.  Seventy-five calories HIGHER than predicted when they did the simple equations for a woman of my size.  That tells me that it isn't that the limitations of my body were imposed on me and "screwed up" over years of yo-yo dieting.  That tells me that our common "perceptions" of what our metabolisms "should be" are just flat out wrong in this day and age.  We THINK that we "should be" able to eat 1800-2000 calories per day and that is "normal".  Well it isn't "normal" for a 5 foot 3 woman, and it never was.  Everyone is different, and "normal" for me was actually calculated at 1250 (not including factoring in exercise).  But my ACTUAL was 1326.  In today's food/eating out landscape here are some examples of what my DAILY INTAKE would be (theoretically, if it were SOLELY about the numbers of calories-which it isn't) to MAINTAIN my weight:

Day 1: Cinnabon (880 calories) + 1 Wedge Salad from Outback Steakhouse (435 calories)

Day 2:1 Oriental Chicken Salad from Applebees (1290 Calories) + 1 cup of coffee with 2 TBSP Half and Half

Day 3:1 Waldorf Salad from California Pizza Kitchen (1230 Calories) + 1 piece of whole wheat toast without butter (100 Calories)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-daily-meal/the-unhealthiest-salads-you-can-eat_b_5965758.html

Now I would never ACTUALLY EAT like this, but I wanted to use it as a frame of reference to show you HOW QUICKLY the calories add up in our current society.

Here's a great article that highlights the changes in our perceptions over the last few decades with regards to food intake and portion-sizes:

http://www.cleveland.com/fighting-fat/index.ssf/2010/04/americans_are_consuming_more_calories_than_ever.html

Many people "think" that the program we utilize for weight loss is extreme.  I say it is NOT, I say that what we view is "normal" these days is in fact "extreme overeating."  I think that beginning to UNDERSTAND that in our society and culture today is the BEGINNING of being able to embrace my own limitations and understand that I am not a freak because "I don't get to eat normally and not gain weight as a result."  I simply have a realistic and accurate view of what "normal" really is for my body.  I say that our weight loss portion of our program is not "extreme" and that it simply encourages us to get into the fat burning state and utilize all the extra calories we have been hoarding on our persons for years and years.  And to DO that we need to create a calorie deficit while still giving our bodies what it NEEDS every day.

So embrace the change.  KNOW that you will likely need to adjust your view of what "normal" is, and you will need to respond to your body and its cues.  KNOW that you will NEED to do a full Transition after the Weight Loss Phase, and then you will move into Maintenance which likely won't look a WHOLE lot different than your last week of TRANSITION, and will be dependent on predicted metabolism as calculated through the formulas used in Dr. A's Habits of Health.  This is the food basics of what I have learned.

 Rinse and Repeat!