Do I REALLY just want to "Eat Normal"?

Do I REALLY just want to "eat normal"?

This is a very real desire that we all have to confront at some point or other in our journey towards optimal health. 

Well, put it this way, we don't HAVE to confront this idea, we can IGNORE what is deep down and simply ACT on that hope after "losing weight", which WILL likely cause us to gain it all back again.

We've all been there, at that party or bridal shower or wedding reception or vacation, longing for the carefree days when we could eat whatever we wanted.  No matter that we were overweight or obese, we just wanted the freedom to eat what we wanted to eat, consequences be darned!  Do we really want that?  Really?

Or, we can deal with it and CHANGE OUR WANTS.

Let me give you a different perspective on it.  Do you REALLY want to "eat normal"?

Firstly, doing what we've always done will get us what we've always got.  Is that the status quo I want to maintain after all my hard work?

Secondly, the idea of "normal" in this country is what has 2/3rd's of Americans being overweight and fully HALF of those overweight Americans being OBESE.  So, "normal" is overweight or obese.  Healthy weight is actually the EXCEPTION.  We are the MINORITY, those of us who are a healthy weight.

Granted, and this is more true of YOUNGER people who are a healthy weight, but some of them can remain so because their bodies naturally tend towards that.  But the vast majority of those of us who are, oh, over 25 years old and who are a healthy weight are so because we choose to maintain energy balance and eat healthily, as well as move our bodies a little bit every day.

And those of us, like me, who have been FORMERLY obese or overweight and decided to make a lifestyle shift, we DO have to to fight for the right to be healthy, and create a NEW normal for ourselves!

Since only about 5-15% of people who lose a significant amount of weight maintain their losses for two years or more, that means those of us who have done that, who ARE in the healthy weight range, are the minority of the minority (of the minority of the minority....it feels like one of those pictures of a mirror with a picture of a mirror with a picture of a mirror....I digress.....).

So tell me, do we WANT to eat NORMALLY to BE NORMAL, or do we WANT to eat EXCEPTIONALLY to be EXCEPTIONAL?

I choose EXCEPTIONAL.

Do you know who else chooses "Exceptional?"

Olympic quality and elite athletes.

Moviestars.

Channing Tatum in an interview with a journalist over dinner was ordering a hamburger without the bun, "and hold the fries". 

Channing Tatum.  He took a moment after ordering to explain to the journalist that he was only a few days out from shooting on a film he was starring in, and therefore was minimizing his unnecessary carbs.  Channing Tatum.
 
Henry Cavill a.k.a "Superman" had to sign a contract with Universal that he would ONLY EAT what the Studio provided him to eat for about 6 months during shooting.  He was on a mission to get what he wanted, which was to be EXCEPTIONAL in his Superman suit.

Exceptional in this context means that you are comfortable with and actively striving towards your health goals.  I have lived the life of a "normal" American adult, and it did NOT bring me peace and joy.  In fact, quite the opposite, it brought me heartache and emotional conflict and pain such that I vowed NOT BE THAT WAY ANYMORE.

Our bodies are our bodies, we can't swap 'em out for bodies that DON'T store extra calories/carbs etc as fat.  Our bodies will always do that, we have not and will not change that propensity.  What we HAVE accomplished by losing the excess adipose tissue (long-term energy storage) and becoming a healthy weight is that we have brought our bodies back in to energy balance.  We are no longer hoarders of calories on our person.  We are also living a life, those of us who have done that, which is necessarily more active.  For me, this life I live now is infinitely  more satisfying and exciting and downright FUN that the life I was living as a Class IV Super-Obese-yet-"normal"-eating individual. 

And I will continue eat "exceptionally", and I will continue to move "exceptionally", to maintain what I have GAINED, which is optimal health, so that I may be able to continue LIVING an exceptional life.  The life I always dreamed I would live if I were the person I 'might have' been.  There is no 'might have' anymore.

I am her.

Rinse and Repeat!