We have all done it. We all have started a diet with every good intention to "Get the weight off once and for all!" I can admit it. I myself have said this with as much conviction as a preacher in a revival under a big tent in the hot and muggy Georgia night. My attempts in the past usually started on a Monday morning and by Wednesday I was either "starving to death" and wanted to eat everything in sight, or I would have actually lost a couple of pounds and therefore thought that I should "reward" myself for all my hard work and the next day I would see all the hard work go down the toilet as I would weigh in at more than I did when I began the diet in the first place.
Now that I am on my journey to a new me, I am happy to report that the "Yo-Yo Dieting" days of my past are over, FOREVER! No longer will I wait until Monday morning to "start being good" and "eat the right things". Those days are in the past. The very distant past. When I look in my rearview mirror on my journey to a new me I can barely make out the woman that I used to be.
What is "Yo-Yo Dieting" and why is it so easy to get into the habit? Well the answer is very easy. We all like to eat! And usually we like to eat a lot and the wrong things. Not necessarily the "wrong" things but too much of the things that are higher in calories. This causes us to over-indulge ourselves and then we find ourselves gaining any weight that we may have lost when we were being "good".
When I was a young girl my dad traveled quite a bit for a living and when he would return on Friday evenings he would always try to have a little something in his bag for my sister and I. I can remember one of my favorite things was a yellow Duncan Yo-Yo with a red butterfly on it. When he handed it to me you would have thought he handed me a stack of hundred dollar bills. I took that yo-yo with me everywhere I went. It was in the 1970's and I was in sixth grade and I can remember my teacher threatening to take it away from me it I did not put it away. I will never forget that.
On my journey to a new me, I believe the yo-yo is a perfect illustration of how my weight loss efforts had worked in the past. During most of my adult life I would get on a program, and begin to see some success and before long (some times a few days or maybe a week) I would begin to eat more of the foods that I liked and pay less attention to staying on my program,. I would then beat myself up for "falling off the wagon again" and I would tell myself that I could start over again on Monday. When I lost weight it always seemed to take longer than it should and when I began to gain it back it came on much faster. The strange thing is once you allow yourself to "go there" you always gain back more than you lost to begin with.
I am older now and I no longer play with yo-yo's or even own a yo-yo. I no longer want to start & stop and start and stop a diet. The journey that I am on is not a diet but a journey to a new me where I am learning how to eat and live to enjoy a healthier lifestyle. Every day is a new opportunity for me to become a new me and that is all that I want to be . So if your playing the "Yo-Yo Diet Game" isn't it time you traded it in for a more rewarding experience and one that you have a great chance of winning?
No comments:
Post a Comment