Think Yourself Thin

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Think Yourself Thin Page 4

by JJ Smith


  After six months, Kiana began to gain some of her weight, about 15 pounds, back. Now she was no longer receiving so many compliments. She could no longer wear her new smaller sizes and was starting to feel defeated.

  This is a very tricky stage in the weight-loss journey. Slight weight regain, if not managed properly, can send people on a downward spiral that leads them back to their heaviest weight. The reality is that you can expect some weight gain, but the trick is to be able to lose that weight before it spirals out of control. To do that, you have to deal with the emotions that come along with weight regain.

  When you start to gain the weight back, you may feel sad, shameful, and dejected. If you expect this to happen, you stand a much better chance of not spiraling out of control. You become aware that this is the process, this is a typical experience, and you are just like other successful folks who have lost weight. Learning to work your weight back down after gaining a few pounds back is a critical part of learning how to keep your weight off permanently.

  Kiana’s mind started to play tricks on her. She started thinking, “I don’t want to have to work this hard to maintain my weight. I still look good because I’m still not as overweight as I was.” Kiana began to forget how unhappy she had been at her highest weight.

  It is important to appreciate your new body every day. You have to remind yourself how great you felt and looked at your goal weight. You have to remember how much energy you had, how good your sleep was, and how you have fewer aches and pains. You have to remind yourself that you deserve to be healthy, happy, and fit. You have to remind yourself that it is worth it.

  WHAT TO EXPECT DURING THIS STAGE

  The timing of this stage is usually somewhere between six months to a year into maintaining your weight. This is the point where the high is gone and the compliments have stopped coming. The work of being mindful of what you eat, working out, keeping a food diary also seems tedious and boring, like a chore. This is the time to acknowledge these feelings for what they are, which is very normal.

  Kiana had stopped making her green smoothies, (She had been following the Green Smoothie Cleanse which yields fast, healthy weight loss using green smoothies as a primary meal every day). She stopped taking her lunch to work, and was easily stressed. She even started buying unhealthy snacks from the grocery store, telling herself she would snack in moderation. But her snacking got out of control again. She regained 30 of the 50 pounds she had lost. Nevertheless, after dealing with the initial disappointment and shame, she dusted herself off and got back on track.

  Every day, you face a slippery slope that will determine your ultimate success or failure. You will want to eat a “cheat meal” more often and will tell yourself that you deserve an ice cream sundae. It is not that you cannot have one from time to time, but this is not the time to indulge in an ice cream sundae every day. The old behavior of using food to deal with feelings of sadness has to remain in the past.

  If you used food to cope with loneliness, sadness, fear, anger, or boredom, remember that this book will teach you coping skills to address these feelings in the future. You must remember the new and better ways of dealing with the issues that come up in your life. It is your job to come up with new solutions to deal with life situations. For example, if you eat out of boredom and loneliness at night, get out of the house and go have some fun. Go to a Zumba class or take a salsa dance class. Come up with a list of things to do, either in or out of the house, that will keep you busy and having fun. Always remind yourself of how far you have come, and although you have had a small setback, you can still press forward and win this weight-loss battle once and for all.

  Kiana is still in the game and weighing herself every day. She lost control of her eating for a few months but got back on track by getting physically active, increasing her detox methods each week, drinking water consistently, and adjusting her calorie intake every few days. She was able to turn things around because she knew her setback was temporary. As hard as it was for her to deal with weight regain, she began to realize that this was a lifelong journey and that she had better tools in her tool kit.

  5

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  Stage Five—Maintaining (Keeping the Weight Off)

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  IN THIS FINAL stage of the five stages of weight loss, you successfully changed the majority of your bad habits and have lived a healthy lifestyle for a year or more. In this stage, you begin to acknowledge that you truly do live life differently. You realize that foods have no power over you and you do not even desire or crave them regularly. You know how harmful bad eating was to your health and weight and you do not need the temporary fulfillment that emotional eating provided you.

  You walk around with a new confidence because your body has undergone a complete transformation. People often ask you how you did it; you are a walking inspiration and receive compliments on a regular basis. Let me also say “Congratulations!” for making the lifestyle change for good. You now know this new healthy lifestyle is just as easy to live as the unhealthy life you lived in the past.

  To ensure that you understand what I mean by “lifestyle change,” I want to take a moment to explain this further. First, you really have to forget about dieting! Typically, you “go on” a diet, which implies that at some point you “go off” the diet. A typical diet is something you do for a specified period of time. However, what typically happens when you “go off” the diet? You gain all the weight back. With a lifestyle change, you are changing your eating habits and you naturally desire and crave healthier foods, so you never have to think about dieting again. In this phase, you actually forget about dieting and change the way and style in which you live.

  I believe maintenance is one of the most important stages of the weight-loss journey. Learning to keep the weight off is the key to success and where the majority of people struggle. In fact, about 90 percent of people who lose weight on a diet gain the weight back in three to five years. While no one wants to lose a lot of weight, get all the compliments, and then turn around and gain it all back, it happens every day. Permanent weight loss will be determined in this phase. People are often surprised by the fact that the work does not end in this phase. They think they will reach their weight-loss goal and then be done. You need to be smarter than that. Know that to maintain the weight loss will require as much work as losing it.

  WHO IS SUCCESSFUL AT MAINTAINING WEIGHT LOSS?

  So what sets apart those who are successful at losing weight and keeping it off from those who do not? The thousands of clients I have worked with have taught me a lot about what it takes to lose weight permanently. Part 2 of this book, “Seven Mental Strategies for Weight-Loss Success,” provides strategies that successful weight-losers employ to keep the weight off.

  One thing these successful “losers” have in common is a recognition that they have made a lifestyle change, adopted a different mind-set. They eat a certain way each week, but they no longer “diet.” They can have a cheat meal from time to time, but they get right back on track swiftly and consistently. That is what it means to make a lifestyle change. This is the new you, this is how you live.

  Furthermore, they all struggled in the first two years of weight maintenance, but once they got past that, they were all successful at keeping the weight off for years and even decades. Weight regain typically happens within the first two years. This is important to understand. If you have lost and gained weight repeatedly, you should expect to struggle in the first year or two after you lose weight. Know that this is normal and get mentally prepared for the struggle. Give yourself time to adjust through this process. Over 75 percent of the successful ones say it got easier over time and the longer you keep the weight off, the less likely it is to come back.

  WEIGHT REGAIN

  Be realistic in your expectations. Maintaining your weight does not mean you will stay at the exact same weight week after week, month after month. During weight maintenance, you gain and lose small amounts (5 to 10 po
unds) all the time. Ideally, you must come up with a weight range in which you live comfortably. For some it is a range of 3 to 5 pounds to ensure that they do not let the weight spiral out of control.

  The first two years in this weight-maintenance stage are critical in predicting long-term success. Those who go past their comfortable weight range begin to struggle to get back to their ideal weight that they had once achieved. This is why focus and work is still required in this stage.

  The reason you should allow for a comfortable weight range to lose and gain weight is because weight gain can come out of nowhere. Weight regain is almost inevitable, so be prepared to deal with it. If you are thinking you will not gain any weight during this stage, it can take you mentally off track when you take on a few pounds. It is always best to be mentally prepared to fight to maintain the weight-loss success you worked so hard to achieve.

  When your weight goes higher than your upper limit, you have to buckle down and get back to the habits that helped you lose weight in the first place (see more on habits in chapter 10) Were you part of a support group? Did you have coping skills to avoid emotional eating? Did you work out more regularly? Putting those behaviors and habits into practice makes it relatively easy to get back down to your ideal weight.

  Monitor your weight regularly. Stay aware. Take the small weight gains within your acceptable range in stride. It is not a matter of obsessing over the scale, weighing yourself multiple times per day. The day-by-day weight fluctuations are not important in the big picture. When I hear folks complain about gaining 2 to 3 pounds, I know they are not prepared for the small weight fluctuations that will come.

  If you want to weigh yourself once a day, do it first thing in the morning so that you can get a consistent read each day. Many people choose to weigh themselves weekly so they do not obsess about the numbers on a daily basis, and this is also fine.

  Many folks are so discouraged by the scale that it leads them to be frustrated and then to give up. It is important that you understand what is happening on your weight-loss journey. We want our weight simply to give us a clear picture and not send us off the deep end. Keeping track will alert you to when you need to make adjustments on your journey.

  Do not use unreasonable methods to lose weight or to get to an especially low weight that will be too hard to maintain. If it required unrealistic behaviors to get to that weight, then to maintain it will make your life unbearable. You want a realistic weight that you can actually maintain and still enjoy life. Many of us would love to be the weight we were in college, but to get to and maintain that weight would require an unreasonable amount of effort week to week.

  Find the weight that you can accept and maintain and you will be much happier in this place. Find a comfortable weight at which you can love and accept yourself. Once you find a good maintenance weight, know that it is a lifelong journey. In addition, know that there are few things in life that can give you such a feeling of accomplishment. Own your success, give yourself credit, and enjoy your new weight.

  Yes, the weight-loss phase has its own challenges, but keeping the weight off just brings new challenges. The goal of this book is to help you be fully equipped for the challenges at each stage.

  BE PREPARED FOR BOREDOM AND DISAPPOINTMENT

  One of the greatest obstacles for maintaining weight loss is boredom. Compared to the thrill of losing weight and getting all the compliments, this phase can feel somewhat dull. Tammy lost over 125 pounds by eating clean, that is, eating whole, real foods, and exercising. After being consistent on her journey for so long, she became bored with her routine. However, she realized that this was a lifestyle change and this was a normal feeling. She continued to put in the work. She did not use fad diets or magic weight-loss pills. She is a changed person who simply eats well and makes physical movement a regular part of her routine. She established many new habits and behaviors. She knew these behaviors were how she lost the weight in the first place. She knows what to do to stay there. When you create new behaviors and habits, you have the foundation you need to ease into maintenance.

  The tedious nature of maintaining weight loss can get dull and boring, so this is the time to remain as vigilant and focused as ever.

  Many times when people lose weight, they expect great things to come their way, like love. They always believed that if they just lost weight, they would find love or the spouse that had eluded them. While this may happen, sometimes it does not. Finding love is a challenge for many people, even for those who are not overweight.

  Understand too that family relationships and friendships can change for the better or for the worse. When you improve your life, not everyone will be happy with you or for you. People generally do not like change and most of your friends or family may have always known you as the overweight one. They are comfortable with you playing your role. They may have a hard time adjusting to the new you. We assume that everyone will be happy about our weight loss. And some are. Some friends and family, however, may actually feel threatened by your new success, your new body, your new confidence and new attention that you are getting. Some people will be genuinely happy and some will be threatened. Know that those who really love you will adjust to the new you in time.

  BUT I’M STILL NOT SKINNY!

  People who lose weight often simply cannot see it when they look in the mirror. It will be important to look at photos of yourself to help convince yourself of how great you look. It may take some time to see your weight-loss success. You may get to a point where you do not see yourself as overweight but still feel that you are just not thin enough. This is something to plan for so that you do not get disappointed when you reach your goal weight. People are constantly telling you how great you look, but you look in the mirror and see something else. This is normal, especially for those who have been overweight for many years. Our self-image is that we are overweight and it becomes difficult to change how we see ourselves. This is why it is also important to keep a list of nonscale-related benefits, such as better sleep, fewer aches and pains, lower cholesterol, increased energy, and clearer skin. Anything that helps to reinforce your feeling of success is crucial during this stage. Our self-image gets set somewhere along the way, and it is very difficult to change it.

  If you have done the hard work and succeeded at losing weight, celebrate your success. Congratulate yourself. Take all the credit for it because it is hard work and your body has rewarded you for your efforts. Weight loss was not given to you, it was earned by you. It took a lot of focus and determination.

  DON’T TAKE A VACATION FROM HEALTHY LIVING

  Linda lost 65 pounds and maintained it for over a year. Then her family decided to take a vacation in the mountains for an entire month. Unfortunately, she did not just take a vacation from work but also from all the habits and behaviors that had helped her maintain a healthy lifestyle. She failed to make sound eating decisions and indulged in desserts every night. Linda enjoyed a break from real life and everything that came along with her life. It was as though she went on a binge, eating anything and everything.

  At the end of the vacation, she came back 10 pounds heavier. Then she had to work like crazy just to reestablish her good eating habits and behaviors. It took her about three to four months to work her way down to her comfortable maintenance weight. She found it incredibly time-consuming and difficult to lose those 10 pounds and felt like she had set herself back too far. So she decided she would never again take a vacation from healthy eating just because she was on vacation.

  Enjoying a few cheat meals on a vacation is fine, but reverting to the entire old lifestyle is a very self-defeating choice. You can enjoy vacations and holidays without overeating and indulging and still feel good when you return and just continue on your lifestyle of maintaining your weight.

  Forget about your old habits, as they will always lead you back to your unhealthy weight. The more people understand this, the more they will stop losing and gaining over and over again. Once you le
arn how to lose weight, you can maintain and enjoy your healthy, slim body. You may miss some of your old comfort foods, but they are still there to enjoy from time to time—just do not let them become a habit. Stay the course. It is so worth it!

  Part Two

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  THE SOLUTIONS: SEVEN MENTAL STRATEGIES FOR WEIGHT-LOSS SUCCESS

  “The Solutions: Seven Mental Strategies for Weight-Loss Success,” introduces the SUCCESS System, which teaches you seven new mental strategies, habits, and approaches to permanent weight loss. Some of the seven strategies will be more applicable to you and your current journey than others, but the more you apply, the better your results will be.

  1. SLAY Resistance: Stop Procrastination Once and For All. Learn how to slay resistance, the most toxic force in the world. Resistance is that lethargic or apathetic feeling of not wanting to do something you know is good for you. Resistance causes us to procrastinate or delay starting something that is good for us. You must slay resistance in order to achieve the success you desire.

  2. USE VISUALIZATION: Use Visualization Techniques for Weight Loss. An effective approach to losing weight permanently is to use visualization to get your mind and body to work together to get slim. Folks have had amazing results with visualization techniques without having to starve themselves or deprive the body in any way. Visualization is a mind-body approach that makes permanent weight loss easy and sustainable. I will teach you how to allow your mind to work with your body to transform yourself from the inside out.

 

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