Slow is Faster than Never

Slow is Faster than Never

Anyone could tell she was annoyed with the result. Although she lost weight from the previous week's Weight Watcher meeting, her irritation was obvious.

“One quarter of a pound? Four lousy ounces!” She continued to stare at the scale. “I exercised. I wrote everything down. I even stayed away from the hors d’oeuvres at the party. This is too slow. I won’t hit my desired weight until I’m 80!”

Standing down from the platform, I heard her grumble as she snatched her purse. “Who needs this frustration?” With those final words, she stormed from the meeting. The next time she came to a meeting, she weighed 43 pounds more than when she left- and was years closer to the “dreaded” age of eighty.

At times it is difficult to remember that “slower is faster than never.”

Few events are more exasperating than diligently following a plan, faithfully monitoring your efforts, expecting breathtaking rewards, and ending up feeling punished for the effort. Hope vanishes, motivation evaporates, and the seductive siren song of harmful habits slyly lures us off track. After all, rarely does one give up when all is doing well.

Success requires enduring many such indignities; it involves making a lifestyle- not temporary- change. Logically, we know that “lifestyle change” must last..well, er, um..a lifetime (hence the term). Emotionally however, we want to experience all the payback, without making the required investment. As a further analogy, we crave the benefits of wisdom without enduring the exposure to life.

It does not work that way. The process will not be rushed; it must be fully experienced.

Success is more likely when we understand the benefits begin immediately; we do not have to wait to enjoy them until we get “there”. To the contrary, that magical land where temptation is non-existent and motivation is ever present is fantasy; there is no better prescription for failure than betting the farm on such unrealistic expectations.

Those who obtain their goals are still faced with the same temptations and frustrations as those of us still striving for our objective. What differs is they persevere through rough periods by changing focus, not by ignoring the delay.

Setbacks cannot be avoided. Although it might not feel so in the moment, each one presents an opportunity to understand the process, ourselves, and make the adjustments necessary for long-term, SUSTAINED change.

At those crossroads, look back, not ahead. The future is always unknown, yet the road already traveled-no matter how short the journey- is lined with accomplishments: some small, others more significant.

Motivation returns when the focus changes. Remember, slow is faster than never.

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Confessions of a Fast Food Junkie: Watching My Weight

Up until joining Weight Watchers last July, I had never really thought about how I had gotten to be a fast food junkie. Sure, I've always been a "big guy". I've been 6'5" tall since graduating High School and the all you can eat meal plan at Trueblood Cafeteria at Southern Illinois University helped me solidify my status as "Big Man on Campus". However, since earning my Bachelor's Degree and moving on to the "real world", I was able to maintain a reasonable weight for a person of my size.

Don't get me wrong, I've never fit into that "healthy weight range" suggested on the BMI chart. But, in the sixteen years that have passed since my college years, I don't remember ever feeling "fat". That was until August of 2011 when I was invited to a friend's wedding. It was as if overnight, all of my old clothes stopped fitting and I was forced to buy bigger sizes.

It was strange because 12 months earlier, in 2010, I had been working out and losing weight and dropping pounds by controlling my diet and exercise. All of a sudden, I became extremely ill and ended up having a major surgery due to a blood infection that developed from a diabetic ulcer.

There I was two and a half years prior, feeling great about myself and making true progress in becoming more active. However, the unfortunate surgery that left me with a permanent disability (along with depression), played an instrumental part in gaining about 100 lbs in a two year period.

Of course, it would have been a lot easier for me to explore this series of events in my own spare time. I could have used this topic for one of my blogs or maybe just had a few moments of personal self reflection. That's what any normal person would do.

So, there I was at my second weekly Weight Watchers meeting. Shocked by the fact that I was able to lose 6.2 lbs in my first week (a major achievement for a skeptic like me). As I was asked to share my experiences and feelings about the program thus far, something inside me decided that now would be the perfect time to have an emotional breakdown smack dab in the middle of the weekly meeting.

Now, I not one of those guys that believe that "boys don't cry" or that "real men don't shed tears". However, I was awfully embarrassed by the fact that I was only in my second week of the program... down a mere 6.2 lbs... and here I am crying like a teething toddler with a toothache.

Luckily for me, my tears were not of sorrow. I was overwhelmed with joy and elated because of the small amount of progress that I had made in the short amount of time that I had tried to lose weight. I had spent that past year saying "I'm going to lose weight" and in seven simple days I had lost more weight that I had in the past two years.

Now that I have been a part of the Weight Watchers program for six months, I'm healthier by almost 30 lbs. I'm way more active than I used to be and I'm doing better at controlling my fast food habit. I know that I still have a long way to go to reach my ultimate goal. Fortunately for me, my Weight Watchers group, along with my family, has been such a positive influence and system of support that it has been a lot easier for me to succeed than if I was trying to do it by myself.

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A Thinner Me in 2013-A Personal Journey

Like many of you, I've struggled with my weight for years and years.  I've tried every imaginable diet-high carb, low carb, high protein, low fat.Yes, I've tried Jenny Craig, Nutri-System and Weight Watchers.  I've lost a few pounds on each one, but fell off the diet, resumed my old eating and wound up heavier than when I started. But along the way, I learned a thing or two that helped me make important changes.

I'm lucky. About three weeks ago, I celebrated my 70th birthday surrounded by family and friends. My efforts over the past several years have resulted in a weight loss of eighty pounds. Now, I'm just "overweight" and no longer "obese". Ain't that grand.  I still have twenty more pounds to lose to reach my personal goal. I'm not alone...my entire family is committed to losing weight. It's not that we just want to look better, although that would be nice. We all want to be more healthy and avoid complications that accompany being overweight. Some family members have diabetes, and one has survived breast cancer. Some struggle with Lupus and others just feel the burden of carrying extra weight around every day. Some are young, or middle age or seniors...all of us plan to make dietary and lifestyle changes this new year.

Let's sift through some well-known and lesser know facts about obesity. Did you know that 70 percent of the over 60 population in America is overweight?  More than 40 percent of those 65 to 74 are classified as obese. Complications from obesity cost the United States $190 billion dollars in medical expenses every year. We all know that obesity shortens lives: An Oxford University study found that an obese person's life span is three to ten years shorter than that of someone age weight.about the same loss of life associated with smoking. Knowing all these things should give motivation to resolve to  the problem.

We know that losing weight gets harder as we grow older. Slowing metabolism, a loss in muscle mass and declining hormones...all of these things cause your body to store fat more easily. Did you know that adding to the challenge, our body actually sabotages our efforts to lose weight and keep it off. A recent New England Journal of Medicine study examined overweight adults who lost an average of thirty pounds by reducing the number of calories they consumed. Here's what they found. Two hormones that suppress appetite, Leptin and peptide YY, dropped significantly  after the weight loss and stayed low for a year. This isn't good- we need more leptin and peptide YY so we don't get hungry. Researchers found also that ghrelin, a hormone that increases hunger, rose and remained high for up to a year. Decline in appetite suppression and and an increase in hunger...talk about making things harder.

So what's a midlife dieter to do? Personally, I say forget about dieting and focus on changing your dietary and lifestyle choices. The thought of dieting makes one feel that this is something you'll do for a while, achieve your goal and return to past habits. I had to realize that I needed to make changes that I would embrace for a lifetime. In short, we need to know how certain food choices affect our bodies, so we can adjust our dietary choices accordingly to stay healthy and lose weight.

I'm looking forward to sharing information in future posts that will help steer us all to making better choices and lead us to a thinner me" in 2013. I hope my family will join in with personal stories that might prove helpful. If you have a story to tell, feel free to jump in and share your journey with us.
Watch for posts that continue my personal journey.

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Be A Weight Loss Winner

Anyone who's tried to lose weight knows it's not a piece of cake. But, as with everything, we can learn from others and their successes. One of the things I love about attending Weight Watcher meetings is hearing from others who have gone through the process and succeeded. It let's me know I can reach my weight loss goal.

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Healthier Eating:Paula Deen and Me

Paula Deen was widely criticized earlier this year when she revealed that she has type 2 diabetes  and had been diagnosed with the disease three years earlier. After her announcement, she landed an endorsement deal for a diabetes drug, so there was backlash about her motivation for speaking out in the first place. In addition, her sons Bobby and Jamie both got cooking shows presenting healthier food offerings vs their Mom's high calorie fare.

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Paula Deen and Me: Obesity Causes Pain

Paul Deen is still trying to handle the push-back from the public after the announcement of her diabetes three years after her diagnosis. As I mentioned in an earlier article, my diagnosis came twenty six years ago and I still work every day to manage it. I struggle to exercise, faithfully attend Weight Watchers weekly meetings. and track my daily food intake. I've lost 73 pounds to date and am still counting down. To reach my goal, I need to shed about 25 additional pounds.  For me, it's a day by day journey, trying to look ahead, never looking back.

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