At last, I have discovered a diet I can live with. During the pandemic, I lost 50lbs. I went from 185 lbs to 135 lbs. That was amazing, right? But the following year, I gained most of it back. So lately I have been hovering around 180 lbs. Yes! Almost back to my start weight couple years ago. During the weight fluctuation during the pandemic, I finished my dissertation, received my Ph.D., and taught a course, my father got sick, my father died, and managed to keep myself alive somehow. So, in addition to weight going down and back up, a lot of life happened since April of 2020 when I started my weight loss program with my personal trainer. By January of 2021, I felt in control of my diet and healthy. So why did I gain the weight back?
The reason I gained the weight back, I believe, is because I had framed my eating habit as what I could and couldn’t eat. I couldn’t eat wheat and rice products, or processed food. But I could eat unprocessed foods, like fruit, vegetable, and protein. I was diligent. I kept myself hydrated. In 8 months I lost 50 lbs. But the success story is not in losing the weight, but keeping it off! Once I reached my goal weight, I started eating things I didn’t let myself eat while I was trying to lose weight. I gained a few pounds every month. Didn’t seem like I was ever gaining too much weight all at once. But by Winter of 2022, I was hovering around 180. I wanted to lose weight, but didn’t have the same commitment or drive to eating a restricted diet. So I the scale would go mostly up, and every now and then go down a bit.
Here’s what I discovered, you don’t lose and keep the weight off by dieting on a restricted program. If I tell myself I can’t have ice cream, well, what do you know, I want ice cream! So past two weeks, I am on a new “diet.” I lost 4 pounds in 2 weeks. I might gain some of it back, but it’s ok, because I’m confident the general direction of the scale will be going down. with weight gain, I had to go back on my high blood pressure medicine. And I am probably pre-diabetic again. Sigh. On my new diet, I can eat anything, everything, really, I can eat whatever I want. Only thing I try to follow is to eat when I’m hungry, stop when I feel full. I eat things in moderation. I don’t deprive myself of anything I’m craving. I plan ahead and decide what I’m going to eat for the day. And if I eat something that I hadn’t planned on. It’s ok. I just write it down on my food log. It’s not strong motivation or commitment that leads to weight loss and weight maintenance.
As I was reminded by my trainer, Juliana Rico – https://evolvedfitfacts.com/about/ – consistency is what leads to weight loss and maintenance. Yes! How come? I can be super motivated and feel committed one day. But then the feelings might fade. What happens when I don’t feel motivated? Consistency gets me through the times when I don’t feel like eating healthy or when I don’t want to exercise. So I have started on a new weight loss journey. One that I hope will be the last diet I will ever be on. Let me know what you think. I’ll let you know how I’m doing. For those interested, I started at 180 lbs two weeks ago, and today I am 176 lbs. This is a huge turn around for me. And also, I started meditating. I do meditations in bed before and after sleeping. And I sleep enough hours to get good rest. So I guess this new diet/life style has many parts to it. But one general theme is, just live, just be me, don’t worry about calories or what I can or can’t eat. Be consistent about eating healthy, focusing on what I plan to eat. Thanks for reading this far. To be continued…
revalicekim 