Over the weekend I ran into an acquaintance I hadn’t seen for more than a year. At first, she didn’t recognize me, but as soon as she did, she couldn’t get over how my appearance had changed. “You look terrific!” she exclaimed. “What did you do?”
“I lost 50 pounds,” I said.
“That’s amazing — how did you do that?” she asked.
I paused for a moment and then replied, “Well, I decided to stop shoving food in my piehole.”
She hesitated, then laughed. “Well, that’s certainly common sense, isn’t it?” We then proceeded to chat for 20 minutes about our battles with weight.
I’m not usually comfortable writing about my personal life, especially when it calls attention to a not-so-flattering aspect of myself. In this case, however, I know so many people who are in the same boat as I’ve been, I think it’s a topic worth opening up about.
Let’s put it bluntly. I got fat. I accept full responsibility for my actions. I ate too much. I became less active. When things ate at me, I ate back. It’s all too easy to do. We live hectic lives in a prosperous society that offers any number of stress-relieving distractions. Sometimes life goes by so fast you don’t realize how the habits you’ve developed have started stacking up against you. Then one day you look in the mirror and you don’t recognize yourself.
It’s no secret that the hardest part of losing weight is getting started. Maybe it’s because so much of the language of dieting just sets people up for failure. “Going on a diet” implies that “going off the diet” will follow. That’s not an encouraging way to begin.
When I began thinking about the word “diet” as a noun, and not a verb, I began to get somewhere. After all, I have to eat in order to live. There’s no getting around that. So while I can make good decisions about the food that goes into my body most of the time, there will always be those celebratory food moments that involve wedding cakes, Halloween candy and picnic chili dogs. To deny myself permission to enjoy them is to miss out on a big part of life.
It’s not just about eating better, it’s about changing an entire perception of being healthy. I used to think that you have to suffer to be healthy. One of the obstacles I put in front of myself was that the only “correct” way to get in shape was to join a gym. That never worked, thanks to a deep seated dislike for exercising in front of other people. But then I figured out there are other ways to exercise that I actually enjoy doing — bicycling, hiking, swimming, walking. Pretty soon the entire process snowballs and you’re 50 pounds lighter.
So I’m sorry to say I don’t have any special “secret” to share. There is no magic pill or diet I can recommend. It’s just plain hard work, folks. You can talk to your doctor, nutritionist or workout coach, but then you have to adapt that professional advice to your reality. Listen to what your body is telling you and you’ll be much happier — and ultimately, more successful. It’s more than worth it, in the long run.
Andrea Miller is features editor of The Enterprise.
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