Always Interesting . . .

It's always interesting when I run into people I haven't seen in a while.  Yesterday I spent the morning with a group of friends, having breakfast and shopping in our downtown area.  After I left my friends, I went to a local arts and crafts fair.  When  I was downtown and again at the fair, I saw people that I haven't seen in a while.  When this happened a year or so ago, there was surprise when they saw how much weight I'd lost.  This time the surprise is quite different.

This time as I ran into people I hadn't seen in a while, I heard things like, "it looks like you've kept your weight off," or "you're still slim!"  There seems to be surprise that I'm still in the same size I was the last time they saw me, even though it's been several months.  My response is pretty much the same - I smile and say, "Yes, I've been in my goal range for almost 19 months."

Most people have a diet mentality.  I don't mean that in a condescending way at all - it's just the mindset that most people have, and it's a mindset based on experience.  Most people (over 85%) who lose weight gain it all back, plus some, within two years.  The natural expectation is that anyone who loses weight will begin putting it right back on.  The fact that I'm still in my goal range has less to do with me and more do to with having the right tools to help me stay there.

While I was on Take Shape for Life/Medifast 5&1, I learned (finally) that food has never and will never fix my non-food needs.  It will never comfort, never relieve stress, never even alleviate boredom.  That realization has made a huge difference for me.

For times when I make less than stellar choices (and yes, there are "those times,"), I know what to do to bring things back to where they need to be.  For me, Medifast foods are my secret weapon, and I don't apologize for that.  I regularly use 2-3 meals a day as my healthy snacks to make sure that I'm eating a small, nutritional meal 5-6 times a day.  But when I've gone over my calories for a few days and the scale starts to tick up, or when my size 6's start to feel a bit snug, I don't hesitate to increase my Medifast meals by a meal or two for a few days.  After losing 126 pounds, my mindset is very much "whatever it takes."

When I first started on the plan 2-1/2 years ago, my intent was to use the Take Shape for Life/Medifast program to jump-start my weight loss, then switch to "real food" to finish the journey.  Once I started seeing how fast the weight came off and how great I felt, I changed my mind and decided to stay with the program until I lost my weight, then figured I'd go back to "real food" once I reached my goal.  As I've shared before, I now realize that Medifast products ARE "real food" - nutritious meals packed with all of the vitamins and minerals I need, in a calorie and portion-controlled package.  If I wanted to, I could certainly figure out all six meals per day myself, but the truth is that I'm too busy and a tad too lazy to do so.  I figure that since what I'm doing is continuing to work for me, why change it? 

Getting to my goal required choosing every day to stay on plan, and staying in my goal range requires choices every day, too.  I know I feel better, physically and mentally, when I'm making wise choices.  I'm guessing you feel better when you're making wise choices, too :-).  What choices are you going to make today?  Choose wisely :-)