Bad News

It's never easy to give bad news, but I found myself in the position of having to do so again last night.  A friend of mine called, someone I haven't talked to in a long time, and we had a good time catching up.  Then she started asking questions about how I'd lost weight.  She is in her mid-50's and is one of those individuals who's been blessed with a killer metabolism.  Up until now, she's never really had to lose weight - ever.  She has spent her entire life pretty much eating whatever she wanted and if the scale went up a couple of pounds, she just kicked up her exercise a notch and the weight came right off.  She's had the metabolism that many of us can only dream about.

The operative word here is "had", because she now finds herself heavier than she's ever been in her entire life and in need of losing 20-25 pounds.  She still looks pretty good, and I don't think most people would look at her and think that she needs to lose weight.  But her BMI is definitely in the "overweight" category and she's motivated to get back to her ideal weight. 

Her question for me last night, and what prompted the need for me to deliver bad news, was "Am I going to be able to go back to all of my favorite foods once the weight is off?"  Her favorite foods include all things fried, including Outback's infamous "Bloomin' Onion", Starbucks' 500 calorie beverages, and sweets.  She does not naturally gravitate to healthy options, so the thought of temporarily changing her food choices is one thing, but changing those choices permanently is a different matter.

So I gave her the bad news.  The reality is that she cannot return to those old eating habits, at least not if she wants to keep the weight off.  She sighed deeply as the reality set in.  I told her that it was time to not only get back to a healthy weight, but to develop healthy habits that would better serve her as she moves forward.

Being thin and being healthy aren't always synonymous.  I don't know her medical history and don't know if she's on any medications, but I do know that the foods she's been eating contribute to inflammation in the body.  In Dr. A's Habits of Health, Dr. Andersen devotes an entire chapter to inflammation in our bodies and discusses not only the risks but also the things that contribute to inflammation.  High on the list are processed foods, and Dr. Andersen wrote that "the high level of chemicals in processed foods stimulates the immune system, which senses those chemicals as foreign intruders and attacks." 

Take Shape for Life/Medifast is not a diet.  We simply can't reach our goal and return to our old habits, at least not if we want to keep the weight off.  More importantly, we can't return to those old habits if we want to live a long and healthy life.  That's the bad news, and it's also the truth.  That doesn't mean that we can't ever eat any of those old favorites again, but if we choose to do so, we'll eat them on rare occasions and in small quantities. The good news is that we can embrace new, healthy habits that will not only enable us to keep the weight off, but also add years to our lives. 

The choice is ours, so choose wisely :-)