Beating the Odds

This past Saturday I went to a prayer breakfast and saw some long-time friends I hadn't seen in almost a year.  When one of the women saw me, the first words out her mouth were, "You're still thin!" 

It's so interesting that this was her reaction, and she's not alone.  When I run into someone I haven't seen in a while, they often comment something to the effect of "it looks like you're keeping your weight off."  And they always seem to be surprised. 

Of course the reason that people are surprised that I'm keeping the weight off - that ANYBODY keeps the weight off - is because statistics show that over 85% of individuals who lose weight on a diet regain the weight, plus additional pounds, within two years.  That is a depressing statistic!  Many of the people in that 85% group will start one diet after another, losing and then gaining again and again, with the start of each diet finding them just a bit heavier than they were the last time they dieted.  That was certainly my experience for over 20 years of failed dieting attempts.  I never got to my goal weight - never got even close - but the beginning of each dieting cycle found me heavier and feeling more defeated.  I blamed my failure on my lack of willpower and discipline.

What I didn't understand then, and what most people who start a diet fail to understand, is that diets don't work.  A dieting mindset is a short-term mindset, a mindset that says "I'll do this for a while to lose weight."  A dieting mindset doesn't have a focus on a long-term solution.

That's what makes our program different!  Most of you are in the first phase of the Take Shape for Life/Medifast program, the 5&1 weight loss phase.  But 5&1 isn't the entire program.  Transition is part of the program, followed by the MOST important phase:  Maintenance. 

So when my friend commented that I was still thin, my response was, "That's the point of our program!  We teach people the healthy habits they need to get to their goal and maintain a healthy lifestyle for the rest of our lives.  This isn't a diet."

I'm so glad it's NOT a diet, because if it was, statistics indicate that I'd be right back where I started.  But I'm not, and I never will be, because along the way this program taught me the healthy habits I need to maintain the rest of my life.  Those healthy habits were hard-wired into my lifestyle one day, one meal, and one choice at a time.  That's how they'll be hard-wired into your lifestyle, too.  Choose wisely :-)