Cans and Can'ts

There's no denying that sometimes it's just hard to stay on plan.  So many social events revolve around food . . . many of us have emotional attachments to food and spent years running to food whenever there was any emotional blip, good or bad, in our lives.  We're busy, some of us may have people in our lives who aren't supportive . . . there are dozens of reasons for not staying on plan.

I read a quote that I thought really addressed this issue.  "Some men have thousands of reasons why they can't do what they want to do, when all they need is one reason why they can." ~ Willis Whitney 

I love this quote because it cuts through the reasons why not.  Those reasons will ALWAYS be there, and when one issue is resolved it seems like two or three pop up in its place.   

If we decide that we can't stay on plan for this reason or that, we're right - we can't and we won't.  If we give ourselves and "out", human nature's tendency is to always take the "out."

Instead of focusing on the obstacles and all the reasons why we can't, if we want to be successful we have to shift our focus to what we really want and find the one reason why we can.  Once we know what we want and why we want it, the million-and-one reasons why we can't won't matter any more.

Once a person makes the fundamental decision to get to a healthy weight, it's amazing to see how those obstacles don't matter any more. After years of struggling and multiple failed attempts at losing weight, I was finally successful on this program because I had reached a point where I wanted to get to a healthy weight - and get healthy.  We went on vacation, traveled, went through the holidays (I hosted the family dinners and had 26 people for Thanksgiving and 23 for Christmas), did a fair amount of entertaining, went on a cruise and also dealt with the death of a close family member.  My life didn't go on hold for the 11 months it took to reach my goal, but all of the things that once would have been obstacles didn't matter any more because I had my reason for why I could do the program. 

I'm not unique in this (not by any means!) because I've seen the same thing over and over again over the past three years in my work as a health coach.  When an individual finds the reason and it's what they really want, everything changes.

Do you have a million reasons why you can't, or have you focused on the one reason why you can?  If you're focused on why you can, then you'll make the choices you need.  It comes down to what we choose to focus on.  Choose wisely :-)

What's It Worth to You?

An article posted on the internet was alarming - and also very sad. According to a survey of British undergraduates, almost one-third of young women would trade at least a year of their lives to have a perfect body.  The survey found that 16 percent of young women queried said they'd trade a year of life for their ideal body weight and shape.  Ten percent were willing to trade two to five years, and 2 percent were willing to trade up to 10 years of life away.  One percent said they would give up 21 years or more.  The article stated that the research was based on a relatively small sample, so the results may not be representative of women in general.

I don't know about that . . . I remember how desperate I was just six years ago, wanting to lose weight and feeling hopeless to do so.  If someone would have offered me the opportunity to trade one year of my life in order to be at a healthy weight for the rest of my life, I think I would have seriously considered taking them up on their offer.  I wasn't even looking for a perfect body or a perfect shape, I just wanted to get back to a healthy weight and a smaller size. 

As it turned out, in a way I DID trade almost a year of my life to get to a healthy weight - it took me two days short of 11 months to reach my goal (my 5-year anniversary is coming up in less than a month!).  While the young women in the survey were willing to give up a year of living in exchange for an ideal body weight, I invested a year of my life to get healthy.  I didn't give up a thing, other than a few foods that I didn't eat for a while.  In the process, I got more than my life back because, with God's help, I ended up creating a new life for myself - one I couldn't have imagined.

The almost-year that I invested in getting healthy also resulted in many others also getting healthy, as my transformation inspired people around me to get healthy themselves.  My husband, my parents, my son, my son-in-law, many of my friends . . . then the friends and relatives of my friends . . . literally hundreds of people have gone on this program, lost weight and gotten healthy as a result of the decision I made to get to a healthy weight.  That amazes and humbles me beyond description!

The undergraduates in the British survey were willing to give up a year or more of their lives.  My question for you today is:  what are you willing to give up - temporarily - to get to a healthy weight?  You don't have to give up your life, just be willing to follow the protocols of a proven program for a few months.  Is getting healthy worth that to you?  I hope your answer is "yes!"  If so, then your journey begins, or continues, with the choices you make today.  Choose wisely :-)

Pulling Weeds

It's finally starting to warm up here in West Michigan and things are starting to grow.  I have a little perennial garden planted by the patio of our condo and right now there are some weeds that need my attention.  It's always frustrating to see the weeds growing faster than the plants!  Because I think that weeding has some great applications to our weight loss journey, I decided to re-run a blog today that I originally posted the summer of 2007, shortly after starting on this program.  I hope it will be encouraging to you!

"I just came inside after spending almost an hour weeding my perennial garden.  I haven't weeded in a month; we were on vacation for two weeks, and the last two weeks have either been too hot and humid, or it's rained.  So today was my day!  As I surveyed the flower bed before starting my work, all I could think was, "where on earth did all of these weeds come from?"  We live in a condo association and all of the grounds are very well maintained, with nary a weed to be found.  My flowers are planted in the barked area next to our house, just off from our walk-out lower level, so the amount and variety of weeds amazed me. 

I know I have NEVER planted a weed, yet they've grown in abundance in every garden I've ever had, vegetable and flower.  They take advantage of every open spot of soil, of every inattentive moment.  If left to grow unchecked, they will eventually overwhelm my garden, choking out the plants I've so carefully selected and tended.
Kind of like life, and definitely like my life on Take Shape for Life/Medifast.  I have carefully selected and am trying to nurture new, good habits, which I so want to see flourish into a beautiful garden in my life.  Right now these habits are rather tender and vulnerable, and they can easily be choked out by the weeds in my life if I'm not careful.  Weeds like impatience, comparison, frustration, discouragement, unrealistic expectations, busyness, and rationalization keep popping up and must be immediately pulled and thrown into the trash heap.  If I don't, I know from past experience (and much gardening) that they will eventually overwhelm the good habits.  The good habits will either die off completely, or they will be left in a weakened state and never reach their full potential.

Bad habits and bad thought patterns are not intentionally sown, but they are very opportunistic and can take root before we've even realized it.  The challenge is to catch them right away - they are much easier to pull out by their roots when young, and can be almost impossible to eradicate if allowed to mature.  Mature weeds have roots that snake deep underground and entangle themselves with the roots of the flowers, making it difficult to pull them out without damaging the flowers.
I know that, in time, the perennials (and the good habits) will grow and fill most of the space, making it more and more difficult for weeds to take root.  Until that time, I need to be diligent in checking for weeds, in my garden and in my life.  My reward?  A lovely garden - eventually!"

As I re-read this blog, first written almost six years ago, I couldn't help but smile as I realized that good habits ARE finally flourishing in my little garden.  Weeding certainly continues, but I'm trying to be diligent to pull out the weeds before they take root.  Consistency is definitely the key to keeping the weeding easy :-).

Anybody want to join me in doing a little weeding today?  The choice is yours - choose wisely :-)

Breaking Through Mental Barriers

I am continually amazed by the power we have to change what we do simply (or not so simply) by changing how we think.  This was brought home to me again as I read the story of the 4-minute mile.  

For many years it was widely believed to be impossible for a human to run a mile (1609 meters) in under four minutes. In fact, for many years, it was believed that the four minute mile was a physical barrier that no man could break without causing significant damage to the runners health. The achievement of a four minute mile seemed beyond human possibility, like climbing Mount Everest or walking on the moon.

It was a windy spring day, on the 6^th of May 1954, during an athletic meeting between the British AAA and Oxford University, that Roger Bannister ran a mile in 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds. He crossed the finish line with a time of 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds, and broke through the “four minute mile” psychological barrier. John Landy a great runner of that day never run faster than within 1.5 seconds of the four minute barrier. Then 56 days after Roger Banniste'rs breakthrough, John Landy ran the four minute mile in 3 minutes and 57.9 seconds in Finland. Later Bannister and Landy raced in the Mile of the Century where Bannister won in 3 minutes and 58.8 seconds.

In commenting on this event, writer George Ambler observed, "So what happened to the physical barrier that prevented humans from running the four minute mile? Was there a sudden leap in human evolution? No. It was the change in thinking that made the difference, Bannister had shown that breaking four minute mile was possible. Often the barriers we perceived are only barriers in our own minds. Previous runners had been held back by their beliefs and mindsets. When the barrier was broken other runners saw that is was possible and then 16 runners went on to do they same."

Did you catch the sentence, "often the barriers we perceived are only barriers in our own minds"?  That statement really struck me because I can think of many barriers that I've put up over the years, telling myself that I can't do this or that. 

One of the things I told myself for years was that I couldn't lose weight.  Goodness knows I'd tried just about every program out there.  I'd heard the conventional wisdom about women "of a certain age" not being able to lose weight, and I believed it.  Because I didn't believe I really could lose weight, I expected to fail, so I failed.

What changed this time was that Take Shape for Life/Medifast gave me immediate results - I started losing weight right away and eating small, low-glycemic meals quickly normalized my blood glucose readings.  The results were so amazing and so fast that a crack appeared in the mental barrier I'd put up.  I'd never seen anything work so fast, and I'd never felt good before on any program I'd been on.  At the end of the first week, I certainly wasn't confident in my ability to be successful, but that small crack in the mental barrier allowed a glimmer of hope to shine through.  I was sure that my first week's success was just a fluke, but I pressed on through a second week, then a third.  Even at the end of the first month and 18 pounds lighter, I didn't really believe this was sustainable over time, but I placed a second 4-week order anyway.  And you know the rest of the story!

On this program, we not only have the opportunity to make a positive change in our health and our weight, we also have the opportunity to change how we think.  We have the opportunity to break down some barriers we've erected in our minds that are keeping us in a place we no longer want to be.  Making those changes happens one day and one choice at a time.  Choose wisely :-)

Today's Forecast

One of the first things I do every morning is check the weather forecast.  Especially this time of year, when temperatures can wildly fluctuate from the 70's one day to below freezing, I don't know what to wear until I know what the forecast is.  

I have another forecast for you this morning, and it doesn't matter if you live in Alaska or Florida, California or New York.  It's the same forecast.  It's the forecast for your chance of success on this program.

Regardless of where you live, regardless of how long you've been on the program or how much you currently weigh, no matter how much weight you have to lose or how long you've been overweight, I have the forecast for your success on this program.  Ready?

Your chance of success on this program is 100% . . . if you decide to be successful.  I know your chance of success is 100% because this program works.  It's been around for over 30 years and has been recommended by more than 20,000 doctors.  People who follow the protocols of this program lose weight and reach their goal.  You are on a program that has been proven safe and effective and the are innumerable success stories from people who never thought they could lose weight, including myself.  You can have full confidence that as long as you follow the program, you will reach your goal.

The caveat for this forecast, of course, is that you have to decide.  Ultimately, the success of this program depends on whether or not you've made the fundamental choice to be successful.  Once we've made the fundamental choice to be successful and get to a healthy weight, we figure out what we need to do to make it happen.  I'm not saying that it's always easy, because it's not, but it's possible.  If we haven't made the fundamental choice to get to a healthy weight, we will allow circumstances to determine whether or not we're going to stay on plan.  Traveling, stress, celebrations and social events - there are always events that can and will get us off plan if we haven't made the fundamental choice to get healthy.  If we haven't made that choice, then the forecast for success is 50/50 at best, because life is always happening and there are always things that threaten to interfere with our program. 

The forecast for success is 100% dependent on the choices we make.  Choose wisely :-)

Choosing Our Attitude

I am reminded again and again of the importance of choosing my attitude.  There are so many things in life that we have absolutely no control over, but we can always choose how we respond.

Attitude makes all the difference.  Chuck Swindoll, a well-known author and pastor, has a quote about attitude that pretty much sums it up (you may be familiar with this):

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.

There were certainly days when I was on 5&1 when I wasn't particularly having fun.  I got tired of the food (and without crunch bars, pretzels, cheese bites, soft serve, pancakes, sloppy joe mix or brownies there was less variety then) and I got tired of having to pass up some of my favorite foods.  What I quickly realized was the fact that nobody was making me do this - I had the freedom to quit anytime I wanted to.  It was my choice to do the plan or not, and it was also my choice to either do it with joy or be miserable the whole time (and make everyone around me miserable, too).  

Part of choosing our attitude is choosing what we're going to focus on.  If we're focused on what we're giving up, if we allow ourselves to live in the land of the deprived, we're more likely to struggle with our attitude.  On the other hand, if we shift our focus from what we're temporarily giving up to all that we are gaining - improved health, smaller sizes, better self-esteem, etc. etc., maintaining a positive attitude becomes much easier.  A woman I know summed up her own way of choosing her attitude, saying she could either "practice the presence of problems or practice the presence of Jesus."  I like that!

The challenges we face may remain the same, the problems may still be there, and we may still be facing many more days, weeks or months of being on 5&1.   We may or may not be able to change the situation, but we can always choose our attitude - choose wisely :-)

Tax Day

It's everyone's favorite day of the year - tax day ;-).  In past years when we've been entitled to a refund, we've filed our taxes as soon as we possibly could.  Now that we're self-employed and pay quarterly taxes, our check to the IRS will be postmarked today.  We put it off as long as we could, but today is the day of reckoning and it's time to pay our taxes.

When it comes to our health, a day of reckoning generally comes, too, because our bodies, like Uncle Sam, have a way of keeping track of what's coming in and what's going out.  When I was diagnosed with diabetes in September of 2005, I realized that my years of morbid obesity, bad habits, and a genetic predisposition had finally caught up with me.  I had been "investing" in this for years, and the bill finally came due.

Sometime we think we can avoid the long-term ramifications of bad habits, but most of the time they eventually catch up with us.  To be sure, there are always the exceptions - people who live healthy and die prematurely of a heart attack, someone who smokes 2 packs a day and lives to be 100 - but those are exceptions, not the rule.

The good news is that our bodies were created with a wonderful ability to heal, and it's amazing to see how fast concerning health conditions can begin to reverse themselves when we begin to take care of ourselves.  Diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol - conditions often resulting from being overweight - can and are being reversed as people get on this program and begin to lose weight.  It's exciting!

You're here because you've made a commitment to invest in your health, so keep up the great work and don't let anything get in the way of getting healthy, because you're worth it!  Take it one day, one meal, and one choice at a time - and choose wisely :-)

Doing Right, Feeling Good

Successful people do what is right no matter how they feel, and by doing right they feel good – John C. Maxwell

I don't know about you, but so often I want to feel good FIRST and allow the good feeling to give me the oomph I need to do what I need to do.  Sometimes that works for me, but sometimes it doesn't.  If I'm in the mood to clean out a closet, I can get to work and turn chaos into order in a short period of time.  If I wake up with energy to spare, heading to the health club is easy.  If the scale gives me a number I'm happy with, making healthy choices is a natural.

Like I said, sometimes waiting for the feeling works for me and sometimes it doesn't.  Unfortunately, there are times the closet needs cleaning, or I need to exercise, or the scale is up a couple of pounds and I just don't feel like doing what I know I need to do.  It's not easy to always make the choices I need to make when I'm just not feeling it.  The problem is that when I don't do what I know I need to do, the inaction doesn't generate a good feeling - it produces guilt.  I pass by the closet and look at the mess and know I really SHOULD get at it . . . I decide not to head out the door to work out and then, when it's too late to go to the health club, wish I had . . . 

Inaction doesn't produce positive feelings and can put us into a downward spiral where the longer we don't take action, the harder it is to get started.  I've seen this over and over again with people on this program.  They start our enthusiastic and strong, then for a variety of reasons find themselves off plan.  That's when the challenge comes, because many wait to get started again until they feel motivated - they wait for the good feeling so that they'll do what they need to do.  Sometimes the good feeling comes and they're ready to get started again, but sometimes it doesn't.  People who went off plan over the holidays are still struggling to get back on plan 100%  today, almost four months later.  They're frustrated and mad at themselves for what they think is their lack of willpower, and each day that passes only increases their frustration at themselves.

When we can take a giant step forward and do the right thing, whether we feel like it or not, an amazing thing happens.  The good feelings we've been waiting for finally show up!   They don't always show up right away (wouldn't it be great if they did?), but they do show up!

When I tackle a messy closet even when I don't feel like it, good feelings kick in.  As I continue working and organizing, a surge of energy usually comes and carries me to completion.  Whether or not the good feelings come during the project, they sure do show up when I'm finished and admiring the order I created!  I may not feel like working out, but when I push through the "don't feel like it" and do it anyway, I'm always - always - glad that I did.

And when we get back on plan and do what we need to do, whether we feel like it or not, the good feelings eventually show up, too :-).  There is a sense of relief that washes over us when we take control and do what we know we need to do, and the scale usually rewards us in short order, which brings more good feelings :-).

The good news is that by doing the right thing, we not only end up feeling better about ourselves, but that action brings the success we're hoping for.  It all begins with the choice to move forward, whether we feel like it or not.  Choose wisely :-)

Windshield or Rear-View Mirror?

I have a question for you today:  is this a windshield day for you, or it is a rear-view mirror day?

Translation:  are you focused today on where you're going, or are you spending your time looking back?

I think this is a question worth asking, because the answer can strongly influence how successful you'll ultimately be in getting to and staying at your goal.

If this is a windshield day for you, then you're focused ahead on where you're going.  Just like when you drive, 99% of the time you're focused on the road in front of you (at least I hope you are!).  You periodically take a quick glance in the rear-view mirror and take a look at your outside mirrors, but you only avert your eyes from the road for a fraction of a second.  Averting your eyes any longer than that risks crashing.

A rear-view mirror perspective happens when our focus is on what's behind us.  Maybe we're focused on all of the things that occurred that caused us to gain weight to begin with.  Maybe we're focused on our past failures and thinking about how we could have been at our goal by now if only we'd stayed on plan.  Whatever is in your rear-view mirror is in the past, and focusing on it won't get you where you want to be - it will only keep you stuck in a place you don't want to be.

It can be hard learning to focus forward when we've spent so many years staring into that rear-view mirror, but practice definitely makes perfect :-).  Having a windshield day begins with identifying what you want - what you REALLY want - and then committing to focus on that.  When you find your gaze shifting back to the rear-view mirror (and you will, especially at first), consciously shift your focus to looking forward again.  You can do this by writing down your goal - be specific and don't be afraid to dream - and posting it where you'll see it often.  When you find your mind drifting back to the past, take a deep breath and let it go!  Take a minute to re-read your written goal and think for a minute about it.  Envision yourself actually seeing those goals come to reality.  Then move forward!

So what kind of a day are you having today?  I'm hoping that you're going to get out the Windex and polish that windshield so that there's nothing obscuring your vision as you move forward!  The choice is yours - choose wisely :-)

Secret Eating, Secret Shame

A couple of years ago Health.com published a fascinating article  entitled "What You Eat When Nobody's Watching."  Over 600 Health readers were surveyed to find out what they eat when nobody’s looking. According to the article, over half waited until no one is home to break into a secret snack stash or head to the grocery store and devour treats on the way home.  Amazingly, when the survey asked what was the strangest thing a person had eaten alone, the most common answer was "something they dug out of the trash."  Additionally, 86% of those in the survey waited until they were all alone to eat their favorite indulgent foods, 46% had been caught digging into a secret stash, and 71% reported that they had buried a food wrapper deep in the trash to hide the evidence.

Did I mention that these individuals were readers of a magazine that promotes health?  It's amazing to me that we are so inclined to engage in behaviors that we know aren't healthy for us, behaviors that, at some level, embarrass us.  

I used to do a lot of secret eating.  I was embarrassed to have people see what I ate, or how much I ate, and I got really good at hiding my eating.  When there would be goodies in the kitchen at work, I'd "palm" a piece (or two, or three) and take the food into the bathroom so I could eat it in private.  Even while I was doing this, I knew there was something really, really wrong about needing to eat in secret.  Obviously the results of my eating were evident to everyone, so I'm not sure I know who I thought I was fooling.  I know I didn't want people to see me eating and think, "no wonder she's so fat," or risk receiving disapproving looks.    What's sad is that I didn't really enjoy the food I ate in secret.  I ate it quickly so I wouldn't be caught, inhaling it with a "make it gone" mentality.  Sometimes my thinking was so irrational that my purpose in eating the food was to get rid of it so I wouldn't be tempted by it anymore.  That makes absolutely no sense, obviously, but when we're in denial about our eating and working hard to keep it a secret from others, our ability to think rationally may well suffer.

Eating food in secret, stashing wrappers deep in the trash container may have kept my eating away from the eyes of others, but my body was keeping track of every calorie.    For a long time, I convinced myself that even though I was morbidly obese, I was still healthy.  My lab work came back normal and I would think, "Whew, I'm still getting away with this."  Honestly, that's what I'd think.  I would also give a fleeting thought to maybe trying to do something before my bad habits caught up with me, and that would often be the start of yet another diet, but nothing lasted very long.  When the day finally came when all of my lab work came back awful - high cholesterol, high triglycerides, high blood glucose - I knew my years of bad habits had finally caught up with me.  To borrow an old expression from my childhood, "the chickens had finally come home to roost."  

It took almost two more years before I was ready to finally stop fooling myself or anybody else, and that's when I started on Take Shape for Life/Medifast. In addition to helping me lose 126 pounds, this program has also helped me to finally align what I know I should be doing with the actions that I actually do.  I am now focused on creating health in my life, and I try hard to make sure that the vast majority of the time I'm making food choices that support my goal.  I'm no longer trying to fool myself, and I no longer need to try and fool others.  It's very freeing to no longer be ashamed of what or how I eat!

Being willing to get honest with ourselves is the first step in aligning what we know we should do with what we actually do.  We need to be honest in determining what it is that we really want.  Do we really want to lose weight and get healthy?  If we do (if we REALLY do), then we will begin to make the choices needed to move us in the direction we want to go.   So ask yourself, "is this what I really want?"  If your answer is "yes", you know what to do:  choose wisely :-)

Feeling Caged In?

Does this program feel a bit restrictive to you?  Do you sometimes feel like you've put yourself in a very small cage, with all of your favorite foods just outside your reach (even when you stretch and reach between the bars)?  When we've been on other plans that had us counting calories or carbs or points, most of us had more food options than we have while we're on 5&1.  I've encountered a couple of people who ended up leaving this plan and opting to go back to the "points" program because they wanted more options in their daily menu.

I read a story that made me think about our self-imposed Take Shape for Life/Medifast "cage" and it gave me an entirely new perspective on this.  The story told about an individual who rescues chimpanzees.  These chimps were orphaned by those in the business of bush-meat trade and taken from the jungle; many of the chimps have lived their entire lives confined in a space smaller than a prison cell.  When the man who rescues them arrives to take them to the game reserve he calls "Chimp Eden," he finds that many of the chimps are hostile and untrusting, not understanding that he is trying to help them.  When he tried to put them into a smaller crate for the trip to their new home, the chimps put up quite a fight - they don't realize that the crate is temporary and that its purpose is to bring them to a much better place.

Hmmm . . . anybody see any application here?  :-)

When we start on 5&1, most of us are motivated because we've felt trapped in a body we don't want to be in.  We don't feel well, we don't like what the scale says, we don't like the size label on our clothes.  We're in a prison of obesity from which we're desperate to break free.  

It's almost ironic, isn't it, that the vehicle that will eventually bring us to a freedom that we can't even imagine can, temporarily, feel like a yet another cage.  Like the chimps that are being transported from their prison-like cell to "Chimp Eden", we may find ourselves fighting the very vehicle that is designed to bring us to a much better and happier place.

The Take Shape for Life/Medifast 5&1 program is a tool - this is not the rest of your life!  It is carefully designed to bring you from where you are to where you want to be, and to get you there as quickly and safely as possible.  To do that, it takes all of the guesswork out and, to keep it as simple as possible, removes most of our food choices.  The problem is that sometimes we stop viewing this as a vehicle that's taking us to our goal and we begin to resent the restrictions.  If we don't take a deep breath and get back our perspective, our resentment and feelings of deprivation can ultimately be our undoing.  

If we're feeling frustrated and restricted by the limitations of 5&1, we may be vulnerable to the food temptations that come our way.  However, if we view 5&1 as a secure transport vehicle to get us to our goal, we will be in a much stronger position to stand firm and "just say no."

Cage or safe transport?  How you choose to view this program may well influence other choices you make today.  Choose wisely :-)

Just Too Busy Right Now!

I need some help today to understand something.  I've heard this over and over again and I'm just a bit confused.  Anybody want to help me out?

Here's what has me confused:  I've heard from several people lately who were on plan and doing well at one point, but now say that they're too busy to stay on plan right now and will get back to 5&1 "when things settle down."  

Maybe it's because I found this to be the easiest plan I ever did, but I'm frankly at a loss to understand how it's possible to be too busy to grab a packet (or, more simply, a crunch bar or a bag of pretzels or cheese bites).  I am assuming that regardless of how busy we are, at some point in our day we do eventually put something in our mouths, right?  Even though I'm in maintenance, if I have a crazy-busy day, I'll eat Medifast meals throughout the day.  I may be too busy to fix something else, but I have bars, pretzels or cheese bites with me wherever I am, and I always have water.

Here's what I *think* might really be going on, based on my own past experience with food.  When I'd get really busy and that busyness resulted in lots of extra stress, it wasn't so much that I didn't have time to diet as it was that I didn't want to.  I rationalized that being extra busy and stressed meant I "deserved" to take a break and treat myself - I deserved to eat what I wanted and reward myself because I was working so hard.

I'm not meaning to be at all harsh or difficult here, and I hope that those of you who've read my blogs for a while have gotten a glimpse of my heart and know how much I care about people and how much I want everyone to get to a healthy weight.  I struggled with morbid obesity for so many years and I know how hard it is to change entrenched habits.   Past attempts at losing weight were always subject to the whims of weather, mood, how busy I was, etc. etc.  The reality is that it didn't take much for me to decide that "today isn't a good diet day" - I cut myself slack all the time.   The problem was that life continued to be busy, living in Michigan meant that the weather was often not to my liking, and, thanks to hormones, some days my mood varied moment to moment.  It all added up to lots of days that weren't "good diet days."

Funny thing happened, however.  One day I was ready - really ready - to make a change in my life.  I made the fundamental decision to get to a healthy weight.  Once I did that, my life didn't slow down, the weather in Michigan didn't improve, and my hormones . . . don't even go there!  Only this time none of this mattered when it came to whether or not I was going to stay on plan.  That certainly doesn't mean it was easy, because sometimes it was incredibly hard and sometimes the last thing I wanted to do in the morning was face a day filled with 5 Medifast meals and a "boring lean and green."  But even being tired of the program didn't alter the fact that I'd made a fundamental choice to get healthy.  As a result, as each challenge came (and trust me, they came), I figured out what I needed to do to stay on plan.

In the end, whether or not we choose to stay on plan probably depends less on how busy our schedule is and more on whether or not we've made the decision to just do it.  The choice is yours . . . choose wisely :-)

No Wiggle Room

I remember seeing an ad in the paper several years ago for a weight loss program and the ad said, "If you could lose weight on your own, you would have already done so."  I bristled when I read that because I still believed that I could do it on my own.  I knew what to eat, I had a fairly good understanding of nutrition and I had a thick book that listed the calories, fat and carb grams of just about any food you could think of.  I rejected the notion that I needed a program - I was smart and I had the tools and the information I needed.  The problem was that this smart, equipped woman kept gaining weight, ended up with 268 pounds packed on my 5' 5" frame.

For over twenty years, I was either on some kind of a diet or reading about the newest "get thin quick" diet, and I managed to acquire a shelf full of diet books, each promising that this was THE way to lose weight.  The problem was, I thought I was smarter than the program.  It didn't matter what program I was on, within a few days I'd be back to my old tricks - playing with the program, changing things here and there, substituting one food for another.  I figured that as long as I understood the principles, I could mix it up and do it my way.  

Obviously, doing things "my way" didn't work for me.  By the time I made the decision to order my first four-week Take Shape for Life/Medifast order, I was ready to just follow the program.  I finally came to the realization that I couldn't lose weight on my own and, despite the fact that I was intelligent and informed, there was a real disconnect between the knowledge I supposedly had and my actions.  Reaching the end of myself was the start of what will be the rest of my healthy life.

I followed the 5&1 program to the letter.  I weighed and measured my protein portions, I measured my vegetables, and I just did what I was told.  To my amazement, it actually worked :-).  I didn't play with the calorie or carb allotment, substituting my own 100 calorie this or that for one of the Medifast meals - I just opened another packet every 2-1/2 or 3 hours and kept losing weight.  I also didn't try to outsmart the program by over-exercising, which is something I'd done in the past.  I waited three weeks to start exercising (actually, I waited a bit longer than that . . . ), and I kept my exercise to about 45 minutes a day.  And it kept on working!

There really is no built-in "wiggle room" on 5&1.  It's restrictive by design, and it's designed to help you safely reach a healthy weight as quickly as possible.  Have you reached the point where you're ready to just follow the program, or are you still trying to figure out an angle where you can sort-of do the program and sort-of do your own thing?  How you honestly answer this question will determine the likelihood of you being successful on this program.   Ultimately, the choice of how you do the program is yours to make.  Choose wisely :-)

Dying for Food

I recently re-read an article that was published a couple of years ago in the medical journal, Lancet.  The study was paid for by Britain's Medical Research Council, the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and others.  Given the sad fact that the obesity epidemic has only gotten worse since this article was first published, there are now even more people at risk of early death due to being overweight and obese.  Here's an excerpt from the article I read.

“Obesity Can Trim 10 Years Off Life”

Being obese can take years off your life and in some cases may be as dangerous as smoking, a new study says. British researchers at the University of Oxford analyzed 57 studies mostly in Europe and North America, following nearly one million people for an average of 10 to 15 years. During that time, about 100,000 of those people died.

The studies used Body Mass Index (BMI), a measurement that divides a person's weight in kilograms by their height squared in meters to determine obesity. Researchers found that death rates were lowest in people who had a BMI of 23 to 24, on the high side of the normal range.

Health officials generally define overweight people as those with a BMI from 25 to 29, and obese people as those with a BMI above 30.

 "If you are heading towards obesity, it may be a good idea to lose weight," said Sir Richard Peto, the study's main statistician and a professor at Oxford University.

Peto and colleagues found that people who were moderately fat, with a BMI from 30 to 35, lost about three years of life. People who were morbidly fat — those with a BMI above 40 — lost about 10 years off their expected lifespan, similar to the effect of lifelong smoking.

Moderately obese people were 50 percent more likely to die prematurely than normal-weight people, said Gary Whitlock, the Oxford University epidemiologist who led the study.

He said that obese people were also two thirds more likely to die of a heart attack or stroke, and up to four times more likely to die of diabetes, kidney or liver problems. They were one sixth more likely to die of cancer.

"This really emphasizes the importance of weight gain," said Dr. Arne Astrup, a professor of nutrition at the University of Copenhagen who was not linked to the Lancet study. "Even a small increase in your BMI is enough to increase your risks for cardiovascular disease and cancer."

I can't help but ask myself, am I willing to die for food?  I’ve seen people standing on street corners holding signs that say, “Will work food,” but I can tell you with assurance that I’m not willing to stand on a corner with a sign that says, “Will die for food.”

I am willing to die for my faith (Jesus died for me, and I would die rather than renounce my Savior); I would die for my husband, my children or my grandchildren.  I would possibly die to save the life of a stranger.

But I refuse to die for food!  As I approach my five-year anniversary of reaching my goal, I am SO happy to know that although I will ultimately die of something, it will NOT be of an obesity-related disease!  I refuse to cut my life short – as many as 10 years short, according to this article – because of food. 

Because obesity can never be cured, only managed, I commit again today to make the choices I need to live a long and healthy life.  I’m too busy living to die for food!  You have a choice to make today, too . . . choose wisely :-)