(I am shamelessly stealing this analogy from my
Weight Watchers leader, Ellen … but I am totally giving her credit for it!)
How excited would you be if
someone asked you to accompany them on a trip across the country? You know … like from LA to L.A.?
That’s about 2,000 miles. Pretty
fun, huh? So you get all ready to hit
the road, then they announce to you that you’re going to be walking instead of
driving or flying. Now how excited are
you? Maybe not so much …
That was the analogy
presented to us this week and how it applies to our weight loss journey …
because believe me, it is a journey … and it is often like walking 2,000
miles.
Walking in the door and
perhaps the first few weeks are like the initial excitement/anticipation of the
trip – planning the route, where you’ll stay, what you’ll see when you get
there. Then reality sets in – we’re
going to be walking? This might take
longer than I thought … how do I plan for this?
What will keep me motivated to reach my destination?
With every trip, there are
unforeseen detours, stops, side trips, slow downs and sometimes break downs!
You’re walking along at a
pretty fair pace and up ahead there is a detour … you’ve got your meal plan
laid out for the day, then that friend calls that you haven’t seen or heard
from in ages and wants to “do lunch.” At
a not-too-points-friendly restaurant.
Well, you know, this is a special occasion … just this one time won’t
hurt. So you detour off your meal plan
and order that higher points meal and split dessert. Definitely not a deal-breaker, but certainly a
detour off your original path. How do
you find the motivation to get back on track?
For me, it means honestly evaluating the meal, counting all the points
for it, tracking it … and moving on. There
are always going to be detours on the road … if we follow all the signs, we’ll
get back on the right road.
Sometimes, when you’re
walking, you just get tired … you just feel like you have to stop and rest …
that’s okay! We’ve all been there. Your body needs the rest. It doesn’t mean you completely derail all the
progress you’ve made. You take the rest
you need, find strength in the rest, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and
hit the road again. It could be that you’ve
injured yourself, you’re facing a health issue, you’re going through a family
crisis … whatever it is that is forcing the rest … just rest. Look at all the progress you’ve made up to
this point … look at the big picture, not the little rest you’re taking – find your
motivation in that.
Even if you take a side trip
or have a complete break down – look how far you’ve come. Ever been stuck in traffic for a while and
you begin to see cars turning around?
Then in just a minute or two, it clears up and you’re on your way
again. Don’t get that close to the
finish line and turn around and head back in the other direction! You’ve come too far! Push on … you CAN do it.
Losing weight is not easy …
let me say that again … losing weight is NOT easy. For those of us who have a lot of weight to
lose (and truthfully, whether it’s 15 pounds or 150 pounds or more, it’s a lot
to each person individually), it is tempting to buy into the commercialism of
an “easy” fix … whether it’s the latest diet craze, some new miracle pill or
surgery. There is no easy fix … let me
say THAT again … there is NO EASY FIX!
It is a long, hard road. When I
walked through the doors of Weight Watchers 16 months ago, I knew that this was
possibly my last chance to really make an honest-to-goodness attempt at losing
weight. For me, the motivation was (and,
in large part, still is) not wanting to face a surgeon’s knife to deal with my
morbid obesity. Because I knew that is
where I was headed - either as a “willing” candidate for weight reduction
surgery or as an unwilling patient to deal with one of the effects of my morbid
obesity.
So how to stay motivated as
you trek the 2,000 miles? Lots of ways …
surround yourself with the tools you need to be successful, become a little bit
selfish when it comes to your weight loss goals, start talking differently,
reward yourself for every goal achieved.
I’m learning to clean out my
surroundings and keep them clean. I just
can’t keep M&Ms around anymore – sorry to everyone who has missed that jar
from my desk. I’ve replaced those with other
options, tools, to keep me motivated and successful. I’ve talked in previous posts about the
amazing RunKeeper app on my phone that tracks my walking progress. Well, now I’ve paired that with a Pandora
radio station and I can walk to all the 70’s disco music I want! Don’t hate …
I’m learning that the things
I have said to myself about my weight for decades are things I would never say
to a friend who was facing a weight problem … so why should I say them to
myself? Why should I belittle
myself? Why should I be so hard on
myself? Why don’t I point to the
positive changes I’ve made instead of the way my belly is still jelly?
And possibly, the best
motivator? Start rewarding
yourself! It doesn’t have to be a huge
thing … celebrate that five-pound loss with a new pair of earrings (after all,
accessories are one-size-fits-all – I can still wear the same earrings I wore
in high school – I’ll bet you can too!) … celebrate sticking to your plan for a
week by heading to the library and checking out that great new book you’ve
wanted to read and read it … celebrate when you’ve been physically active all
week by buying a new set of earbuds and tune in to that disco station!
So, where am I on this 2,000
mile trek? I’m somewhere around Ft.
Stockton, Texas. And I can’t tell you how very, very fitting
that is for this part of my journey. It’s
almost laughable and certainly ironic how perfectly fitting this post is with where I am …
anybody ever been to Ft.
Stockton?!
