Routine is an important part of a well-balanced diet.
Last week was a week full of celebrations. My birthday kicked it off on the 26th, followed by the start of my week long vacation from work that Monday (27th) and my 4-year wedding anniversary on the 30th.
It was a fun week.
Unfortunately, all my old friends came back to visit. Soda. Sweet tea. Large portions. Second helpings. Buffets. Everything I’ve eliminated for the past 27 weeks came back to chip away at the 105.4 105 pounds I’ve lost.
I have a lot of feelings:
- Disbelief
- Shame
- Doubt
- Disappointment
- Embarrassment
Most of all, I’m scared. A week vacation won’t throw away all the work I’ve done for the past 27, but it does show I’m not as strong as I (or you) think I am.
It shows that the ability to regain this weight is very, very real.
And while a lot of bad came out of last week, something good came out of it as well: focus. This last week proved that I’m not supernatural and don’t have a magic formula for losing weight. If I want to keep losing weight for the next 5 months I need to keep my butt in the gym and eat moderately.
After last week’s meltdown, I couldn’t be more focused in doing just that. I’m going to lose 150 pounds in 2009 and absolutely nothing can stop me.
Nothing.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
You can’t be stopped!!!!
Keep up the good work. I am excited about seeing your weight loss progress this Wednesday, I bet you’ll lose at least a few pounds… I’ll be here bright and early!!
Go for it! But remember, losing is the easy part. Make sure that you are learning to live healthy, so that you can maintain that loss.
Cheating every once and awhile won’t hurt you — especially when you’re so incredibly focused. For anything, cheating is just a reminder that you have to get back on the house immediately.
I’m sure you’ll see even more incredible results in another week or so because of your vacation time. :)
WOW you sound like me! Despite having a bad week you are my inspiration to keep going…I haven’t been in the gym but pretty sporadically the past week or so and I can feel it mentally and physically. Understand you are motiviation and are giving people a deserved kick in the pants. Your struggles are helpful to other people!
That’s what it’s going to take, Tyler!! You will do it.
Please don’t feel shame or discouragement. You are still an inspirational person. You should allow yourself that celebration. You did the right thing by refocusing. This is the first time I felt the need to write after just following for awhile.
Tyler,
As the end of the year, starting typically at the end of October, you will be hit a “perfect storm” of celebratory gatherings laden with the foods you are trying to avoid.
Here are some tips:
1) Lay down the law, you are no longer the garbage disposal. Your family and friends probably look to you to take care of the leftovers. No more. You need to break this habit either by telling them directly or feigning illness until they get the point.
2) When going out with your friends nurse the food that you are eating even if you feel ravenously starved. People don’t tend to push you to get an extra portion if your plate is still full. Eat slowly, nurse that beer, and by the end of the night you will be full without excess extra calories.
3) You are not solar powered. The days are getting shorter and it’s going to get harder and harder to go to gym in the evening once your available light begins to diminish. Your best bet is to work out in the mornings before work and then work out again in the evening. If your friends call and take you away or something comes up at the last minute, you still have that workout from the morning keeping you on track!
Hopefully this helps. Good luck on your journey and keep focused on your goal.
My plan is to weigh 185 pounds by Thanksgiving and just regain 9 pounds over the holidays. That means I’ll still hit my goal of losing 150 pounds in 2009.
Just kidding — but you’re right.
Hey, my friend, what a candidly honest post. As I get ready for a long-awaited vacation week after next, I’m already anxious about how the trip will impact my weight loss and training. But I think the folks on here have it right: It’s okay to take a little time off and enjoy some splurging. We just have to know that when the time is over, it’s back to business-as-usual. So don’t beat yourself up too bad! (And Jason is right: The perfect storm is coming. It’s going to be brutal!)
Thanks for the honesty. We’ve been having a similar experience while on vacation – even though we tried so hard to be active and avoid junk. Those family dinners will get you! Sometimes it takes this backtracking to reset our motivation.
Tyler, the most important thing you said in that whole post was that you (we) aren’t as strong as you (we) think you (we) are. I keep putting we in parenthesis, because it is all of us. Once we get out of our habits, it is easy to fall back into our old ways. We must not allow that old life to creep back in.
Tyler, in spite of your recent hiccup, we continue to believe you’ll reach your goals. Stay focused! You can do it!
Hang in there Tyler! And remember that your life is changing, not just your diet. The person you are becoming is different than the old one, so when those old habits come back to tempt you just ask yourself “is this what the new me wants or is this the old me creeping up and trying to drag me back down?”
I’m on my way to losing 100 pounds, which is something I never could have imagined. It’s taken me much longer. I started changing my eaten habits and lifestyle in 2006, when at my heaviest I was 272 (I’m 5’9″). I now weigh 183. I’ve had many bumps in the road since then and have had long spells where I thought my weight would never go down, no matter what I did.
I think when you finally hit that point, and we all do, realize that sometimes it’s best if you simply maintain your new weight and worry about losing more when the time is right.
I also know that buying into the latest diet fads and “nutritional supplements” is very tempting for a lot of people, but I would ask them to first educate themselves and then try new things without going off the deep end. In the end, common sense and good nutrition, with a little moderate exercise, is really what helps us lose weight and keep it off.
My weight loss journey started with cutting the carbs, but afterwards I focused on portion control and moderate exercise (walking, not lifting weights). It’s funny, but out of this whole experience, the one thing I’ve learned time and time again is that weight loss can actually be easy and that it really starts with the food we eat and being active human beings.
Good luck and great blog! You are making a difference!!
I’ve been a fan of this blog for a while, and haven’t seen you post much about cooking healthy foods for yourself. Do you grocery shop, and buy ingredients for healthy recipes? What steps have you taken to incorporate more fresh veggies into your diet?
In my own weight loss efforts, building the habit of reaching for healthy foods when I’m hungry has been key — and a critical part of that has been learning to enjoy cooking!