t-time

Gaining weight is easy, losing it is hard and according to several well published studies keeping it off is damn near impossible. Studies show that 95% of people who lose weight put it back on in five years or less.

95%

Ouch.

Why is that? I’m not sure what the studies say but my guess is people don’t fully change their lives. The diet/exercise program they were on was just temporary. They started their weight loss regime to reach a goal: reunion, new years, summertime, something. And once that goal is reach they go right back to their old, fatty ways.

Raise your hand if this sounds familiar:

You start your diet/exercise regime. You follow it to the letter (mostly), the whole time counting the pounds you lost and the counting down the days until you can end this godforsaken diet. Ouch. And the moment you reach your goal weight it’s HELLO OREOS! WOO HOO!

And then we complain that diets never work and how is it we managed to put the weight back on so fast. And this is for those of us who actually got started to begin with.

LOL.

As a person who has gained and lost twenty pounds most of my adult life I understand the process all too well. What I’ve come to realize however, is there is only one way to lose the weight and to keep it off: Recognize that whatever I do I have to do it FOR LIFE.

That’s right. For life.

So if you’re going to do Atkins, you’re going to do Atkins for life. If you’re going to do Weight Watchers, you’re going to do Weight Watchers for life. If you’re going to do The Zone, you’re gonna do it for life. It’s just that simple.

You can’t look at a ‘diet’ as a temporary thing. It’s PERMANENT. So change your way of thinking and recognize that whatever you decide to do, it needs to be something you can do forever.

For me for example, I recognize I can’t be on a diet that’s not going to allow me to eat ice cream…lol. I can’t. I tried. It never works. SMH. And the reality of it is I just eat more ice cream. LOL. I’ve never been good at deprivation.

So think long and hard before you start that next diet program. Ask yourself if this is something you can do for life. If the answer is no, go back to the drawing board and try again. Remember it shouldn’t feel like a diet. It should feel like your life. ‘Cause the truth of the matter is…it is.