"Losing Slowly"

"Losing Slowly"

Now here's a topic I've struggled, whined, and sighed over. My weight loss chart looks like gentle hills, when I wish it looked like a ski slope. I look with envy at someone's chart that has: lose, lose, star (ie: 5#s), lose, lose, star, etc. sloping ever downward, plunging toward goal.

It's taken me 36 weeks to lose 20#s. That's more than half a pound a week. That's a fact, not opinion. It's also a fact that WW expects this kind of result. Half to 2 #s a week.

The existing materials suggest that slow weight loss is healthier. The new Welcome book comes right out & states that rapid weight loss can aggravate gall bladder illness. I know 3 women at my work who had their gall bladders out due to rapid weight loss. Maybe quick loss isn't so good, hmm?

My "aha" moment was when I realized that it doesn't matter how long it takes me to get to goal, because this is a permanent lifestyle change. Permanent. Lifestyle. Change.

I'm going to celebrate that I've stuck to it, rather than bemoan how long it's taken me, & how far I need to go. I've never been tempted to not go to a meeting. I've never felt like giving up.

But I have thought of this a just trying for a year. So that tells me I was thinking of going off WW at some point. That's the diet mentality I'm discarding now. That's why I've lost & then put it all back on, and then some. I used to think OK, I lost all the weight, now I can go back to eating normal.

But the thing is, that wasn't normal eating. That's the kind of eating that got me fat in the first place. THIS is the new normal: WW, and especially the Core foods.

This morning I found my 16 week Stay and Succeed charm. It's a pair of clapping hands with the number 16 on it. I'm going to put it on my 10% ring. It's another anchor that says losing weight takes time, and I'm going to give my self the time I need to make WW work for me.