What does it take to lose weight? Does it take doing everything perfectly, all the time? Does it mean never making mistakes? Heck no!! If it did, noooooobody would do it and I do mean nobody.
Losing weight and keeping it off takes perseverance. What does that mean? That means it’s okay to make mistakes, it’s okay to skip a day of exercise now and then. It’s okay to do something you regret (like drink 3/4 of a bottle of DiSaronno but we’re not gonna talk about that right now). Whatever you’ve done, it’s in the past, it’s done. Cheating on your taxes lands you in jail, so yeah it has long term consequences. Cheating on your spouse may wind you up in divorce court which clearly has long term consequences. But cheating on a diet, or just occasionally splurging, doesn’t have long term consequences-only short term. Meaning, it’ll put weight back on for a little while, but the diet and the LapBand are waiting for you as soon as you’re ready to re-start. All you have to do is say, “that was yesterday, this is today. I’m not going to beat myself up about that, I’m just going to keep moving forward now.”
It’s just an excuse to say to yourself that since you ate two servings of dessert last night, that your diet’s toast, so you might as well just keep eating now. Now is NOT then. Each new day, each meal, each temptation to snack is a new chance to make a change and d0 the right thing. In your heart of hearts you know what foods are junky and which you should avoid. You’ve all been on enough diets to have accumulated knowledge to get you through the day making good choices. You had the strength of character to make a big, definitive step for your health by having a LapBand. You’ve already done the hard part!
So today you should challenge yourself. Challenge yourself to not eat more than 1200 or 1500 or 1800 calories (whatever your goal is) and to make those calories good and nutritious. You’ll stumble, but just keep moving forward. Remember, every journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.
28. April 2009 at 1:15 pm
I gained wt for the first time since I had the lap band and I’ve been doing exactly what you said. Giving myself a reason to give up. Sometimes I truly think that’s what I’m looking for. But I’m going to stop and find the motivation that got me here in the first place. Thank you for your encouragement. It’s appreciated and needed!
29. April 2009 at 9:23 am
that’s what we’re here for! No matter what happens – gain, lose, plateau- we’re here to help you stay on the right path or veer back toward it. Don’t give yourself an excuse to quit just ’cause it’s a hard journey or because you’ve hit a tricky bend in the road. Come here to this site or to the office and we’ll help motivate you as well as we can.