‘Easy way out’(?)

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yo-yo-dieting

I had a little too much time for research and here’s a topic which has been going on my mind for a while.

This Wednesday I went to a live concert with my closest friends, one of them is doing a special program to lose weight and we talked about her and my experiences a little. She’s doing a 3 week acupuncture treatment (3 times a week) followed by a 600cal daily diet. She’s already lost 6kg (13.2lbs) in 2 weeks, and she’s planning to do another 3 week to fully lose the weight. When the treatment is over she has to maintain an introduction diet, first about 1000-1200cal per day and slowly increase the intake level. When she asked about ‘my method’ I only said that I’m doing the natural way. Eat healthy and exercise. When I asked her about this treatment, her words ‘I chose the easy way out’.

So what do you say, is there an easy way out? Do such things exist?

I mean I remember back in August. I was almost at the highest weight of all time and it seemed so impossible to reach not the thin, but even the decent overweight zone. I struggled a lot (I still do) with patience and being realistic. Everything was so far away and my tiny efforts to lose the weight often made me think about that my situation was so hopeless that there was no point in trying. I tried special diets in my life, the zero cal diet which failed me every time after a couple of days (shocker!), I did twice the 90 days diet but I gave up them, too. Typical Yo-yo dieting. This summer I thought about diet pills too and a liquid diet but I never had the courage. I did tons of drastic things in my life for weight loss and I refuse to make the same mistakes.

I mean (and don’t get me wrong, this is my opinion and I honestly cheer for my friend to succeed) most overweight people have eating problems. I don’t deny, I did (do?) have a serious eating disorder. When I decided to lose weight it was mostly because I was so fed up with my crazy habit, that I wanted to get rid of it and for me losing weight was just a bonus. You can now figure out how deep I was in that eating disorder mess.

And if someone ever enters to such vicious circle I don’t think there are such things as a magic wand … for a long term. You can heal fast but what comes easy, goes away easy. However, I’m not saying that a treatment like I’ve mentioned is that easy. It’s a treatment after all. 600cal daily intake for 3 weeks. You need the courage, you need to decide to hang onto it. And you need to follow the strict rules. It’s absolutely not ‘that’ easy. It’s a different point of view maybe.

Even though I complain a lot about how hard and how slow this process I hardly mention how much it becomes easier day by day. Working out became the natural routine of my day, so did healthy food choices, or that I don’t eat after 7pm. Whenever I’m standing before a wending machine it never pops in my mind that I should choose a sugary soda instead of mineral water. Little things. It causes less and less problems when I’m around people that I follow my unique routine and I’ve learnt to say no and say yes to small portions. I’m starting to believe that I’m getting out of a very deep hole which took 6 years of my life but I’m still careful with such statements. I still have weak points and days, but who doesn’t?

So in my opinion if everybody ever has the desire to leave the weight mess behind for long term needs to go through the change of lifestyle. It’s hard, time consuming and sometimes very messy, followed by mistakes. But in this process there’s time to learn from these mistakes and experience. And slowly, slowly everything gets better. Working out tests your stamina, and I love the concept of achievement. It forms the body, keeps someone active and healthy.

I’m not saying I’m a masochist. Because if a fairy said to me that tomorrow I could be skinny, I would take the deal immediately. But in my case there were serious issues behind the fact that I’m overweight and it seems that I’m on my way to fix them. Being healthy (mentally/physically) is an extremely important thing.

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