Be The Momentum

I remember talking to Carnie Wilson (yeah, you better pick that up because I just dropped a name) a week or so after my RNY gastric bypass surgery.  I asked her what she ate for lunch and she told me some tuna in vinaigrette salad dressing and half an apple.  It sounded wonderful to me.  She was four years out at the time and maintaining her weight loss with no problem.  I was looking forward to the day when I, too, would be eating like that.  I was surviving on sugar free popsicles and chicken broth.  Now I am ten years out and appalled at how I forget what I should eat.  

Some days it’s yogurt, crackers and peanut butter, salad, and some chicken.  Now that may not sound like much to you, and may sound healthy to you, but it’s still not the best choice and it’s still not what I know how to do.  I am amazed at the ability I have to disappoint myself.  Am I setting myself up for failure?  Am I setting unrealistic goals?  

I don’t think so.  But the bigger questions it raises are 1.  Will I ever get out of this cycle of self-deprecation and 2.  Will I take the responsibility necessary to change?  You see, if you have accepted the simple fact that you are responsible for your failure then I feel you must also accept that you are responsible for your change.  

You hear “be the ball” well I say “be the momentum.”  So, it’s physics.  I think that if you just start the ball rolling, the ball of change as it were, then that will pick up speed and carry you on.  It doesn’t mean that it will always roll easily downhill.  In my ten years after surgery, my eating has gotten away from me plenty of times.  I’m thinking about bacon this very second.  Chocolate covered bacon.  It’s fair season, and I’ve never had it.  Just popped into my head.  Unbidden.  Unwelcome.  There nonetheless.

When I was moderating the support group the other day I heard myself saying the same things, again.  If you want to lose weight, or maintain your weight loss, you need to log it.  I prefer www.myfitnesspal.com. There are many such free options.  You need to take in your lean protein first, and your fluids. You need your vitamins.  Done properly, you really don’t need more than 1,000 calories a day.  

Here’s a thought, you and everyone in your family, don’t make any changes, don’t make any special food purchases.  Eat whatever you’ve been eating, just log it all.  See what you and yours have been consuming.  Then decide if it’s time to make a responsible change.  

I have already done that.  And I have already eliminated white bread, well, all bread from my diet.  I haven’t had a soda in ten years, so, they’re still gone.  The next thing I’m going after that I know triggers me to eat is sugar, glorious sugar.  Sugar comes in more than one form, so this will be tricky, but it’s part of my next phase.  For my way of thinking it is easier to just eliminate an entire group of things.  It’s just how I’m wired.  

Do what works for you.  Do what you can live with.  Do what will make you feel better and be healthier in the long run because that is the change you will be able to keep.

The cliches roll out so easily it seems.  In the case of your body and your health, and change, it’s not going to be easy.  At first.  Nothing worth doing ever is.  But you already knew that,

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