Weight Loss without Worry

  Whether consciously or not we have all created a story about ourselves and the life we lead, it is our way of forming an identity in the world.  A big chapter of My Book about Me used to be, “I love ice cream”.  Everyone who knew me, even as a casual acquaintance know about my love affair with it.  I made jokes about it, swooned over it and challenged people to prove that they loved it as much as I did – they never won the challenge.  Ice cream, ice cream, ice cream – it was almost synonymous with my name.

This story was fun, I used it as an ice breaker when I met someone new and wove it into conversation among friends.  But there was a problem with my story; the problem was it was keeping me overweight.

I had always carried a few extra pounds but when I got pregnant my weigh ballooned and it stayed that way after my daughter was born.  I was really uncomfortable with the 40 extra pounds I was carrying and knew I had to do something to lose it so I decided to cut back on my daily calories.  This meant I had to cut back on eating my favorite food, ice cream.  The problem was that ice cream and I were pretty closely linked together and people were reluctant to let me change my story. 

I had created a connection between me and the treat; I was someone who absolutely loved ice cream and had to have it. What ended up happening was that every time I was somewhere ice cream was being served, people expected me to eat it.  When I decided to dedicate myself to a reduced-calorie diet I found myself in the unpleasant position of not only having to deal with my craving to eat ice cream but also with the expectation others had for me to act a certain way.  I made a decision to change, but my story was still alive and kicking.  This felt like unfair peer-pressure and would have been easy to succumb to had I not set my mind to change.

What is your story?  Do people associate a certain food with you?  Are you the wine lover or the soda-oholic?  Are you the one who brags about how much you can eat?  When you decide to change your eating habits you must understand that any story you created about yourself or any story that you allowed to perpetuate and grow about your eating habits will linger long after you decide to change. 

Don’t be angry with friends or family who keep supporting your story, they can’t read your mind.  You have allowed the story to become fun for them so give them time to let the old story die and start conditioning them with a new one that supports long-term weight control.  Who knows, maybe you become the one who walks everywhere or who always drinks water or chews gum.  These stories can still be fun but without the unwanted side-effects.

 Let me know if you can relate to this post or you have a story to share.  I would love to read your comments.