Appeasing the Gods of Weight-loss

Appeasing the the weight-gain Gods is easy: whatever your unhealthy-habit, they always give back to you in abundance (pun not intended!) and the weight-loss Gods seemingly are pretty hard to please.

Gods or not, I resolved to do something about it, and one thing that really kicked my weight-loss plan when I started this blog was writing down my one unhealthy habit that had always lead me up the path of failure. It was that one, big, consistent mistake that had always derailed me (or maybe, angered my weight-loss Gods!).

I call it my one-more-bite-won't-harm-me syndrome. I would pretend that extra servings of my fave food won't add up. That the fave-foods are exempt from the laws of weight-loss and gain, and that the extra calories will somehow just cease to exist. One-big-mistake. It all adds up, and causes some serious weight-gain over time!

Add to the equation those hard to appease weight-loss-Gods, and you're not getting anywhere any soon if you keep committing to your unhealthy habit.

All of us have some or the other seemingly innocent unhealthy habits we keep repeating, all the while wondering why the scale won't show lower numbers. Some of you might slip up with the workouts, suffer from the inconsistency-bug, or not workout intensely enough. Some, like me are prone to the one-more-bite syndrome. Others don't pay attention to their hunger cues, or they snack mindlessly. Or maybe its that daily dessert after dinner habit. All of these habits are serious roadblocks that seduce you, tempt you, and seriously derail your weight-loss plans.

Ahh yes. So I identified that one-unhealthy-habit that was causing me to slip up every time. Now what? Habits are hard to change. Temptation is tough to resist. Fave-foods are faves for a reason.

How did I go about kicking that one-unhealthy-habit for good?

I wrote it down on the top of a big sheet of paper. And then, below it, I listed all the millions of times my weight caused any negative impact on how I lived my life and on the choices I made. I listed all the ways people had been mean to me (yes, those things are tough to forget!), and all the ways I had shied away from opportunities because I had low self esteem. I put down on paper every painful event I remembered that resulted directly or indirectly from my weight issues. Trust me, the list was long, and at times, I couldn't stand to write things down, but I still did.

Doing that was tough, it was cathartic, it was painful. It made me sad, and I was furious at how much that one lame habit was costing me emotionally and physically.

Every time I'm tempted to give up the changes I've implemented since, I'm reminded of that sheet of paper and the immense ways that one-unhealthy-habit influenced my life until now, the immense ways it has caused me pain or sadness until now. Having it all there in my face on that sheet of paper, objectively enumerated rather than scattered memories of the pain, or weak excuses for happenings is a very powerful reminder of why I need to do this, and why its worth it to stick with the plan.