chaly
There, but for the grace of God, go I
Jan 16, 2014
I have been faithfully reading posts here on OH daily. It seems like every couple days is another post on "regain". Regain, what a nasty word. It is something that has worried me since deciding to have surgery. Regain would mean failure. Failure is what I have had happen on every diet I have done. Tonight, I came across yet another post on someone not so far out of surgery who is not on program. The "vets" were sharing with her that she needed to gain control of the situation as she could potentially regain her lost weight. One vet in particular shared her story of a 39 pound weight gain. It made me think of how easy it could be to go back to that life, and to think of all I went through to get to where I am at.
I used to think this was the "easy way out". I believed the lie that so many hear about weight loss surgery. This is definitely not the easy way out. Exercise does not come easy. It is easier to say, "It is too cold to walk today." It is not easy to make the best decisions on what to eat, or to actually eat when you are not hungry. I still have to deal with the head hunger. I still have my brain telling me I should be hungry when, in fact, I'm not. I still deal with the occasional craving of chocolate, although, I now have the "foreign" cravings of salad with ranch, or cauliflower and cheese sauce as well. It would be so easy to go back to where I was if I chose to not fight the battle on a daily basis.
Upon further inspection of myself I realized that to be successful I need to take this one second at a time, one minute at a time, one hour at a time, and then to one day at a time. If I do this I can be successful for today. Then if I follow this example tomorrow I will be successful tomorrow as well. This is going to be a life long battle, not just a battle of a few short months. I was reminded today by a fellow member that, " the key to success...not doing this to just take the weight off but to make it a habit forever to eat this way, those are the ones that are successful at maintenance." I do need to make these things a "habit", exercise, eating healthy, and even confidence in myself that "I can do this". A "habit", an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary. It is hard to imagine exercise, healthy eating, not over eating, and not beating myself up will ever be a habit. Maybe, someday I will get there. But for today I will remember "There, but for the grace of God, go I."
