Why being a success is better than being perfect.

Jun 02, 2010

 So a year out and I weigh 193lbs. I'm under 200 and enough so that if I stay here forever I'll probably never see it again as long as eat the way I've been eating. And when people ask me these days what my goal weight is I tell them, but always with the caveat that "Well, I'm pretty much done." What I mean by that is that I am done caring what I weigh as long as I stay here abouts. It's extremely liberating to live this way. This daily weigher has stopped getting on the scale but once a week. 

Why!? You'd say. Why don't you cut back, exercises like a maniac, isn't the goal to get to goal. Nope. Don't care, not one freaking iota about getting to goal weight. And here's why. 

I am a Weight loss surgery success. The Duodenal switch Excess Weight loss average is 80-90 percent. I have lost that. I have done it in a year. I used to weigh 453lbs I now weigh 193. I don't shop in plus sizes. I wear Medium tops. I can run a mile. I'm normal. And I'm normal sized. People I know have referred to me as "skinny," what?!?


I think it's a disturbing trend across the boards that people focus too much on being perfect and not enough on being a success. Even your surgeon is not going to guarantee you will get to goal weight or a normal BMI and lots of them will probably use non-committed language regarding just how low you do get. Mostly THEY want to see you lose about average excess weight loss. And if you are a super heavyweight sometimes a goal to lose 300lbs is simply unrealistic. But hey when you weigh 600lbs you SHOULD do a happy dance of joy to be down to 250, Right!??!?

I'm not going to beat myself up, I'm not going to dwell on my BMI, I'm not going to try to force my body to do something, if it happens past this point it happens. I am done. I am a SUCCESS. I don't need to be perfect. I don't need to be a martyr. I'm already a success. I'm happy being a success. 

Now, I'm not even saying you shouldn't try to get to your goal, or that I won't ever reach mine, or that it's not good to have one. But obsessing over it is bad. Thinking that you are a failure after LOSING 180+lbs IS SUPER BAD. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt. Revel in how you are a success TODAY. Nothing good comes from calling yourself a failure. Ever.  

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