I experienced a honeymoon phase that started about two weeks in and lasted through Week 6 of my new weight-loss plan. I didn’t get too depressed about anything; in fact, I felt pretty great knowing I was finally turning things around with my weight, which has been out of hand for years. Sometimes, starting a weight-loss program can give you an intense positive focus. Once the new routines become, well, routine, your focus broadens again to include the rest of life, the non-weight-loss aspects. And you realize that weight loss probably won’t solve other issues that may be going on, won’t necessarily help you to discover your calling in life or turn you into a super-social creature if you’ve always been introverted and kept to yourself.
Weight loss will not make me feel normal. I may feel more at ease and less self-conscious in some instances, but it will not turn me into someone else. Weight loss will not make me less emotional or less squeamish. Weight loss will not make me suddenly acceptable in certain circles. Weight loss will not give me back the years I spent obese, or help me to forget certain things, or give me a sudden penchant for public speaking.
Nevertheless. Weight loss will take weight off of me. I carry a heavy bag to work most days, and today as I hefted it, I thought: I have probably already lost this much weight. It’s heavy! How am I carrying so much around every day? I have many more backpacks to lose still.
Weight loss, the journey, will boost confidence in my ability to work consistently and faithfully toward a valuable goal.
Weight loss will spare me certain anxious doctor’s visits and costly medications that would be part of a parallel, alternate future—the one in which I did not lose the weight.
Weight loss continues to reinforce the value of physical activity in creating a balanced life. The movement is good for my head, heart, and body.
Don’t give up. This is still my mantra.
9. November 2009 at 6:40 PM
Great post! I think coming out of the honeymoon phase is one of the biggest things that has kept me from losing weight in the past. Don’t give up is a great mantra. I’m stealing it to use for myself too:) Keep it up, you’re doing great!!
9. November 2009 at 7:20 PM
Janie, thanks! We can be the unofficial Don’t Give Up brigade ;).
9. November 2009 at 11:55 PM
I have just ended week 6 as well, and what a doozy it was…am back on track today though and like you, I’m not giving up. I think the one thing I like the most is being spared the doctor visits that would be part of that “alternate” life…my mom is a diabetic, my grandfather died from a heart attack, so I have no doubt where I will be in 10-15 years if I hadn’t made the decision to change. Great post, Hilary.
10. November 2009 at 3:48 PM
Hello Josie, my fellow Week 6 warrior! I’m glad you’re not giving up either. This is all worth it, and the negative feelings always dissipate sooner or later. Hope you’re having a good week!
10. November 2009 at 5:15 PM
It doesn’t solve everything. I learned that too. But one thing it did do for me was let me focus on the other parts of my life more fully. I spent soooo much time obsessing over my weight problems and thinking about what I could and couldn’t do that I often missed things I should have been doing. Does that make sense?
I like your attitude and I think understanding that there are positive and negative times during the weight loss journey is really smart. Not always easy, but definitely smart!
10. November 2009 at 9:08 PM
Hi Hilary:
I saw your comment on Diane’s site (fittothefinish.com) and the title of this post intrigued me (so I had to come read it!) As you can see by my “handle,” I had weight loss surgery and lost 170 pounds. We bariatric types have a saying: “Surgery doesn’t make your head thin.” I, too, went through a honeymoon phase; something which is inevitable when you’re losing 20-30 pounds IN A MONTH. But that eventually stops, and you’re left with….well…yourself — just a thinner version. And that’s when the work begins. I had to completely transform my inside to match my outside. I had to figure out who I was and who I wanted to be. I had to learn to be ME — all over again. And you know what? It’s been an amazing and empowering experience. I LOVE the new me — even though my mom always says I’m the “same Cari,” I realize I’m not. I think we’re both right. She says that the basics are still there. I was always loving, caring and loved to make people laugh — I still do. BUT, I now FEEL loved and FEEL cared for — and, oh yeah, I love it when people make ME laugh.
So, I guess what I’m saying is, you’re absolutely right in your assessment that weight loss won’t change the essential “YOU” — however, it will create opportunities to change the parts of YOU that you’ve always want to change, but never had the power to affect. As Diane said today, people respond to you differently when you’re thin — it’s only natural. It’s what you do with that new power that matters most.
Good luck to you on your journey — I know you’ll make it.