Failure is Not an Option

“When you remember to love you, and take care of you first, everything else tends to fall into place.” ~ Mandy Hale

Today was the first day back on plan. Why do I feel like I’ve done this two-hundred times? Oh…because I have? Sure. Alright.

I have…because I’m not quitting. I’m not giving up on me. Depending on which statistic you read or believe 80-95 percent of dieters will gain back all of their weight (and usually more) within five years. How depressing and demoralizing.

Reasons the studies cite for these failures are that the hunger hormone ghrelin increases and makes us hungrier than we were before we lost the weight while the fullness hormone leptin decreases, so we don’t feel as full. All of the studies admit they don’t know enough about obesity yet to be prescriptive with a solution. None of them detail how they had the subjects lose weight. Most of them had the subjects lose 10 percent of their body weight. Many of them had more than half of their subjects drop out before they lost the 10 percent.

The reason I’d like to know how they lost the weight is because I think it makes a huge difference if you lose the weight while recording your food intake so you see what you feel good eating – like how much fiber, protein and carbohydrate feel right in your body. Like how much more full and satisfied you feel eating fruits and vegetables and real protein sources (cheese, chicken, fish, lean beef/pork) rather than grabbing fast food or those little boxed frozen dinners with four bites of fake food in them.

Or did they use a program like Jenny Craig where all of your meals are provided and you don’t learn to do it yourself? We have to learn how to do this right to do it for good. We have to learn what makes us feel like we want to feel. We have to learn to ask for what we need – the time to work-out, the time to plan a menu that includes healthy snacks, the support and understanding of our friends and family. And we have to learn to be a little thick-skinned and ask wait-staff for what we want in restaurants and just smile when our well-meaning friends say things like, “Don’t you think you’ll look like a bobble-head if you lose that much weight?”

One of the reasons I went with the F.A.S.T. program is they had a greater than 90 percent success rate at three years. They were only in business three years when I started with them. I don’t know any updated statistics. They provide the accountability, which I know I need, of checking in every night and weekly weigh-ins. I can call them anytime I have an implosion. They help me find my way. They also have a program to teach you how to be vigilant and maintain the weight-loss.

Thus far, I’ve lost just over 30 percent of my body weight. I’m not going back. You couldn’t drag me back to that place kicking and screaming. Despite the last 5 days, when I was not loving myself and not putting myself first, I’m still on track to get to goal October 3^rd. I’m still slated to run all the races I have planned for the season. I’m still in the game. In the words of those dudes at N.A.S.A. in the ‘60’s – “failure is not an option.” I feel like I have my very own Ground Control and success is one day closer.

Photo courtesy of: leaderswhocare.com