Losing weight and feeling great

Life is good when you see those first real results.

There are two sides to the weight equation – the up side and the down side. When you’re on the up side – as in gaining weight – nothing is good. When you’re on the down side life is good again.

First, and possibly foremost, you’re feeling more in control of things. Fate isn’t making “bad things” happen to your body and your self image anymore, you have regained control and you’re methodically reshaping yourself physically and mentally. It feels good.

The same weight level that had you so depressed on the way up – is now an important landmark of your improvement and therefore a victory on the way down. The larger pants that you were embarrassed to buy on the way up are now the smaller pants that haven’t fit in a while on the way down. And so it goes. This is especially familiar to the many of us who have played the yo-yo weight game.

Just think what it would be like to meet a friend for lunch, and then a year later, meet that same friend for lunch on the same date, if you were in the throes of a gain/lose cycle. You could conceivably be wearing the same outfit. On your first lunch meeting you might be complaining bitterly about the weight gain that has caused you to go out and buy these new, and far less flattering, clothes.

A year later your friend might arrive at the restaurant to find an ebullient lunch partner eager to share the amazing diet secrets that have enabled you to take back your life and once again fit into an outfit that had previously been too tight to consider. But isn’t it the same outfit from last year? The one that you bitterly lamented having to buy? You bet it is!

Can you see yourself in that role? I’ve absolutely been there. Luckily my friends have either bad memories or monumental tact. I would have both were the situation reversed!

I guess the real question is: have you been inconsistent from one year to the other in this yearly lunch scenario? And the answer is: no.

You deserve every triumph as you battle your way down weight mountain. Whatever life force caused you to gain that weight is being vanquished one pound at a time as you take back control of your world. You are the victor and victory is sweet! And your victory stems from any point at which you have achieved success – no matter how small – no matter how much that point looked a lot like failure the year before. Its victory now, baby! And don’t let anyone take that away from you!

I hate gaining weight! I have gained weight numerous times in my life. I have fought the good fight and lost that weight more times than I care to remember. But what I will never lose is the absolute thrill of knowing you’re losing it – and knowing that you’re snatching success from the jaws of the bear claw!