Weighty Wednesday -- Willpower

How many people do you know who say, "I know I need to lose a little weight, but I'll just do it by willpower." Or "It's easy to lose weight. All it takes is a little willpower."

Sorry, my friends, but the cards are stacked against you.

1. You wouldn't be overweight if you had the willpower to resist those cookies or chips or {pick your nom, nom of choice}. It isn't that easy when you've spent years ignoring those little voices telling you not to eat something, or telling you that you're full.
2. Remember the Weighty Wednesday topic last week about Flavorists? Companies are out there to sell their products . . . and they will use every dirty trick in the book. They will take what looks like a single serve bag of something, but make it two or three servings just to get the calorie count in the 100-200 range. Who looks at the number of servings?
3. And I think most of us have forgotten how to eat a balanced meal.
4. FYI: You might have to forgo your favorite restaurants until you can go there and make a more educated food choice. Yes, I love Mexican food--Cheese chile rellenos and margaritas. Chocked full of greasy melted cheese on the inside, fried goodness on the outside, and sometimes queso on top! And the margaritas, well, a fishbowl of tequila, lime and sugar is easily 20-24 points. Erm, I was only allowed 26 points/day when I was losing weight, did I really want a margarita that badly?? Sometimes yes, but most of the time no.

I'm sure I could come up with 4,5, and 6 if I wasn't writing this blog at 6:15 AM and the post should have gone up 15 minutes ago!

Yeah, I'm late. So sue me. It's not like I'm getting paid to post these little tidbits of wisdom.

Here you are overweight with zippo willpower, so what do you do? How do you get started?

As I've mentioned before, and so have reporters, that the weight loss industry is a billion dollar industry and they are there to help you . . . spend your money AND lose weight. But you have to realize a couple of things.

1. You need to admit that you can't do this by yourself.
2. You need to investigate all the programs out there to find the one that works for you at this point of time in your life.
3. You need to start the program, but don't just go through the motions. You must commit to learning the reasoning behind the program. If you decide the pre-purchased food programs are for you, then you need to learn portion control and balance from the size of meals you are provided.
4. A magic pill won't work. If you read the side of the 'magic' pill bottle, they will say you will have success when you implement their product along with "a healthy diet and exercise". It's not the product that works, but the healthy diet and exercise.

As you know, I'm a lifetime fan of Weight Watchers. Yeah, it's a pain-in-the-butt measuring, weighing and tracking every morsel of food that enters your mouth. BUT this is where you re-learn how to eat properly. It doesn't happen overnight. It takes time, but it's worth it.

I can eat out at a Mexican restaurant and eat that cheese relleno, but give up something else . . . usually the margarita/chips and salsa, and I take the fried crust off the relleno prior to adding the ranchero sauce, not queso! This is still packed with calories, but not as many as it could have been!

I think I stopped tracking and weighing months ago. Periodically, I'll measure or weigh something as a reminder to see if I'm still eating the correct portions.

After 16 months--five months at goal--I think I can keep the weight off simply by using willpower.

But you have to remember that without the knowledge, the accountability, the hard work of tracking, weighing and measuring, I wouldn't have the tools to be successful at losing weight.

And just because I'm at goal, it doesn't mean that I don't stumble and overeat, or eat the wrong foods, or binge on peanut butter. It happens. But I have the tools to get back on track.

My lows don't go nearly as low or as dramatically as they used to because I know when I've made bad choices and when to get back on track. I don't beat myself up about it, or simply give up for the rest of the day.

I simply go back to my healthy guidelines and eat a nice salad with some protein, or a Greek yogurt smoothie, or whatever.

And how do I do it?

Well, I now have the knowledge, which gives me the WILLPOWER to do it.

Later, Peeps!