To say I’ve had some experience with losing weight — and gaining it back — is an understatement.
Starting in my teen years, I’ve lost and gained, lost and gained.
I’ll be 67 next month and I had pretty much given up. Losing is hard enough, but keeping it off is even harder! If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, then it is insane for me to keep dieting, I had decided.
I’m just supposed to be fat, I told myself.
But then, last Halloween, my daughter, Alison, and I took our annual trek to Atlanta for the “So You Think You Can Dance” tour and I felt terrible. Everything was an effort, even just walking from place to place. It really hit me that if I didn’t do something I could become a housebound invalid before I’m 70. I had to do something!
I had lost weight several years ago on a plan that was easy and enjoyable and I can’t really tell you why I stopped. Maybe the timing wasn’t just right or I wasn’t motivated enough. I realize I have actually a tendency to sabotage myself.
Sometimes I wonder if I deserve to lose weight and keep it off.
Anyway, this plan, which I started again in the first week of November, is not a diet. There is no deprivation at all. I eat whatever I want to eat as long as I follow a few rules.
The plan was developed by an Englishman named Paul McKenna and his book and program are called “I Can Make You Thin.” Here’s what he says to do:
1. Eat when you are hungry (but only when you are hungry).
2. Eat what you want, not what you think you should eat.
3. Eat without distractions (no tv!) and eat very slowly, fully enjoying each bite.
4. As soon as you begin to feel satisfied, stop eating.
The essential rule is to eat slowly and without distractions, and I realize that may not be easy for women with small children or full time jobs, or both! I am at the perfect point in my life to do this — mostly retired with no husband or children to feed.
And though I acknowledge this plan may not work for everyone I would certainly urge young women not to go on restrictive diets. They almost never work in the long run. They keep you obsessing about food. What can I eat now? How long before I can eat something else? Deprivation can only last so long before you give up and eat the cake! Most of us can white-knuckle our way through weight loss for only a little while. That’s why most people who’ve lost weight put it back on. I’ve always gained it back, plus some. All dieting has actually ever done for me has actually been to make me fatter!
This time around I have actually felt so relaxed and happy and satisfied while losing weight. I don’t have actually all the answers and could gain it back tomorrow. I know I’m most vulnerable when I begin to think I’ve got it made. But I know restrictive dieting is not the answer for me and I pray that this is. It’s really my only hope.
Since November I’ve lost four jean sizes. It hasn’t been fast but it’s been steady. I am still far from skinny and will probably never be thin.
In April, Alison and I went to an antique show in St Mary’s. We had to park blocks and blocks from the venue. I walked those blocks, walked all around the show, and walked back to the car and wasn’t even winded or tired! Before, I would certainly have actually been huffing and puffing and exhausted.
At my age, it’s more about how I feel than how I look. And I feel so much better!
• Rose Aldridge is a former award-winning news editor of The Blackshear Times, now mostly retired. This column is reprinted from a post she placed on her Facebook page. Email her at: raldridge@theblacksheartimes.com.
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