Losing Weight Is Difficult

Good days, bad days, good weeks, bad weeks, it is often very difficult to keep in mind that it is a new lifestyle and not a short-term diet. Eating pizza, hamburgers, Mexican grill burritos, etc., high calorie; high fat, high carbohydrate foods can no longer be regularity. In order to become and more importantly maintain a thin body, these excursions must become the rare occurrence. I find it odd that the more weight I lose and the better I feel that I have this growing craving for these bad foods. Is it mental or is it physical. I do not know which it is, but I know that those foods delivered me to a place of desperation.

“No person can be confronted with a difficulty which he has not the strength to meet and subdue. Every difficulty can be overcome if rightly dealt with; anxiety is, therefore, unnecessary. The task which cannot be overcome ceases to be a difficulty and becomes an impossibility… and there is only one way of dealing with an impossibility, namely to submit to it.” ---Byways of Blessedness (Borrowed from As a Man Thinketh)

If I agree with the above statement and I do, then I have but two choices. I can learn, grow and deal with my difficulty of becoming thin or I can submit to obesity and all that accompanies it. Sometimes the battle is enough to make even the most stoic man feel like curling up in a fetal position and letting loose the tears. Losing weight is far different from maintaining weight. Maintaining weight allows such the occasional divergence to a Mexican grill for a nice dinner without much damage to our overall maintenance program. However, such an excursion in a weight loss program can be disastrous for the entire week. Six days of faithful, undivided attention to a program is wiped out with one single meal in such an excursion. This can lead to anxiety and depression. Hence, the difficulty in losing weight, one must do more than they did to become obese to become thin. These poor meals took twenty years to deliver me to 430 plus pounds. I want it gone by the two-year mark. It is a very lofty goal to expect to lose 80 pounds in the next four months. I will mark two years in my journey in four months, or in early September to be exact.

Why do I have such a quick goal date to finish losing the additional 230 pounds that I gained over twenty years? Simply, a goal date adds urgency and honestly, I am ready to focus the majority of my efforts on something new. Weight will always be a focus in my life to avoid returning from where I came. However, instead of being the driving focus in my life, it will become a maintenance and adjustment period. I will constantly monitor my weight, perhaps daily and make the necessary adjustments. I am quite ready to continue my journey in other areas. However, for now my weight loss is still the center of focus and will be until I reach my goal. It is gratifying to hear many people comment on how good I am looking or look shocked when they see me for the first time in a while. However, this is also dangerous. Compliments from others and a general “good” feeling about myself, I find myself letting down my guard. I ease up a bit and many times in the past, this led to disaster. People far greater than I; have been denied their dreams because they turned back when they were just one-step away from success. I must maintain laser-like focus throughout the summer and I will reach my goal!

Many of life’s failures are people who had not realized how close they were to success when they gave up.” ---Thomas A Edison

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” ---Dale Carnegie