Living the Long Process of Lifestyle Change

It’s Super Bowl weekend. Oh, the memories. But not for any game. It used to be when I’d stock up on Pepsi. It’s the best weekend to buy 24 packs. One year I bought so many I had to store them in my car trunk. That was a long time ago. Like a lifetime ago. A lifestyle change ago.

We’re all familiar with the expression “lifestyle change.” It gets bandied about quite a bit in any consideration of weight loss. What does it really mean? Here’s the reality. You won’t be able to accomplish significant weight loss in the first place if you don’t make big, big changes and that’s also true for folks who have surgery, maybe even more so. If you lose 100 lbs and you keep it off, you will find yourself becoming a dramatically different person. I think about things in my past that are simply not part of my life anymore. There’s the obvious. I used to eat certain foods all the time that I rarely eat now. Yes, I still eat them, just not every day. Maybe not even once a month. I used to drink Pepsi constantly; now I drink tea constantly. I’ll still buy a bottle of Pepsi now and then and I’ll nurse it for hours. Candy bars and bakery items used to be daily purchases. I almost never buy candy bars but yes there’s the occasional doughnut. I never used to eat vegetables; now I eat vegetables every day. I never order food in anymore, nor do I get take out. At restaurants I’ll often order an appetizer or a side dish instead of an entree or I deliberately don’t eat one full course of my meal and I take it home. I’d be interested to know how the percentage of income I spend on food has changed. I’m sure it’s gone WAY down.

Eating used to be like a pastime for me. I’d plan all-day eating events for a Sunday. When I used to drive to work in the suburbs, my week nights were often spent grazing over a takeout meal in front of the TV. I had my lineup of shows I’d watch each night of the week. I don’t watch TV like that anymore. I’ll watch specific favorites but no longer do I park myself for an evening. I work, I read, I exercise in the evening sometimes, when the weather is nice I like to walk around my neighborhood or along the lake. I will often not turn the TV on for days at a time.

Physical activity is a regular part of my life now. I used to be so sedentary, I’d drive ridiculously short distances. I never took the train because I didn’t want to climb the stairs to the platform, let alone walk to the station. I live right on Lake Michigan and I never walked along the lake shore. But now I’m always doing something. At the moment I’m into bodyweight exercises so I pulled out my suspension trainer. Maybe in a couple of months I’ll be all about the kettlebells again or I’ll dust off my Olympic weight set and Powerblocks. When the nice weather returns, I’ll be back outside for 10,000 steps. Anytime before 2005 I never would have believed I’d ever be certified as a trainer but here I am.

Losing 100 lbs or more changes your life whether you want to change or not. You may be shocked and surprised how your perspective on life takes a different slant and you’ll be VERY shocked at how people treat you. But if you succeed in losing a large amount of weight, to keep it off for good, you have to be a very different person from your former self. It’s a long and slow process. It’s gradual and in many ways, you don’t make it happen. True, permanent changes will happen to you during the process. Change and you will be changed. You evolve. You emerge differently on the other side. And the more you change, the farther away you will get from your former routines and habits. That will increase the chances that you won’t go back. You can’t go back. But trust me, you won’t really want to.