At this year’s WordCamp Chicago, I had the pleasure to meet Jennette Fulda, author of Half-Assed: A Weight Loss Memoir. Click here to find Jennette’s wonderful book on Amazon, more about it in a bit.
Jennette told me that after the publication of her book Half-Assed, chronicling her 200 lb. weight loss, people always asked her “How did you do it?” or “What’s your secret?” I find that I am being asked the same question. This communicates to me the idea that people generally assume there is some “secret to successful weight loss,” some particular method or technique. The deeper message here is that we continue to see weight loss as a mystery we hope to unlock. In a way, there’s a bit of truth to that!
For those of us who have battled with weight for years, our bodies do seem to hold a mystery that endlessly evades us. Maintaining a calorie deficit is the ONLY way to lose weight. But our bodies can make it so difficult to figure out how we can make that happen that it does start to seem like there’s got to be some trick we’re missing!
Jennette says when asked to reveal her “secret,” she’d find herself at a loss for any kind of specific answer; I am feeling similarly at a loss. There is no actual “secret,” no particular method/routine/strategy that will work exactly the same for everyone. When I read Jennette’s book, Half-Assed, I was struck how it seemed almost as if she could have read my book first. Jennette lost 200 lbs not by going on any particular diet or buying some particular product. She changed her daily routines and transitioned herself to a new lifestyle. I wanted to stand up and cheer when I read her describe how cooking became a daily routine. Previously not much of a cook, as her weight dropped she cooked regularly, no longer feeling like it was too difficult to make time in her day to prepare her own meals.
I have to assume that most people would be disappointed that I don’t have a reproducible secret to reveal either. I cook more than I ever did years ago. I exercise. I walk a lot. My life is very different from what it once was. What changes will you make in your life? What experiences will reveal how to make that number on the scale start moving south? You alone can unlock the mysteries of your own body!
4 comments
Skip to comment form
The biggest change I made during my 150 lb.weight loss which I have continued in the 7 years since I have maintained that loss is to not eat fast food from restaurants. And in the very rare occasion it is the only choice I have, I do not eat in my car or go through the drive through. The only drive through I go through now is Starbucks but even my drinks have changed from super rich lattes and frappucinos to simple espresso lattes and iced coffee. I have found it very satisfying to treat myself this way and take great pleasure in the taste and finesse of the espresso at coffeehouses, which I love to walk to visit alone. Yes, something a heavy me never would have considered. I really needed to look at what I was doing before I could stop doing it. And thenI found a freedom to try something new. Dagny, you are right on.
Author
Instead of just blindly following some diet instructions, the real key is to look at your habits, your own routines, and find what’s going to work for you! You enjoy Starbucks but you found a way to make a shift that really works for you. Staying away from drive thrus and eating in the car is also an acknowledgement of what used to be a negative behavior for you so you worked to get rid of it. This is the only way to truly maintain a weight loss for good!! You’re rockin’ it, Jen!
The secret? Change! Change what you eat. Change how you get it. Change how you move. Change how often and how intensely. Change your mindset from working toward a smaller body and make it about a healthier body.
Change it’s that simple and it’s that complicated.
P. S. No one responds very well when say they have to change.
Author
It’s that simple and it’s that complicated… WHOA LADY, YOU SAID IT!!!!
What a great big giant heap o’TRUTH!!