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I have always been an all or nothing type of person. If it’s not done to perfection, then it might has well not be done at all. I won’t bore with the details of how I got to be 300lbs. Reader’s Digest version: I grew up always anxious and worried, my parents fought constantly, my Mom is a food pusher and my Dad liked to humiliate me when it came to food and my weight.
A few years ago, I was nearing 300lbs and decided to get serious and try and lose weight. I started the C25K program and did it religiously week by week. I also watched my calories and eventually joined weight watchers. I lost 78 lbs in a little under a year. And then I started to slip. I would overeat for a few weeks, put on 10 lbs, go back on my diet and lose it. I did this over and over again until my behavior caught up with me and I had regained all the weight I had lost and then some. Another couple of years passed full of “I have to get on an exercise plan and eat perfectly” starts and eventual failures.
Then 5 months ago, I got on the scale and was 300lbs. I had just started a new job with a long commute and there was just no time for exercise. But what could I do? I couldn’t just eat right, I also had to perfectly exercise, or I would not be perfect and successful.
I decided to just focus on calories in and not worry about calories out. I gave myself a range goal of approximately 1500 calories a day. If I go a little under OK, if I go a little over OK. When I was in situations where more food would be consumed (parties, nights out), I tried not to go over 2000 calories.
And I stopped trying to be so perfect. Before, if my day was not perfect, I gave myself the excuse that I should overeat and try again some other time. And that is how I got to the predicament I was in.
I have lost 55 pounds in 5 months. I do get exercise here and there (Elliptical, Zumba), but it is not part of the big picture. I no longer have the mindset that I must perfectly eat and perfectly exercise to get to my goal.
I also don’t worry too much about what I am eating, I just stay within my calories. I have a bagel for breakfast because it fills me up. I have a candy bar for dessert each night. As long as I am in my calorie range for the day, anything goes.
I feel like a switch has been flipped in my head and I will never go back to where I was before. I am sharing this because I know so many people with the “all or nothing” mindset who struggle with losing weight. They “can’t find the time to exercise” or they “have bad knees.” I am proof that you do not need to be on a regime of diet and exercise to get to your goal. Give yourself a break, keep a watchful eye on those calories and exercise if you feel like it. Focus on progress, not perfection.
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