Let me tell you something — I am pretty darned excited! My weight loss this past week has been phenomenal. I’ve been on this weight loss journey for a little over eight months, and except for the early weeks, when I lost a large amount of water weight, I have never lost this much in one week.
46 Pounds of FISH!
I was at 40 pounds down last week; and this week? I am 46 pounds down. That’s right! I lost six pounds in the last week. I am stunned!
I had a light bulb moment this week; one of those startling OMG shocks that made me reconsider and study. While I’m hesitant to say that I might have found the reason that my weight loss hasn’t been as fast as I thought it should be, the bigger news might be that I might have discovered the reason that I eventually stalled out after losing 140 pounds years ago.
If it turns out to be true, this will help me exponentially. Over the weeks to come, I’ll be doing some experimenting to see if my theories are true, but a lot of things are falling into place and making a lot more sense. If that experimentation results in weight loss, I’ll know I’m on the right track.
[Please note — I’m not necessarily in a hurry to lose a bunch of weight as fast as possible. This isn’t a race. That said, I am in a position where weight loss will help control blood pressure as well as allowing me greater physical ability, so in that regard, speeding things up just a little bit is a good thing. I need knee replacement surgery, and it’s not going to happen until I know my body can stand it.]
I’m not going to say, here, what the light bulb moment is. The purpose of this blog isn’t to steer anyone toward a specific eating plan; you truly have to find out what works for you and your own personal circumstances. My own circumstances are not the norm, so other than saying that I eat low carb, I won’t go into detail what my eating plan is. And that’s not the point, anyway.
The point is this.
When it comes to weight loss and health management, you have to become a scientist on your own behalf. When you are, you’re more likely to succeed.
You have to be open to new concepts, willing to experiment to see if what you’re doing can be improved upon, and to view the results of what you do with an objective eye. You also have to be willing to do the research when things aren’t working. You have to be determined to keep trying until you succeed. Otherwise, I promise you that you will not be successful in long term weight loss. You’ll be someone like me — who lost 140 pounds, only to gain it all back, plus roughly 35 pounds on top of that. Here I am, working on losing it, again — but I am determined that this will be the last time I recycle these same pounds.
Objectivity means you have to admit that once in a while, the data is pointing to something you didn’t expect. That you might have been wrong in your previous assumptions. Or that you might have to adapt what you’re doing if you want a different outcome.
And sometimes, like me, you just might have to relearn what you thought you already knew — and reap big benefits.
A weight loss journey is not a trip that any of us really enjoy, and yet, I know I’m not alone; it’s a trip I’ve taken far too many times for disliking it so much. It’s true that the odds are stacked against us; very few people keep weight off successfully — but we all have that opportunity to be among the few that do.