I Quit Diets and Joined a Lifestyle!

Here I am, it's 2010 and for the past 8 years I have been striving for what I was in 1999.  But every time I tried to get there, I quit.  I would get discouraged by my scale and say "it's not working" and that would end that.  Then, I would gain more pounds back then I lost.  I did this cycle of dieting for such a long time that I sit here professing my stupidity out loud!!


Here are some of the diets I remember trying in my lifetime...

Susan Powter - "no fat diet".... seriously she had me brain washed till 2 years ago when my daughter explained how important omega-3 fats are.  Shame on you Susan!
Grapefruit diet - Bacon & grapefruit.... really?  (I did it)
Beverly Hills Diet - Okay...some of this makes sense, but will you stick with it forever?  pure deprivation!
Nutrisytem - Structured yes...tasty...NO!  I don't want to live out of a dried box of food
Jenny Craig - Pricey and again boxed food!!  Palllllllllllllllleeeease~
Atkins Diet - Something is really wrong with the entire thinking of this diet, (but it worked off a few pounds)
South Beach Diet - Not a bad diet.  (but a little boring and structured)
Weight Watchers - Excellent diet to help you learn structure!  It works its been around forever!!(a thumbs up, don't think it should be labeled a diet its a lifestyle change)
I lost on all those diets and oh yeah...the pills I've spent money on!

Please!  I can't remember how many different pills I have bought in my lifetime that promised weight loss.
PS...every one of them failed!!  I am proud to say I never spent the money on Alli the newest diet wonder of the world.


Before we can change we need to take ourselves seriously...
I had to take myself seriously.
Inevitably we will be the ones in the hospital hooked up to tubes and wires if we don't.  I don't want to be laying in that hospital bed having people poke and probe me.  I don't want to hear a doctor say "this was preventable".  2010 opened my eyes and made me really think of my mortality.  I am a 50 year old woman, and the statistics state my high percentage of heart attack, stroke and/or cancer.  That is very serious.  So looking at life as the serious fragile component it is, makes it time to stop being a quitter.
Can I continue on a downward swirl right in to the nearest emergency room or do I have to make an effort to do everything I can to be healthy.
Educate yourself for success...don't listen to the weight loss gurus' or think there is a magic pill to help you...

Knowledge is good health.  I have learned so much from my nutritionist daughter, Michelle.  (Thank you, Michelle!!) So my eating habits were easy for me to tackle but I needed will power.  It's a choice...you quit, you accept bad health or even early mortality.

Lastly, do not call your new lifestyle a diet, diets are something that end.  This is a lifestyle change.  My daughter cringes if the word diet slips out of my mouth.  Its not a diet, I am not going to finish one day and eat everything in sight.  Instead, I am going to eat modestly, till full and enjoy the foods I am eating.  And occasionally eat foods that I know don't like my body but love my taste buds.  That's a lifestyle.  I am grateful I have the knowledge of knowing what to put in my body and what NOT to put in my body.

And move!  Move as often as you can, whenever you can. 

Find   the farthest parking spot and take the stairs!  

I know the changes I am making in 2010 are extending my life and if I chose the path I was on in 2009, it would have taken years off my life.  I want those years back, so I am taking them!

Next stop for me is Fitness Ridge, to educate me more and get me moving like I've never moved!  I am ready...2010 is going to Rock!  "4 more days" till Fitness Ridge!