This is a subject near and dear to my heart. I am great at losing weight but keeping it off proves to be a challenge. After reading many books on this subject I have a new perspective, set of goals and a plan. I think I will do a series of posts on this topic featuring different books and resources. I encourage you to read some books on the subject and see what speaks to you. This will be my first post on Dr Phil’s The Ultimate Weight Solution.
In his book The Ultimate Weight Solution Dr Phil blames the difficulty with maintaining weight loss as “Instinctual drift which is the tendency for all organisms, under certain conditions, to revert to their natural tendencies. It’s like this: you have a long history of learned and over-learned behaviors – in the way you eat, the way you think, the way you feel, and the way you act – so over-learned, in fact, that they have become second nature habits to which you instinctually drift when under stress or pressure. Whenever you’re not actively managing your weight, your health, and your life with a great degree of awareness and programming.”
Dr Phil goes on to say,” Second – nature habits do not change quickly. That’s why there is so much truth in the familiar saying that old habits die hard. The flow of life in general, and your lifestyle in particular, will conspire to suck you back into the unproductive, unhealthy way of living that you are working so hard to escape. Weight is managed, not cured. You must never relax your watchfulness over your thoughts, feelings, and actions. Your guiding objective must always be to manage your weight, and indeed, your overall health, with a keen sense of alertness.”
Don’t despair, all is not lost. Yes indeed there is a part of us that is comfortable with the old habits and we will drift back towards them if allowed to do so. If it took years to learn the bad habits it is going to take years of maintaining the new habits to get past the old ones. “Self monitoring” as it is called by psychologists is the process by which you keep track of your progress and how you are performing in order to catch any of the old behaviors creeping back in before they can take hold. People who self monitor are more successful at maintaining their weight loss than those who don’t. This requires keeping track of your weight in a healthy not obsessive way, weighing once a week, monitoring how your clothes fit, keeping up your exercise routines and eating healthy food. Don’t let a slip turn into a slide. As soon as you catch yourself backsliding do something about it! Dr Phil says “Failure to self monitor, in my opinion, is one of the top reasons why people allow their weight to creep back on. They don’t recognize even the smallest weight gain or snugness in their clothes because they don’t want it to be true, and as a result, they choose to deny warning signs that otherwise would cause them to take immediate corrective action. What you do not acknowledge is only going to get worse until you do.”
I have been there and done that! I definitely didn’t self monitor in the past, and when the weight started to come back on, I was in denial. I let many of the old habits creep back into my lifestyle. Hindsight is always 20/20! I can see it all so clearly now.
I am a work in progress as is anyone who is trying to change habits. Losing weight, keeping it off and living a healthy lifestyle is a journey not a destination. I will never truly “arrive.” There are so many challenges that spring up along the way in life and I have to adapt and do my best at every turn. My “best” will vary from day to day depending on any number of variables. I will not let one meal, one day or one set of choices define who I am or determine if I am successful or not. It is the sum of all of my days, choices and exercise that counts!
I am down one more pound and have just 5 more to go to be at my goal weight!
Leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts.
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karen@fitnessjourney says:
March 16, 2010 at 6:53 am (UTC -7)
Very interesting post Tami. Self monitoring (for me at least) can become a habit too. I’ve noticed by reading a lot of blogs that people often say “the old me would have…” then go on to talk about what they are doing now when faced with a decision regarding their weight loss efforts. Keep hanging in there, it will get easier.
BTW, in regard to your comment about getting Invisaline, I wore braces as an adult myself and it really did make a difference. Without going into too much detail, certain foods were not worth eating because they would get caught in the braces. Also, when I wore a retainer it helped with mindless eating while preparing meals. I didn’t want to have to take it out and wash my hands before nibbling. I ended up staying pretty trim in those days. LOL!
Tami says:
March 16, 2010 at 4:05 pm (UTC -7)
Karen the aligners have helpe to completely eliminate mindless munching. I think after a year of this I should have some pretty good habits in place!
JourneyBeyondSurvival says:
March 16, 2010 at 9:50 am (UTC -7)
I love this book! I also agree with needing to always remain vigilant. I need to have a plan for those worse case scenarios when I’m all but incapacitated by an extreme situation. That thought scares me! So, I want to have a plan put together that cannot fall apart without deliberate missteps.
I’d say you’re a good part there.
Tami says:
March 16, 2010 at 7:02 pm (UTC -7)
Hey I am all about planning!
I love the saying “Fail to plan, plan to fail.”
With all that you have going on in your life I am sure you would feel better having some planned out strategies in place.
Carol says:
March 16, 2010 at 2:00 pm (UTC -7)
Great post Tami! I had the book but loaned it out & never got it back!
Oh how I kick myself for gaining back my weight! I have always said that if I could quit smoking{almost 21 years ago} why can’t I keep the weight off! I didn’t gain weight until I had my hysterectomy..I was 110 lbs then!
I’m soon to start my new way of eating, literally and plan on getting back to where I was!
Carol says:
March 16, 2010 at 2:03 pm (UTC -7)
Great post Tami! I had the book but loaned it out & never got it back!
Oh how I kick myself for gaining back my weight! I have always said that if I could quit smoking{almost 21 years ago} why can’t I keep the weight off! I didn’t gain weight until I had my hysterectomy..I was 110 lbs then!
I’m soon to start my new way of eating, literally and plan on getting back to where I was!
Looking forward to your next post on weight management!
Tami says:
March 16, 2010 at 6:58 pm (UTC -7)
Carol I don’t think I ever weighed 110 pounds!
I know you can get back to your goal, you have had plenty of health issues to deal with but I think you are ready to get going again.
I am sure you can find another copy of the book at a used book store for just a few dollars. Do you have used books stores where you live? We have several here.
Carol says:
March 17, 2010 at 3:35 am (UTC -7)
Tami, at full term pregnancy I weighed 129 lbs. with both boys & they were both almost 9 lbs.!
We sure do have lots of used book stores here…Mom goes to one often so I’ll get her to check. I might have loaned it to my daughter-in-law!
True I have had some health issues that slowed me down but now it’s time to put that all behind me and get back to feeling a whole lot better!!
Lisa says:
March 16, 2010 at 3:57 pm (UTC -7)
Oh so true!! When I lost 158 lbs, I thought…I’ve got it…no big deal. Boy…how wrong was I… I quit monitoring big time and packed 60 back on. This is a life long process and I forgot that. Great post
Tami says:
March 16, 2010 at 6:54 pm (UTC -7)
Lisa that was a lot of weight to lose! You know you have what it takes to lose it and you will get back to your goal!