By the time a Canadian girl is 14, she has been on 1100 diets. Okay, I obviously made that up. But it seems that teen females are experimenting with hazardous eating regimens just like my friends and I did back in the day.
A study out of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine this week revealed that Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig are your best bets for long-term weight loss. Slim Fast and almost anything you find on the Internet won’t work well and aren’t healthy. You might lose weight, but it’s short-term and at a high cost to your system.
Everyone knows it’s a matter of calories in, calories out. If the equation is off, you gain weight. And yet here I am confessing to being the heaviest I’ve ever been. There are many reasons for this but not understanding how weight works isn’t one of them.
I’m done with diets, though. I’m finished with calling a food – any food – history for life and with restricting my intake to the point of dizziness. I’m hypoglycemic and on a couple of medications. I can’t just start eating celery stalks and call them dinner. And I know that when I’m ready, I will deal with it. And until then, I’m no less valuable because I’m a little rounder in the middle.
Don’t forget the wild card that is menopause. More and more, I’m starting to believe what’s in our genes determines what’s in our jeans! Also, the fact you/we get up long before dawn puts us at a distinct disadvantage. Not just chronobiologically speaking but being too pooped to work out most of the time. Ugh.
You’re right. It all comes down to self acceptance and I’m not consistent with that. But I figure I’ll have it down to an art in my 80s!
Good for you Lisa…I too have found myself a bit rounder around the middle; and it was a long winter which did not help. I just wanted to hibernate and eat. And life is short, eat the ice cream…within reason. I know I am never going to be “skinny” again and frankly, I don’t want to live on celery to do so either.
All of us women have to start being less critical of each other and your message is a great start.
Take care.
Thank you Jean. And just before I logged in here I read another story about another celebrity – Pink – getting criticized because she looks a little softer in the middle. And she is by no means overweight. But her message is the same: I’m healthy, I’m enjoying my family and my life so leave me the hell alone!