Dear reader, while living out my new values I have lost more than 100 pounds. This took surprisingly little willpower, once I had my head straight. It’s a lifestyle I like. That means I can do it forever, or at least until I find something even better. My previous attempts to control my weight (readers will know that I dislike the term “diet”) hardly ever went anywhere because I couldn’t keep forcing myself to go against my values at that time.
A surprising clue came when I tried a low carbohydrate diet. I did lose some weight, and many people have had the same thing happen. But it stopped due to math. I will explain. For now, the math I want to talk about is subtraction:
Since I started my weight control lifestyle in January 2019 I have lost:
125 pounds was my original aim
My weight control lifestyle was built around the idea that I can choose the values I want to live by. My success is proof that once you pick values you like and start living them out in your life, your weight will come under control – slowly, because bodies don’t gain or lose 125 pounds overnight.
My original starting weight was 325 pounds. Losing 125 seemed like an ambitious goal. However in my new value system, it is merely an aiming point. It can be changed. My goal is to live well and control my weight while enjoying the eating experience. I don’t eat any diet foods, load up on vegetables for bulk, or avoid carbohydrates. I eat what I like, but I am careful about how much.
My values new include weight control, and quality eating. I don’t mean that I buy organic or expensive foods, because I don’t do that. The quality comes from finding foods I really like and are worth waiting for. This is because I wait to eat until I am hungry. That lets me maximize the enjoyment I get from eating (measured portions of) my favorite foods. In a nutshell, that’s how I lost 106 pounds and still going.
That reminds me about the low carb diet or keto diets. They aren’t magic but they gave me a clue. If you want to lose 10-20 pounds and you have generally been good about controlling your weight during your lifetime, switch to low carb and you will lose that much. I think it’s because your calories are restricted a bit (no bread, chips, cereals). To lose a lot of weight, you need a lifestyle change too. There is just no magic answer, so pick a lifestyle you like a lot. That means, pick your values. You will fight to live them out and the weight will come off almost as a side effect.
What values would you choose? Which do you have now? Which are not helping you?
-The Doctor