I’ve been putting off writing this.
Why? Because I’m scared.
“What are you scared of?” you ask.
I’m scared that I won’t be able to communicate to you exactly what it means to be part of what I’ve come to call ‘The Five Percent.’
I’m scared that you will never wake up on Monday morning and not feel the need to start a new diet.
I’m scared that you’ll never know what it feels like to pull any piece of clothing out of your closet and have it fit your body like a glove no matter what day of the week it is.
I’m scared you’ll never experience the voices in your head as your friends, not the enemies always beating you down and telling you how much of a loser you are.
I’m scared you’ll never be comfortable in your own skin.
What if you never know what it feels like to lose the weight for the absolute last time?
What if you never become the person you’ve always dreamed of being?
What if you never do the things you want to with your life because you are waiting until you finally lose the weight?
What if you never recognize the gifts you bring to those in your life and in your world because you are so busy worrying about what you are putting into your mouth and your body?
What if you go to your grave never doing what you were put on this earth to do because you were obsessed with your weight and the scale?
It’s not me I’m scared for. I’m scared for you.
You see, these were the thoughts that used to run through my head when I was a part of the 95%.
You’ve undoubtedly read or heard that 95% of the people who lose weight will eventually gain it back. Many will gain it back with some additional weight as a bonus.
You hear something often enough and you begin to believe it. You begin to believe it even if it isn’t true. You begin to believe it with your whole being and it becomes that little voice in the back of your head when you start a new diet that tells you “what’s the point of even trying.”
I believed it for 30 years.
I believed it all those times I started a diet on Monday morning, and finished that same diet by Monday evening.
I believed it all those times I was able to stay on a diet for any period of time and then one day said “What’s the point of all this hard work when I’m just going to gain it back again?” And then promptly started eating chips and cheeseburgers.
If 95% of the people who lose weight gain it back, I’d have to be mad to think I’m special enough to overcome those odds.
And yet here I sit before you, maintaining a 100+ pound loss for over 8 years now.
I must have been mad.
Thank goodness I was.
Care to join me?
