Weighing Choices

You might want to set the holiday cookies in another room for this post.

My mom sure knew how to bake 'em!

Some questions to start us off:

• Do you resist going to the doctor when you're super sick or even for an annual physical?
• Do you only try clothes on at home instead of in a pervert-resistant dressing room?
• Have you perfected the art of not looking in mirrors or mirror-like windows when you go about your day?

If you answered "Yes" to one or more of these questions you may be a person who isn't happy with their weight.  I have read that about 3/4 of adults living in the US are overweight so maybe this hits home with you.  It certainly strikes me in the core, beneath all the "fluffy" layers.

As a lover of the sensible approach taught in Weight Watchers and the readily-available information from reliable sites like the Mayo Clinic I have all the knowledge tools I need to attain and maintain a healthy Body Mass Index BMI chart.  Twice in my life--my wedding and my daughter's wedding--I looked trim in my dress-up clothes and it sure felt nice to not be embarrassed about myself.  It didn't take starvation or even deprivation to achieve this, either.  However, it wasn't achieved by my typical eating habits.  Before my wedding I was panicked about doing well in college and very distracted by all the wedding preparation, which led to eating less frequently than usual.  For my daughter's wedding I purposely followed the Weight Watchers program for over a year, resulting in a nice and slow weight loss.

But I've had decades of practicing another style of food intake, the "What I Want When I Want It" approach.  It doesn't work at all.

For folks like my mom it's possible to eat delicious food and a small amount of sweets each day and a couple of glasses of wine and remain at a healthy weight.  I don't recall seeing her ever eat "too much."  She didn't seem to have the tyrannical cravings like I have when you shovel as much as possible into your mouth in a short period of time, whether it's cookies or un-buttered popcorn.  My sister-in-law cooks and bakes like Ina Garten yet remains trim.  Her secret--she only eats a little of each thing on her plate, even in restaurants where she has paid good money for the meal. Can you imagine ordering dessert at the Cheesecake Factory and only taking a couple of bites?   That doesn't happen with my wolf-like eating habits.

For people like me the first bite of anything I have a history of craving (think gummy worms, not apples) is the gateway to a torrent of chewing and swallowing.  It's better if I don't start.  Better to make the decision not to have it at all.  I haven't had my favorite food of all time--Twizzlers or Y & S red licorice--in over ten years.  If I take a bite it'll be all over.

What works for me is abstinence and distraction.  Don't touch certain foods and have some healthy non-food distractions at hand for when my emotions are crying out for the soothing release of a chewing and swallowing binge.

It boils down to a big decision--eat healthy and lightly to feel better--and that decision is challenged multiple times every waking hour.  The alternative is to feel bad about myself in relation to how I look and feel inside my mortal frame.  Choosing to eat healthy, and not in such volume, is a positive thing that doesn't usually feel positive while you're doing it.  It feels like denial.  Denial makes me feel cheated and deprived.  What a lie.

As long as we're breathing there is hope that ingrained habits can be changed for the better.  That a healthier life is possible.  I believe that and hope you do, too.