Weight-Loss Truths: Be a Realist, Know Yourself, Use the Right Tools
Weight-Loss Truths: Be a Realist, Know Yourself, Use the Right Tools
Dr. Michael A. Snyder MD, Yahoo! Contributor NetworkMar 19, 2010 "Contribute content like this. Start Here." On most days, I can be found in a cold, sterile operating room. I stare at a pair of flat-screen monitors positioned to float above the head of my anesthetized patient. The image I view is captured from a scope that I have passed all the way through the patient's, morbidly-obese, abdominal wall. I am constantly manipulating staplers, graspers, burning-devices, and scissors at the end of very long instruments to enable me to perform my surgeries. I place adjustable, restrictive, gastric bands or bypass lengths of small bowel to stomachs that I have dramatically reduced in size. And, I do this 14 to 20 times per week. I have done it over 2,500 times. And, as you might imagine, in the quest to have a "normal weight," there is no shortage of work for me to do.
All is done in an effort to give my patients an advantage over their genetics and behaviors. You see, if you are morbidly obese—on average about 100 pounds overweight—you are at a distinct disadvantage. There is a less than 5 percent chance that you can lose weight and keep it off. This has been proved by no less than the National Institutes of Health. It is not negotiable. It is a fact. So, that is why my bariatric surgeries exist. I want to give my patients a fighting chance.
But what does this mean to you? You sit there with much less weight to lose. And you are "certainly not in as bad shape" as my patients.
Your advantage may well be your genetics, your activity level and your dietary restriction. But just about everyone thinks about and is actively trying to manage their weight. Do you know anyone who isn't? I didn't think so.
What you have to learn from me is the gift that my patients have to share. They are the "failures" in the weight-loss realm. It is not for a lack of trying. Each of them has lost the same 30 or so pounds so many times. They eventually turn to surgery because it is the only reasonable way to gain control.
In their struggles, they have learned the three essential truths that you need to know to avoid the endless, depressing struggle of weight-control pain. This is the essential place to re-start your efforts.
1. Be a realist instead of a casual dieter.
Do not resign yourself to the ultimate fallacy that you will "someday find a program that will work for you." My patients realize that their experience with yo-yo-ing is not exceptional - they understand that it is the rule. The whole diet industry is built on the fact that you probably will come back again and again.
Realize that no program will have a magic bullet. Be done with the pain and self-accusations of regular failure. You need something better and more durable. In order to take real control, you have to stop looking for common answers that have failed you previously. You need to know what did not work for you and promise never to repeat it. Then, stop looking back.
2. Understand why it is important to you to control your weight.
It is hard to change your life forever to fit into a pair of size 4 jeans. Sure, you can change your life for a few months to look good at your wedding or "hot" on your vacation to Mexico. But these goals and the temporary milestones are usually short-lived. The reasons to control your weight have to be more monumental. For my patients, this is often about conquering diabetes and hypertension and about avoiding the pain of always being "the biggest person in the room." For them it is about gaining health and participating in a more normal life.
While your motivations may not be as drastic, you need to find the real reason that you want to lose weight. Are you really worried about your health? Do you need to feel "sexy" again for your significant other? Are you uncomfortable in your skin? Such thoughts are very real and worth changing your life for. They are about who you are and how you want to live your life.
Clearly, you can see how they are more powerful than "I want to lose 7 pounds!" There is no drive there. The goal and its attainment are meaningless. Now, find your reason!
3. Realize that you need real tools to succeed.
And, as important, understand that the tools that will work for you are not the ones you may first think of when trying to lose weight. My patients are done with the potions and lotions that have promised them control - they have spent tens of thousands of dollars on such worthless efforts. No one who wants to control their weight is in this position because of a lack of trying.
For my patients, failing a program may mean a regain of 50 or 60 pounds - talk about feeling defeated! They know they need tools that will give them at least some power over their genetics, behavior and environment.
I know you are already using tools to help in your present daily life. You use e-mail and texting to communicate more efficiently. You use cell phones to keep in touch more effectively. You use cars to travel more conveniently. Adapting tools to help your life is nothing new to you. So, you need to explore your world for reasonable and convenient weight-management tools. Food journaling. Counting your steps. Hydrating more effectively. Eating six small, healthy meals per day. Committing to a trainer.
The options of "small changes for big effect" are so numerous. But you must find those things that are easy for you to commit to and are sustainable in your life. And, as important, if something does not work you have to realistically abandon it.
If you are real with yourself about your goals, the reasons behind them and the tools that you can practically incorporate into your life (without adding stress) — only then will you find that controlling your weight can be a journey into better understanding yourself. Only then can you succeed.
Congrats on your success thus far "A". I know that I am notorious about setting unrealistic goals when it comes to weight. I have really been trying to focus on how I feel as oppose to the numbers but I still back slide and cause myself all kinds of stress. Its a daily struggle but I imagine as long as we keep at it....we will be okay.
Damn it I hate reality! I want to eat anything I want whenever I want. I want to go to bed with a bag of ff chips every night. (I sleep alone. Who cares about crumbs.) I want to stop weighing my portions and just have my fill. Oh, and I never want to weigh more than 130 lbs soaking wet.
MSW Roux-En-Y Gastric Bypass: Eat sensibly & enjoy moderation
Links: Are you a compulsive eater? for help OA meets on-line Keep Coming Back, One Day At a Time Overeaters Anonymous
LV'N MY RNY. WORKING FOR ME BECAUSE I WORK FOR IT.