Confessions of a Veteran Dieter

At my therapy appointment Monday, I told my therapist about my joining the Self Diet Club Web site. I told her all the cool things it did. Then I told her all I needed to do was to start using it. Because I haven’t done that yet.

She told me that this stall is evidence of a mental block that’s still lodged in my brain that keeps me from actually DOING something and that I’m going to have to figure this out.

I told her straight out that I believe my block is the fact that I HATE the Long Haul. I know this change has got to be for good, and I’ve struggled so much before that I dread the thought of struggling again. I’m not a patient person. I want to see results immediately. It’s hard for me to realize that I didn’t get this big over the course of one day, one week, one year — hell, even a whole decade — so the struggle will always be there. Sometimes that makes me think, “Why bother?”

But one of my friends at work put things in a different light this morning. She’s lost 72 pounds since January 2005. It’s amazing the difference. I’m so excited for her; I really am. And she did it the old-fashioned way with good eating habits and good exercise — no fancy diets, no nutritional supplements, no prescription medication.

We talked this morning about exercise, and I told her that I bought two exercise DVDs from Amazon yesterday — The Biggest Loser routine DVD (the guy trainer, not the woman) and this Walk Away the Pounds DVD set (Her name is Leslie something). Anyway, I got around to explaining my dilemma, and she said that looking back on it now, she knew she just had to do something.

“I know that if I had not started last January, I would probably be another 20 pounds heavier.”

That’s what hit me. The thought crossed my mind that if I don’t do anything this year, I will be heavier when next January rolls around, because I have been gaining between five and ten pounds a year.

On the plus side, I have done pretty good this week. I haven’t had any French fries, which are a HUGE weakness of mine. I’ve had yogurt at breakfast, soup for lunch and small meals at dinner. Snacks have been either yogurt or nuts. Tonight was my first real splurge of the week — dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant.

So, I feel pretty good about things right now. Those DVDs should be here midweek next week, and I plan on putting those to use!