On Losing Weight: Dieting vs Living a Healthy Lifestyle

This morning I weighed in at 294.6. I haven't weighed that much in almost three months now. That number is quite a shock, but I think it's a good thing.

But Jeremy, how could gaining all that weight back be a good thing?

It's a good thing because it brings back perspective. It brings back purpose. It brings back focus...

Now, let's take a look at what's happened in the last three weeks. The major thing has been getting my wisdom teeth removed. That took me out of the cycling game for a couple of weeks due to pain and lack of good nutrition. But if you look at my weigh log, you can see that I had only gained back 5-7 pounds from that time period. What in the world has jumped me up another 9-7? That would be camp, of course! I just returned from a wonderful weekend at Camp:30 with my friends, and had absolutely no regard for the food I ate or the beverages I drank whatsoever! I have also historically used the days prior to camp as an excuse to eat whatever I want.

So the causes are quite clear. A complete and utter lack of exercise (it's hard to bike while on narcotics) combined with poor dietary decisions (McDonald's cheeseburgers, FTW!) lead to weight gain. The lesson here is that when you actually stop to keep track of your weight and your behaviors, it's quite easy to follow what happens to your body. All of the poor decisions made during the last three weeks were conscious. No one was shoving Wendy's down my throat, nor had anyone stolen my bike. I simply chose to take a break from healthy living for a while by using events in my life as an excuse. All the while I was conscious about what it would do to my body. I will admin that I am about 4 pounds heavier than I was expecting, but this may very well be due to water retention.

Now that I see what's happened, I must resume the behaviors that can undo the damage that's been done. It's Monday, the day after camp. I am eating correctly again. I will be back on my bike this evening. It's as simple as that! In the past, I would have used this gain as an excuse to stop eating well and exercising. Now I realize that I've gotten to enjoy some of the food that I enjoy, and that I have to do the work to get back on track. No biggie.

2008 has been a monumental year from me because this is the year that I finally stopped dieting and started living a healthy lifestyle. It seems that the social collective believes that dieting is something that starts and ends. The fact of the matter is that if you don't learn anything about your behaviors while losing weight, and then attempt to resume old patterns once you've hit your goal, you'll gain the weight back. I realized that the changes I've made this year are something that can never go away, and that's a great thing! When I started, I had a goal of hitting 280 and stopping. When I was halfway there, I changed that goal to 250, then to 220. Most recently, my girlfriend has actually gotten me to believe that I may be able to hit my BMI recommended weight of 189 (that's literally cutting my weight in HALF from where I started). I've really taken the attitude of I'll keep living healthy and see where I can get. I have intermediate milestones that I look forward to (my girlfriend promised to throw me a party when I hit 266.4, signifying a 100 pound weight loss), but I'm not trying to get to a weight. I'm trying to change my lifestyle so that I am healthy. Weight loss will follow by doing that.