I am new to this list. I'm an American maintaining a 155-pound loss for 23 years. Emphatically, I don't do "guru" — I never would have listened to one! — but I do share the changes I followed on the advice of others. I'm grateful for the transformation that I've experienced, and share the perspectives that made it possible, because others did the same for me.
I did write a book about this, and it's fine with me if you want to buy it. But I hope to mention it seldomly here, and please note: I'm not even giving the title, never mind a link. I'm not here to troll for business.
Best wishes to all.
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MichaelP
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Nice to hear from you, Michael P, and congratulations for losing weight and then maintaining the loss. Feel free to share your favourite strategies - Im sure there are many on the forum who would be happy to exchange ideas with you.
I find I can lose weight but never maintain it so have stopped trying to diet for this reason.I would be interested to read how you achieved such great results.
I like to say that I've lost that weight, for that length of time, without dieting and without having surgery, and it's accurate while not being true, 'cause of course I needed to change the way I ate if I wanted to escape being 365 pounds. But just about everyone I know or have heard regards dieting as a short-term change, while trying to resolve what usually is a long-term problem.
Is that not obviously an idea that's going to fail, even if it "succeeds" in the short term?
I made the changes I've made very slowly, but over 20-plus years, they now amount to pretty profound. Some of them would seem sacrilegious to most people, but to me, having that strong a reaction is very instructive about one's true priorities.
*IF* you were told that you have to stop doing [X] or you were going to keep struggling, and your reaction and decision was, "I can't imagine not doing [X] for the rest of my life; I'd rather die," then that's a choice, and a declaration of choice.
In this example, [X] could be any number of substances (i.e. ice cream) or actions (i.e. tantrums), but the details, to me, are less important than the act of making choices. At a minimum, I needed to get clear about the choices I was making, and acknowledge that I was making them. That got rid of a lot of the victimhood I wore like a robe. I was (and remain) free to factor in all the reasons about why I was making the choice I was making, but I still had to acknowledge that I was making those choices.
Once I did that, I could begin making other choices.
Re. food, I have made a great many changes (that I'm not going to describe here, 'cause like I said, the details are less important, and besides, I'm not a nutritionist, so who cares what I think, right?), but I'll tell you that I eat well and don't feel deprived.
Let me restate: I am keeping 155 pounds off my body for 23 years, and I eat well and don't feel deprived. IMO, the takeaway from that is that a) I'm special (I am certain I'm not, at least not in this area), b) I'm in huge denial (well, I say I'm not, but wouldn't someone in denial say that?), or c) if it happened for me, it could happen for you. That's the obvious conclusion that I draw.
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