Let us stop the insanity

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. Fellow desperate dieters, let me be the first to confess that I’ve been there, done that, which qualifies me to be the number one insane dieter!

Yes, I am guilty of thinking about all the ways I’m going to cut down on my calories and at the end of the day falling victim to the bad habits that I never change. You know the ones. Please tell me you do! Tell me you’ve eaten too many nuts watching your favourite television show. Tell me you’ve forgotten to measure your portion when you cooked your favourite meal. Tell me you’ve delved right in and attacked that homemade pizza your friend just delivered. Tell me you just succumbed to your teenager’s request to stop at a favourite fast-food place and ordered something for yourself. Do tell me you’ve done all these things so I don’t feel like the biggest loser! No pun intended but the only thing lost is usually my pride and barely a kilogramme!

So what do you do when you need to replace the insanity with sound behaviour? To do so is a double-edged sword. It’s easy because you just have to do the opposite of what you’ve been doing. Yet, it’s so difficult to change course when your body fights fiercely to stay where it’s been so comfortable. The sofa is way more comfortable than the gym. The fridge is way more tempting than fasting and the pantry is way more welcoming than my dumbbells! If we are looking to stay comfortable, we will have to admit insanity and keep doing the same thing expecting a different result.

It’s time to get comfortable with being uncomfortable

No one said this weight management would be easy. Nothing worth attaining is ever easy. The question is, do we want it badly enough? How desperate are we to change our behaviour? Because, without changing our behaviour, we are never going to win the battle of the bulge. You might have a different experience and your journey may look different if you’re already at your goal weight and are just trying to eat healthier. You may even have the opposite problem and are underweight and your doctor may have told you to eat more to get yourself up to a healthier weight. No matter what your weight is, healthier habits always need to be managed and maintained so we can function at our ultimate best.

Revving up motivation

This month, I’m set on doing things differently in the hopes of revving my metabolism as well as my motivation. As I get older, I’m not sure which is sometimes slower – my motivation or my metabolism. I used to run out the door when the weather was beautiful in the hopes of stealing an hour’s walk. Now I come up with a million reasons why I’m too busy to go on that walk. This is what the winter months do to me. Now that the weather is beautiful, that excuse doesn’t work anymore. My housework will still be there when I come back. It’s not going anywhere and it’s not going to kill anyone if things wait until after I get my exercise. The only thing that will wane is my motivation. I sometimes tell myself that I’m just going for a stroll and I put on my favourite childhood music. You’d be surprised what a good beat does to our heartbeat!

Once I start moving, I’m on a roll; I even kill 45 minutes so fast I don’t know how they pass. I’ve done many routines inside our house, between walking and going up and down the stairs. I add a couple of dumbbells to my routine and some yoga stretches. In this Internet age, I look up workouts on YouTube and do them in the comfort of my own home. Where there’s a will, there’s a way and nothing can stop me from taking that next step off the sofa!

Motion is lotion!

I’ve heard it said that motion is lotion when it comes to our joints. To prevent joint pain and inflammation, we need to make it our number one priority to move. The longer we permit ourselves to sit, the more likely we are to lose muscle mass and flexibility as we age.

If we want to be our number one advocate when it comes to owning our healthcare, then we need to stop this insanity in its tracks and change the things we’ve been doing that haven’t worked for us.

Let’s not expect perfection but aim for imperfect progress because that’s attainable. One day at a time, one step at a time, one meal at a time. 

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine