Hello, do you know me? If you don’t you should. I’m a pound of fat, and I’m the happiest pound of fat that you would ever want to meet. Want to know why? It’s because no one ever wants to lose me; I’m Only One Pound, just a pound. Everyone wants to lose three pounds, five pounds or even fifteen pounds, but never only one, so I just stick around and happily keep you fat. Then I add to myself ever so slyly so that you never seem to notice it, that is until I’ve grown to ten, twenty or even more pounds in weight. Yes, it’s fun being Only One Pound of fat, left to do as I please. So, when you weigh in, keep right on saying, “oh, I only lost one pound” (as if that were such a terrible thing!) For you see, if you do this you’ll encourage others to keep me around because they will think I’m not worth losing. And I love being around you – you arms, your legs, your chin, your hips and every part of you. Happy days!! After all, I’m only one pound of fat!!!
Unknown
But don’t ever forget how only one pound of fat adds up if you lose one every week.
So what do we have to do to make sure we have lost only one pound?
- Attend your meeting regularly – Because staying away won’t make it go away! You joined us as you needed help, the week you need that help the most is when you’ve had a difficult/challenging week!!!!
- Activity – We all know we need to do it, but do we? If not why not!!!
- Water – Are you drinking up to 2 litres a day? If not why not?
- Food Diary – honestly – and why is this important? And don’t forget the hidden foods – you know the ones meant!!
Sometimes compromising on your foods doesn’t work because the food isn’t satisfying or filling so there is a tendency to overeat. Many members have said that this is true of the low calorie foods that are available – yes one may have less than 100 calories – but not if you eat the 5 in the box!!!.
Here’s an example: Lets say you have a cold/cough, as a lot of you have had recently, you’re taking cough mixture and sucking cough sweets. The cough mixture is normally taken every 4 hours and you take 3 teaspoons at a time. It’s got to be about 20 calories per dose at least 4 times a day so that’s 80 calories and every cough sweet you suck has 15 – 17 calories so you could easily get through a tube of them with about 10 sweets in each tube that 170 calories without any food. Don’t be fooled by the sugar free versions, they are usually not much different! No wonder there’s no weight loss when you are poorly. Add to that the Lucozade (380ml bottle) 142 about calories and you’re well on the way to a weight gain!! That’s nearly 400 calories!! Add to that the toast/butter and jam (Always makes you feel better when you’re poorly!!)
Did you know sucking ice cubes or ice lollies would also relieve a sore throat and cough!!
We expect to lose weight as the only calories you spent in a day were on cough/cold remedies, but it’s not balanced and because it’s not a balanced healthy diet so you shouldn’t expect a balanced healthy weight loss!
We wouldn’t try to run a car by putting water in the radiator, engine and petrol tank as it’s not the fuel required fr all three!!
A little bit of this and a little bit of that will all add up to another pound of fat. The key to successful weight loss is staying motivated every week and often that can seem impossible because we only look at the numbers and find it difficult to accept not every week will the result be seen on the scales, sometimes its making better decisions that long term will lead us to where we want to be.
I personally feel its so sad to watch someone throw away their future success because they were disappointed with just a 1 lb weight loss. We will ALL at some stage be disappointed, its how you choose to react that can determine your future.
1 lb a week is a great achievement the key thing is that every 1 lb lost is bringing you closer to where you want to be and is moving in the right direction.
We all need to take the ‘glass half full’ approach to weight loss and realise that every 1 lb and even every ½ lb has an impact on your weight loss journey.
Remember it’s how you react to losing 1 lb that can make all the difference to your long term goal and on how you approach the following week.
Consider how much weight you have lost so far in ½ lbs? Look at how much better you feel, your self esteem and pride is increasing, your clothes may be looser, your health will certainly be improving. Its not just about that ½ lb, or multiples of ½ lb, you lost this week.
Keeping an honest food diary means a more accurate account of what you’ve actually eaten and gives you a chance to review and reflect on your choices, especially so if you are disappointed with what the scales say.
Take your measurements, date it and keep it somewhere safe, sometimes your inch loss can keep you motivated when your weight loss seems like a glass ½ empty!
Remember positive thinking is key to any success – looking at how far you have come can be much more positive than thinking how far you’ve still got to go!
- 1 lb could take you to your next weight loss target
- 1 lb could take you down into the next stone
- Its 1 lb nearer to where you want to be
- its 1 lb further away from where you started out
Its so important we learn from experience and stay positive with every loss. Every 1 lb is a positive result at the scales and should be celebrated. If you lost 1 lb a week for a whole year, that would give you nearly a 4 stone weight-loss in the year, and let’s face to be 4 stone lighter would make a significant difference to our self esteem and how we look and feel and well as the size of clothes we are wearing.
If you’ve decided to throw in the towel…
roger lee
DON’T DO IT.
Grab the towel, wipe away the sweat and tears and continue fighting. This will not end until you succeed.
Success Lies in Mind 