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Persistence pays
When I see people who are successful at losing weight and keeping it off, I don't see lucky people who just breeze on down to their ideal weight and live happily ever after. Instead, I see doggedly determined people who just don't give up when the going gets tough.Here are some examples of the persistent efforts I've witnessed amongst successful slimmers over the years (including some from my own life).
As the weather in Australia warms up and you start shedding layers of clothes, I trust that these snapshots will inspire you onwards in shedding any excess 'winter weight'.
Cindy's long-term Success Diary
Cindy, 43, has kept a Success Diary persistently for the past 21 months.
This has not only helped her to keep off the 29 kilos that she had already lost before starting E-Mail Coaching with me in January 2010, but she has also lost a further 20 kilos.
At 65 kilos and 1.62 m tall, Cindy now enjoys the thrill of being able to wear anything she likes and knowing that it looks good on her.
Besides keeping a Success Diary, Cindy persistently maintains a very active lifestyle, and she persistently gets weighed and measured at her gym every month and e-mails me her results in order to retain accountability.
Is Cindy one of the lucky ones who have managed to escape from morbid obesity? When I see the herculean efforts that she has put into her weight management journey in the past 21 months, I don't think that luck has anything to do with her success.
Pat keeps getting back on the wagon
In my book Don't Go Hungry For Life I wrote about 68 year old Pat, who lost over 30 kilos using the scientifically-based principles of eating according to her body's needs.
The thing I found remarkable about Pat's weight loss adventure was how persistent she was about climbing back onto the 'wagon' whenever she fell off it. Pat also persistently made sure that her 'weight loss wagon' was quite low, by safely incorporating fun foods into her diet and by consciously choosing to counter her tendency for all-or-nothing diet thinking. In this way, falling off the wagon wasn't too painful for Pat as it wasn't very far to fall, and when she did fall off the wagon, it was easier for her to climb back on.
Dr Amanda's fruit and vegetables
For the past 14 years I've persistently eaten at least 2 serves of fruit and at least 5 serves of vegetables almost every single day. On top of this I've also (mostly) eaten only when hungry and stopped eating before feeling overfull, as well as systematically keeping fun foods out of my home, handbag, office and car.
In all this time, my weight has never veered more than 2 kilos above my optimum weight of 65 kilos, and I can still shimmy into the size 12 dresses with the clinched in waists that I was wearing 14 years ago.
Maybe I'm lucky? I certainly feel like a lucky person, but not when it comes to my weight.
Maintaining the weight that's best for me takes deliberate effort. There have been many days when I'd rather just work non-stop in front of the computer and have buttered raisin toast and tea for every meal instead of going walking, swimming or dancing as well as shopping and chopping fruit 'n veg. I believe that if I didn't do all of these things, I'd quickly resume my formerly obese weight of 93 kilos.
There's no such thing as an overnight success story
Persistence in weight management efforts doesn't tend to give you immediate results.
In fact, you will likely experience long periods of time when you hardly reap any fruit at all from your labor.
However, if you keep going with earnest efforts to manage your weight (not half-hearted efforts that see you taking two steps back for every step you take forward), then one day you'll look up and see just how far you've really come.
People will likely think that your weight loss journey was easy, that you're one of the lucky ones with the genes that make it possible for you to escape your fat suit forever.
But the funny thing about luck is this:
The more persistent you are, the more luck you find.
Over to you
What you weigh and how you look today are not the result of what you did last week. Rather, they are the cumulative result of many small actions, performed repeatedly over many months and years.What are the things that - when you do them persistently - give you the results you want?
Maybe it's making the time for vigorous exercise that makes all the difference to you? Maybe it's abolishing those habitual mid-morning treats when you're not even hungry? Maybe it's persistently going to bed on time so that you don't end up seeking energy from the vending machine at 4 pm? Or maybe it's following the 3 simple steps in my Success Diary?
Whatever combination of factors it is that gives you the results you want, why not decide now to do them persistently for the next two weeks, no matter what.
You may be surprised to move from bouncing around getting nowhere, to achieving a noticeable change that will give you a massive dose of motivation, enabling you to continue for another two weeks.
With that, I wish you an excellent Spring. And If you'd like to order a set of my Reliable Bathroom Scales to track your progress and receive my free gift, click here now.
Sincerely,
Amanda
Dr Amanda
Connect with your body
www.DrAmandaOnline.com
What our readers say...
"Dear Dr Amanda, Thank you for liberating me from the guilt trip I've been on every time I eat and giving me the tools I needed to begin losing weight i.e. your satiety rules combined with knowledge of our body's famine reaction and fat brake. I bought your book earlier this year out of desperation, after seeing an add on facebook. I'm so glad I did, since then my husband has read it and I've bought a copy for a friend (I've never previously recommended any weight loss theory that I've read to anyone! as for yours, I can't stop talking about it to everyone I know). Although I did not begin to use it straight away, it did make me change the way I approach food and think about it. It wasn't until about 5 weeks ago that I put it into action and the weight is still coming off very easily. What I didn't have when I began the book was the right motivation to lose the weight for 'me'. After two years of trying to get pregnant with out second child and weighing in at 130 kilograms I knew after numerous tests came back negative, that my weight was the likely culprit. 5wks later I am 7 kilos lighter, and although this may not seem like much for someone who has more than 50 kilos to lose, for me it is huge. I've never lost so much weight so quickly and easily and all while eating 4 decent meals a day. Now that I've begun to eat mostly 'real' foods and cut most of the crap from my diet, I find that my body does not require such large portions so often (because it is not starving due to malnutrition!). I've gotten to the point where I no longer have to pay such close attention to my levels of hunger or satiety, my body self regulates it and I eat accordingly. I always used to watch 'skinny' people eat and wonder how can you eat so little and be full. I know find that I'm doing the same. I'm not skinny yet but my body has learnt to appreciate 'real' wholesome food. Thank you for opening my eyes. God bless you. "