Why this chick’s weight loss fairy tale’s my fave.
June 10, 2016 Ashley 0 Comments
I love a good Slim-derella story.
Especially ones with before and after snaps like these:
But beyond the pics of this Popsugar story I just found, lies the deeper meaning behind transformation.
See, this chick’s name’s Jamie.
And while, for whatever reason they didn’t give me her last name – what they did give me was a story that divorces itself from your typical “This food or fitness regime was THE answer after all the others failed” bullshniz. Nope. None of that here. Rather, what’s so endearing about this tale of plummeting scale numbers, is that it’s brave and honest. It’s a concession about too much time at the concession stand. It’s owning up to too little exercise. And it’s an admission that altering habits is hard work – and that, while she didn’t get it right the first couple times (“it” being Weight Watchers, in her case), it worked once she did. After trying the program once in her obese youth, and again later in her 20’s, Jamie kept doing what a lot of us do – riding the roly-poly roller coaster. You know the routine.
You lose twenty pounds.
Then, high off your semi-metamorphosis, you quit meetings or food tracking or whatever’s been working.
And then you revert to old habits – which die hard – which turn you soft, doughy, and 20 lbs. heavier again.
(And then, suddenly, the corpulence clock strikes midnight snack on ya fat azz and you leave the ball ball shaped.)
Ah, yes. I know it well – and dealt with it throughout college. But the difference between Jamie and most folks I know (including myself), though, is that she had self awareness and honesty going for her. She realized this was totally her own lack of action. And that, tough as it was, if she wanted to achieve the same changes her Weight Watcher comrades had accomplished, she had to keep with the program like they did. Or, as she puts it in the interview she gave Popsugar:
“This includes not only being honest about what you eat through tracking, but being honest about when you make a mistake,” said Jamie. “Being honest about how you feel, being honest about when you are hungry or bored . . . the list could go on forever.”
And what she actually did to lose weight is just as simple and obvious as it is tough to follow. It’s essentially a kitchen and cardio habit catalog of everything people should be doing (but generally spend the energy bishing about not having enough time to do instead). Jamie now preps most of her meals at home, exercises several times a week, and – above all – sets goals. One of the biggest hindrances to maintaining weight is stagnation. When I get bored of my routine, I kinda wanna quit too. And that’s coming from an athletic addict. So, I can imagine how easy it is to nix fitness when it doesn’t even come naturally to you. That’s why, once Jamie acclimated to her new under 200 pound status for nearly a year – she decided to become a fitness instructor at her local gym. She didn’t sit on her haunches at the treadmill. She leveled up. And that brand of self validation is exactly the fuel we need to keep our Slim-derella carriages going full steam ahead.
The takeaway here?
We’ve all gotta be our own farewell-fat fairy godmothers.
Sure, we might get the spell wrong a few times and turn ourselves into a giant pumpkin. (Or someone with a physique like one, at least.) But what I love about this story is that Jamie didn’t blame diet, exercise, or the program in general. It’s so easy to say “it didn’t work” – versus “I didn’t work hard enough” or “I didn’t actually follow the program properly.” And that goes for any program – whether it’s Weight Watchers or Overeaters Anon or whatever you’re into. She didn’t blame the treatment itself because she legitimately wished for change – and she knew that blaming an external gets you nowhere but further into Fatsville. It’s when we want authentic change (versus excuses to stay as we are) that we finally realize we need to change first. Starting with our habits – eating better and running til our Nike glass slippers fall off. And that’s what it’s all about. Once we get honest with ourselves about what we want and what we hafta do to get it – that’s when the true magic can happen. And so can our perpetual “happily ever after”.
It’s just our task to recall that the story stars a Prince Charming played by our own daily motivation.