I am proud to say that almost 20 years later, I kept up the battle and fought a good fight. I remain healthy and at a manageable weight. I hover somewhere around 150lbs, fluctuating between 145 - 155 lbs. This may seem like a odd thing to say but I have found that giving myself the grace to go up and down helps my sanity. When I hit 155lbs, I start cutting back my food and start intermittent fasting. I am not a medical professional, so I cannot say much about it, but I will say that we each have our OWN journey.
If we are going to make LASTING change, we must find the journey that works for us.... there is no magic pill, no one-size-fits-all, no instruction manual and YOU and YOUR body. 99% of the journey is finding the path that you can walk on the rest of your life.
Would I love to be 135lbs? HECK YEAH!! But that would require more work than I am willing to put in. I have found my balance to accepting my weight where I am BECAUSE I have accepted my trade-offs. I love sugar and anything sweet. Breads and pastas are not a big temptation but put chocolate, cake, and cookies in my reach and I am all over it.
Could I give up sugar? ABSOLUTELY! Have I given up sugar? YES. Did I lose the weight? YES. Did I like my quality of life in such a restrictive diet? NO.
So, the trade-off is that I eat what I want, inter
mittent fast when necessary and accept that I am going to carry more weight than I originally thought.
Twenty years later, the fight is constant... it is daily... it doesn't go away. But I have learned to make friends with it. It is no longer allowed to beat me up when I fail. I give myself a wide range to bounce between... and at the end, I am at peace...finally.
Twenty years of healthy living.... and a lifetime more to go.
