This time is different

I’ve been on many diets in the passed, most of them unsuccessful, and this is about the time I would normally be giving up on it. I’ve changed my eating habits, stopped drinking (more on this later) and have been working out, but only lost ~ 5 pounds during the first 2 weeks. Now, intellectually I know that 5 pounds in 2 weeks is pretty good, but like most people I wish the weight was coming off faster.

Regardless of my wishes for speedy weight-loss, this time is different. I’m not on a diet. I’m changing my lifestyle. I had always heard that the best way to achieve and maintain a weight-loss is not a diet but a lifestyle change. Though I understood what “lifestyle change” meant, I don’t think I was really ready for that before.

Change my lifestyle? You mean eat healthier? But I don’t like health food. I’ll just eat less, cut-out lunch for example. Be more active? But I’m so busy already. I’m a graduate student you know. I spend 12 or more hours a day in the lab. How am I supposed to fit a workout into my schedule?

Well, now things are different. I’m learning that I can eat healthier without turning into a granola-head (not that there’s anything wrong with granola, I love it personally). And, not having enough time to exercise in grad school was a crock. There was plenty of down-time between experiments, and I’m nowhere near as busy now as I was then. So that excuse is, and really never was a valid one.

If I’m being honest with myself, I just was not ready to make a lifestyle change. I was younger and just wanted to have fun. At the time, eating fattening food and drinking alcohol was fun. Shoot, it is fun. But now I’m trying to be conscious of the bigger picture. I’m going to be 40 years old in a couple months. It’s time for me to grow up and stop lying to myself about what I can and cannot do. It’s time for me to see what’s really important in life, my health is more important than that fried food and bottle of wine. It’s time for me to WORK for what I really want in the long-term, health, fitness, looking and feeling good about myself and being a person that I can be proud of. And it’s time to stop living in the freakin moment.