I was watching "Addicted" the other night and the interventionist (Kristina Wandziak) said something so poignant and it reminded me of feedback comments I received last week, that I had to post it here - it relates entirely to what we do for weight loss, even though the addictions she deals with are drugs and alcohol:
"Sobriety is not a sentence to a life of misery. It is actually a gateway to a life beyond our wildest dreams."
This speaks to me regarding my whole "conversation" about what is NORMAL. I realized through all the discourse (and this quote above) that MY normal (1) might not be anyone else's normal; (2) is worth fighting for; (3) may entail life-long counting and tracking; (4) is not a punishment; and (5) is MY normal.
I acknowledge and take with me all the lessons learned from intuitive eating (it is so hard to give that up as maybe not being MY normal, although it is a worthwhile goal) and from programs like Core, Simply Filling and South Beach. I also acknowledge that life ebbs and flows and changes and morphs, so, although I must be open to other ways, the other ways may not be right for me right now.
I have been flubbing along with non-measuring and non-tracking ways of doing this and all I've been accomplishing is to gain weight. I now weigh within 12 pounds of my absolute all time heaviest. This has got to stop. I am not willing to go there.
So - I've not given up on the "meld" idea, but instead of making intuitive eating the main priority with WW "rules" second, I am making WW my priority with IE "rules" second. I think I can work with this flip and still stay true to myself (wanting so badly to trust myself to make good food choices) yet still have the guidance I need. I saw this as a severe failing, but then I thought - where would we be if life were not full of flip-flops? Would the world still be flat? Would there still be slavery? Would we still use carbon paper and mimeograph machines? Okay so that's how I'm justifying not being embarrassed by my severe flip-flop in just a week's time. However, given that no path is absolutely straight but that we can only hope for the least horrible route, I have circled, back-tracked, stopped at green lights and boldly have gone through red lights. I've taken 5 steps forward and 10 steps back, which included multi-side steps. And here I stand, back on the WW PP+ road to weight loss. What can I say? I think I really needed to go through all of those other paths to understand that WW PP+, for me, is my road to sobriety, and that it is not a life sentence of misery...
Miriam
This is what we do in many aspects of LIFE..come to think of it, it very much reminds me of the way I approach my faith. I question, I search, I try out different paths, and finally, I choose a path that fits me, or rather I tailor it to fit my spiritual needs. I did the same with teaching methods when I taught, setting up my exercise routine...it's when we don't question, search, ponder etc that we end up being complacent - or stuck in a rut! :)
ReplyDeleteI also know now that I cannot be successful on my journey without tried and true resources and certainly food journaling and, yes, blogging are aids that truly make a difference! When I used WW e-tools previously, their e-tools were minimal as they had not yet caught up with changing all their items from P to PP. Now that they have most everything listed, I'm finding it a lot more helpful.