Weight Maintenance & Body Acceptance

Recently I saw a post on Connect about a motivational podcast called Half Size Me.

It's about a woman named Heather Robertson who has lost 170 lbs.

Can you even imagine that?!!!

Wow!  That's a whole person!  Completely amazing.

This woman does free podcasts on her site, has a blog that is worthy of a read, an e-book and offers coaching.

What really pulled me though is that she talks a lot about weight maintenance.

This is a HUGE subject for me.

I feel as though I am still learning about this and trying to get my head around it and it's been hard.

It feels like a place that I have no road map for.  It's very nebulous.

What I've come to realize is that the whole of our society, at least in the States, is focused solely on weight loss but not maintenance.

I mentioned this to my own therapist and she wholeheartedly agreed.  She said "You're right.  Our society is all about achievement".

So once you reach maintenance you're left standing there thinking "Now what?  What do I do with the rest of my life?".

I've found that my old habits want to creep back in.  You get this feeling like "Okay.  I'm at goal.  Now I can eat whatever I want again".

Unfortunately it doesn't work that way.  You start eating with the old bad habits and the weight creeps back on too.

The thing I love that Heather talks about in her book is that there is a difference between body acceptance and weight loss.

She relates that she got to a place of great weight loss with only 20 lbs left to lose and finally realized that she wasn't going to look like she thought she would without plastic surgery.

I really related with this.  I think we naturally subconsciously think "Once I've hit goal I'll look like the models on the magazines".  But we don't.  We look like us, only smaller.

What's more is there is often also loose skin to deal with.

Heather says we have to learn body acceptance, to find ways to love and accept ourselves as we are.

That's a tall order.  Certainly it's something I'm still working on.  I have a feeling it will be a life long process as I age.

And so that's what I'm moving into, a place of greater body acceptance and coming to terms with what I can achieve at this age with where I'm at now.

And that's still very significant.  I am stronger than I've ever been.  I'm doing assisted pull ups which I never thought would be possible.

When I was 105 lbs I didn't eat much at all and what I did eat was just junk food.

Now I actually eat really healthful foods and I feel good.

That counts for a lot.

I mention this to you because it's something I'm currently struggling with and its's something that I'm actively working on.

If you're struggling with this know that you are not alone.

I haven't quite finished Heather's book but what I've read so far has been very good.

If you don't have the resources to buy the book you might listen the podcasts or read her blog.

She has an important message that I think a lot of us need to hear.

:)