I just read a brief article published by researchers at Penn State saying that only 1 in 6 Americans who have lost weight have success in keeping the weight off. The study also found that 2/3 of the adult population is overweight and that many people should aim to reduce their weight by 5 to 10% for medical reasons.
My journey has proven similar. Taking the weight off was easy, keeping it off is hard. I guess that's why I'm here blogging about this part of the process.
Take my post from yesterday. I had a bad eating day, I was unhappy with the way I fed myself that day, I did beat myself up a bit. By writing about it, I felt like I could look at the day with a positive spin and refocus on the good parts. My treat days are just that - treats - not a new habit (that's me just reminding myself of that concept).
Summer has been hard. There have been so many outings that I've felt were worthy of a splurge. It's been hard because it makes so many days necessary to be really good to balance out those splurge days. That's more of the problem...
I was asked in a previous posting if I still count calories and I do. Maybe it's just because of the summer and that I have at least 2 and sometimes more days that we've had a fun outing. So, the other days, I'm really sticking to the 1,250 calories in order to balance everything out. Add in the lack of exercise opportunities and it's hard to stick to 1,250 day after day.
On a positive note, I think I'll be ending the summer at the same weight I started. But I do feel like I'm constantly on guard, constantly weighing my options and constantly evaluating how my clothes fit.