I remember the up and down roller coaster of my weight loss process.
I went to the supermarket to buy some things for the house today. When I was there I passed near the magazine rack and saw a title about how the “Biggest Losers” from the show have all gone back to the original weight that they had before the show.
It made me remember when I was in my late teens, I for the first time in my life I had lost 28 pounds and I was feeling comfortable and confident in my own body and it was a pleasure to look myself in the mirror and see the image that I wanted to see since I was eleven years old.
I was on a very strict low calorie (800 cal/day) no carbs diet under doctor supervision. I was taking a multivitamin too. He determined the amount of calories according to my petite size.
He said that it was the first stage, that when I accomplished my ideal weight he will begin to introduce some carbs. I lost the 28 pounds in three months.
I was feeling very good about myself.
I was living in an all girls dorm outside the campus. Everybody in the dorm knew about my diet, and the transformation had happened in front of their eyes. Some of the girls were saying: “ you are too skinny” other girls said :
“ you look great”.
At college my classmates noticed the difference too, and most of my friends approved. Some of them told me that I looked prettier, others were telling me that I was always pretty.
Most importantly I felt happier and I was more outgoing even if I had to limit my food intake when there was a social event.
When I accomplished the first stage goal of reaching to my ideal weight, the doctor introduced small quantities of carbohydrates like rice, whole wheat bread, potatoes.
And I began to gain weight again after four days of the addition of carbohydrates. One of my closest friend told me: “ I can not believe that you are beginning to eat bread just four days ago and already are gaining weight”. It was that noticeable.
When I went to the doctor to weight for my weekly weight, where the medical technician weighed me, she told the doctor and he called me to his office. “ You will have to go back to the not carbohydrates diet, you can not eat carbohydrates everyday” he told me.
I followed his advice, I just ate protein, veggies and some fruits everyday and carbs maybe once a week.
I was going to his office to measure my weight every week and I was keeping the weight off, some weeks I will gain a little, and then I will lose it again. I was doing good.
This lasted three years, then I had to move to another part of the city and I stopped going to the doctor because I though that it was always the same : they will measure my weight, the doctor will see me once every three months and I believed that I know how to keep the weight off all by myself.
This was the beginning of my up and down roller coaster of my weight loss process.
My relatives and friends would invite me to lunch or dinner, and knowing that I could not eat carbohydrates would buy delicious bread and cakes and sometimes I could not resist; they would insist for me to eat, that I would go back to the diet tomorrow.
It is a shame that the people that loved me the most did not believe that my ideal weight depended of not eating carbs everyday. But I can not blame them, I have to take responsibility for my own actions and for my health.
After three years I gain all the pounds that I had lost. I would eat the diet during the day, but at night I would sabotage myself, eating croissant bread, tasting so good that I could not resist buying it on my way back home after a whole day of work and study. I did not even had the interest to know how many calories a croissant has. “ How bad can this be, it is so light and it is only one” I would say to myself. I know that a croissant has 500 calories and it was that one of the reasons for what I gained the weight back.
This is why it is important to know what are the foods that have more calories, one small bite can take you out of shape.
It is important to have accountability; when I was going to the doctor and They weighed me up, I knew that they will know that I gained weight. When I was not going to the doctor, even if I weight myself at home it would be only me that will know how much I weight. But there were other circumstances I moved to another area, I was under more stress, my relatives did not share the same ideas about food that the doctor knew and I went out of track.
This is what happened with the Biggest Losers that after the program they had to do it by themselves and that is not always easy.
I lost the weight eventually with trials and error. The important thing it is to check yourself how are you feeling, if you gain some weight some week go back to the diet, do not let it go out of control.
It is good to check with the doctor again and see how is the metabolism, maybe the thyroid gland is not working that well like in my case, that after so many years of struggle with my weight, my thyroid was part of the equation. But do not think that while you take thyroid medication, if you needed you can eat “everything”. No, no,no. I always have to check my weight, diet and do exercise and relaxation. It has to be a lifestyle, a healthy, active and happy lifestyle.
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