Weight Loss Redux: Why It's Harder the Second Time

I spent the first 21 years of my life being overweight. I was always bigger than my peers, and I had a crippling lack of self-esteem. Before I lost weight, I had never been kissed or on a date at all. I absolutely equated thinness with attractiveness. And I still do, right or wrong.

After I lost weight, I gained an at least outward self-confidence and believe that I was pretty. I remember walking down Nebraska Avenue in Washington, DC, having just gotten a haircut at a trendy salon on Dupont Circle, and a stranger said, "Man, you are beautiful." I was wearing a short, size 6 jean skirt, the sun was shining, I was smiling and I felt beautiful. After 2 decades of feeling ashamed of my self and my body, it was an amazing feeling.

I equate that feeling with being thin.

When, honestly, what likely made me beautiful was my belief that I was beautiful. My self-confidence.

After I lost weight, I fell desperately for the man who would become my husband. Proven hypothesis: Lose weight = get boyfriend/get married/live happily ever after.

Before I lost weight, I wanted so many things. I wanted to be loved by a man. I wanted to be desired.

Now, I am. I am still loved , even though, I am 80 pounds above goal.

I am shocked that my husband still loves me and still finds me attractive.

I'm also grateful.

I feel in some ways that I owe it to him to lose the weight. He deserves the skinny, confident woman he married. He never imposes this feeling on me; this is squarely something I feel from the inside.

I'm overweight. But he still loves me. This is difficult for me to reconcile in my mind.

I think in many ways this is a contributing factor as to why I am having a hard time dropping this weight. I'm happy.

I still have anxiety and worries; but I'm happy. I love my husband and he loves me.

I am not dissatisfied with my life the way I was before I lost weight the first time.

However.

My "Lose List" still holds. Inside, I'm devastated by my weight. This time, really, I need to do it for me. For my son, yes, but really for me. I'm the one who needs to regain self-confidence. I'm the one who agonizes over the clothes in the closet. I'm the one who worries about having sex with the lights on. I'm the one who wants with a visceral desperation to be at my goal weight.

And, the problem is, for someone with lifelong low self-esteem, it's difficult to say, "I'm doing this for me because I deserve it."

In the end, it doesn't matter if my husband finds me attractive. I don't find myself attractive. I'm trying to, boy am I trying to "accept the body I have" and love it, the way all these social media campaigns are saying to do. I'm trying to see myself through my son's eyes, with undying adoration. But it's incredibly difficult for me.

And it's because I lack self-esteem and self-confidence. And, unfortunately, at the end of the day, losing weight will not fully fix this lack.

I don't know why I have no self-esteem. I come from a family that loves me, I had a good childhood, a safe home. I don't know why. This is who I am and who I have always been. Being thin just made it easier to ignore. Now, I feel like I have to get back to my thin self so I can figure out what's underneath.

But, maybe I need to figure that out before I can get back to the thin me.

A Weight Loss, and a Weekend Setback

After a truly fabulous week, I did run into one of my typical pitfalls this weekend. I weighed myself on Saturday morning and had lost 5 pounds, yay! Then, I ate out at a restaurant with family and ended up "only" losing 1.4 pounds at my Weight Watchers meeting on Sunday morning--but that is okay.

Sunday evening, I went to a Pat Benatar concert with my dad and sisters. (Rocking, badass women, FTW!) It was a great time. I was on Points all day, and had even brought a favorite protein bar that might as well be a candy bar for a snack after the concert. I planned the whole time that I would have this snack after the concert.

Then, out came the gourmet cupcakes. And out came the locally made pints of ice cream.

The thing that did it? My dad ate some ice cream. As soon as this happened, a switch went off in my head and I went off the rails--two cupcakes and a whole pint of smores ice cream, gone in 60 seconds (well, 60 minutes, but who's counting?).

This was a purely psychological misstep. Seeing my dad eat the ice cream, something happened on a primal level in my brain.

Dad and Me, 2004

There's a lot of backstory with my dad. I was estranged from him for a long time, and now we're
much closer and I love to hang out with him. My dad and I are very similar. And one thing that we share is a sweet tooth.

I've spent so much time wondering why I react the way I do to food. My dad has told me that he'll be eating dinner and while he's eating, he'll be wondering what he's going to eat next, what's for dessert. He said he doesn't know why he does this. That is me exactly. I will be halfway through lunch and thinking about dinner or snack or anything food-related.

So I do believe this is genetic in many ways. It's also environmental, and my formative environment was all about food, in many ways. As a child, sharing desserts was a huge part of my relationship with my dad. Dinner would end, and out would come the big bag of M&Ms or the Oreos, fork carefully inserted into the cream, dunked in milk, or the amazing malts he would make me and my sisters. Desserts brought us together, when in many ways I felt separated from my dad.

I think this all, in the blur of a millisecond, flew through my mind. Dad is having ice cream, so it is okay for me to have it. I should have it. It's like the old days.

And don't get me wrong, it was good--but it also made me mad at myself because it went counter to everything I'm setting out to accomplish.

I know there are many things I could have done differently: I could have not had the cupcakes, or one cupcake, or dished out the ice cream and not eaten a full pint. I know this, and I can learn from this.

This also is evidence of the "group think" described in the book Mindless Eating--namely, you're likely to eat similar food to what the group you're with is eating.

The thing that's even more frustrating is that Monday when I got home, I munched and munched and then had leftover pizza for dinner. So I feel like this week is going to be all about playing catchup and not letting my mind throw the entire week away because of these situations.

IN THE PAST, I would have let these last three days dictate the rest of the week. NOW, I know that each food choice I make is in my own control and saving 4 days is better than not.

So, back to basics.

Got My Mind Set On You

Today I've been feeling inspiration from George Harrison's "Got My Mind Set On You." I don't know exactly what he's talking about in the song, but it certainly is applicable to my weight loss journey.

The title is self-explanatory--I do have my mind set on weight loss and getting back into fighting shape.

The question we must ask before any journey

It's going to take money, a whole lot of spending money...to do it right

Yes. I need Weight Watchers. I need the meetings, the leader coaching, the eTools with access to the recipes. It's expensive for the full package, it is. But I've tried to go it alone, or with eTools only, and it doesn't work for me. I need a great deal of support and check-ins with others who are feeling and doing the same thing so I don't just look around Wegman's at everyone grabbing food from the hot bar and cupcakes and think, "Oh yes, I'm one of them."

I treat Weight Watchers meetings very much like AA. And now with my coach, it's like I have a sponsor too. With all the research showing that food addiction, and the changes foods make in your brain, is very similar to drug and alcohol addiction, this is appropriate.

I am a Weight Watcher. And Weight Watchers works! If you work the plan.

It's going to take time, a whole lot of precious time., it's going to take patience and time...to do it right

This is a biggie. I think I may have done myself a disservice after my first weight loss, when I reflected back in an essay, that my weight loss was easy. But it was, then. I still look back on that year of 100-pound loss and think, zip, off the weight went and I never looked back. I even spent 8 weeks in England in the middle of that year and maintained during that time.

Maybe it's because I was only 21 and walking around a college campus all day instead of sitting at a desk. Maybe my body lost it more easily.

But truly, it was mental. It was mentally easy. And I'm still not exactly sure why it's mentally hard this time. I have thoughts about it.

It's a high, hard climb

I need to remember that even though it felt easy, it still TOOK A YEAR to lose 100 pounds. A year. Of dedicated, points-tracking work. Of making good choices, like only eating out at Subway and only choosing the healthy subs. A whole year. A year may not have seemed like a long time to that 21-year-old me. But now, when I know a year is what is between me having a son in daycare and a son in kindergarten? A year is eternity, a span of time I wouldn't wish to rush by.

Patience--Right now, I feel an impatience that I didn't the first go round, and that likely is because I've done this already. I scream in my mind as I yo-yo 5 pounds at a high weight I'VE DONE THIS ALREADY!! I get frustrated with myself that I have to do this AGAIN.

But, I do. There's no going around it. There's no tracking points for a week and being back at goal. I know I don't see this as "real weight loss." It's strange, but that's how I feel. I have to accept, this is my body. It isn't water weight or baby weight or fake weight, it is weight. And I need to lose real, actual weight.

So, patience and time. Patience with myself and with the process. And time for it to work and big change to come.

And this time I know it's real, the feeling that I feel

After my constant rejoining and falling off the WW wagon over the past few years, I do feel a difference in my mindset this time. As I was getting out my summer clothes, most of which I knew would be tight at this current weight (and they're the larger sizes), I was like goddammit, I will DO THIS. I'm in it to win it.

I know if I put my mind to it, I know that I really can do it

If ever there was a mantra, it's this. If I put my mind to it, I can do it.

Thanks, George--I needed this. 

On Rejoining Weight Watchers

Firstly, I can't believe this blog even still exists. The last time I wrote on it, I was practically a different person--not yet a mother, not yet in counseling, not yet focusing on ME.

The last time I wrote on it, I wanted to lose, what, 10 pounds that had crept up during my nearly 10 years of maintaining my 100-pound weight loss.

Me, circa 2005

Now?

Now I'm sitting here 4 years post-baby, with 75 pounds to lose to get back to the weight I want to be.

75 pounds.

I still have the same troubles with food:

I love eating out.

I munch after dinner.

I know that tracking is key.

I eat without thinking.

I look at these pictures and I think, how? How was I ever that skinny? How did I let myself go this far? How?

Me, January 2015

These thoughts are only self-defeating and not helpful.

But some things are different; now, I have a little person who relies on me. This is both a motivator and a challenge because I want to be the healthiest mom I can be, but I have so little time to concentrate on meal planning and exercise and all the things that are essential to weight loss.

And even though I am back up to being technically "obese"--HOW did I let that happen?--I'm also much more active now than I was at 20 years old. I walk and I run.

I'm loved by and married to a wonderful man who appears to love me and be attracted to me despite the fact that I am ashamed of my current appearance. Despite that I look vastly different from how I did when we met.

I've tried basically constantly since 6 weeks after my son was born to lose weight, and I've only succeeded in gaining. I've been back to Weight Watchers a few times, but none of it took. 

But this time will be different. This time, I will lose this weight. I will no longer "try" to be on plan, I will LIVE the plan. I will. There is no "I want," there is only, I will.

I will make mindful choices.

I will track my food.

I will forgive myself.

I will be kind to myself.

I will tell myself that I am beautiful.

I will believe it.

I will be my own inspiration.

I will.

I am my own "after" picture. I know I can do it because I did it.