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The other comment that got me thinking about this subject was Maura: “To be honest, as a formerly overweight person who struggles on an almost daily basis to keep my weight in check, I see thin people differently now. I see that most thin people do things to take care of themselves – they go to the gym or practice yoga or go hiking. They're active. You don't hear them talking about what's on TV every night.
“I also see they tend to make healthier choices when it comes to food. They don't eat the entire portion of the questionable ‘food’ restaurants serve. And if you talk to them, you find out they don't do this because they like it (the food part, not necessarily the activity part). You learn that they too practice weight management. They may not have to be strict with it the way I do because they've never really been overweight, but they still practice it.
“I think overweight people tend to fall into a trap of thinking that being thin is natural for ALL thin people. I have thin friends – who have been thin for as long as I've known them (20+ years) and they work hard at staying thin. Most of the time they eat healthfully and they exercise consistently. They also hear the call of Thin Mints and sometimes will indulge with a ‘binge’ session and devour a package in one or two sittings.
“The difference? They don't eat Thin Mints every day. And they don't whine about not being able to. They just go out there and do what they need to do most days and enjoy a few indulgences along the way.
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The ‘thin’ mindset she is talking about here, is exactly the same mindset that I have had to adopt to successfully maintain.
The ‘Eureka!’ moment for me to change my mindset finally arrived for me at a family dinner just before I hit my goal weight. Both my SILs, who are thin and ‘have never had a weight problem’, were there, and I noticed that both of them only ate one portion of dessert, unlike everyone else who went back for second or third helpings. It occurred to me that their behaviour around food was something that I had seen them do on other occasions before, but it hadn’t really registered with me. It also occurred to me that they are both active and play a lot of tennis. One also swims several times a week.
So I asked them outright if they actually made a conscious effort to keep their weight in check, and yes, it turns out that they do. They do watch what they eat, they eat healthily, and though they do ‘treat’ themselves now and again, it isn’t on a daily basis. On that particular day, they made the choice to have a ‘treat’ but to leave it at that.
In the past, I had also made a choice. The choice I had made though was to eat what I liked, when I liked. If I wanted that second helping of dessert I would have it, and blow the diet. After all, tomorrow is always another day, but unfortunately, you carry the consequences of the previous day’s behaviour with you.
And that was my 'Eureka' moment ... finally realising that getting to goal wasn't the hard part. I had done that before, but had always gained back the weight and more. The hard part was actually maintaining that goal by changing my mindset to that of a 'thin' person. To realise that I couldn't eat what I wanted, whenever I wanted and not gain weight.
So I made another choice. I do care of myself now, I am very active, I go to the gym, I walk a lot, I make healthier food choices. I do have food treats, but only now and again, not on a daily basis, and I don’t over eat food just because it’s there.
I do what I do to remain ‘thin’. In other words, I practice weight management and I choose to remain ‘thin’.