Svelte

Down 40 Pounds for 40 Years

Look at you! YOU wouldn’t understand! I bet you don’t weight 100 pounds! How could size 2 you (if that), possibly help me lose weight – let alone – keep it off?!   Sadly, I hear this comment every day from frustrated women in their 60’s and 70’s with poor body images and even more pressing health concerns.

What you don’t know is that I have lost over 100 pounds. I would lose 10 and gain back 15 or lose 20 and gain back 30 over and over again. But I did finally lose 40 pounds and have kept it off for 40 years.

Want to know how I did it?

Before I tell you how I lost it; I want to tell you how I came upon it. When I was twelve, I was at my ideal weight of 100 pounds for my petite, 5’1” frame. (Today I am still 5’1” and weigh in at 100.) At thirteen I weighed 105, at fourteen 110, at fifteen 115, at sweet sixteen 120, at seventeen 125, at eighteen 130, nineteen 135, and at twenty 140 pounds. At that rate I would weigh 200 pounds by the time I reached 32 and that would be without menopause or pregnancies!

Did you know that the average person gains a pound or two during the holidays that they never lose? So if you are sixty now and wonder how you have picked up 20 pounds when you were always thin – maybe it was that one “holiday” pound a year sneaking up on you after you turned forty. Or – the average woman gains between 10 – 15 pounds during menopause? Or that almost half of woman weigh an extra 10 pounds a year after giving birth?

So, how have I escaped the holidays, menopause, and cheesecake?

1. No excuses! My good friend gave birth to six boys weighing almost ten pounds each. She trimmed down after each birth and as she turns sixty is svelte. Women complain about big bones, heredity and the like. A friend of mine who was obese her entire life lost 118 pounds in her sixties. For every excuse you come up with, I can show you someone who overcame it. This is a “no excuse zone.”
2. Visualization works!   Picture and see yourself looking the way you want to be and feel. If you have photos of yourself when you were your “ideal you,” put them in all the nooks and crannies of your house, office, car, and mind. Or find realistic photos in a magazine that will inspire you and place them strategically throughout your environment and look at them often.
3. Mind set. What you think about and speak about you bring about. Your subconscious mind is powerful beyond belief. You can create new healthy brain patterns at this stage of your life. Mind your mind.
4. I have found that the more you know about how something affects your body the better off you are. For example, doctors and scientists agree that sugar is a big determining factor in creating wrinkles and Alzheimer’s. When I was ten my grandmother was my favorite person on the planet and one day she said to me, “Hey little girl, what’s your name?” It wasn’t long after that she didn’t know her own name. It broke my heart. I decided at 10 that I would do everything possible not to break my own future granddaughter’s heart – or get wrinkles! Because of this, I no longer have an interest in sugar.
5. What do you love to do (besides eating)? I have friends that desperately wanted to go on a sail boat trip with us, but they felt they were too heavy to be able to maneuver effectively on a sailboat and dingy. Another friend yearned to go to Europe, but was afraid of the humiliation and discomfort of the seatbelt on the plane not fitting around her. Make what you love to do a priority.
6. Notice I did not say, “go to the gym.” Most people hate the gym and therefore are destined for failure. Find a way to move your body by doing something fun or something you like. Maybe it’s dancing to 60’s music when nobody is watching? Maybe it’s playing on the floor with your grandchild?  Movement changes your mood – for the better!
7. Simply decide NOW is the time. No excuses! Love yourself where you are, but visualize yourself where you will be. I have a lovely cousin that looked like me, except she was thin and I was not. We were at Baskin Robbin’s ice cream parlor and I ordered two scoops of chocolate in a sugar cone. When it was her turn, she said no thank you; she wasn’t hungry. I realized in that moment that I had never been hungry. I didn’t know what hungry felt like. I looked at her and looked at myself and decided in that instant, that I wanted to look like her. I went over to the trash and threw the untouched cone away. I never looked back. I decided in that instant and that was four decades ago.

Do you remember the Cambridge Diet? Do you remember when you had to drink powdered milk on Weight Watchers? I do. I lost weight on ALL 20 diets I tried, but I gained back more than I lost – until I changed the way I thought about food and myself.

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