A question from Kathy Sheffield, RD,MFT
I'm curious as to whether your successful weight loss effort was preceded by something that changed with you or your life a short time prior to deciding you were going to approach your weight problem as you did. There's some interesting research that found 100% of successful weight loss efforts were preceded by an anxiety-reducing emotional shift in the individual, and that the weight loss held if the shift held. I'd be interested to know if that pertained to your experience at all. Thanks. Kathy Sheffield,RD,MFT (theeatingguru.com)
Answer:
My experience does conform to what you say here, to a large extent. First off, I should mention that I wasn't someone who'd been carrying around most of the weight that I had to lose for decades. I was a yo-yo dieter with some horrible short behaviors --- throwing up meal, taking speed, ridiculous fasts, etc. --- for decades. The big weight gain happened in my mid-30s, when I ballooned to 270-ish pounds (I'm 5-11, actually just under that) and was above 245, I'd guess, for as many as three years. The drop from THAT summit was my big life change/weight loss, and a lifestyle alternation did indeed precede it, and make it possible.
I'd reached and stayed at my top weight during years of hellishly busy political reporting: campaign trail, White House. I was working 70-hour weeks, on the road a lot, constantly stressed, perpetually worried, using food to calm down, and unable, logistically, to build exercise into my daily or weekly routine.
I lost the weight after I'd switched jobs and was writing one long story every four to five weeks for the Times's Sunday magazine. So I had not only less stress, but INFINITELY more control over my schedule. I could plan exercise and stick to it. I didn't do the absent-minded, heedless eating of a person on deadline all the time and vaguely depressed and anxious about it. Etcetera.
I do think if you're having huge trouble losing weight, and it's an important amount of weight to lose, and you've decided it should be a top priority, you need to look at the shape of your days as well as your stomach, and see if you can alter it.
