I have been battling weight loss for most of my adult life. My story is not unique by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, if you are reading this, you most likely have a similar if not the exact same story to tell. My story started back in high school and has been a never-ending saga until I met with Dr. Liu.
You name the “diet” I tried it. Diets like the “Atkins Diet”, “Weight Watchers”, “South Beach Diet”, and various combinations and variations of each of the aforementioned diet plans. I found that every one of the diets worked great, in the beginning that is. Then, for whatever godforsaken reason, I gained the weight back and sometimes I even gained more back than when I started.
There is no mystery as to why I gained the weight back. I gained the weight back because I went back to my old eating habits. The same ones that made me go on a diet in the first place. Not a terribly hard concept to follow.
What did I learn from all of my failed attempts? I learned nothing except that I was .2 points away from joining the diabetic club. This is a club that I did not want to have an affiliation with. Their club rules have to be followed because if you don’t follow them, you will die but before you die, you may lose your eyesight, possibly a toe or two, and possibly the use of certain other body parts. Parts that you never thought you would lose. Like I said, a club that I wanted no affiliation with.
Dr. Liu helped me realize that I needed to change within. This was unknown to me during the beginning stages of my weight loss program. The program is extremely regimented in the beginning, as it is regimented for a reason. The reason being that, we are not capable of doing it by ourselves. We need to be regimented. We also need to break the same eating habits that brought us to the point of seeking professional help. That’s pretty deep. Think about it.
I changed everything that had to do with food and my consumption of food and if I didn’t I had to join that club. You know the one that I was talking about earlier. I learned that I just couldn’t replace my old habits with new healthy ones; I had to change them completely. Why did I change them? I changed them because I realized that any variation of my old habits, even if those habits were healthy and good for me, would only pave the way for me to go down the overweight trail again. I found it quite easy to use all those healthy habits to convince myself that I could now go back and forth with substituting my old unhealthy habits with my new healthy habits. It was easy because they were the same habits. The only things different were the types and kinds that each habit contained.
I came to realize that the weight loss program was so regimented because I needed to clear my mind of all the habits and start from scratch. Starting from scratch enabled me to no longer play the healthy/unhealthy food substitution game. I now had a new way of doing things. It was not a health variation of my old ways. In short, the change must come from within.
As I write this testimonial, I am over 50 lbs. lighter than what I weighed when I started with the program, which just over 9 weeks ago. Please do your best to do what works for you in your quest to lead a healthy lifestyle.
