Battle of the Bulge

Yesterday I was reading one of the many blogs I follow and came upon a picture of the cover of the latest issue of O magazine. For those of you unfamiliar (and clearly living under a rock), this is Oprah’s magazine. The quote on the cover is “How did I let this happen again?”. Apparently Oprah has once again fallen off the diet bandwagon and is back up to 200 lbs. If you’ve followed her career you will know that Oprah has lost and gained weight many times. She is the definition of a yo-yo dieter. This cover coupled with the fact that I stepped on the scale this morning and have seem to found those 5 lbs I lost last month made me think. Why is it so HARD to win this battle of the bulge???

Even more disturbing is the fact that Oprah has a personal trainer (and not the type at Gold’s Gym that you pay to spend an hour or so with you every week) and a personal chef. She has someone that monitors her activity, knows her body and what she needs to do to keep in shape. She has someone that can and will prepare her a variety of healthy meals. I’m sure she has a home gym that could rival some commercial gyms (and if she doesn’t she COULD). Given all of this she STILL hasn’t been able to consistently keep off the weight! This is somewhat depressing because if she can’t do it then what chance to the rest of us have? Those of us that can’t even afford a gym membership, those of us with a million things to do and no time to dedicate to cooking every night.

As with everything, it comes down to dedication and personal responsibility. This is something I’ve talked about before and will continue to bring up because I believe it. It all comes down to YOU. It sucks, you have to deprive yourself of a lot of delicious food and beat your fat cells into submission with high amounts of exercise. And then in the blink of an eye (or the swallowing of some doughnuts) the weight is back! It doesn’t surprise me that many people just say F*** it and eat whatever they want to, lay around the house and then start resembling a house. I wish I had some secret weapon that I could tell you about that would help you in your fight to maintain a healthy weight but I don’t. I can only provide encouragement. Keep eating right, keep exercising and keep a positive outlook. Try different workouts to keep yourself exciting about exercising. Try new foods and recipes to make eating healthy easier and tastier. Develop a support group – having other people that have the same goals and will encourage you to stay on track are very important in helping you achieve and maintain your results. Define what motivates you and keep that in mind when you feel discouraged.

Bottom line: Once you realize that this is a never-ending battle and change your mindset to view healthy eating and exercise as a lifestyle then you will be on the path to win.