You step up on the scale, hold your breath and the moment of truth seems like a big fat lie: you have not lost one ounce. In fact, you gained a pound! You step up again, more lightly this time, to counteract the force of gravity, but the numbers are the same. What’s going on? Perhaps, you need to go in the opposite direction to find the solution. Are you a light weight when it comes to personal empowerment?
Did you ever consider that your plateau might be telling you something? This is a healthy weight for you. However, unrealistic images fueling the obsessive quest for physical attractiveness makes you yearn to be thinner – turning you into a person with little inner substance. The fact that a number on the scale dictates your mood and fuels stress triggering an all out war with food should alert you to the real problem – your identity has reached a plateau.
I have seen it countless times. Positivism and good self-esteem facilitate weight loss, whereas stress hormones, like cortisol, make it difficult to maintain a healthy weight. Here’s what happens when you are stressed:
- You engage in self-sabotage by eating foods that are harmful to your health.
- You eat to fill an empty heart.
- You carry around a heavy resentment by replaying perceived insults.
- You get into a worry loop at night which plays havoc with your hormones.
And if you are pounding your body into submission with exercise, keep in mind that fitness is like a three-legged stool: aerobics, strength training and stretching. When you do a quality aerobic workout, you fire up your mind. When you strength train, you are stronger spiritually because you lift weights to lift your spirits. When you stretch, you extend yourself beyond your reach.
Instead of being self-deprecating become more self-appreciating. Create yourself! Unleash your imagination and create a new personal narrative. In your self-imagination lies the deepest truths about yourself – what you wish for and what you aspire to be. Act like you deserve more out of life, instead of less, and go get it. Is your body big enough to house your spirit?
Debbie, I agree that the issue is really about health, not weight.
Sometimes underweight or overweight can be directly attributed to lifestyle components; physical activity and diet. If physical attraction and weight is the only interest then I have nothing to comment. If ones interest is health then physical attraction and weight can be a welcome byproduct of a living healthy lifestyle. Sometimes too much emphasis can be made on strenuous workouts and the
diet-of-the-month eating plans.
Proper nutrition and fasting
Proper exercise
Proper relaxation
Yogic Breathing
Meditation
Focus on health and if you achieve any desired physical attributes, then that is even better.
Most likely anyone will look more vibrant and appealing, and feel much better when proper health is the goal.
"Did you ever consider that your plateau might be telling you something? This is a healthy weight for you."
Well said.
this is well said,,, and heard by someone who has been "fighting" the same number for 30 years!!! no matter what I do it always comes back to this certain 5lb range… now at 43 years old… maybe a little acceptance of the fact would at least take the "weight" of this issue off my mind!!! I am healthy, I have abundance, I have love ….so what if I also have an extra 5lbs!!!
thank you
Recently due to a medication that diminished thyroid function, I gained 80 pounds in four months. I went from a solid 200 to a bloated caricature of myself at 280. Months of dieting and working out (which I've always done to some degree, maniacally when younger) and all I've dropped is ten pounds. When I take my shirt off, I make the Buddha seem like he's in "top shape."
Beyond my self-esteem issues, this has been a disaster for my health: Due to previous bone damage my back, hip and knees were shaky at best. With this leviathan weight gain, the chronic pain is off the charts, affecting my work and life in general. It's also made me pre-diabetic and I'm on medication for that. In a few months I went from a guy in good shape for 50 to an obese man.
Five or ten pounds here or there never hurt anybody. But obesity is a major health hazard.
That touched my heart more than you know. Thank you so very much!
With love and gratitude,
~Niki
Bob … i feel like i am there listening to an inspirational man relate a beautiful, touching story… especially when all i notice is the glow, vitality and dynamics of his heart. is there a time when taking the medication (s) may end …?
sounding trite…sending resonating energy…aloha from beachgirl
Beachgirl,
I'm off that med. that killed my metabolism and on another to help jump start it. But it takes a number of months to get things back to normal. I think doctors are the puppets of the pharma corporations. A pill for this; then another pill to deal with it's side effects. Ad nauseum.
Aloha,
Bob
Hi Bob,
Regulating metabolism is difficult, tricky and a long process. It is so frunstrating because you are exercising and eating right and then it is as though you become a swollen version of yourself. In fact,four people in my gym apparently are having thyroid problems and as a result have put on a significant amount of weight. They are layered in clothes to hide their bodies. This transformation takes a great deal of courage and hope in order not to get discouraged. However, keep on living a healthy lifestyle with exercise of quality nutrition, eventually the trial and error of medication will do what it's supposed to do and your personal suffering will reverse itself.
If you are dissatisfied with your doctor, or wish to check up on his methodology, you can get a 2nd and 3rd opinions. I find that getting the right doctor is also a trial and error process.
I wish you every success!
Beachgirl,
Thanks for the kind wishes, as always.
Aloha,
Bob
Debbie,
Thanks for the words of encouragement and the good advice. I'll keep at it. I know it takes discipline, which fortunately I have.
I wonder if looking like the Buddha will make me more wise? I guess that would be the easy way.
Bob