Well, that day has arrived....again. Another attempt to become the thin person I was as a child, a teenager, and a young mom. I admit that I have the usual vain, cosmetic reasons for wanting to lose weight: I'm not terribly loving towards this bloated and pear-shaped woman who has become 'me in my 50s'. I know that is unlikely that I will ever weigh as little as I did at 22, but I would like to be able to walk front forward down the side aisles at Church or in an airplane, I would like to buy clothes off racks in non-Plus Size departments (and pay less, I notice), and I look forward to being comfortable tying my shoes and wearing a bra for a full day.

But, as important as the above reasons are to me, I must admit that my weight has also become a significant health concern. I puff when I exert myself even a little bit. I don't have a lot of energy. And impossible to deny are the tests that came back from my doctor: my triglycerides were higher than they should be. I had to look up to see what my triglycerides were. Then I realized that if my very conservative medical practitioner has her secretary call me to tell me anything, it is time for me to make some serious changes in my wellness plan.  

So..... I began to ask around to see what others are doing successfully. My dear friend Yvonne said that WeightWatchers made a difference to her life. She has lost the weight she needs to, and has kept it off. My mother swears by Dr. Pritikin's Diet. She, too, has lost a lot of weight over the past year, but mostly because of the diuretics that her doctor put her on when it was discovered she had an enlarged heart. I know that Dr. Hans Diehl was part of Dr. Nathan Pritikin's team, and that Diehl's Coronary Heart Improvement Project (CHIP) has a number of Pritikin principles built in to it. Some of my clients were doing the Dr. Atkins' diet, and I have known people eating 'in the Zone' and on the "F-Plan" and swilling down Oprah's "Cabbage Soup" by the buckets full.

Then I remembered that I had the book, "Weigh Down Diet" by Gwen Shamblin. On the cover it says it is an "Inspirational Way to Lose Weight, Stay Slim, and Find a New You".  I was actually kind of hoping I could find the 'old' me that weighed 120 pounds..... There were more promises on the cover too: *Eat what you like *Rise above the Magnetic Pull of the Refrigerator *Conquer your focus on food *Escape the Slavery of Dieting. Hmmm. I could go for any one of those promises and feel better about myself.

I have been poring over this book for the last couple of days, and thought, hey, maybe there is somebody else out there who would like to take this journey with me... so, in typical exhibitionist fashion, I've added a link page to the ANGEL CO-OP site that will contain: Before and After photos, and journal entries detailing my journey. 

What I have read so far is very appealing. Gwen Shamblin is a registered dietitian with a master's degree in food and nutrition. She fought all her own battles with the bulge, even in University where she was supposedly learning about the kind of nutritional habits that would promote health and proper weight. She tried all the diets that were the trend at the time, and yet seemed unable to overcome her yo-yo weight problem. She chafed, as a young Christian woman, at the exclusion of God from the science of nutrition.  She grew suspicious of some of the theories that were offered in her classes, and

"just did not buy the idea that all overweight was a result of genetics or was inherited. Making the food behave by dieting did not add up, either. It never explained how my grandparents were at their right weight while eating bacon and eggs every day... Food was enjoyed, and diets and exercise were never part of the conversation. We had delightful "real" foods at my grandmother's house and great-grandparents' houses, and all were at their ideal weights-- all except me, the highly educated dietetics student and professional dieter." p. 17

Because of these realizations, that it was seemingly possible for people to be their ideal weights without diets or dietetics degrees, Gail decided to do some of her own research. She set out to study "skinny people" to see what their secrets were. What she found was simple: her skinny friends simply ate less food. "Thin eaters" stop eating when their hunger is satisfied.

As I mentioned earlier, Gail had a firm Christian background, so when she worked with others and saw the weight come off, she looked to God for further wisdom on how to keep the weight off. This is the spiritual component of the "Weigh Down" program that separates its overall methods from many other 'diets' and eating plans. She writes:

"After praying to God for wisdom, the answer to how I was able to permanently lose weight became clearer and clearer. So now we have a new definition of weight loss success. It is not defined by weight loss, because anyone can lose weight. Rather, weight loss success means losing both the weight and desire to binge or the desire to overeat.... You need to know that I lost my weight, never to go back to a focus on food or a desire to eat the second half of the candy bar if my stomach was full. And this is one great statistic." p.20

So, I am ready to go. I am still reading the book, but I have a general idea of what is required. I need to listen for the small, polite gnawing in my stomach that signals that I am actually hungry. Then I eat. I eat the stuff I like the best on my plate, pausing to see if the hunger feeling has abated (a new behaviour), and then I can put away whatever is left over for when I'm feeling hungry again.... or I can actually throw the leftovers in the garbage (another new behaviour-- and one that might create guilt-- better to put the leftovers in the fridge and throw them away the next time I clean out the fridge). I feel hopeful.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes. You can go into the site and take a look at my "Before" picture and read the entries as I post them.  Your comments and encouragement are always welcome on the FEEDBACK page. 

There are Weigh Down classes in many communities across the U.S. and Canada, listed on the motivating Weigh Down cyber page (where you can watch video clips of gangs of people who tell about their weight loss and their new closeness to God). www.wdworkshop.com/