BE "IN" YOUR PROCESS, NOT "OF" IT

Once you're started your diet program, Instead of saying that you're "going" to lose weight, assume you're losing it. Use active verbs: "I'm losing weight." Tell yourself this every day and the weight will come off. Be IN the process, not OF it.

WEIGH YOURSELF

In my days at Weight Watchers, we were weighed every week but, in my book, that's not good enough. If I weighed myself only once a week, I couldn't adjust my daily intake based on what my weight told me. Weighing yourself every day, at the same time, and under the same conditions, will help to guide your through your daily routine. If you find that you've gained a pound or two, you can be more careful for the next few days. Weighing yourself every day prevents losing control over your weight loss. And it's a daily reminder of your dedication to your program.

DRINK LOTS OF WATER

Medi-fast recommends that you drink eight to ten glasses of water every day. This is much easier than it sounds. If you take pills in the morning and at night, as I do, drink a whole glass of water each time. At twice a day this is already 25% or the recommended amount. Then drink a full glass with lunch and one with dinner and, if like me, you have a mid-morning snack and a mid-afternoon one (to keep your metabolism revved up), drink a glass with each of those. I just keep a glass of fresh water with me all the time, drinking at regular intervals. Water flushes out the system, and while it may take you to the bathroom more often than usual, revel in all the lost weight that is going down the drain. Drink LOTS of water. (It's also good for the complexion.)

Stay tuned.

"ADVERTISE" THAT YOU'RE LOSING WEIGHT

"Advertise" that you're losing weight or, if you haven't started, that your going to. Tell your friends and family. They can help, instead of hindering, your progress. And you'll find your commitment to yourself strengthened by your avowed, and public, commitment to others. Tell every body.

BE PREPARED FOR MINOR DISAPPOINTMENTS

Most goals, whatever their nature, are not achieved in a straight line but deviate, from time to time, into the many miscellaneous curves of life. Understand at the beginning of your diet that somewhere in the process you'll probably plateau; there may come a time when no matter how dedicated you may be, you'll seem to be stuck and the weight is no longer coming off. Don't be discouraged. Just keep on keeping on. You'll find that suddenly, you'll lose some more pounds, and perhaps a lot of them.

On the other hand, you may also be tempted to deviate from your diet by something so attractive you just cannot resist, like me, with my recent indulgence in a tuna noodle casserole. Even though it had all the essential elements of good health - protein, dairy, vegetables and carbohydrates - the combination was not a recommended meal. Still, I couldn't turn it down.That's okay, so long as you (and I) don't do it often. But when you fall, get right back on the horse. Don't allow a momentary indulgence seduce you into stopping your program.

Be prepared for minor disappointments. Accept them and move on. (I think I'll go prepare some Medi-fast mac and cheese for lunch.)

THINK PERSEVERANCE

Hint #4: Summon your dedication and perseverance

Once you've created the essence of losing weight in your mind, set a specific date to begin and a specific goal to be achieved, summon the depths of your complete dedication and perseverance toward that goal. This takes a certain amount of courage, the courage to turn away from temptation. Friends may say, "Oh, just one cocktail," or "You're being so good, one dessert won't hurt." It may be that the calories in that specific temptation won't make a big difference in your ultimate weight loss but yielding to the temptation will weaken your resolve, and tempt you to stop the program altogether. Be firm. Be dedicated. Think perseverance. And congratulate yourself when you resist the temptation. 

SET A GOAL FOR WEIGHT LOSS

Now that I've gotten On My Mind off my mind, I can resume my description of the things I learned from losing weight.

Set a very specific weight-loss goal and remain dedicated to that amount. If you avoid this decision, it's very easy to tell yourself that you've lost some weight and you'll just stop for a while and go back to it if you feel like it. That's a perfect way to get derailed. Having a specific goal encourages you to continue, without diversion, until that goal is reached. If it helps, you can promise yourself some reward at the end, when you've reached your goal - dinner at The Prime Rib, a new dress in your new and smaller size, a glass of champagne, or a big piece of chocolate cake. Setting a specific goal helps to keep you motivated until you've reached that goal. And after a while, you'll find you've formed the habit of losing weight, which makes the whole process much easier.

PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN, LAMAR, AND ME

The many column inches and sound bites recently devoted to the life and death of Philip Seymour Hoffman, and the memories of him expressed by his friends, have reminded me of my own dear friend, Lamar, who was also an addict, in his case, to alcohol. I knew him for only a short time while he was still drinking but I saw the effects of it when, at a party I attended, he mounted the host’s wooden cocktail table and jumped up and down on it until his rage at whatever set him off had reduced the table to just a pile of splinters scattered across the floor. Fortunately for us both, shortly after that he became a “recover-ing” alcoholic – I suspect alcoholics are never “recover-ed” – and remained so for most of the 25 years I knew him. During that time, we were very close friends. He was very bright and funny, a tad iconoclastic, and an unusually elegant dresser when the (not usual) occasion suggested. I admired him tremendously and he became a kind of mentor for me. Eventually, he substituted marijuana for alcohol, but he was able to handle that – I never saw him on a cocktail table again – and I learned from those who knew him in Alcoholics Anonymous, that he had become an icon in the local chapters and sponsored many. I remember a time when I served some dessert that had been flavored with rum and so vehement was he about not consuming even the smallest amount of alcohol, no matter how innocently, when he learned what he had in his mouth, he spit it out, dramatically, into his napkin. Unfortunately, late in our friendship, he suffered many reverses in his affections, including the death of his long-time lover from AIDS, and one night at my dinner table, to my dismay and horror, he insisted, over my objections, on drinking a small glass of wine, saying he only wanted to sample it, he could manage it, not to worry. Lamar moved away shortly after that, to a small house in Florida where he immediately went on a binge so severe that his brother came from Mobile, their family home, to rescue him from the local hospital’s psyche ward and drag him back to Alabama so he could be closely watched by his family. I called him there several times but he became increasingly distant and I learned, sadly, died only a few years later from alcohol- induced Alzheimer’s disease.

            On a recent program on the Diane Rehm show, where after Hoffman’s death, she was exploring heroin addiction, I wanted to call in to ask a question about an aspect of heroin her guests were seeming to skirt. Why become addicted to heroin in the first place? What was its appeal? How, or what, did it make users feel? In truth, I guess I can answer my own questions. While it would be a disservice to every addict to compare Lamar’s situation or Philip Seymour Hoffman’s to my own, I have recognized and do acknowledge my own addiction, in my case to some food, particularly sugar. I use it for solace – when I’ve had a bad day – and for celebration – when I’ve had a good one – all of which makes me feel satisfied, that fills, literally, the holes in my psyche. I guess any addiction is like that, like (to mix my metaphors) an itch that cannot be ignored, and once scratched, only itches more urgently. (I know a lot about that, from my extreme allergy to mosquito bites.)

            There was a period, a year or more ago, when my own life suffered some reverses, of both health and affection, and I stopped thinking about what I was eating, until I had gained so much weight that my clothes no longer fit and I was forced to buy new ones. And then I decided, in my head, as I have advocated on my blog as being essential, that I was going to lose weight, or, to be more active about it, that I was losing weight. That’s when I started the Medi-fast program, which was, for me, incredibly successful. As those of you who’ve followed my progress know, I lost almost 40 pounds in just two months. That dramatically changed my eating habits and by remaining conscious of what I put in my mouth, I’ve been able to hold my weight loss at what is called “goal weight” since early September, even through the incredibly tempting holiday season. But lately, I’ve begun to eat again, unconsciously, to have some snacks and a cocktail before dinner, to revert to my old habits of eating what I want (except for bacon and ice cream, which I haven’t had since July), and for indulging in my nemesis, sugar. I would buy a bag of cookies in the morning and they’d be gone by the time I went to bed. During this time, my weight has varied some, up and down a pound or maybe two, but in the last month, I’ve gained a solid five pounds. This will never do. And so, I’ve rededicated myself to going back on the Medi-fast program completely. This requires once again becoming conscious of what I’m eating, of rehydrating Medi-fast’s 110 calorie meals and consuming only those every day, five times a day, drinking ten glasses of water every day, and consuming “real” food only once each day, and that made up of – as Medi-fast calls it, “lean and green,” a lean meat and two green vegetables. This works. I’ve done it before. And I know I can do it again.

            In preparation for my new regimen (now called “regime”), I’ve not only psyched myself up by making the absolute decision to lose weight, summoning my dedication to success, and setting a specific day to begin my program (yesterday), but also by purging my refrigerator of temptation. Out went the leftover soup made from the sweet brisket vegetables. Out went the little bit of whole milk, the half and half and the cream that were ingredients in my recent kugel. Out went the cottage cheese, the mayonnaise, the sauce for baked potatoes, as well as the potatoes themselves. From out of my cupboard, I tossed the chocolate chips, the peanut butter morsels, the caramel syrup. The last of the Sofia, a blanc de blanc from the Francis Ford Coppola Monterey County vineyard, went down the drain. I ate the last of the pasta with meat sauce for dinner Sunday night and slapped the rest of the sauce into the freezer. Now my refrigerator is again pristine, with only a little leftover chicken (white meat) and a few pea pods for dinner tomorrow. So far today, I’ve had a Medi-fast strawberry shake, a Medi-fast chocolate crunch bar, some Medi-fast Mac and Cheese and five glasses of water. In mid-afternoon, I’ll have some Medi-fast pretzels before dinner, out, where I’ll east some salmon and broccoli (or maybe the baked oysters), and I’ll have another Medi-fast shake, this time banana, before I go to bed. This should rev up my metabolism and reduce my calories.

            I suppose we’re all addicted to something: alcohol, drugs, nicotine, sex; our appearance, our reputation, our degree of acceptance or the acquisition of more and more things; our grandchildren, our health, the garden, food. Mine is sugar. So can I overcome my addiction? At least for now, I’m sure I can. As Philip Seymour Hoffman and my friend Lamar would say (but perhaps not in that one last moment when they gave up), “One day at a time.”

Stay tuned

 

Phil Cooper, February 2014

CHOOSE A SPECIFIC DAY TO BEGIN

Hint #2 Choose a Specific Day to Begin Your Program

Once you've created the essence of losing weight, choose a day when you're going to begin. That doesn't have to be "today," but it should be a specific day. If you know you're going to be tempted by a special dinner out, or a birthday party, or a cocktail event, maybe you want to wait for that time to be passed. But don't wait too long, a day or two, or over a weekend at the most. Perhaps you want to obtain the right supplies for your program, or perhaps rid your cupboard, or refrigerator, or freezer, of temptations (like ice cream!). But when that time is past, summon the courage to begin on the day you've set in your mind. And then do it. Just do it. If you've prepared for it, that day will go more easily than you had thought.