6 Ways I Derailed My Sexy Train in 2007

Nothing like watching “Inside Brookhaven’s Obesity Clinic” to make me put down the hamburger and step away from the fries.

I was always a big kid – big boned, heavy, filling out, growing, chunky, fluffy, solid, chubby…and my favorite, healthy.  Healthy????

I finally had enough and made lifestyle changes to lose weight and live more healthfully, and lost 52 lbs.

And like the Brookhaven inmates, I mean patients, I sabotaged my own progress. 

So how did my sexy train derail?

1.  Fast. 

I went on a detox.  There is a theory that espouses if you eat toxic foods, your body will maintain excessive fat stores as a cushion to keep the toxins away from your organs. 

I know I should be eating organically but dang is it expensive.  So I thought to myself, “If I am stuck eating pesticide filled crap, but I go on the occasional detox, I should be ok, right?” 

WRONG.

As soon as I started eating again, it seemed like overnight I had gained 10 pounds.  I will never do that again. 

2.  I knew better. 

I lost weight, right?  I obviously knew what I was doing. 

I didn’t need to continue maintaining a weight-loss journal and blog, or continue to read articles on weight-loss.  I already know what works for me, I already know what I need to do.  I don’t need MSN: Health and Fitness.

The problem was when my focus lapsed, so did my desire and willpower.  And since I wasn’t paying attention anymore, I couldn’t reverse the incremental weight gains that lead to being 100 lbs. overweight.

3.  I shot the sheriff, but I did not shoot the deputy. 

When I was single I never ate fast food.  I grew up thinking that all fast food, except for Wendy’s no-longer-existing salad bar, was evil.  I never buy soda.  I don’t drink coffee, soda, or sweetened juices.  I don’t buy Hot Pockets or pasta or bread.

Oh boy, that changed when I got married.  I would never suggest a fast food place to eat, but when my s/o other did – I didn’t say ‘no’.  I didn’t want to seem autocratic and dictatorial. 

Who am I to tell my s/o that we are not eating fast food?  They’re grown.  I’m nobody’s parent.  And I would let the Hot Pockets, Toaster Scrambles, TV Dinners, and Ho Ho’s in the house. 

Well, my disregard for my own zero-tolerance policy, my compromise on what I allowed in my house, blew up in my face.  If it isn’t at the house, I won’t eat it.  But it was at the house.  I would eat it. And it was delicious.

4.  Eating out. 

Eating out and losing weight are almost impossible to manage.  There is a reason The Cheesecake Factory will not tell you the calorie count of anything on their menu that isn’t ‘lite’.

And if you think that you will go out and ‘just order a salad’, stop living in denial.  You might once or twice, and then you’ll think ‘what harm could an entree be if I sub out all of the carbs for veggies’ and ‘hey, a glass is wine is good for your heart’.

You know what’s good for your heart?  Losing 30 pounds.

Besides, I just can’t justify spending $10 on a salad when I can get a romaine lettuce for $2 at the store.  I always feel like I am wasting my money when I buy salad.  (And pasta.  Pasta costs $1 a box!) 

5.  Ignoring my spending. 

I found a very weird correlation between my spending and my weight.  I don’t think it was coincidence that as I was ignoring my weight, I was also ignoring my spending.  Both increased. 

6.  Free food. 

I would not pass up any free food.  Ever.  I went four months in college with only rice to eat because I was that broke.  And having food problems as a kid didn’t help either.

Maintaining that scarcity mentality meant that I would eat free food – regardless of whether it was any good, regardless of whether it was actually food that I would spend my money on, regardless of whether I was hungry.