No More Quick Fixes

 

There is nothing special about me. I am a middle-aged, Mid-western gal who accomplished an extraordinary feat through patience and perseverance: I lost 185 pounds by eating healthy foods and exercising regularly.  

Before I began my journey, I was defined by my addiction to food.  When you weigh 340 pounds it’s hard to deny food isn’t a problem. I had let eating become too important for me—a comfort for bad days, bad jobs and lonely nights. My weight was defining my lot in life and I couldn’t ignore the words “morbidly obese.” I was well aware that being overweight led to a litany of health problems that could put me in an early grave—-heart disease, stroke, type-2 diabetes, gall bladder disease and several forms of cancer.  

I knew that.  Weight loss options I tried didn’t have lasting results nor did the flimsy solutions hawked by the circus of snake-oil salesman.  That didn’t stop me from trying most of them.  With every passing year I was gaining more and more weight.  I knew I didn’t want take a permanent dirt nap in a piano box.  I had to do something. 

So I did: I put down my fork and started moving my butt. 

In this weekly column, I want to share how I learned to live with food and stopped letting it control and run my life. We’ll talk about how to clean out your pantry and become a smarter shopper.  We’ll also discuss different types of exercise and how to cook healthy food, as well as smart dieting tips that will help you tackle those extra pounds.  

And I’ll be sprinkling in many dashes of humor.  Laughing doesn’t involve calories, so why not? 

I’m writing this for you.  Only a third of Americans are currently at a normal weight and the number of overweight Americans is expected to grow within a few years. 

Discouraged? Don’t be.

It can be done.  I did it.  I won’t be writing about a quick fix—but then again, when do quick fixes work? 

Ok, I will step off of my 185-pound soapbox.  But the reality is that our national addiction to food needs to be addressed before the crisis becomes as widespread as my former backside. 

And that’s just what I’m going to do. 

I hope you’ll join me, tell me your weight concerns and you’ll share with everyone tips you’ve tried that have been successful.  I hope you’ll be part of the discussion as we all put down our forks and start moving our butts. 

I look forward to hearing from you!