I Refuse to Accept Defeat!
A Weight Loss Success Story

Weight loss. Like peace in the Middle East or getting along with an annoying neighbor, we all know what we should do, how we should do it, and we’re the first ones to give advice.

Why not embrace the love handles? Bigger sizes are more available in stores now. Big is beautiful. No! No! I refuse to accept defeat! I understand that my body will never be like that of my pre-baby days. I think my weight loss goal is realistic. I'm expect a better version of me minus the thunder thighs.

Not just for me but also for my son. He’s four and observes everything. He’s the first to tell me that my breath is “stinky” in the mornings and where I left my sandals three weeks ago. I want exercise and a healthy diet to be a priority in his life. So it has to be a priority in my life too.

I also want to feel like me again. I know this may sound weird, or maybe you can relate. In the last few years, I got so caught up with working 60 hours a week, running around doing errands on the weekend, friends and family events, dealing with the aftermath of a divorce, and never having time for myself. I had the number to my local pizza place stored on my phone. So sad. Now that I work normal hours and the dust has settled, I’ve had time to re-evaluate my priorities. I decided it was time for me to resurface. This started with looking in the mirror and seeing the person I used to know, and she was 20 pounds lighter.

After a lot of trial and error, I finally figured out the key to my weight loss success is not dieting at all. I refuse to diet. No more juice diets, no fruit diets, no carb diets, no high protein diets. This new, revolutionary concept was a huge weight off my shoulders, I can assure you. We need to diet, or so I thought.

Instead, I changed the word “diet” in my head. I hit the Alt, Ctrl, Delete buttons and reset my mind. It wasn’t a clean start all together. The mind is a powerful thing, and it remembers the comfort of food. I had to change the labels of everything in my head, changed my life, adapted my memories of food, bridged my two cultures, and made peace with my associations of food. I found little tricks for myself that worked. Weight loss tips which I will share with you. I’m not a fitness guru but a normal, average, single working mom. The question is: How did I do it exactly without being zapped by some electroshock if I crossed the fence around the refrigerator? My mind needed to get healthy first in order for my body to follow. After several Aha moments, the weight started coming off. For me, it started on the farm.