It isn't cheating ... It is really relapsing!!

Last night I was talkking to a friend of mine who is fighting the weight loss battle just like I am. She and I have talked about the issues that face both of us and I have tried to give her as much information about what I am doing to lose weight as possible. During our conversation she asked how I was doing with my program over the past week. I told her that the reality was that I hadn't been making very good choices and needed to get myself back on track. It was at that point that I realized that as an obese person fighting to change everything I do to lose weight, I was actually relapsing. People talk about cheating when they are on a diet, but when you are trying to change your lifestyle you aren't cheating. When this happens you are actually relapsing just like any other addict would be who has fallen off the wagon, so to speak. With this in mind it is important to realize that relapsing for 2 - 3 days won't ruin 45 days of hard work. Will it postpone weight loss goals? Yes it will, but it isn't the end of the world unless you let it be. If you are more than 30 pounds over weight when you start this program, you have to realize that you will never completely win the weight loss battle. This program is being developed to help make it easier to lose weight sensibly and keep it off, but you can never declare victory. After I lost 125 pounds the first time, I declared victory. I thought I had won the battle of the bulge, but the reality was that I hadn't. After all these years, I have finally realized that there is a lot more that goes into losing weight and keeping it off than just dieting. You have to change what you eat. You have to change how you exercise. You have to change how you think. When you fall back into old habits, don't get angry with yourself. Look to others to be your support group and let them help you get back on the right track. As more people become followers of this blog I want to try and network everyone together. That way we can have our own network support group to help people with questions and to help with getting past relapses. I am out of time for the day so I will continue this topic in my next post.