The Diet Rebel
Diet. The dreaded four letter word that haunts some of us daily. We are influenced with social media more than we know… or would like to admit. The latest fads, get slim quick schemes, countless weight loss books, images of moms who “lost the baby weight in less than 6 months”…all suck us into that black hole of weight-loss despair.
I’ve come to the conclusion that dieting just doesn’t work for me. Some of you might say, “Oh she doesn’t know how to follow the rules to make it work out.” HA! I follow rules exceptionally well.
I’ve just plain decided to rebel against diets. I’m not going to let a diet trend control my self esteem OR my life. Sure, I could stand to lose more than a few pounds, the belly pooch from pregnancy, the back boobs, and the wiggly arms are all parts of me now. I will lose those parts AND do it at my own pace and on my own terms. It may take me twice as long but I’m not in a hurry to lose the weight that my babies helped me to gain.
Have you ever heard the saying, “fat and happy”? Well, I’m not morbidly obese BUT I’m happy. I’m confident in who I am as an individual, a mom, and a girlfriend.
The ways I plan on losing weight are from things I enjoy and can do on my own time. I bought the above pictured items to use at my own pace and in my own time. I enjoy dancing and Zumba so I found DVDs that combined both of those.
I also go outside with the kids and play with them, and count that as physical activity in the My Fitness Pal app. You know you can count cleaning the house as a physical activity to burn calories? I have a FitBit but the majority of the time it stays in the drawer… I have hundreds of pins on Pinterest in a fitness folder that doesn’t get looked at. But you know what….it’s okay!
I don’t answer to anyone but myself about my body. I don’t have the accountability, the time, nor the childcare to go to the gym X days out of the week, therefore I do it at home. You have to find something that you enjoy so it doesn’t feel like work.
I try to eat smaller portions and I started to drink only water. I’m not a fan of lemon so I try limes in my water when we go out to eat and I really like the hint of flavor it gives! It was hard to cut out my mocha frappes from McDonald’s and my sweet tea and Mt. Dew. I sometimes struggle with not ordering “just one” but I remind myself that I don’t need those empty calories. I’ll take an extra helping of mac-n-cheese instead because I cut out those 450 calories from the coffee! Or I’ll sometimes eat a small bowl of ice cream with my kids before bedtime.
My kids won’t remember their Mom “losing weight”, instead they’ll remember the memories we made together. It may not be the traditional route to weight loss but it works for me. I don’t like to conform to a strict set of rules to lose weight. I want to enjoy losing it but I don’t want it to control my life. Slow and steady wins the race. Plus…I watch the show Skin Tight and see what happens when people lose weight too quickly.
Don’t let society tell you that you have to lose weight to look your best. Honey, there are plus size women out there who are strong and beautiful. You don’t have to be a size 10 and under to be accepted no matter what society tries to get you to believe. People are attracted to those who are confident, honest and true to themselves. If they don’t like you for how you look then they’re not the friend for you. Keep your head up and do it for YOU and no one else…if that’s what you choose to do!
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