This post appears as part of our Healthier 2021 series, following three WebMD team members as they strive to improve their health this year. You can follow their travels here.
By Laura J. Downey
I am not perfect. As much as I like to cross every T and every I punctuate, I make mistakes. And over the past week, I’ve made some decisions that I classify as big mistakes. Right now I feel bad about the choices I’ve made. This is because I gained 1.6 pounds at my usual WW (formerly Weight Watchers) meet last Saturday (which I’ve been attending regularly since losing over 20 pounds a few years ago). Yes, while you all cheered me on, I didn’t do what I told myself – stick to my plan of adding more vegetables and water to my diet, and cutting down on refined sugars. Even though I added some vegetables, I didn’t drink enough water, ate a delicious white candy bar, and devoured nachos at dinner with a friend one evening.
POOH!
I was about to get into a downward spiral (having a huge breakfast in one of my favorite restaurants – grits with extra cheese, bacon, and scrambled eggs! – but then I asked a WW trainer for help. I drove past the restaurant and went to the grocery store, to pick up strawberries for a morning smoothie instead. The trainer told me I made the right decision by choosing a smoothie. She encouraged me to translate what I know about this past week into positive results in the future. Then something clicked.
I remembered my “why”. Why I am committed to this path to wellbeing. You see, my father’s parents died of heart attacks in their 60s. My mother’s mother died of diabetes and my mother’s father died of a heart attack. both were in their late 60s. And my sister, a 6-foot beauty, has had trouble picking the best foods for herself for the past few years. I could blame my family for overeating, but we all have choices to make.
At Saturday’s WW meeting someone said, “I’ve decided not to make excuses.” That impressed me. Sometimes I make excuses just so I can get my way. In other cases, I apologize because it can make me lazy. For example, instead of taking 30 minutes to prepare a healthy dinner, I can reach for a bag of my favorite kettle corn.
In any case, a lot is mental. The WW coach said to me: “Sometimes we need the bad results so we can see how we can get the good results.” Well, I definitely needed those bad results. I will try again this week. There’s also a part of me that freaks out on the inside because this is the week I go back to school. I’m working on a second masters degree, which means reading a lot of books and writing multiple articles. Translation: I’ll want to have a snack while reading and writing. But it is planned to do things one day at a time. If I’m being honest here, I actually have to choose everything individually.
The day after I ate these nachos I mentioned it to my colleague Bill Kimm, who is with me on this trip. He said, “No fault – well, maybe for a split second!” Now that I’ve stood, I’ll move on. Back to work on being a better me, dropping excuses and negative attitudes, and remembering my “why”.
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