The Weight Loss Paradox...

A paradox, as defined by the dictionary, is a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd, but in reality expresses a possible truth.  This week, I believe I may have discovered one.

Weight loss is the hardest...and easiest...thing you can do.

I'm sure those of you who've ever tried to lose weight would agree that it's one of the hardest things you can do!  It seems unlikely that anyone might agree with me that it may also be the easiest.  You'd more likely readily agree that my statement is indeed a self-contradictory, absurd proposition.  But let me explain.

For the past 22 months, I've been on the journey to a new Angie.  That journey has been about more than weight loss, to be sure, but dropping 107 pounds (so far!) has been an integral part of finding that new me.  There have been moments on this journey that the weight felt like it was just shedding itself off of me...and there have been times that I thought I might never lose another pound.  So how can I make that paradoxical statement?  My own experience and the experiences my friends shared with me this week is how!

This week, I was blessed to hear from 3 different friends how their own journeys have begun and are progressing.  Each of these friends has been important to my success because of their support and encouragement.  And now I'm blessed to be returning the favor.  I love that I can do that for them!  What each of them shared with me is that the weight is coming off now for two basic reasons:  they are eating less and moving more.

That's it.

Eating less calories and exercising more.  Period.  No specialized diet.  No expensive weight loss programs.  Nope.  Take in less food, expend more energy...and the weight is dropping off.  It's exactly what the doctors and dieticians have always said it is. Eat less. Move more.

This is why I can make the statement that I made. This is my own experience over the past almost 2 years, too.  After 25 years of unsuccessful sustained weight loss, I've figured it out.  I'm done making excuses.  I'm done believing it's beyond my ability to lose weight.  I'm done thinking men can lose weight easier than women so I'm doomed to be a big girl.  I'm just done.  It's easy to lose weight...eat less and move more.

Losing weight, though, is also the most difficult thing I've ever done.

It requires that I deal with the physical, emotional, and spiritual reasons that have prevented me from losing weight before now.  I'm still doing that.  That process is long, intense, and sometimes painful.  To lose weight, I have to be willing to use more self-discipline than I thought I had.  And waiting patiently for the numbers on the scale to move...not fun.  At all.  Truly, these past two years have been hard.  Unbelievably hard.

So there ya go...the weight loss paradox.  Losing weight is the hardest...and easiest...thing you can do. The key for me is to focus on the "easiest" part of that paradox...and let the "hardest" part of it take care of itself.