No Longer a Slave to Food

"It feels so good to say no."

I was watching the latest episode of "The Biggest Loser" the other night. The contestants had a temptation challenge, in which they were led into a room stacked floor to ceiling with all of their favorite guilty-pleasure foods. Most teams came in and left without eating anything, but one team came out saying that it felt so good to just say no.

It struck a chord with me, because it does feel good to conquer these little battles. This reliance on food has been so enslaving for most of my life that it feels incredibly liberating to be able to say no to it! It may sound silly to you, this thrill of being able to say no. But just take a minute and think about being a slave to something. Slavery is a nasty, dirty word -- and deservedly so. But slavery is what it was. I was a slave to food and to overeating. While it seems so easy to just stop, it's not. Food had mastered me, and I couldn't see a way out.

But now I'm mastering it! And it feels incredible! It's beginning to get to the point where I don't have to think about it anymore. I actually looked at the clock once this week and saw that I had missed my usual lunchtime by an hour or so and hadn't even thought about it because I wasn't hungry. Let me tell you, if you can recognize true hunger and fullness in yourself, it's huge.

Another part of being a slave to food was rationalization. A contestant on "The Biggest Loser" was being yelled at by the trainers for preparing for failure. He was wondering "what if" and planning ahead for plan B and plan C. They told him to stop and instead focus on making plan A work. I recognized that in myself as well. I would have a plan but in the back of my mind be looking ahead for other options or solutions. How can you succeed in something if you already think you're going to fail?

I achieved some milestones this week. I lost 3.2 pounds, bringing my total weight loss in January to 10.7 pounds. I've now lost 35.2 pounds in my journey and am below my previous low weight from last May. About 10 more pounds to go and I'll move out of the severely obese category and into the obese category with a BMI less than 35.

I went to the gym three times last week and am on my way to all five days this week. Thanks to the "Quit the Couch" promotion the gym is having -- where you win a prize if you attend 40 classes by the end of March -- I've been trying out some of the group exercise classes. I've done some yoga, some Extreme Core ab classes and a one-hour spinning class.

Yeah, you heard me right. One hour. That's a tough one, but I've been to it three times so far. I love it when she says "last song" and "recover." I also eagerly await the times when she instructs us to pedal standing up. Those seats are hard!

I attended the "Shape Up at Work" information meeting today. It looks like our team, Team Yellow, will be meeting and weighing every week on Thursdays. If you gain one week you'll be put on "probation," which means that the trainers will work out a plan for you to get back on track. If you gain the second week, it will be up to your team to decide if you get to stay with the program. Each week will have assignments you have to complete. Each month will focus on different aspects of the weight loss process, with February focused on getting your head right.

I'm excited about it, but I could tell that a few of the folks in the meeting weren't as excited as it went on. It was sad to see the "what are you going to do for me" attitude. I know that attitude, and I could tell that they won't make it, although I hope they prove me wrong. As for me, I'm in to the end.

After decades of dieting only to gain it back, two That's Fit readers have decided to finally rethink their relationship with food and exercise over the next year to move toward a lifetime of fulfilling, healthy living. Come by every week as Ashley and Lee share their successes and challenges as they tip the scale.