Weight Loss Success Story
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WE (gulp) FACE REALITY Meet "The Reality Monsters." If your definition of ecstasy is permanently losing your lumps, then you don't have a choice. I'm not asking you to do anything I wouldn't do. These are the very same two-headed beasties that I had to confront nose-to-nose before the weight started coming off.... and before I knew for certain that I would never again be FAT. We'll get started in a minute, but first there's a bit of unpleasantness I'd like to get out of the way. If this is where you whine, "Well that may be okay for them, but I'm not ready, and I can't do 'til I'm ready (snort)," you might as well know.... that kind of stuff doesn't hold any water with me. Maybe you still don't understand where I'm coming from. I'm the Fat Lady who walked into her first fat-group meeting on April 13, 1998, plopped down on a chair, and made the perfect first impression by announcing, "I'm not ready for this. I'll try, but mostly I'm here for my daughter. Is it just me? Don't any of the rest of you feel like you'd much rather stay fat and die a horrible death than give up a single onion ring? I mean, haven't you ever wished you had the guts to order extra grease on your chicken-fried steak?" On April 13, Dr. Dunn's magic words still hadn't connected with my nerve endings, and all I knew was that I had no intention of struggling like those people were. I didn't have the willpower. Didn't want it. I'd rather be fat. I was about as motivated to get skinny as the Fat Lady in the freak show. (Okay, so cutting back on my onion rings wouldn't necessarily mean losing my livelihood and moving into a shopping cart.... just stick with me on this, okay?) But exactly one year later.... miraculously.... there were 70¼ pounds less of me to love. Still a long way to go, but not a bad beginning.... especially considering the fact that not once have I been in danger of saying, "Just forget the whole thing!" and putting all my weight back on. So we've come to the place where I blow holes in all your excuses.... and I don't allow whining here, because I've whined more than enough for both of us. Having said that.... there's no time like the present to get started. This is where I simply introduce The Reality Monsters. A bit later, we'll start tackling these little suckers one by one. REALITY NO. 1: I AM FAT. Well, duh. REALITY NO. 2: I AM FAT BECAUSE I EAT TOO MUCH FOOD. A calorie is a calorie is a calorie. I know this because my business is medical transcription, and I have transcribed one too many Continuing Medical Education Seminars in which one too many of the world's experts on obesity have said so. This flies in the face of just about every other "expert" on the planet (certainly the most popular experts), who tell us such profound things as....
I'll tell you how. The popular "experts" only have one hand to work with; the other hand is in the cookie jar. Only the REAL experts.... the ones who do the REAL (as in "scientifically sound") research.... have absolutely nothing to gain by coming up with a new theory every few months. No books to sell. No herbal supplements to peddle. No distributor "downline" to build. It is a fact: If you eat fewer calories than you burn, your body will start to live off itself and you will shrink. If you eat more calories than you burn, you will eventually have to buy two tickets to travel by air. REALITY NO. 3: MY GLANDS WORK JUST FINE, THANK YOU. If you are one of the EXTREMELY rare individuals who grew to enormous proportions because of a glandular problem, then you shouldn't be reading this book. You have a serious condition that can almost certainly be controlled by medication. You need to put this book down, quit trying every new diet that comes along, and get yourself to a doctor. If you've been checked out and you know in your heart it's just another excuse, then you need to quit screaming, "Glands!" and keep reading. REALITY NO. 4: GETTING OLDER HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. REALITY NO. 5: I CAN'T KEEP BLAMING MY GENES. At first I thought I was dreaming, but I just kept right on losing weight.... faster and easier than my kid! I thought she'd leave me in her dust. I mean, the cards were really stacked against me: a grandma from a long line of porkers, 27 years older, four miscarriages, a hysterectomy, a business that keeps me fastened securely to my chair.... (and did I mention that my daughter has the unfair advantage of having a father who looks like a string bean?). And when we both fell off the wagon for a while, she gained much faster and easier then I did. I resented these realities the most, because they completely ruined two of the greatest "fat" excuses ever invented. Saying good-bye was harder than ignoring a cheesecake. REALITY NO. 6: NO "DIET" WILL WORK FOR ME. Maybe it's because every "diet" has a beginning and an end so it's doomed from the start.... or maybe it's because I'm weak. The "why" doesn't matter. The fact is, I know that when I finish "dieting," I'll put back every ounce and then some. The scale figured that out long before I did. (And please don't say, "That's the wrong attitude." Of course it is, but we're not dealing with right and wrong here.... we're dealing with reality. And past history tells me this is my reality.) REALITY NO. 7: WHAT "WORKS BEST FOR ME" ISN'T WORKING. Like every self-respecting dieter, I had a truckload of theories about "what works best for me." But hey, if it "works," then why isn't it working? (Sorry, but "It's keeping me from weighing as much as my horse" isn't my idea of "working.") REALITY NO. 8: "HEALTHY LIFESTYLE CHANGES" AREN'T DOING THE JOB. If I have to count fat grams and keep track of fruit exchanges and measure my grilled chicken breasts for the rest of my life, it's just a matter of time before I get fat again. It's a good goal.... probably even the right goal.... but if the end result is that I'm still fat, then what have I gained (except the weight that never stays gone)? The struggle may result in a stronger, nobler me.... but in the end, it won't save my life, and I'm "an old mommy" with a little girl who's counting on me to get my priorities straight. REALITY NO. 9: I CAN'T DO IT ALONE. To this very day, my favorite form of entertainment is stopping at a fast-food joint on the way to wherever I'm going and pigging out in the car. All alone. Just me and my onion rings and my Ultimate Cheeseburger with extra sauce. And my other favorite form of entertainment is stopping at a different fast-food joint on the way BACK from wherever I'm going and pigging out in the car. All alone. Just me and my tacos (and more onion rings if I can fit 'em in). Because I can't be trusted, I know I have to be accountable to someone other than myself for the rest of my life. REALITY NO. 10: I'M GONNA BLOW IT. And that, Fellow Porky, is where you get into trouble with "diets" and "healthy lifestyle changes." FORMERLY FAT™ is different. We all blow it. The difference is, with FORMERLY FAT™, you don't beat yourself up when you blow it, and that alone makes it possible to keep moving in the right direction. And if you really blow it -- as in completely abandon the system, which is highly unlikely because way down deep you know you really don't want to abandon the Baby Steps that changed your life... ... your life preserver is always within reach.Unlike the bzillion systems you've abandoned in the past, this one doesn't require you to face yet another "lifestyle change" to grab on and save yourself. ORDER THE BOOKLET FIRST |
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Lesley Fountain Send an Email P. O. Box 542 Phone: (707) 682-0303 Fortuna, CA 95540 |
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