Struggles & Triumphs

This week I have been struggling. After eight weeks of the Get Shredded Diet I’m now back on maintenance. As I get further and further away from the weight loss phase of my life change I look back wistfully at how easy that was. Keeping the weight off hasn’t been too much of a struggle for me, as the fear of regaining is so prevalent. Finding balance is something I admittedly struggle with and the incessant need to be 100% clean with my eating and training prevails. Transitioning off this extreme diet has proven to be more demanding than the actual diet.
I have had this overwhelming compulsion to dive into a pile of brownies/cookies/bag of baked cinnamon chips (sweet poison those are!) all week. Now that I’m transitioning off, it has taken some serious discipline and willpower to restrain myself from not eating a bag of cookies.

I know that while I was in the thick of dieting, desperate to see the pounds melt away it didn’t seem easy. But it is compared to life after a significant loss. Overall, I do well in following the nutrition guidelines and my training is on. This is what really counts. The mental and emotional stuff -- it takes time and is more hard work. There is never a moment when you lunge across the finish line and are awarded a medal (a fit body for life and no cravings for junk food). Because it never ends and the work never stops. I have resigned to the fact that I will never NOT obsess about my weight, eating and exercise. With my long and colourful past relationship with food I think a certain watchfulness is definitely required. It’s a constant, daily process of calibration, negotiation, and monitoring. As daunting as it sounds, at the end of the day it is so worthwhile, that I keep fighting. The alternative really is no longer an option.