11.04.22

Confessions of a Yo-Yo Dieter

11.04.22| 256 pounds

Today I start my diet! Rather, I should say re-start my diet. Ok, ok, truth be told, today I restart my diet, again... for the umpteenth time!

I am the epitome of a yo-yo dieter. Look me up in the dictionary. Over the years I have become a real yo-yo diet professional so let me explain my tried, true, and tested technique: I gain weight then diet and try to lose them (mostly unsuccessfully). The scale goes up, the scale goes down. In recent years though, the scale has mostly gone up. This trend of yo-yo dieting is a regular ebb and flow - a recurrent pattern (sometimes rhythmical) of weight gain and loss. Gain, diet, repeat.

Let's be fair though, my oversimplified version of yo-yo dieting (YYD) is just that - oversimplified. It doesn't tell the entire story of why so many people end up in this pattern. It skips, in my case, the injuries, the divorce, the travel, the kids, and turning 40! It also fails to address the successes - like the spring of 2018 when I finally got the coveted six-pack abs. An oversimplified perspective of YYD is like looking at mars through binoculars. Yes, it is visible (even with the naked eye), but without more understanding you'd think you were just looking at a red star. So goes a distant view of YYD, you lose perspective if you don't take time to understand why so many people get stuck riding the Yo-Yo.

Me, April 2018

Part of the reason I have started my blog, Weight Of It All, is to better understand why I Yo-Yo diet. For me, as hard as it is to admit, all the right reasons why I have gained weight are all of my bad excuses. It is easy to justify, at least in the moment, why I over-eat or not exercise. I am positive that my excuses correlate with weight gain and YYD. The devil is in the details excuses and over the next 26 weeks I plan to flesh them out.

I also plan to use this space as a mindfulness exercise. Regular self-reflection will hopefully keep me on track and in check. I also hope to stay accountable to you, the reader and guest to my blog. Please stay tuned for updates. I plan on posting 2-3 times per week through May 5, 2023 (and beyond?). Something big is happening this Summer.

Tentatively, I plan to explore and expose various subjects each week including, but not limited to:

  • My plan

  • Losing weight is an art form

  • Elastic waisted pants

  • The life-line of yo-yo dieting

  • The best shape of my life

  • Turning 40

  • Discovering beer

  • Kids and weight loss

  • Complacency

  • Bad habits