Scale, Scale on which I weigh, it all depends on what you say…

“Results Resilience”            part 2 of 3

Results are at the crux of what drives us these days.  Think about it… Ever quit something too soon because of unwanted results or lack thereof?  Ever allowed results to become an absolution or determination, rather than just a part of a process?  Or even more interesting… Ever achieved what you wanted and come up short on feeling fulfilled?  My answer to all of these questions is a resounding “Yes.”

Few things are more frustrating than doing what it takes and giving the best of your effort to something only to turn up short on results.  We’ve all experienced this whether its not closing the sales deal we were hoping for, coming up short of the season’s sports championship, losing a battle with a deadly disease, or… well, you get my point.  In my work I see it with dieting. 

We commit to a food and fitness regimen, remain diligent, and in two weeks the scale doesn’t budge.  Really?!!!  The most human and common reaction to this is, “Forget it!  I’m diving headlong into a nice greasy pizza!”, and we’re dialing Dominos as we pour ourselves a filthy, calorie-laden beverage.  Om nom nom.  Back at square one.

This cycle is hugely defeating, and after a few good fly-offs, fails, and falls, leaves one less than motivated to jump back onto the ever-spinning dieting carousel.  Believe me when I say I get it–  I spent a good seven or more years of my own life jumping on and falling off.  But I think there’s something more significant to consider… and it has to do with the flaws of the dieting concept.

Fact:  Diets often produce results.        Follow-up Fact:  I hate diets.

I could spend more than a paragraph or two expressing my disdain for dieting altogether, but let me spare you the rant and sum it up by saying, it’s not the discipline that I dislike so much as the concept.

The New Oxford American Dictionary describes the act of dieting as restricting oneself to small amounts or special kinds of food to in order to lose weight.  The problem with dieting, in my humble opinion (disclaimer, yes), is inherent in its very definition-  we tend to do it for a single explicit purpose: to lose weight.  So let me ask you the following:  Have you ever gone on a diet, hoping to lose weight, stuck to it religiously, and not turned out the results (weight loss) you were hoping for?  I bring this up because I can’t think of a single person I’ve worked with on a weight-loss plan, myself included, that hasn’t tried a “diet” or several, and been met with failure.  Or perhaps in some cases there was temporary success and weight loss, followed by the underhanded and all-to-rapid return of unwanted pounds.

No one will argue the fact that excess bodyweight is unhealthy.  The statistics regarding what we now call “the obesity epidemic” and it’s relationship to disease are staggering to say the least.  Yet often society’s spin on wellness and weight loss has us more focused on our desire to lose weight in order to look and feel good, rather than to be healthy and prevent disease.  This is why there are any number of diet “tricks” and “shortcuts” out there promising total transformation in eight minutes for 2 easy payments of $29.95!!  The truth?… Transformation is never quick, painless, or purchasable.  Let’s not forget the facts.  The culprit is not the obesity that is making us sick and unhappy.  It is the habits and disciplines we choose that are making us obese!

We have become so focused on results (in this case weight loss), that we are often too compromising, impatient, and impulsive to hope to achieve them, or furthermore sustain them.   When we find ourselves reacting to short-lived, ineffective diets with a subsequent “toss it all to the wind” binge, it may be time to ask ourselves the tougher questions.  For what sake our we trying?  Can we have the resilience to not react to results that aren’t indicative of our efforts?  Are we willing to continue to press on, and allow our resilience to transform us in the process of waiting for the results we seek?

This was the place in which I found myself several years back, and for me it was a turning point.  I was entirely reactive to my circumstances.  If I liked the results I was getting I would feel good.  If I didn’t, I was a supreme grouch to contend with.  I became so sick of the emotional whiplash that I had to change the rules of engagement.  What I needed was better health- emotional and physical.  For me, the crusade for weight loss was unhealthy, and I had to abandon it for a more appropriate pursuit: wellness.  I threw out (literally) the scale, so that it could no longer be my emotional barometer, and found new types of results to observe along the way.  In all honesty, it took me a good three years or more to make a significant and notable transformation.  And even years after that, I am still changing, learning, and seeking better health.

In reality, it isn’t easy, but it is relatively simple.  Get out of the mirror and off the scale.  Stop pursuing results alone, and instead, persevere for the sake of purpose.  It doesn’t have to be perfect and it doesn’t have to be tomorrow.  But a deep breath and a simple shift in mindset can take you from the bonds of erratic, result-dependent satisfaction, into a more permanent place of peaceful progress.