Destination Transformation

My husband showed me the above cartoon the other day and although it is very funny, it also reminded me of all the crazy things we try to do to “transform” ourselves.  There are so many things on the market that promise to transform us from being overweight to being slim overnight.  I wish that there was a magic pill out there that we could take before bed and wake up the next morning as a brand new person.  The truth is, there isn’t such a pill that exists…at least not yet.

I am hoping my husband will try to invent it one day, and succeed.  🙂   Until then, the only way we are going to transform is by doing it the hard way, i.e., eating right and exercising.   It is my belief that most any diet will work, if you follow it correctly, but not all diets are healthy.  I used to hop on every diet train out there and loved seeing the results that would come from strict adherence to the diet’s regimen, but soon the results would start slowing down because my body demanded more from me.  I can’t follow the Atkins Diet because I simply did not lose weight after the first week.  I think that my body got stuck from trying to digest all that meat –ha ha.  I remember being on something called the 3 Day Rotation diet back when I was in school.  OMG, I hated the day where beets rolled around on the rotation!  I could barely swallow them.   My mom would get so mad at me gagging the whole time I ate them.  I thought they tasted like dirt.  It wasn’t the pickled kind you find on salad bars, (which I love), but it was the kind that your great grandma canned in a jar.  No offense to my granny, but those was Nasty with a capital N!   The only good thing about that diet was the ice cream at dinner.

I could go on and on about the many diets that I have tried over the years, but I won’t.  I know for me, the only thing that has worked is Weight Watchers because they teach you that you can eat anything in moderation and that choosing the right foods to eat, along with exercising, helps you reach your goal faster.  Now, if you want to eat all your points on Krispy Kreme donuts, you can.  You just have to know that if you eat all your points in junk food during the day, come dinner time, you are going to be starving and the only thing you can eat is the free vegetables or the soup, in which my favorite WW leader in Florida used to lovingly call The Punishment Soup.  I am not currently on WW because I thought it was time I learned more about the actual calories of food and how energy in versus energy out.  I no longer believe in diets because diets end.  I believe that you have to make changes in  your overall life, choosing healthier foods and getting some exercise during the week.  It truly is about choosing a healthier lifestyle.  I still follow the principle of Weight Watchers, everything in moderation.  Nothing is off limits to me, I just try to plan ahead and make sure I burn some energy if I want dessert. 🙂

I found myself at times not eating enough food to balance out all the workouts I was doing, and that in return caused my body to go in starvation mode.  There is a balance that I am looking for.  I am learning that balance now by using the Bodymedia link I bought myself for Christmas, and the  Polar FT7 Heartrate Monitor my husband got me (he likes to joke with me that I look like a Bionic Woman when I go to work out).   I linked my Bodymedia to Myfitnesspal account and it works great together because it shows me just how much energy I really burn during the day.  I am loving it!  Of course I can say that on the days where the amount of calories I can eat increases because of all my activity of the day, but if I am laying around on my ass on the weekends doing nothing, I watch my calories decrease and  I don’t love that so much.  It helps me understand the process though, and this is what I need to learn.  Transformation is a process.  It doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time.  There is no magic pill and we do not have the ability to upload into a computer and let someone airbrush out all our flaws, so until that happens I am pressing forward:  Destination Transformation.

I don’t like the title of this video, but couldn’t resist sharing.  If only it was this easy!