It’s my pleasure to share a bit of wisdom from my dear friend and amazing LOSER (weight loss, that is), Diana Potter. Take it away, Diana!
I know. You’re already exclaiming: “Think about food?! That’s about all I do when I’m not eating it! Tell me something I don’t know.”
Believe me, I get it. All of us who’ve struggled with cravings and overeating, not to mention losing weight, have food on the brain. But after losing 82+ pounds with Dr. Michael and Dennis, I’ve discovered that my formerly dysfunctional thinking about food has morphed into something very different and very much better. It wasn’t something I expected at all, and it’s super-encouraging for keeping the extra weight off once you reach “the other side.”
First, the cravings I suffered with all my life before this program are gone. Cravings are the addictive drivers that literally jerk us away from healthy eating and back to the habits that made and keep us fat. Those awful cravings simply went away and haven’t returned. I can’t say this will always happen, but it did for me, and we hear countless stories in our community of others experiencing the exact same thing. A blessing! And one I’ve never stopped appreciating.
Second, I’ve been truly astonished that I no longer even want to eat the foods I binged on night after night in the “old days.” Take pizza. I love it, love it, love it! But I don’t crave it or even think about it much anymore, and when I do think about it, it’s just a thought I have no urge to follow through on. (And I don’t. I’ve had one small pizza in more than a year now; it was delicious, but that was it.) Then there’s potato chips, which formerly I could stuff until I was too full to move. I never think about them at all now. Wow!
Third, and following on #2 above, I really, truly enjoy the healthy foods I eat now and the delicious meals I make from them, particularly salads, fish, and mostly-veggie meatloaf. And I’m not just drudging along eating “what’s good for me” without any special desire. Oh, no: I want them! I look forward to them! I eat every bit of them! This is literally a 180-degree turn from my old cravings. Wow again.
Fourth and finally, in following the program with Dr. Michael, I’ve maintained lists of foods I’m running out of so I can be sure I don’t. That means I have specific grocery lists when I go to the store, where I buy only what I need, avoiding impulse buying (most of the time—nobody’s perfect! But even my impulses are healthy foods), and I save money, too. This change, too, happened on its own; I wasn’t trying to be so organized. It just happened as part of the healthy changes the program created in me and for me.
So now you know why I wanted us to think about food for a few (more!) minutes. Here’s hoping that, if you’re losing weight with Dr. Michael now, you’re already feeling healthier and thinking about food in healthier ways. Keep up the great work: Like me, you’ll love life on the “other side”!
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