Persistence Pays Off

Persistence Pays Off

We all have barriers to weight loss, whether they are metabolic, social, emotional or physical, and yet many times we find impressive clients who break through those issues and their wonderful journey begins The interesting thing is, we never know when that will happen. For some, they arrive motivated and ready for change and the process begins immediately. For others, those barriers are so monumental that it may take months or possibly a year or two.

At times we wonder how much we are helping as we try our best to motivate people to change their habits, but having to overcome many emotional and physical limitations can be challenging. Stress plays a huge deterrent. Depression and anxiety, family issues, work demands, poor sleep and in many people painful joints and fatigue may limit their ability to formulate a plan. But there is always hope.

Having said that, we are always trying to have individuals work within the reality of their situation in life. One man had a demanding home business. He also had physical limitations in the form of severely arthritic knees and pain. With the stress of work, the chronic pain and inability to walk any distance, every attempt he made to change his eating would last just a few days and he would relapse into snacking on excess carbohydrate laden foods. I should mention, also, that these factors in his life lead to a low grade depression, so the pleasure of food was a comfort and hard to resist.

The impressive thing was that he just never gave up. He would come in regularly to see the counsellors or myself to discuss his situation in life and try to develop the motivation and tools to change.

There were setbacks in the long duration it took to see an orthopedic surgeon, and even longer wait to see if he was a candidate for knee replacement. All the while we remained supportive, and tried at least to help him move away from carbohydrate snacking. We weren't really trying to deprive him of food, simply to lower his carbohydrate intake to decrease the production of insulin which was blocking his fat loss.

I believe it was about a year of consultations and counselling before subtle shifts in his life occurred. His job became less demanding, and he found an orthopedic surgeon who was willing to send him for knee replacement.

Before his operation however, his eating shifted. His snacks became less, he became more aware of his portions and worked his way to lowering his carbohydrates. In relatively short period of time, he was down 22 pounds and feeling much more energetic; even his knees were less painful. He now seems well on his way to making permanent dietary changes that will lower his weight and improve his quality of life.

You see, weight loss requires much more than simply following the latest 'diet'. We need to be ready to change. We need to discover those things that are inhibiting us from making a change. Most of all, we need to work (sometimes a long time) at knowing clearly our barriers and how we are going to overcome those to lose weight and keep it off. As this gentleman showed us, it will happen; just don't give up, and don't beat yourself up. It's not easy, but losing weight and being more active is a wonderful goal to chase. You can do it!

Dr. Doug