I heard the best analogy for weight loss the other day on The Last 10 Podcast with Brenda Lomeli. She talked about walking one lap on a track.
One lap equals however many pounds you want to lose. All you have to do is walk one lap, and all your weight will be lost. You don’t have to sprint, or run, or jog. Just walk the lap.
For example, if you want to lose 50 pounds, imagine for each pound you lose, you are taking a step toward the finish of your lap. Or, if you want to lose 10 pounds, you are still just walking the same lap. When you lose the 10 (or 50), you have finished the lap.
BUT, if you gain weight back, it is like walking back toward the start. Then, you have to walk that part all over again when you lose those pounds again. It is a great visual, and it got me thinking.
Since I have gained and lost weight repeatedly, how many times have I already gone around the track?
It turns out, I have walked almost FOUR TIMES backwards and forwards around that stupid track.
And, guess what… I’ve only lost eight pounds from where I was 19 months ago! No wonder we get so frustrated in our weight loss efforts.
If I had just kept walking forward (losing the pounds), I would have lost the weight by the end of the lap. But, I kept gaining a few pounds back (and taking a few steps back). I have been walking on the same part of the track back and forth… going nowhere for 19 months.
So, I decided that I only want to walk forward from now on. I’ll only go back a few steps on special occasions.
I made myself a chart. It is a picture of a track. I’m going to map out my weight loss on it so that I can see if I start walking backwards too much.
If you want a copy of the track map for your own journey, just email me: angela@angelanewberry.com
I will be happy to share. Let’s walk this lap together.
