Being on a proven eating plan is like being on a train. The line is set out before you and all you have to do is follow it. Choosing your own way is like driving around on unformed roads. There may be no signage, or there may be many contradicting signs that make you so confused you don’t know where you’re going. There may be difficult corners you simply can’t negotiate. There may be sandy areas that bog you down. It can all be pretty hard doing it on your own.
The railway is a system where someone else has done the infrastructure for you, and that makes the travelling hugely easier. Of course you can make a detour to the sidelines and have to get shunted back to the main line. Life’s not always straightforward. But by and large, you just choose the right train – one that will get you safely to your destination – then you just stay within the rails.
I had found such a train. It was an eating plan that was flexible enough to be really healthy or give a bit of leeway for those emergencies when junk food was pretty much the only available option. It was something I could stick to, day in and day out. I was happy. Losing weight, in control, looking good.
During that time, someone said to me, “But you wouldn’t want to stay on a diet forever.” I thought, “Why not?” Because it was great. The problem was the goal weight syndrome. I was there. I had arrived. I didn’t need to follow the lines any more. So I didn’t put enough energy and thought into the maintenance phase I should have been attending to with great vigilance until I became used to the more relaxed rules. But i didn’t just change trains. I got off the system. I wandered a long way away and now I’m going to have to look for the railway station all over again.
It seems that you can cheat with bad food as long as you keep it to a very small percentage of what you are eating. But once you’ve totally let go and your blood sugar is out of control, it’s very hard to regain your balance.
The point is, you can choose different routes to take you to different destinations. Life’s still an adventure. There’s still so much to see along the way. But if you go the structured way, you’ll get there, slim and healthy. And that’s something to toot about. So here I am, ticket in hand. I need to board my train. And the next time I get to my destination weight, I’m not leaving the station. I’m going immediately to the maintenance train. It might be running on a different guage but it will still keep me on the straight and narrow.