"Losing weight"

I won't do this often, but I want to now because this is an interesting thought. I'm basically reposting a post I saw on FormerFatDudes.com. I was reading a blog I started a month ago of a guy named Rob Portinga (@mcnee on twitter). He had RNY surgery about 4 years ago and seems to be doing great. I saw a post of his he did early on about the mind set that people, not just WLS patience, have about "losing weight". Take a read and see what you think of it. I think it's a very interesting idea. Also, I might be guest posting on his site in the future. So keep an eye out for it. Thanks and here ya go!

By Rob Portinga
Did you ever get lost as a kid? Or your own kid has gotten lost? Or maybe think back to something as simple as losing your keys, or a wedding ring, or something else of value, how did it feel?

You tend to go in to a sort of panic mode, full of anxiety and stress until what you lost has been found.

We’ve been taught on both a conscious and sub-conscious level since we were kids, if you lose something, you need to get it back. Does that mentality carry over when it comes to “losing” weight?

I hadn’t thought about this at all really, untill it came up in a recent conversation at my support group… but maybe it does?

I’ve joked about how I had lost the same 30-50 pounds over and over and over again, only for them to find me again and bring friends with. I’m sure most of you have had a similar experience.

So maybe there is some sort of mental trigger that kicks in on some sub-conscious level that does contribute to making “losing” weight just a bit harder? And if there is, what can you do about it?

I’ve said before, WLS is for the physical no the mental side of all this. So as part of that mental adjustment we ll need to make, maybe we need to stop thinking of it in terms of “losing” weight. Maybe it’s as simple as checking out the thesaurus. I mean after all, look at the basic definition of lose to begin with; “be deprived of; mislay”, and a secondary definition of “be defeated”. Not a very… positive look on things is it?

Whether you’ve had bariatric surgery or not, we’re not looking to mislay the weight, that right there suggests at some point we’d want it back. I know I don’t. And to be defeated? No… I’m the one looking to do the defeating here. So how about instead of looking to lose weight, maybe it’s as simple as making a mental shift and look at it as “reducing your weight”?

The basic definition of reduce is “make less”, with a secondary definition of “defeat”. I think that’s more accurate as to what I’m looking to.. I’m looking to make my weight less than it was, to defeat my obesity.

I’ve got nothing scientific to back any of this up, but I’m going to try looking at my own situation in this new light, and I’m not saying this alone is going to make some huge difference in my life, but maybe this is just one more simple/minor change I can make as part of the overall picture to help ensure my continued WLS success.