Week 1 and done

Hello, friends. I'm one week into 2022 and riding the euphoria of a new lifestyle challenge. Back in 2019 (a million, bajillion years ago), Noom taught me many things, one of which was "The Motivation Stages." According to their handy chart (see below), I am currently in the hype, or perhaps honeymoon, stage. Either way, it's a high motivation stage of my wellness journey. On January 1, I weighed in at 149.4, and today, January 8, I weighed in at 146.0 without ever having felt hungry the entire week. I just ate super healthy, reasonably portioned meals and lost over three pounds. I even had a small glass of wine while cooking most nights. Oh, the honeymoon stage is sweet. I've been on this ride enough times to know you lose that slippery weight in the beginning and that the next couple weeks I may hit that frustrating plateau where I stay in a calorie budget, hit my daily step count, and the scale doesn't budge. But then if I stick with it long enough and layer in additional healthy habits, the scale will move in the right direction once more. 

The Noom Motivation Stages

I noticed something interesting this last week that happens the first week of every January and yet feels especially ubiquitous this year. It's this giant wave of pushback against diet culture, that, while well-intentioned, feels like it veers into diet shaming. And I completely understand why. Diet culture can be incredibly toxic, rooted in misogyny, and fueled by a capitalistic impulse to make you feel bad enough about yourself to pay someone money to fix any perceived shortcoming. I've fallen prey to this in the past including deprivation diets, wrinkle creams, gym memberships, and unsustainable lifestyle changes, and I know how futile and harmful it can be both to your wallet and self-esteem. 

But I also know the vast and varied benefits of a healthy lifestyle. Eating real food and the right amount of it that makes you feel fueled instead of full. Getting over 8 hours of sleep a night. Joyful movement. Managing stress levels. Drinking enough water. These are valid, achievable goals, not some evil plot hatched by the diet-industrial complex. And after the decadence of the holidays, New Years has always felt like a wonderful time for a reset. And there are excellent tools, some of which cost money, to help you along the way. I adore the Noom app, which guides you step by step to a healthy lifestyle using the psychology of eating. Another amazing company is Clean Simple Eats, whose protein powders are yummy and seven-week challenges are social and fun. I love my $30 step tracker that gamifies my walking every day and gives purpose to taking the stairs or making the extra laundry trip. 

So there is this tension between wanting a healthy lifestyle and wanting to make sustainable change with a chorus of voices telling you that you're fine the way you are and that new years resolutions are just another form of self-loathing. Sometimes it feels like code words are the differentiator. If I say "diet," the thing I'm doing is bad. If I say "health and wellness," it's good. But that feels wrong too. Isn't your "diet" merely the food and drink you consume? And couldn't a predatory company use the term "health and wellness" to sell you on an unsustainable lifestyle that doesn't serve you wrapped up in modern verbiage? If I set my intention on good, healthy habits in 2022, does it really matter if I call it a diet (which, I admit, is a loaded term) or something else? 

Anyway, I think we need to stop acting like all changes around food and exercise in the New Year are inherently bad or inherently good. Methods, motivations, and expectations matter. Are your methods healthy for your body? Are they based on medically sound and time-tested principles like eating vegetables and getting more sleep? Is it something you could do for the rest of your life? What is your "why"? Are you changing yourself for approval? To meet some impossible beauty standard? As a rule of thumb, if you are dieting to please others, your efforts seemed doom from the start. 

What are my "whys" this time around? I've thought about this a lot so I'm glad I'm taking a second to write it down. Some of these reasons are certainly more noble than others, but they've all fueled my motivation this week and hopefully will help push me through the inevitable plummet and slips and surges ahead.

My Whys

1. To feel strong and healthy. 

2. To play with my kids. 

3. To do the things I love like hiking, yoga, and snowboarding. 

4. So that my clothes fit again. I have invested too much money in my closet for those clothes to go to waste. 

5. To give me energy to run the 14-hour marathon that is my life every single day. 

6. To protect against illness and disease. I never really thought about this before, but this pandemic has brought into stark relief the real health risks of obesity. 

7. To feel confident. I admit this motivation feels suspect. Shouldn't I feel confident at any weight? Yes. But I also need to be honest that I just don't. Internalized misogyny is real. 

8. To model healthy habits for my kids. At Harper's 6 year checkup last week the doctor asked her favorite vegetable, and she replied "chicken nuggets." So yes, a change is in order. 

There's more reasons to be sure, but those are the ones I come back to again and again. I'll keep checking in as I go, and maybe this post will serve as a reminder of my big whys along the way. 

Take care, my friends. Love you.