One of the most painful aspects of weight loss is weight regain.  Has this scenario happened to you?  You’ve struggled and deprived yourself for months, losing weight.  And, then, one day you “wake up fat” again.

Watch this video where actor Kevin James explains it perfectly:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnC9BzXso90

 

What were his key words?

“I’m going to give myself a little time to have fun….”

Yep, that’s what started it all!

Another key thing he said?  “I’m going to make a turnaround.”

Have you heard yourself saying either of these things?

They are called denial.

Now, my point is not to ridicule Kevin James.   In fact, since I have coached clients in the film business and worked in it too, I can tell you the methods used to get in shape for a film are often gruesome, even more restrictive and debilitating than most of us mortals, who aren’t being paid hundreds of thousands (or millions!) of dollars, could endure.

And, if our mortal efforts results in regain 99% of the time, Hollywood weight loss is almost guaranteed to return.  You see this over and over, as actors regularly bulk up, then lose weight, invariably winding up in midlife as overweight, metabolisms shot, bodies energetically depleted.  It happened to Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor in the old days.  It happened to Russell Crowe and Christina Aguilera more recently.

And even though it’s a legitimate point how differently media treat male and female regainers (media and tabloids follow female regainers around ruthlessly – see this recent article where Christina Aguilera talks about how she was “forced” to be toothpick thin early in her career, with producers telling her an entire tour would fail if she was anything but tiny), they didn’t seem to talk too much about Kevin James’ regain.

He wasn’t ridiculed or plastered on the cover of People magazine.

He didn’t find a “plus sized” label in front of his name, like comedienne Aidy Bryant, a new regular cast member of Saturday Night Live, discovered in front of her name in the articles about her new job.  (See this article calling her “morbidly obese” and suggesting thin women run for the ho-hos.)

No, the point is Kevin’s regain.  Despite his sense of humor (haven’t we all developed good senses of humor about our weight?), you can see behind his apology.

As I recently told a client who got to goal weight and began to slip:  there is only one way to eat.

Period.

No “I’ll just give myself a break…”

No “I’ll get back on the wagon….”  Remember Oprah’s wagon?  There is no wagon.

There is only now.  And how we feed and treat ourselves right now will show up tomorrow.  There is only one way to eat.  And that is in the healthiest way possible, especially given the crap that’s hawked in our faces every day, screaming from every billboard, sign and screen.

Let’s eat in a way that makes us proud of ourselves today, and makes tomorrow great.

We all know how to do this, if we stop and pay attention.  We know how to treat ourselves with dignity.