If I’ve learned anything in the first few weeks of talking openly on social media about my personal journey from obesity to a healthy weight, it’s that individual opinions on food choices, diet and weight loss are so unbelievably diverse, trying to discuss them publicly is a little bit like stepping into a crowded auditorium where everybody is trying to talk at once.
No matter who has the mic, nobody gets the floor.
That said, when we talk openly on social media about anything (yes, anything), we invite responses. Social media is nothing if not a dialogue. If you’re lucky, it’s an orderly one. No argument there.
But I have to wonder whether a journey like this may be too personal to share quite so openly.
My choices will never line up completely with anybody else’s. My food choices are of the most interest and consequence to precisely three people: me, myself and I. Even my fellow “winners at losing” in Weight Watchers have to find their own way, within a program that affords so much flexibility of choice.
Sharing our successes is a good thing. We can encourage and inspire one another, learn by watching other people figure out what works for them, and go on to find what works for us, through trial and error. I’ve a hunch this is something done most successfully in the company of like minded people, narrowing the universe of opinions on What To Eat to a handful.
For me, fewer competing voices = less anxiety. If I am anxious and can’t get un-anxious, I will probably overeat. A lot. A LOT a lot.
The more I can focus on my individual approach, defining and refining it in the company of others who also move in the Weight Watchers universe, the less distracted I’ll be. (As previously noted in this this blog, I go all ADD around food). I’ve got to be able to make inquiries and mistakes in a room where one person at a time gets the mic.
In other words, not on social media.
Yes, believe I can do this, lose a hundred pounds or more, but for a while it’s going to be a private battle. When I have a success story worth sharing, three months or three years from now, odds are I’ll be up for talking about it more openly, in hopes of inspiring other people in their own journey back to health. There will be no woo-woo science or shortcuts to share when I get where I’m going. I like major change about as much as the next late-forty-something person. Tried bariatric surgery once, but it didn’t stick. (I secretly expected a cure.) Knowing what doesn’t work is at least as valuable as knowing what does. The forty pounds I lost, well, I found them again in a year’s time.
So that’s not my path. It may be yours, and if so, HOORAY!
There is room enough for all of us to find what works.
No more food wars. There is no win or lose.
Find YOUR food sanity and follow it.
Peace for the journey, friends.
Laurie
image: Dzine Blog
My Big Girl Pants 