I am 5'1" and 42 years old. I was always a very small child and graduated from high school wearing a size 3. With my first daughter, I only gained 24 pounds which was quickly lost. With my second daughter, I gained less than that......due to her being born at 30 weeks. So, I left the hospital that time in my pre-pregnancy jeans. Then, I got pregnant with my son. It was the best pregnancy of the three. I wasn't tired, or sick, or anything. I craved foods I had never eaten before and I was loving the pregnant lifestyle. Eating for two took on a whole new meaning for me.
Today, my son is 15 and I have never seen a size 3 again! For the last 15 years I have been playing with that same yo yo that you mention. I've laughed about my weight, I've cried about my weight, I've done everything except face the fact that I was going to have to change my lifestyle. Growing up, I was very active.....always on the go. I ran track for the school and was on the cross-country team, and I took ballet three times a week. I was probably the most tomboyish ballerina there ever was. After my daughters were born, I still ran a few times a week and still took dance classes because I loved them. My second daughter and my son are 16 months apart. Having two small children in diapers gave me the opportunity to develop all kinds of excuses. Those excuses turned into habits, and those habits turned into a new lifestyle. Did I mention that I had ballooned from a size 3 to a 5'1" woman who weighted 223 lbs., needing a size 18 to 20 to feel comfortable in clothes? No, well, that is exactly what I did to myself.
It has honestly taken me 15 years to say to myself that no fad diet, no quick fix pill is going to get me back into shape. I no longer have a goal of getting back into those size 3's. Now, I am finally honest with myself. I make small attainable goals and I reward myself (non-food awards) when I meet a goal.
Since January of this year, I have lost 42 pounds. I have added healthier eating into my lifestyle and more movement. My cabinets no longer contain chips and cookies and sugary snacks, and my grocery shopping takes just a little longer because I pay attention to labels. I do a lot more cooking for my family to provide healthier meals and I've actually saved money by not sitting in drive-thru lines to buy fast food. The weight is coming off slowly, but I don't stress about that. I've gone down from a size 18/20 to a size 12. I have more energy and I generally just feel better all around. Even my family seems to be feeling better. Everyone actually wants to do things together instead of just sitting in front of the TV and letting that entertain us.
To stop the yo yoing, I found that the things we really didn't want to hear about diets are true. You do have to watch what you eat and how much, and you have to get up and move. But, most importantly, you have to make a committment with yourself that this is going to be your new lifestyle. It just took me 3 or 4 weeks to stop craving sugar. I haven't had a soda since January and I don't miss them. We hardly ever use our big dinner plates anymore, and we all now know exactly what a serving size is. During those 3 or 4 weeks of getting sugar out of my system, I admit that I thought I was hungry a lot. However, now that I have been doing this for 6 months, I don't get hungry as often, a real serving actually fills me up, and I find myself automatically reaching for whole, good foods when I do feel a hunger pain.
One exercise that I did just to see if it were true, is I went as long as I could without food for one day. My doctor said that many of us don't really know what true hunger pains feel like. Usually, what we associate with hunger is thirst. So, when I felt what I thought was hunger, I drank water. He was right....that little tummy growl went away and stayed away. I went 24 hours before real hunger set it. Let me tell you, hunger pains are a lot different! I haven't fasted like that since the beginning of this diet/lifestyle change and I truly haven't felt those types of hunger pains either.
Dieting isn't easy. But, the hardest part is convincing yourself that you have to change your lifestyle in order to be healthier. Once you have that licked......the rest is a piece of pie!