Why Do People Want To Lose Weight So Fast?

The journey to losing weight can feel like an incessent, ticking time bomb with the end goal resting in a galaxy far, far away.

But instead of accepting this, I want to lose weight as fast as Veruca Salt wanted her squirrel in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 

“I want it NOW!” she screams to her completely whipped Father.

And as you may know, she did not experience a happy ending.

What’s worse, is that along with this feeling of wanting something I can’t have instantly, I feel shame.

I experience thoughts like…

I would have lost weight more quickly if I ate perfectly all the time. 

It’s humiliating when I try to do yoga and can’t bend into certain positions because my stomach is in the way. 

I want to be able to walk up the stairs at work without a single huff and puff, but instead it’s distressing. I should be able to do this, you know? I’m scared for my health. 

It’s like every time I go to the store and go for the Ghirardelli brownie mix, I’m the worst person in the entire Multiverse.

I learned in therapy how complicated shame can be in a weight loss journey.

It’s like shame has completely blocked the part of me that can acknowledge that weight loss doesn’t happen when I needed to fit into that dress yesterday!!! 

Shame has this way of building a barricade around motivation. It truly stalls progress like a friend calling for ice cream when you’re killing it at the gym. 

But there is light at the end of the tunnel. Because shame can be coped with.

What it took? 

Honestly, it took figuring out how shame has twisted its way into my mind and also, my lifestyle.

In my life, shame has my mind talking negative, illogical, self sabotage BS that I have to filter through. 

In fact, I have written down my twisted thoughts and fired back with glowing, positive affirmations. I repeat this positivity to myself in the mirror.  

Now, it doesn’t take maximum effort to shut down my negative thinking that shame latches onto.

Instead I created a different story to tell myself. 

“You are beautiful and doing the best you can!” 

…And when I try on a dress that is a size 12 when I wish it fit in a size 10…

“You look so sexy today, yes girl!”

In therapy, we discussed how to look beyond, well, how I looked. My identity had to be detached from my weight. And there is so much weight placed on physical appearance, especially when you commit to therapy for it. It took realizing that part of my weight wasn’t in my control to sever the attachment I had.

A question popped into my mind instantly when I realized - it's not all my fault!

The question….

Should I be ashamed of my genetics? 

Answer...absolutely NOT! 

Then another question not so sciency…but still key to the conversation.

Should I be ashamed of how society idolizes stereotypes that tend to make me feel ashamed of how I look? 

That answer feels more like a definitely, maybe. 

Which brings up a terrorizing point. 

My shame is fueled by not only myself, but by the judgment of others. 

The solution: I had to let go of what others thought of me. 

I had to let go of this vicious cycle going on in my head because it was adding to the circumference of my hips. 

Basically, I had to find my role in all of this. What can I control and how can I steer towards true body positivity? Heck, I would even go for body neutrality. 

I know this is a process and that it takes time. The only way to make it feel like time is going faster is to feel more confidence and self esteem than I do shame. That’s what I try to do everyday.

“Meredith, you rock!”

See, easy as pie!