Okay so this past weekend I celebrated six years of marraige. You’re probably thinking what does a wedding anniversary have to do with weight loss. Well, I’m glad you asked. The entire week before my anniversary I was eating and exercising with the weekend in mind. I knew I wasn’t going to eat salad, baked chicken, etc. I enjoy those foods but I also enjoy non-healthier foods. In reflecting on this, I realized or reaffirmed that I’m not dieting but living a heathier lifestyle. There’s a difference between the two.

What’s the difference? For one, a diet is temporary. In my case not only was it temporary, it didn’t deal with the mentality neccessary to sustain weight loss. Thus, I gained weight back after I stopped the diet. Had I been on a diet, this past weekend would have wrecked not only the diet, but also my mindset. There would have been feelings of guilt, shame and quite possibly inadequacy. Just negative thoughts. Negative thoughts are a disease. That’s an entirely different subject.

However, since I’m on a lifestyle change, those meals didn’t bother me at all. Why not? I realized that this weekend was just two meals out of the entire week where I made a lot of healthy decisions. That’s it. I hadn’t “fallen off the wagon.” I hadn’t failed at another diet or weight loss attempt. I simply enjoyed two meals with my wife as we celebrated our marraige. I didn’t feel bad about my choices over those meals because the bigger picture was I’m living a healthier lifestyle.