When a person has an event that he or she is gearing up for, and there is a marked determination to be at a certain weight by a certain date, there is a strong chance that that person will lose weight every week until that event. If you plotted out weight vs. time with weight being on the abscissa and time being on the ordinate, there would be a line heading down with no bumps up along the way.
However, if you continue to graph the weight vs. time for that person striving to be at a goal weight for that event, there is a very good chance that post-event, that line will start going up and there will be few-no bumps down along the way.
I certainly understand the desire for people to lose weight to look great at a special event such as a wedding, reunion, holiday gathering etc. But, from the long-term health aspect, it is vitally important not to “take the foot off the gas pedal” when that special event is now over.
The graph of long-term weight control will most definitely have bump-ups along the way. A vacation week, business travel, the week of your birthday and other similar circumstances will make weight control quite difficult during those times. BUT, if you offset these “one step back” weeks with more weeks of diligent/focused efforts, than the “two steps forward” will produce a continuation of the downward trend of weight for the long-term.
The point of this entry: What is important for long-term health and happiness is having the weight go from “Point A” down to (the goal” “Point B”, and do expect that the line will not be a straight one, and that is okay. Just do not allow those “one step backs” to discourage you from continuing your efforts.
(By the way, there was zero chance of me spelling “abscissa” correctly or remembering which line was the ordinate without looking it up!)
