Wanting to quit

Eight weeks in, and we are now halfway through the Colorado Diet. Although we’ve collectively lost 194.4 pounds, we’re tired, and I bet most people in the group – if not all – have either thought about quitting or thought fondly of their pre-diet lives.

Today is hard – ice cream would make me feel better.

I don’t want to get up and workout this morning – can’t I just skip today?

At the beginning, the promise of weight loss charmed us into naiveté about the huge commitment before us. Who considers what 16 weeks really feels like when your body is quickly changing in a way that makes you happy? Even if we couldn’t picture the future, it was shiny and we smiled at it with wide eyes.

But then we got used to the weekly success (or occasional backslide) and the power of it began to fade, especially as time got scarcer and workouts got harder. The time in between weigh-ins became longer and in moments of weakness, we saw others living the non-diet life, and all we wanted was what they were having. Maybe we began to lose sight of why we made this commitment to begin with.

Long-term commitments are exhausting by nature, and they can make you vulnerable to the temptations of your old life: indulging in things that satisfied you in the short term but made you unhappy in the long term. Sugar, fat, and laziness call out to you and if you are not strong enough, chances are you will indulge.

What is strength, anyway? Is it having a larger reserve of willpower? Is it superior genes? Is it never showing weakness?

I always thought that I just wasn’t “good at willpower,” as if it were a talent or that I didn’t have enough of it. In fact, as Drs. Wyatt and Hill explain, willpower is a finite resource; those who seem to have an unending supply are just better at knowing when to use it. They roadblock temptation with routines and no-brainer choices, conserving their willpower for when they really need it.

Strength is also allowing others to help you (i.e. getting vulnerable); it’s being okay with showing weakness and leaning on others for support. The catch is, in order to gain strength from others you have to let them know you need it.

This scares a lot of people and can inhibit any kind of change.

To get through this period of wanting to quit, we all have to learn to dig deep, identify our weaknesses, and accept strength from others.

I guarantee that none of us State of Slimmers would have lost as much weight as we have if not for our friends, families, co-workers, and each other. Everyone likes to think they can do it alone – and that’s fine if you want to tell yourself that – but you’re probably happier and less likely to quit if you open yourself up to the human experience.