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My co-workers and I spent 6 days in the region known as Emilia Romagna, which I think is Italian for "heaven on earth". The scenery is gorgeous (it's right next to Tuscany and looks much the same as you'd expect Tuscany to look...think Under The Tuscan Sun with Diane Lane) and the food is delicious beyond description. I spent 6 days on the "gelato, ravioli, Sangiovese (the regional wine) and piada" diet. Piada, I discovered (much to my "skinny jeans" dismay) is a regional flat bread. One of my colleagues became so addicted to it he is now in a little known Piada 12-step program in his hometown of Chicago...it's very sad. To say that I enjoyed myself while I was there, would be the understatement of all times. I had a blast!!! So, not surprisingly, I did slip into a bit of a funk upon returning, which was made worse by my co-workers emailing me pictures of all the beautiful places we saw... new friends we made...great meals we had. Sigh.... And if that weren't enough my depression deepened a bit when I stepped on to the scale to see a number that I hadn't seen in a while...hmmm...apparently along with the Ducati baby T and the Murano glass hearts I had also come back from Italia with a couple of extra pounds that I hadn't bargained for. Geez...I hope it wasn't a problem that I didn't declare them when I went through Customs..."Honestly Officer, I didn't know they were there!!" So I arranged for a consultation with an excellent exercise physiologist I know who works cheap (me) and tried to figure out how to get back on the "straight and narrow". It's times like these when I really empathize with my clients. Because there was a part of me who's about 3 years old -- and boy was she ticked-off that the proverbial party was over. It was so much fun having those 5 and 6 course meals that went on for 3 hours (literally). The wine was incredible and was consumed in copious amounts during lunch AND dinner...and now it was back to my usual. Whole wheat toast, salad with grilled chicken breast, fish with steamed vegetables, one glass of vino per night existence.... Waaaaahhhhh....I won't do it!! You can't make me exercise and eat right...I want to go to that gelato place in Venice again!!!! (Throwing body down on the ground in full scale meltdown) This SUCKS!!! (Okay, so maybe I'm a precocious 3-year old) But then I told myself what I tell my clients. I'm at choice here. Just as I CHOSE to enjoy myself in Italy (because honestly if you can't enjoy yourself in Italy -- you can't enjoy yourself, PERIOD). So too, I could CHOSE to change my eating habits now that I was back home -- or I could try to replicate my Italian experience (not likely, though in a Wonder Bread, Prego and Baskin-Robbins society, but that's another blog all together).... The point is that (despite the fact that I know this intellectually) I had to remind myself that there are consequences to my actions. If I continued to eat like that I would be trading one pleasure...the pleasure of enjoying that kind of food and drink, for the pleasure of having a body that I feel comfortable in and being a weight that I'm happy with. The two are mutually exclusive. You can visit that "world" for a time, but then you have to come back to reality and get back to work. There are trade-offs to everything. Life is about cause and effect. I had a similar conversation with a girlfriend recently. She was bemoaning a recent weight gain and expressing a great deal of frustration that she couldn't enjoy all of the things that she wanted to...."you can" I told her, "but you're not going to be a size 8." We all need to make our choices and act accordingly. It was also good for me as a fitness professional, to remember what it feels like to have to lose weight. I felt very frustrated about having to lose those 5 or so pounds. I just wanted them to be off and gone -- like yesterday. I also felt really disgusted with myself for gaining weight (although I enjoyed every minute of it). I felt really deprived and angry for a day or two...until I could see the results of my eating less and working out more and feel my clothes fitting right again...I starting looking like my old self... and then the trade-off didn't seem like such a hardship. Unfortunately, being a fitness professional doesn't make me immune from the laws of physiology -- or the normal frustrations of being human -- or the temptations of chocolate gelato...mmmmmm Geralyn Coopersmith, MA, CSCS is the author of Fit and Female: The Perfect Fitness and Nutrition Game Plan for Your Unique Body Type and the creator of The Best Me Ever -- A Complete Weight Loss, Fat-Burning and Muscle Sculpting System |
