‘After’ Shock: Maintaining Weight Loss or Living Healthy?

by Dara Chadwick

Did you know that May 6 was International No Diet Day? Don’t worry, neither did I. But it’s a great idea, isn’t it?

By now, you’ve probably heard that Kirstie Alley, who appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show recently, has re-gained much of the weight she lost during her highly-publicized weight-loss efforts just a couple of years ago.

Oh, dear.

I know many people have little sympathy for celebrities who falter — after all, they’ve usually got all the support (and money) in the world and have no problem calling attention to their successes. But when I separate Kirstie the celebrity from Kirstie the person, I feel compassion for what she’s going through.

This, in a nutshell, is why I hate grand pronouncements of when someone hits “goal weight,” as if the accomplishment itself is a measure of their worth as a person. I’ve lived that exact moment; seeing my “after” photo in the December 2007 issue of Shape magazine with the words “I did it!” at the top of the page made me feel, I don’t know, both proud and icky at the same time. Proud because overhauling your lifestyle is hard work and I did the hard work to merit that “I did it” moment. But icky because the implication was that now that I was thinner, I was somehow better. Happier. More worthy.

I even publicly mused about my concerns about re-gaining the weight. Because that’s the problem with fixating on a number as a measure of success. You have to stay there. And if you don’t, you have to live with yourself and whatever feelings that “failure” brings up.

This is also why I’m an advocate for not owning a scale. The only time a scale really matters is when you’re judging pound by pound (as in, I’ve put on three pounds or I’ve lost five). When you get into weight gain or loss of much more than that, you’ll know it by the way your clothes fit. Jumping on the scale once or twice a year at the doctor’s office is plenty for me, thanks.

If I could have written that last Shape headline, it would have said, “I learned how to make healthy choices and taught my kids to do the same!”

Because for me, that’s what the whole thing was really all about.

Not quite as sexy, though, is it?