"I can't lose weight without exercising!"

“Doctor,” I said after he told me I need to lose weight, “I’ve never been able to lose weight by changing my diet alone, I’ve tried that. I can’t lose weight without exercising, and I can’t exercise because of my bad back.  I can’t even walk around the block! Some mornings I can barely get out of bed.”  In the least condescending tone that he could muster, my doctor responded, “Well, you can and should be able to lose weight without exercising if you change your diet and do it the right way.  There’s a program I’d like you to check out called ‘Bright Lines.’ I'm giving you homework to do. I’ve had several patients tell me about their success.  Please look into it. Here, I’ll even write it down for you so won’t forget.”  And that’s how my BLE journey began.

I even kept the sticky note.

Today’s video message from Susan Thompson (“SPT”) addresses my initial apprehension about this weight loss program; that is, my thinking that I need to incorporate exercise.  She, however, favors “uncoupling” exercise and weight loss. To be clear, SPT is not anti-exercise, her argument is that for now, I should be focusing on the bright lines until this new way of eating and thinking about food becomes “automatic.” The time for exercise comes after the weight is gone.  She says that the time spent losing weight should be “brief and exhausting.”   So exhausting that your stores of “willpower” are depleted, and when you add the time and effort it takes to exercise, that effort inhibits your ability to be successful with the eating part. 

While I’m still skeptical, I do see where this argument may have some merit as I draw on my past experience with VIP fitness.  I literally  (ok, maybe figuratively) broke my back getting out the door 5 mornings a week at 5:05 am to make the 45 minute workout class that started at 5:30 am.  Then I would race home, shower, get myself and the kids ready and off to school so I could be at work by 8:00 am.  By the time I sat down in my office chair, most mornings I felt like I had already put in a full day’s worth of work.  It was, as SPT suggests, exhausting, and ultimately unsustainable for me. The meal plan with the VIP fitness program was simple to follow and left no room for variation, so that was easy to follow, but again not something I could sustain. Though I successfully lost weight with VIP, in the end, my body looked deflated, not at all “fit.” Though I was thin(ner), I still didn’t feel that I looked all that great when I stood naked in front of a mirror.  So, maybe there is something to SPT’s suggestion that I should concentrate on getting my “diet” under control first, and worry about how, when, and what to do about exercising later.

What do you think about the “conscious uncoupling” (credit Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin) of diet and exercise?