Friday Quote Day

Don’t let the fear
of striking out
hold you back.
~ Babe Ruth

Okay, so here you are reading a blog that you know is about losing weight, no matter what the title suggests.

(I'm up to running continuously for a tenth of a mile now. Aren't you impressed? And the knitting? Two cotton fingertip towels for the remodeled bathroom are the most recent finished projects. Yawn.)

I will assume, since you're reading a weight-loss blog, that you're knowledgeable about why (and whether) you should lose weight, and some of the effective ways to go about doing so.

But most of you – like me – have tried everything, literally, and are still waiting for the magic to happen.

Could Babe Ruth's message hold the key?

I've read, many times, that fear of success can hold one back. If I get too thin, men will stalk me, my friends will be jealous, my mother will think I'm sick, yadda-yadda-yadda.

But what about fear of failure? I'm so accustomed to failing at losing weight that I assume, right from the get-go, that no "diet" or "eating plan" will work for me. I'm not afraid, I'm convinced! But then there's always a little part of my pea-sized brain that thinks, 'But no, this one will work, this is the one.'

I approached the South Beach plan with a different attitude. I just wanted to try it out as an experiment, to see how I felt. If I lost weight, all the better. What I've learned so far is:

• I shouldn't eat sugar or refined white flour.
• I need to limit whole-wheat items to once every couple of days.
• Fruit doesn't seem to hold me back the way starchy carbs do.

I've stayed the same weight for the past couple of weeks, eating brown rice, whole-wheat pasta or a sweet potato every day. It's time to adjust the formula, relegating those items to "once-in-a-while" status.

Because this time, holding back isn't an option.