Gentry
"Perspectives"
January, 2007 |
Resolution Accomplished
The Man With The Plan
Christine VanDeVelde resolves to lose weight and does. Gentry's
contributing editor begins a series on her very personal weight loss
journey. New Year's resolutions have been
around since the days of the mythical king Janus, for whom the month of
January is named. The two-faced deity had the ability to see both
backward and forward, signifying change and transition, and thus became
the ancient symbol for the annual custom. In Janus' day of 153 B.C., the
most common resolution was to seek forgiveness from one's enemies of the
previous years.
Today, the ritual of resolutions still requires us
to own up to our failures -- smoking, swearing, drinking too many
Cosmos, spending too much money at the mall, and not spending enough
time at home with family. But apparently our biggest failure is
over-indulgence at the buffet table -- losing weight tops the charts
across the board when it comes to New Year's resolutions.
The last time I actually made a list of resolutions
I was still living with my parents, worrying about whether I'd have a
date for the holiday dance, and sending out requests for college
brochures. That list did include, however, "Lose Weight." And almost
every year since, even though I didn't bother to write down any
resolutions, the little voice in the back of my head echoed with the
same resolution that everyone else had at the head of their list. Even,
I'm ashamed to say, when I weighed only ten or so pounds more than
Twiggy.
But later when it became a real necessity to lose
weight for health reasons, I was still never among the scant 20% who
manage to reach their resolution goals. Why not? Well, let me just say
that motivation is a tricky thing and a date on a calendar was certainly
never enough to motivate me. As anyone who has ever tried it knows, just
as there is never a good time for having children, there is never a good
time to start a diet. There's always a trip abroad, a party with great
dim sum, a birthday celebration, or a disaster that can only be smoothed
over with peanut butter cups. It's notoriously difficult to change
behavior – witness the fact that 65% of adults in this country are
overweight or obese.
It's hard to know how and why people become willing
to exert self-control in pursuit of a particular goal. I can tell you
that for many years I planned and schemed to lose weight -- joining
Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, employing personal trainers, and buying
every weight loss book ever published. My failure to lose weight wasn't
for lack of trying or without a sense of desperation. I even succumbed
to the dangerous fen-phen fad. But the food scales and fat-free brownies
were Band-Aids, not solutions. Someone once said that a goal without a
plan is just a wish. I never had a plan.
I know, I know. I can hear you now: Weight Watchers
is a plan, a weekly meeting with a trainer is a plan, the South Beach
Diet is a plan. But they're not. A plan is not a frozen dinner or an
appointment on a calendar, a plan is a way of life. It's a means to get
what you want. An appointment in a day planner may be a step along the
path, but it's not the solution. I was at the point where I thought I'd
never find a solution for myself when I was lucky enough to discover a
man with a plan.
Jerzy Gregorek is a world champion weightlifter, a
political refugee from Poland, and a poet. He relocated to northern
California from Los Angeles just over two years ago with his wife
Aniela, who is also a world champion weightlifter, a political refugee
and a poet. The Gregoreks coached the men's and women's weightlifting
teams at UCLA, as well as personal clients, ultimately developing over
the last thirty years their own program of weight control and exercise.
A plan.
In Los Angeles, clients who had tried for years to
find help or lose weight called the Gregoreks' house "The Last Stop".
When I approached their door a year ago in October, I certainly felt
that way myself. And for me it was the last stop -- just over a year
later, I've lost more than fifty pounds. This year, there will be no
"Lose Weight" item on my mental list of resolutions. Instead, like
Janus, I'll look back to view the progress I've made over the last year
and forward to a healthier, happier way of life and Dolce and Gabbana in
size 6.
Next month: More about the man with the plan.
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