By Barbara Berkeley
Mrs. Irving, our ninth-grade English teacher, was the terror of Snyder High School. Standing just under five feet, clad in voluminous orthopedic “space shoes” and a shapeless shift, Mrs. Irving still managed to strike fear into our 15-year-old hearts. With her shock of white hair, her smear of blood red lipstick and her piercing glare, she commanded the classroom. Woe to the student whose homework was left undone or who conveniently forgot to read the assignment. Mrs. Heller’s tiny frame would shake with indignation as the poor offender was singled out and subsequently reduced to a trembling mass of teen-aged jelly.
As an aspiring writer (medical school came much later…a story for another day), I found Mrs. Irving’s opinion of my stories and essays to be immensely important. If she smiled and showed nicotine-stained teeth as she handed back my paper, my day was made. Just as frequently, though, my poor works came back slahed with bold red marks. Her favorite comment was: “Vague! Vague! Vague!” scrawled across the top in oversized crayon.
Mrs. Irving liked specific writing. For her, the greatest sin was language that didn’t go anywhere.
Some teachers change your life and I believe Mrs. Irving changed mine. She helped me to believe that I could write. Along the way, her fierce devotion to good, clear language infected me as well. So, it is in honor of Mrs. Irving that I now prepare to do battle with the vaguest phrase in the language of maintenance: “LIFESTYLE CHANGE”. Mrs. Irving, I hope you would be proud of me.
Lifestyle change. As in, “I don’t rely consider it a diet, it’s more of a LIFESTYLE CHANGE”. Or, “I know I really have to make a LIFESTYLE CHANGE” if I’m going to keep this weight off permanently.
These two words drive me utterly batty because they are vague, vague, vague. What the heck is a lifestyle change? It is a phrase with the cloudiest possible shape; a generalization, a feeling. Worse, it means different things to different people. For most, it suggests some sort of permanent shift in their attitude toward food and exercise; less of one, more of another. But let’s apply such a vague notion to the process of weight loss and see where we get. Suppose someone who wants to lose weight says, “I really have to diet.” That’s all well and good. But simply stating that fact tells us nothing about the specific behaviors needed to get the scale to move. When people diet, they generally reference a plan: Atkins, South Beach, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig. If we know someone is an Atkins dieter, we automatically know the rules they follow (lots of meat and no carbs). If someone else wants to reproduce this person’s success, they know exactly what to do. They buy the book, they look at the website, they follow the rules.
On the other hand, maintainers have no specific plans to describe their “lifestyle changes”. We’ve never been able to move from the general to the specific. It’s no wonder that newcomers to maintenance have to invent the process for themselves. They have to figure out what “lifestyle change” means because we haven’t developed a number of maintenance plans that are named and have rules. Maintenance remains vague, vague, vague.
I’ve attempted to introduce the Primarian approach as a lifestyle changing plan. But just as there are many ways to diet, there are probably many ways to maintain. These techniques need names and specifics. Who would know more about these plans than the people who’ve invented them? For this reason I’m asking you, our readers, if you have any names and plans to contribute. Can you put the plan that’s working for you into a form that has clear rules and a title? To do this, be creative. Make up a compelling plan name (or name it after yourself!) and then flesh out the details. Specify the plan rules for foods consumed, monitoring techniques, exercise frequency and any other elements that make it work.
If we can start promoting weight maintenance plans that work, the process of transitioning to maintenance will be so much easier for those that come after us. Dare to be great! Here is your shot at maintenance immortality!
Can’t wait to hear from you!