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This is Part 4 of 4 topics based on a seminar I give for the Ladies Get Fit class at the YMCA. To see the series, click the “weight loss seminar” category.

Previously on “The Seminar”: I talked about The Bowflex Myth, and how important changes are not linear. Nobody gets a fabulous body simply by doing the Bowflex for 30 minutes a day, 3 times a week.

And I know I am not the only one who, after the fist success in losing weight, starts to do the math in my head: “OK, if it took me 2 weeks to lose 5 pounds, then in 8 weeks I will have lost 20 pounds, and by Christmas–that’s 17 weeks–I will have lost 42.5 pounds!” It never works that way.

So, instead of a Linear Formula, I introduce an Iterative Formula in my seminar.

What does “iterative” mean? I used to work for a company called “Iterated Systems” where I learned about this concept. Iterated Systems specialized in fractal technologies for computer images. They used iterative mathematical equations to replicate patterns found in nature. An iterative equation is one in which you apply a formula–even a very simple one, such as “A times 2″ to a number, and then again to the result, and again to that result, and so on.

When you think about it, iterations describe nature pretty well. For example, a function, such as “Spring,” is applied to an acorn. The acorn splits and a tiny stem pops out. Other functions, called “Summer,” “Autumn,” and “Winter” are also applied to the resulting acorn and stem, each producing a result that becomes the object of the next iteration. Each function is applied iteratively, over time…not to the original acorn…but to the last result. We grow and change. In a few years, the acorn becomes a small tree–no longer a modified acorn.

In our personal journeys, the same concept applies. We must be ready to change iteratively. The results accumulate, and we adapt as we go. Each opportunity for change is possible because of the changes already made. As in our acorn: it will be a while before it puts out a leaf, but when it does, it has a new way to absorb light and rain!

All right, enough with the acorn. Here is my iterative formula for losing weight–and other things too:

Step 1: Open yourself up to changing something–anything–and take some small action.

Step 2: When Step 1 becomes challenging, take a deep breath and reorient. Return to Step 1.

Step 3: When Step 2 doesn’t cut it anymore, and you’re about to break something, bring in your support network (the people we talked about earlier in this seminar). Get some objective feedback. Adjust your perspective. Breathe. Return to Step 1.

Step 4: When old habits stop making sense, you will feel wobbly creating new ones. Wobble, and return to Step 1.

In the seminar, I distibute a sheet of “101 Little Ideas for Changing.” (Download the PDF here.)  It contains 101 ideas for how to get started on Step 1. Not all 101 are right for everybody, but there are usually enough ideas to get started. And I know that by the time I reiterated a few times, I was ready for some ideas that I wasn’t ready for before. I had new roots and leaves to work with (sorry, there’s that acorn).

Thus endeth the 4 major points of the seminar! But I will append the quotes that I use from a couple of people who inspired me, because they had lived their own weight loss journeys.

…and one week back. But progress overall.

It’s been about 3 weeks since I posted “Confessions of a Backslider” and my campaign to get back on the Weight Watchers program. I lost about 3-4 pounds.

The first two weeks I logged myfood and activity POINTS pretty diligently. Success! Then last week, not so much, and of course I back-slid again. So predictable!

My Weight Watchers Weeks begin on Sunday. So every Sunday is an opportunity to begin again. But actually, every day, every moment is such a an opportunity. They teach us in WW that what is past is past. You keep picking back up and starting again. And so it goes on the journey.

And here’s a new twist about losing 3-4 pounds: not only do I feel better, but one of my friends actually noticed. I need to remember that 4 pounds is a bigger deal than it used to be!

So I’ve been nervous lately. First I thought it was about my job, but then I remembered that I was actually feeling nervous before that, when I was breaking up with my boyfriend. But then again, wasn’t I sort of nervous even before we started dating, like, when I realized my business was losing money? That goes all the way back to last fall…

So yes, I have been nervous lately, come to think about it–for about a year or so.

I was describing the worst of my nervous symptoms to a friend last weekend. She validated something that crossed my mind but that I hadn’t allowed myself to dwell upon: that I’m nervous because I stopped taking my “anxiety medication”…which was food.

Without the ability to calm myself down with sugar, starch, or just massive quantities of whatever is on hand, I don’t have the escape from anxiety that I used to have.

As I discussed this with my friend, we thought about how food does calm us down. That full feeling is like a sedative–it makes us lethargic and calm.

Here is an article on Dr. Phil’s web site on the topic of becoming anxious after weight loss. Personally, I’m not “down” with the first two bullets, but I am with the third one and the rest of the article.

This is Part 3 of 4 topics based on a seminar I give for the Ladies Get Fit class at the YMCA. To see the series, click the “weight loss seminar” category.

We’ve all seen the infomercials with some really slick piece of machinery, being demonstrated by some awesomely toned bodies. The bodies move their arms and legs in smooth, machine-guided, arcs. It’s like running, or skiiing, or flying. It looks fun! And you can have this awesomely toned body by doing this simple exercise for 30 minutes a day, 3 times a week.

Ah, simplicity! A formula for attaining my dreams that I can understand, finally! An elegant, mathematical and logical approach really appeals to my dream–dare I call it a fantasy?–that my growth and improvement are within my reach if I just follow the right steps” “If I do A, I will have B.”

Has anything else in our lives that is really important ever been attainable in just 30 minutes a day, 3 times a week? I call this The Bowflex Myth: that our lifestyles can be improved through linear formulas. For most of us this just doesn’t happen.

In my seminar, I pull out a map of the Lewis and Clark Trail. Imagine, an area of land the size of the western two-thirds of America, mostly unknown to [the European-descended] Americans! Lewis and Clark didn’t know what they would find, how long it would take, whom they would meet, or where or how they would get provisions along the way.

And they for dang sure didn’t point their wagon wheels west-by-northwest and travel for 30 minutes a day, 3 times a week. It was a journey, and they adapted as they went along.

In my weight-loss journey, I tried low-carb for a while, and it worked. Then it didn’t. So I went to Weight Watchers. I did the Ladies Get Fit class for a year. Then I took up jogging, and weight training on my own. Some people say jogging is bad, but it’s working for me for now. And the training walks for the Breast Cancer 3-Day are great, although my diet has slipped into a nine-to-fiver’s fast-food nightmare. I am still figuring this stuff out.

The truth is, there are dozens, maybe a hundred little things I have tried with varying degrees of success. The secret was not finding the right prescription–the secret is to keep trying new things, continually, always, as much as possible…and staying on the journey.

By “cheap sweets” I mean foods that are usually artificially sweetened, and serve as sweet snacks and desserts. I call them “cheap” not because of monetary cost, but because of calories and Weight Watchers POINTS.

So who wouldn’t love ‘em? Especially with all the great artificial sweeteners out there? Why give up chocolate cupcakes and oatmeal cookies and ice cream sandwiches when you don’t have to, right?

Not to say that I never indulge, but I don’t rely on cheap sweets to help me keep my POINTS down. I avoid them just like I avoid “expensive” sweets. Why? Because it isn’t about the calories: it’s about my brain. The more I eat ‘em, the more I want ‘em, pure and simple.

I think food is a lot like speaking a language–the more you use it, the more you think it. At least that’s the story for me. When I eat chocolate, I crave more chocolate, whether the chocolate was “cheap” or not. Then the next time I pass the bakery counter at Panera or the candy dish at the office, the chocolate–I swear, can’t you hear it?–calls my name. But if I leave chocolate alone, in all its forms, my brain forgets it after a few days–I lose the language. What a relief!

The good news is: when I eat celery, I crave more celery. Mmm, celery.

The Weight Watchers company is a pro at manufacturing cheap sweets, and obviously they help a lot of people. But I would be interested to hear from my readers whether cheap sweets are helpful to them, or whether, as I do, they find them to be a slippery slope.

This is Part 2 of 4 topics based on a seminar I give for the Ladies Get Fit class at the YMCA. To see the series, click the “weight loss seminar” category.

During that fabulous period when I was losing weight and people were noticing, many would ask me, “How are you doing it?”

“Well, I started this program at the YMCA called Ladies Get Fit that includes cardio, weights, and a food journal, and at the same time I started a low-carb diet without any starchy foods…” I would give them the spiel, but I saw their eyes glaze over.

“Oh,” they might say, with a little disappointment. “Well that’s great, though, good for you.”

What was happening here? As well as I can figure, I was only telling them what they already knew: “Move more, eat less.” Bummer. No new drug, no secret system, no gimmicky thing that makes it all so much easier than we had thought.

In the Seminar, I bring in a few magazines. Almost any mainstream magazines will do: health, homemaking, self-improvement types of magazines. You know what’s interesting? They all have numbers on the covers. “10 Secrets for a Flat Tummy.” “25 Great Summer Recipes!” “Top 5 Celebrity Beauty Tips.” And so on. Why do these magazines sell? Because we humans appear to have an insatiable desire for simple prescriptions. If only our desires were as simple as: “If you do A, then you will have B.” We can’t get enough of these quantifiable prescriptions to attain our dreams–and the self-help literature is full of them.

And ultimately, what was my secret prescription?

Everything. Anything. It was never really about “how.” I already knew how, and I always had. It was about “how much.”

What made this time different for me was that the Ladies Get Fit class encouraged me to try all of it, and to go as all-out, high-gear, no-holds-barred as I dared to go.

In my next installment, I’ll review the “prescription” phenomenon, from the magazines, and introduce what I call The Bowflex Myth.

Today I did a training walk on my own, instead of with the group.  It was about 10 miles, in a wacky loop that went from my house, near Northlake Mall, through some neighborhoods and back to Shallowford Road to my neighborhood.

What works for me lately is using my little iPod shuffle loaded with podcasts and books on tape.  I am listening to a book for a book discussion group I’m in, and NPR shows such as This American Life, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, and Speaking of Faith.  It’s a great way to keep my mind engaged now that my training walks are getting long.

Walking with the team is great, too, especially for the conversation.  But this weekend, some solitude with my audio books and magazines was in order.  And 3 hours of walking gained my 9 Weight Watchers POINTS–sweet!

By the way, I went to a WW meeting today, too.  Counted my points all week.  Starting (or restarting) these onerous good habits is never as hard as I think it it going to be.

OK, here it is, my moment of truth–the whole reason I started this blog.  I’m gaining weight.

I have more and more clothes in the “Too Small Collection” hanging in my “other” closet.  These clothes were all wearable within the past year, but they are too tight now.

This is a moment of truth that, consciously or subconsciously, every weight-loser must face: when the weight threatens to come back, what next?

I started this blog to trap myself into staying healthy.  I have put myself on the spot, on purpose.  I have, what–8?!–blog subscribers who are counting on me!  I’ve published a freakin’ press release!  There is no going back!

So, yesterday, I reluctantly, pitifully, whiningly, with fear and loathing, logged back in to WeightWatchers.com to start logging all my food and counting my POINTS*.  Back to the Flex Plan–for those of you know know the WW lingo!  And for those don’t here’s the way it works**: I get 19 points per day plus 35 weekly “Flex” points to use anytime during the week.  And, on any day I exercise, I earn Activity points that give me a little slack in my eating.

For example, today:  Protein Fiber Shake, 2 pts; fat free yogurt with fruit, 2.5;  lunch was half a tuna salad wrap, 8.5 (@#$!) with a pickle, 0; dinner was a Chick-Fil-A side salad with light dressing, 1 ; snacks were seven (yes, seven!) rice cakes, 4.5; fruit salad, 2; Starbucks iced coffee with sugar-free syrup: 0.
And I went to the Y tonight for weights and cardio.

• POINTS values used: 20.5
• Activity POINTS values earned: 3
• Activity POINTS values swapped: 1.5 (because that’s how much I exceeded my daily allowance of 19)
• Weekly POINTS values used: 0 (which would have been 1.5 if I hadn’t gone to the Y)

Today was Day 2.  So far I have managed to avoid using any of my 35 weekly points.  I like to save them up for Friday and Saturday.

By the way, I usually eat the entire tuna salad wrap, not half.  So being aware of my points has already changed my behavior.  But boy, did I want to eat that other half!!  Mmm, tuna….

* and **: see Comments.

In the “Dare to be Fabulous” department, here’s a link to the online press release about my 3-Day Campaign:

http://atlanta.daybooknetwork.com/story/2008/08/05/11165weight-loss-breast-cancer-walk.shtml

Self-publicity is a scary and surreal thing.

A while back I announced the fundraising concert on October 11 that will help me raise funds for the Breast Cancer 3-Day.

I will be singing at this thing. I’m a good singer. There, I’ve said it.

Although I had been working with a singing group until several months ago, it’s been a long time since I did anything solo.

What does this have to do with losing weight? I think the weight was holding me back.  For me, the thoughts standing up in front of a crowd and declaring some talent was just too scary as long as I was not proud of how I look.

Just a quick observation about how being healthy opens doors.