How To Break Out Of Yo Yo Dieting Cycle s
The Making of Runtastic’s “Your Journey to Weight Loss I” Story Run
by Vera Schwaiger
I hate shoe laces. Especially when they become loose when I am jogging. Even worse, when I trip over them. But, had I already changed to free laces nearly six months ago, “Your Journey To Weight Loss” would not exist today.
A sunny Saturday morning, Christmas is just around the corner. I haven’t even finished my first mile when the pink lace of my right running shoe starts to untie. My left foot steps onto the dangling laces and I find myself flying into the roadside ditch. Ouch! At least I’ve landed smoothly – in a heap of snow. Then, I see a hand entering my field of vision to help me back on my feet again. It’s Helga, my neighbor. “Everything okay?,” Helga asks in her running clothes, size L. “We could run a stretch together – but slowly, I just started.” Why not, I think and start jogging, completely wet but unscathed. After three steps, Helga seems unable to contain herself any longer. “Vera, I have a question,” she bursts out. “You’re a dietitian, right? So… I started this low carb diet three weeks ago. In the beginning, I actually lost weight. Except that now nothing is happening anymore. I really don’t know what to do.”
Unfortunately, I started thinking out loud: “Obviously the spaghetti method. A vicious cycle. Stage 8.” Helga didn’t understand a thing: “Spaghetti, stage, huh?” Well, I definitely had to smooth that one out and that’s how I started with my first “running” nutritional coaching session: “People who want to lose weight tend to try a billion different diets and get stuck in Yo Yo Dieting cycles, following the spaghetti method – you just have to throw enough spaghetti noodles on the wall and one of them will eventually stick to it. Diets are a vicious cycle, especially for Yo Yo dieters. Stage one: You want to lose weight…”
…45 minutes later we arrived at home, and also concluded the final point of the vicious weight loss cycle. Helga exclaimed, surprised: “I would have never known these things. I think everybody should have their own weight loss coach for their running sessions.” She was right. And that’s how the idea for the Story Run was born.
I was determined to create a recipe for success, a way to break out of the vicious Yo Yo dieting cycle and reach a concrete goal instead. A happy ending, if you will. This is how “Your Journey To Weight Loss” started out.
While doing my research, I stumbled upon this quote by Goethe: “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” This is so true in a world where more people die from the consequences of being overweight than underweight. Actually, I thought, most intentions to slim down fail because of a lack of knowledge.
Which magazine, guide or TV report on diets can one actually believe? Which knowledge should we apply and what does it take to follow Goethe’s advice?
That was my goal – to wrap up all this information in a Story Run.
One month ago Helga was the first person to listen to the Story Run prototype while taking a speedy walk in the woods. She told me she listened to it all over again the next day on her cardio bike because “it contains so many useful facts.”
Helga has lost six pounds so far and last week I asked her how she did it. She replied, “Actually, it wasn’t that difficult. I just took one step after another. In a literal, and in a metaphorical sense.”
To reach her ideal weight, Helga wants to lose another four pounds. She’s lucky because “Your Journey To Weight Loss – Part 2,” including concrete steps to success, is in the making.
Would you like to shed a few pounds, too? Feel like you’re in a Yo Yo dieting rut? Want to see the numbers on your scale decline? Get ready, and get started. Embark on your journey towards your ideal weight with my Story Run. I will provide you with the necessary knowledge while you are moving, while you are doing something. Just like Goethe said.
Good luck!
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