Reactions

When I started the diet, Melissa warned me that when telling people about it--or manifesting the results--I would get negative responses.  Naif that I am, this amazed me... though I am old and jaded enough that it did strike me as plausible.

I have to say, though, I have gotten very few--just these, with names removed to protect the guilty.

1) "You have to exercise to lose weight."  This person was expressing in an untypically preachy way the greatest misconception that I have come across.  This is a misconception I didn't have myself, because previous diets I tried involved no exercise and worked, albeit not as well as this one, and I have gained fat while doing frequent, rigorous exercise.  But almost everyone assumes that you have to exercise to lose weight.  They are amazed when I tell them you don't.  Read my lips.  See the pictures.  I've lost 102 lbs. while being a couch potato, my most strenuous exercise being housework and recreational swimming.  Couch potatoes, rejoice!

2) "You're losing weight too fast... setting yourself up for a rebound."  Thank you, Mr/s. Positive.  Not rebounding is covered in the IP diet (it's called "Phase 4") and, like losing in the first place, is a matter of choice.

3) "Stop!  You should stay right there, you've lost enough!"  Now sometimes this comes out of genuine, legitimate concern, on the part of people who just aren't used to seeing me slender, so that I appear relatively emaciated.  I have learned, when I mention I've lost 90+ lbs., to add quickly that it was by choice... people can think you have cancer or some other severe disease if you don't.  But it can also be, as Jane suggested, jealousy.  (See previous post re competitiveness.)  Some people--okay, I'll call a spade a space, women--don't want another woman to climb higher than them on the status-scale of svelteness.  Regardless, what I tell them is that my goal is calculated from my adult weight when I was younger.

But that's it, really, for the negative comments.  I'll just add one more pickle-puss reaction that Melissa, not me, got: "You've got wrinkles now!"

My first reaction to this reaction was,"And you have a lovely day, in the deepest pit of hell, too, darling!"  That was before I burned off enough fat to learn there was truth in those words--since my wrinkles got worse.  I'd already observed my skin sagging on the parts of my body where it had previously been most stretched: tummy, under my arms, etc.  But at 80 lbs. or so, I really started noticing my facial wrinkles growing deeper and sharper, and the skin under my chin becoming lined.  Fact is, on this diet the fat goes much faster than the skin can tighten up, apparently even if you're young.

So for now I am telling myself "I look more distinguished!  My face has more character!" while I cross my fingers hoping that I'm still young and healthy enough that my skin will tighten up, and researching wrinkle creams and so forth.

For me, however, 99.9% of the reactions have been unequivocally positive.  The immediate ones go roughly like this:

20-39 lbs.: "That's great, good for you!"
40-60 lbs.: "Wow, that's a lot of weight, you look fantastic!"
60-79 lbs.: "Wow, that's really impressive, what an achievement, you're an inspiration, you're disappearing!"
80-100 lbs.: "OH MY GOD!!!  HOLY SH@#$%&&! I didn't know that was YOU!"  (And if they haven't seen you in months, they cannot recognize you from behind.)

It gets more and more fun as you lose more.  Almost this alone is worth the price of admission.

From my experience, the vast majority of people are genuinely happy for you.

--