The PLOM Problem
Bite-Size Reads for Your Health and Waistline
Okay, so you’re feeling down…I get it. Starting a healthy lifestyle to meet your newfound/repeating-every-January goals is NOT easy. When I was in the heat of my weight management saga, I remember feeling so frustrated and telling my coach all the things I couldn’t do anymore…I couldn’t eat what my friends were eating, I wasn’t getting lunch out every day with my coworkers, I didn’t feel like any food decision was easy…the way it looked like it was for everyone who didn’t have “food issues.” Instead of receiving a warm pat on the back as I expected, she actually told me I had a case of the “PLOMs.” Huh? The plums? Nope, you read that right — the PLOMs.
The PLOMs are a made-up condition for feeling like “poor little ol’ me.” Yep, that feeling that creeps up every now and then when we’re feeling sorry for ourselves that this “stuff” requires so much effort and energy. When in progress with new, hard things, we often notice more of what others are doing and compare that to ourselves. We can feel down when we can’t eat what others usually eat, look how others look or imbibe the way our friends might. We know we want to be healthier but at this moment that doesn’t seem to be making us happier. Luckily, we’re not doomed!! What I personally like to do, and what I recommend to my clients, to get out of this rut is this: it won’t be this hard forever. Remind yourself that we GET to make these choices! We GET to find new possibilities for ourselves! How exciting! (And by calling it a case of the PLOMs, using a silly, whiny voice, it makes us laugh and helps to break the negativity spiral.)
Standing at the beginning of a new year, we get to take our goals and make daily choices that will get us there! We don’t have to stick to the “default” lifestyle of everyone else or our old ways; we get to be beneficially different. So when that moment comes, when you feel like giving up because you just want to feel “normal,” I want you to stop yourself, recognize it as simply a case of the PLOMs, the “poor little ol’ me’s.” Then decide to be proud of yourself for daring to be different and focus on how lucky you are that you get to make yourself and your health a priority every single day.
