Battle of the Bulge: Yeah, It Sucks

Losing the weight wasn't fun and Shonda [Rhimes] admitted that she 'hated it the whole time.'

'Once I decided it wasn't gonna be fun, like, I lowered my expectations. It got kind of easier,' Shonda told Extra.

'I just changed everything I ate - and I hated all of that - and then I hate exercising and I did that, too, and I hated it the whole time.'

When asked if she found something she does like about her healthier lifestyle, Shonda quipped: 'No, I still hate it. I hate every minute of it.'

'I eat everything I want to eat but I try to make it much less and smaller portions,' she said, adding: 'But you change what your palate wants. I'm suddenly craving fish and salad.'

'It's upsetting. It's like, where's my cake?' Shonda said, adding on a positive note: 'I have a lot of extra energy so I feel much better.'

'I realized I could either spend my life going, "I wish I could lose weight," or I could just do it,' Shonda told Entertainment Tonight last week.

Here's the secret of successful weight loss: You will not enjoy yourself. 

Sure, you'll get to a point when you'll feel healthy, light, bouncy, and energetic. But you will still really really want to fall headfirst into a pizza. 

There will be times when you are hungry. But it's not quite lunchtime yet, so you sadly find some sort of household chore to keep busy for the next hour. There will be times when you feel cheated, like how the whole shul pounces on the oozing kokosh by a kiddush while you just longingly watch. There will be times when you think, "To heck with this." 

But you manage to plod along, even after a few transgressions. And all those other benefits—health, lightness, bounciness, and energy—can actually feel worth it. You won't want to eat so much anymore. You won't want to eat that thing anymore. You'll love the fact that you can fit into (nearly) whatever you like.

And you'll have confidence, because you did something difficult, and you succeeded.