Hey, wow, no activity for months and then 2 posts in a day! I shock myself sometimes.
I just read this blog entry that totally, totally resonated with me, about weight loss being a very psychological and emotional issue:
http://www.dumblittleman.com/2008/02/overcoming-weight-loss-bs.htmlI was so inspired that I ended up writing an obnoxiously long comment on it, which I'm pasting here:
"Thanks for this straightforward post. Up until the past year or 2, I
always had an unhealthy relationship with food. Sure, I "enjoyed" the
way the food tasted, but it was all mixed up in guilt and the feeling
of binging, discomfort, self-hatred. Each choice I made to eat bad food
almost felt like a reaffirmation of my inability to change, like "so
there, I'm eating bad food again and I don't care!" But oh, did I care.
I'd tried diets, exercise, including the Body For Life
program, but all of those things involved this level of overhead that
didn't seem sustainable. It took some continual, gentle prodding by my
significant other to convince me that perhaps it didn't have to be so
difficult. She always ate more salads and lower-fat foods than me, and
I used to interpret that as her being on a constant diet, and that she
must have just been better at depriving herself from the really yummy
foods than I was. Finally, she convinced me to try eating one
"healthier" meal per day, and allowing myself to eat a meal I liked for
the other meal(s). This was already a mental shift for me, because
before that point I had always felt that I had to be either "on the
wagon"--depriving myself of all fatty foods-- or "off the
wagon"--completely out of control of what I was eating. The idea that
what I ate could be negotiated on a per-meal or per-day basis was a key
shift. Anyway, I did this for a couple weeks, and was shocked to find
that I not only started to lose weight, but started to develop more of
a taste for healthier foods. I started getting more creative with what
the "healthier" meal consisted of, and found that there was much more
variety beyond "tasteless salad" or "turkey breast sandwich."
Eventually, the very nature of my relationship with food had changed. I
was no longer falling on and off of diets, and riding rollercoasters of
self-worth, but was negotiating the balance between feeling good,
feeling light, feeling healthy and energetic, versus fulfilling
cravings and occasionally giving myself some well-deserved indulgences.
On a side note, one thing that was surprisingly helpful to me
was buying a weight scale and weighing myself every morning. It sounds
obsessive, but it's just a simple way of playing this negotiation game.
Some days, I'll have eaten really healthily for several days at a time,
and stepping on the scale is some great positive affirmation that I'm
taking good care of myself. Other days, I'll have indulged in some less
healthy foods, and will notice that I've gained a pound or 2, or even
3. At that point, I can scale down the fatty foods for a bit and get
back to my normal weight. This is much better for me than my previous
behavior--I'd do a weight loss program like BFL, obsessing over my
weight all the time. Then, when the program ended, I'd be completely
sick of the whole thing, and just coast along, eating what I liked,
until before I knew it I had gained 10 pounds back! It's much easier
and quicker to intervene with 1 or 2 pounds than with 10. Works for me,
maybe it will help someone else too.
Anyway, after I simply
changed my mentality, I lost 20 pounds (which I'd never done before)
and have kept them off consistently ever since. I know I'll never need
those extra pounds again."
Words from the heart, for real.
