The Curse of "Who Am I Kidding?"

LookAWalrus

That realization hit the minute I got into position for my first workout and my timer went off. "I'm really doing this? This isn't going to help me, I'm to weak! I'm not that person who exercises and eats right and loses weight." It still happens when I have a really bad workout.

I was very forgiving of myself though, and when I fell off the wagon I just got back on without promising myself that this time it would stick. You know what I mean? I see this a lot in my mom support group "I'm starting again today." No, you already started, you don't need to relive the most difficult part of losing weight. Look for changes in your energy, sleep, skin, etc. because those are the little milestones that will keep you going.

Tedebearduff

lookitsnicky wrote: »

Did anybody here, very early on in their weight loss journey, find themselves thinking, "Who am I kidding? I'll never lose all that weight? Why can't I just accept that I'm a fatty and always will be?"

This is my fifth day in, and although I'm pretty determined and not doing too badly with cravings so far (touch wood) I honestly do find myself worrying that maybe I'm just kidding myself, I'll never lose the weight and even if I do I'll only put it back on again anyway so what's the point?

It's a weird feeling because I feel like I'm doing well at the moment. I generally keep between 1200 and 1500 every day and I've been pretty good at avoiding junk food so far. But at the same time I just know I'm going to step on the scales and see absolutely no change because that sort of thing doesn't happen to me. While other girls get to be effortlessly thin, I'll always be gross and that's just a fact of life.

It's a rubbishy feeling, but did anyone else feel this way at the beginning? How do you feel now? What was it that changed your outlook? How long did it take to change your way of thinking?

So … know one can help you with this, I call it the “click” when you come to a realization that you need to do this.

I can tell you it’s not effortlessly at all when losing weight, you just think it is! They are just determined, focused and stick to it. You need to realize that there might be no weight change for 3 weeks… and continue to eat at a deficit the whole time! If after 3 weeks there is still nothing then you need to change your calories and or increase your activity level (exercise more) (this is also assuming you are accurately tracking everything)

You can look at things like this too, having a can of coke is 110 calories takes 2 minutes to drink a can of coke right? Well it will take you 10 minutes to burn those calories off. Can start to look at everything like that, okay I can have this bag of chips and then I’ll have to do 2.5 hours of cardio … 2.5 hours???!?! … 2.5 HOURS?!?!?! What the hell were you thinking?!!??!?!

Not sure if you have but for me that is how I saw things, I just spent 2 hours in the gym okay awesome … now if I have ice cream tonight I just wasted 2 hours of my life… what was the point in doing all that work .. to eat ice cream….. for 5 mins … so I wasted 2 hours of my life…. for 5 mins of something tasting good…. Stupid!

Lounmoun

I started using MFP in October. My expectations were really low as I have tried, lost, gained for almost 15 years. I have consistantly lost weight since October though- 13 pounds- and feel really positive about it all. It has been ridiculously easy compared to all the other things I've tried. I just gave MFP my numbers, chose to lose 1 lb a week and log my food. I eat regular food-just smaller portions of higher calorie stuff. I'm not hungry all the time. I don't spend hours and hours exercising. I stick close to the calorie goal I was given.
I find it helpful to plan what I will eat and pre-log the whole day in advance. I can really see what fits and make better choices that way.
You can do this!

LAWoman72

lookitsnicky wrote: »

While other girls get to be effortlessly thin, I'll always be gross and that's just a fact of life.

I keep hearing people say this. Yet 67% of U.S. adults are now overweight and yes, this includes younger adults. So this is obviously skewed thinking. How many people do you know that "effortlessly" stay thin? It can't be too many, since that minority 33% of non-overweight adults must certainly contain a percentage that actively work to stay thin.

ShaDucky

I feel like I've been up and down so much and just failed. Even though right now it feels different and I've worked through a couple things...its just such a large task. I keep going back and forth this is it! And yeah by the time this weekend comes you will screw up the whole week, and give up.

LAWoman72

ShaDucky wrote: »

I feel like I've been up and down so much and just failed. Even though right now it feels different and I've worked through a couple things...its just such a large task. I keep going back and forth this is it! And yeah by the time this weekend comes you will screw up the whole week, and give up.

You just can't think of it this way. That's a setup for failure.

sofaking6

You have to decide now that when you get on the scale and don't see a change, you're going to persevere anyway. Right now it sounds like you're just preparing to give up. Prepare to succeed and you will.

If you think it's the scale that will set you off, then put it away. Don't weigh yourself for a month.

llynn1976

You have to keep pushing yourself if you want to reach your goals, and you will if you do the work

sssgilber

GingerbreadCandy wrote: »

To be completely honest, I used to have that. Then recently, a second voice started shouting over that one...

"Are you freaking kidding me? Of course you can lose that weight! It's not a special talent, it's science and thermodynamics. Nobody said it would be easy, but guess what, you are not fooling yourself thinking you can lose weight. You are fooling yourself by thinking you could never get that far!"

I actually have this forum to thank for that.

So that's the voice that's trying to get my attention! Good message.

Reading "The Beck Diet Solution" helped me quite a bit. It's not a diet book, but a cognitive therapy guide to changing your thinking about eating. The negative voices are part of you and can be shut down. I re-check it out of the library every few months and learn something new each time.

I also spend a lot of time reading MFP posts from people at all stages of their weight loss to help me keep a healthy perspective.

karyabc

you have received pretty good advice! but i just want to say on the scale issue next Wednesday please don't feel discourage if you don't see the numbers you want to see! keep trying there is no magic trick, if you are eating on a calorie deficit the weight will go down eventually.

for me the beginning was the hardest stage, after a couple of weeks, you just gonna get use to. i still remember that on week 1 although i lost 2.5 lbs , on week 2 i lost nothingggg, if i quit i wouldn't lose the other 35 lbs that have come down since then.

ps. as a morbily obese person, yess i get that thought a lot but i just take it one day at a time and focus on doing what i'm suppose to do on that day.