To all those trying to lose weight, do you fear change?

MynameisChester

The common pattern I've noticed among people who lose and sustain weight loss are adopting lifestyle changes. Some people define that as eating things in moderation or completely giving up foods they love. Is the notion of changing your lifestyle scary to you? Please share your thoughts.

middlehaitch

I lost, and have been maintaining a long time.
Moving into maintenance wasn't scary as I ate everything, just in smaller portions.
After a year of counting calories those smaller portions were my new normal.

If you make decisions at the beginning that suit you and your lifestyle, make the changes slowly, it is a lot easier at the end.

Cheers, h.

tapwaters

When I set out to lose weight loss this time, it was at a major changing point in my life. I'd just moved away from my family and across the country and entering law school.

Ironically, it was the radical shift in my life that made it so easy. Everything was different. To eat different and get active was just the new normal in my entirely new normal life. And honestly, it was the best way for me to do it. My old normal was deeply rooted into the food peer-pressure i felt by my family and the lack of activity was related to my codependency to my family. I wasn't active because I just felt like spending time with them, rather than doing my own active thing.

Seperated by so much made it easier to uncover myself, literally and metaphorically.

jgnatca

How about ending up with a different body? Purchase a whole new wardrobe? People responding differently, some with jealousy? Can't say I miss the medications. And I changed my mind on what is achievable. A lot more than I thought.

shadowfax_c11

Compared to some of the other life changes I have made in the last couple of years changing eating habits is pretty easy. Two years ago I changed careers and sold my house in the country to move to an apartment in the city. THAT was terrifying. This is simple.

misskarne

It's about picking what change to fear more.

Yeah, I have to admit, after years of looking like this, I'm a little afraid of change. I'm afraid of all the things that come with it. What if people start paying more attention to me only because I'm slim?

BUT! I do not fear that change more than I fear what will happen if I don't change. The desperate look on my mother's face as she asks if my hips hurt. The constant threat that I am going to do myself some proper damage while skating and be told I can't any more. The lack of progress that I know is partially linked to having to haul someone my size into the air.

Pick your fear.

MaureenDarst1

MynameisChester wrote: »

The common pattern I've noticed among people who lose and sustain weight loss are adopting lifestyle changes. Some people define that as eating things in moderation or completely giving up foods they love. Is the notion of changing your lifestyle scary to you? Please share your thoughts.

yes absolutely it is scary and new ways are scary and giving up old ways and my body feels different like i feel and notice parts i never noticed before but i think it is a good positive move that needs to be done before serious health problems arise

Unknown

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myheartsabattleground

Well, I mean... no matter what size I am, or what I do in life my grandparents will still chastise me.

Lounmoun

MynameisChester wrote: »

The common pattern I've noticed among people who lose and sustain weight loss are adopting lifestyle changes. Some people define that as eating things in moderation or completely giving up foods they love. Is the notion of changing your lifestyle scary to you? Please share your thoughts.

Starting out calorie counting was scary because I had failed so many other methods that claimed to be "lifestyle changes". I had zero confidence but needed to do something. I was not in a good spot physically and I was scared of the direction my health could go.
Eating less food and moving a little more isn't scary to me at all. It isn't a total lifestyle overhaul for me to just do that. I eat the same foods for the most part and log them. I've been logging daily for over year. Super easy and painless.
Scary lifestyle change to me is stuff like moving to another country where you don't speak the language, unemployment, unexpected pregnancy, or finding out the water you've been drinking is toxic.

MynameisChester

tapwaters wrote: »

When I set out to lose weight loss this time, it was at a major changing point in my life. I'd just moved away from my family and across the country and entering law school.

Ironically, it was the radical shift in my life that made it so easy. Everything was different. To eat different and get active was just the new normal in my entirely new normal life. And honestly, it was the best way for me to do it. My old normal was deeply rooted into the food peer-pressure i felt by my family and the lack of activity was related to my codependency to my family. I wasn't active because I just felt like spending time with them, rather than doing my own active thing.

Seperated by so much made it easier to uncover myself, literally and metaphorically.

misskarne wrote: »

It's about picking what change to fear more.

Yeah, I have to admit, after years of looking like this, I'm a little afraid of change. I'm afraid of all the things that come with it. What if people start paying more attention to me only because I'm slim?

BUT! I do not fear that change more than I fear what will happen if I don't change. The desperate look on my mother's face as she asks if my hips hurt. The constant threat that I am going to do myself some proper damage while skating and be told I can't any more. The lack of progress that I know is partially linked to having to haul someone my size into the air.

Pick your fear.

myheartsabattleground wrote: »

Well, I mean... no matter what size I am, or what I do in life my grandparents will still chastise me.

It can be challenging when your family doesn't understand you or your goals. It can make you feel pretty isolated i would think. =( How have you dealt with family who has made or continues to make you feel that way.

victoria_1024

I took baby steps so it wasn't as scary. Initially I just focused on changing eating habits, staying within my calorie goal. Then I started trying to eat healthier, like increase my protein and more fruits and veggies. Then I started including some light exercise which gradually increased to longer more intense exercise. I never stopped eating the foods I loved so I never felt deprived.

I miss not caring sometimes. Like just eating whatever I want, however much I want, without measuring or weighing or anything. The blissful ignorance of how much I was really overeating. But overall I'm happier with the knowledge and tools to lose weight and be healthy.

MynameisChester

middlehaitch wrote: »

I lost, and have been maintaining a long time.
Moving into maintenance wasn't scary as I ate everything, just in smaller portions.
After a year of counting calories those smaller portions were my new normal.

If you make decisions at the beginning that suit you and your lifestyle, make the changes slowly, it is a lot easier at the end.

Cheers, h.

Great to hear that you've lost and continue to maintain! People I know who have lost weight allow themselves to eat the foods they love but unfortunately gain it all back again!

endlessfall16

This is the kind of changes that if you think it's a big deal, then it's a big deal. If you think it's no big deal, then it's no big deal. That's how it comes down for me.

Annr

At 53 yrs old I have faced the fact that life is all about change. Life is always influx. That is our constant. I try to mentally be like a pilot and looking at their gauges keeping my "plane" level. Yep, sometimes I take a nose dive, and other times I go vertical, but I always leveling out.
Another fact I have learned is that while I try to be perfect, I can be perfectly imperfect. All I know is that there is not a person in the whole planet the same as me, and well that makes me pretty darn special in its own right, you know?

augustremulous

I'm afraid of the changes that might validate how badly people see me now.

I'm afraid of people trying to be nice and telling me how I look sooo much better, with the implication that I really looked terrible before. I'm sort of afraid of people taking out their cameras and always offering to take my picture, because that rarely happens now.

Mostly, I'm afraid of starting relationships with people who wouldn't have given me the time of day if I were still fat. I feel like when I get my weight down I'm going to have a problem trusting new relationships and friendships.

I'm also afraid of the additional pressure to be thin as an overweight person. I think overweight people face more pressure than obese people. I don't want to have to deal with that again. I'm afraid that I'm going to do all this work and that it still won't be good enough, and that it will never be good enough.

MynameisChester

Annr wrote: »

At 53 yrs old I have faced the fact that life is all about change. Life is always influx. That is our constant. I try to mentally be like a pilot and looking at their gauges keeping my "plane" level. Yep, sometimes I take a nose dive, and other times I go vertical, but I always leveling out.
Another fact I have learned is that while I try to be perfect, I can be perfectly imperfect. All I know is that there is not a person in the whole planet the same as me, and well that makes me pretty darn special in its own right, you know?

Definitely. The more I tried to be perfect, the more I sucked at things. I now aim for "good enough" and then go from there.

JeromeBarry1

MynameisChester wrote: »

The common pattern I've noticed among people who lose and sustain weight loss are adopting lifestyle changes. Some people define that as eating things in moderation or completely giving up foods they love. Is the notion of changing your lifestyle scary to you? Please share your thoughts.

Is the notion of having delicious breakfast, tasty lunch, generous dinner, scary to me?
Um, no.

GaleHawkins

@MynameisChester yes it can be scary. At the age of 63 it clicked hard that my goal to live to be 110 and my Way Of Eating did not mesh because I was rushing towards a premature death by my WOE.

I decided any food that did not love me that I would not love it in return. Since I was hooked on sugars and grains I left both cold turkey after failing to taper off of them for Aug/Sep 2014. After a hellish first two weeks of Oct 2014 the physical cravings started to fade. For the past 18 months my health and health markers have done nothing but improve.

Where right or wrong I decided both sugars and grains did not love me so we got a divorce.

Some talk about feeling deprived if they leave off a food or food group but that is just an emotion state they are trapped in since sugar and grain are not 'required' food to have great health.

Buffets are awesome if one is clueless as to what they want to eat. Now to me buffets/pot luck meals are just a lot of confusing noise to get to the foods that I now love because they love me.

Like other women after a guy gets married may be OK to look at but they are not OK to touch regardless how tempting they look if one wants to stay married. Now married I don't feel "deprived" they are not to be touched and it is the same way about sugar and grains for me now.

Overeating may start out being a mental issue that can be addressed by will power per some but after overeating cause(s) become physical (hormones, etc) in nature there is the real withdrawal phase I learned in my case.

Doing something for the first time can for sure bring about the fear of failure. I knew if I did nothing that I would die a premature death since I was approaching the age that both of my parents died. Then it became mentally possible for me to make the change because I had ZERO to lose and potential years of better health to gain.

AnnPT77

Changing my lifestyle isn't scary, I do it all the time. There's a song lyric: "To say that I've stopped changing, is to say that I've stopped growing. To say that I've stopped growing, is to admit that I am dead." And I'm kind of a novelty junkie, besides.

Before I retired, I spent 30 years in IT, and one of its attractions was the constant change. In my 30s, I started studying Chinese martial arts. In my 40s, I became a widow, a survivor of stage III breast cancer, and a serious rower. At 51, I retired. Later in my 50s, I took up mixed-media art, and started learning to play bluegrass banjo. At 59/60, I lost nearly 65 pounds and became a lightweight rower.

Change is fun (well, except the widowhood & cancer - coulda skipped those, frankly).

The only thing that scares me is whether I can truly beat the odds & successfully maintain the weight loss . . . but I intend to do so. In all other respects, it's just plain excellent. Yay, change!

lorrpb

I did not fear the change of losing weight, I feared staying in the painful, discouraging, and miserable place I was in before I started. "That" fear has helped me stay committed.

brownb65

Since being diagnosed with metabolic syndrome X and Hasimotos 5 years ago I have gained a lot of weight, and now I have type 2 diabetes. I probably will never see 110 again but I've been so discouraged b/c I felt no matter what I did I'm not going to lose weight b/c of my metabolic disorder but when I got on the scales at the Dr's office almost 3 weeks ago and it read 198.4, almost 200lbs and I'm 5'1 I literally bald my eyes out.. I knew I had to do something, I have no quality of life.. I don't go anywhere or date, I can't stand looking at my body and I don't want anyone else to see it.. But that all has to change.. I went to the store and to the organic and healthy isles and bought foods that I've never ate before. My starting goal is 70lbs and I weighed myself today and I am now 190.2 since March 3, I want to be comfortable in a swimsuit this summer with the grandbabies at the pool

RoseTheWarrior

I fear getting heart disease and Type 2 diabetes (my mom has both at the age of 69) way more than changing my diet and working out.

MynameisChester

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Changing my lifestyle isn't scary, I do it all the time. There's a song lyric: "To say that I've stopped changing, is to say that I've stopped growing. To say that I've stopped growing, is to admit that I am dead." And I'm kind of a novelty junkie, besides.

Before I retired, I spent 30 years in IT, and one of its attractions was the constant change. In my 30s, I started studying Chinese martial arts. In my 40s, I became a widow, a survivor of stage III breast cancer, and a serious rower. At 51, I retired. Later in my 50s, I took up mixed-media art, and started learning to play bluegrass banjo. At 59/60, I lost nearly 65 pounds and became a lightweight rower.

Change is fun (well, except the widowhood & cancer - coulda skipped those, frankly).

The only thing that scares me is whether I can truly beat the odds & successfully maintain the weight loss . . . but I intend to do so. In all other respects, it's just plain excellent. Yay, change!

Truly amazing and inspirational AnnPT77! About 15 years ago, my dad had passed away right around the same time my mother was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer. Fortunately she's also a cancer survivor and is still around. Thank you for sharing this information about yourself. I really appreciate it!

Machka9

MynameisChester wrote: »

The common pattern I've noticed among people who lose and sustain weight loss are adopting lifestyle changes. Some people define that as eating things in moderation or completely giving up foods they love. Is the notion of changing your lifestyle scary to you? Please share your thoughts.

A year ago, when I started losing weight, I just returned to my previous lifestyle ... the lifestyle I had as recently as 2008. OK, that's probably not really recent to some of you, but when you get to my age, 7 years is recent.

So no, it's not scary.

Especially not when compared with ...
-- marrying someone from another country and spending 10 days together before he returned to his country.
-- watching from a distance while his area, and his house, were destroyed in a massive bushfire ... while doing my final teaching practicum for my Bachelor of Education. He narrowly escaped with his life ... many people weren't so lucky.
-- moving to his country ... and living in one of the last remaining buildings in the area, a very rustic cabin 2 km from "the grid".
-- living completely off the grid for a year ... I learned to bake using a dutch oven and fireplace.
-- going through the whole process of being allowed to remain in the country.
-- going through the whole process of finding work in a new country and assisting with the rebuilding process in the area.
-- and then, after a couple years, setting off on a 8-month round the world tour.
-- returning and finding a new place to live ... finding work ...


If I could go through all that over the past 8 years ... I can lose weight. And well, I did, and have been keeping it off for a while now.

Francl27

It took me 14 years to be ready to make a lifestyle change, so yeah, obviously I didn't want to have to eat less.

And 3 years later, not going to lie, it still sucks. I don't deprive myself by any means and have plenty of treats, but I will always want more. In the end though, you just have to decide what's important to you...

That being said, that's the diet part... I used to sit on my butt all day playing video games. Now I go crazy if I spend more than 2 hours not being active.

jarablue

There are more times than I'd like to admit when I go out for a jog/walk, a part of me really really really doesn't want to do it. Almost like turn around right now feeling. When I feel like that I try to just push on. Almost blindingly inside without thinking about it. Then once I am doing it for about 20 min the good feeling comes back and I am glad I am doing it. Just that initial DONT DO IT phase I have to get by. Also I love eating good food. The self control to not eat whatever you want is hard, very hard at times. The cravings for white cheddar cheezits mmmm....I struggle with it now and will always.