A product of our own thinking

bigguyreed

Believe it or not, we grow up looking at our selves from what we are told or seen. We are a part of everything and everybody that has touched our lives. We can choose to allow any positive or negative things to effect us for life or we can choose a different path. I say this because some of us get stuck in that negative mode and can't move pass it.

As I look back I can see where I let someone hold me back (I know now it was me). A story that I was told yrs. ago when I was in Scouts. Our Scout Master would tell us a story around the camp fire. It was about an Indian Chief telling his young braves about 2 wolves inside them. One wolf showed love, understanding, compassion, caring, and willingness to help others. Now the other wolf showed hatred, self centered, envy, and disregard for others feelings.

Of course the young Braves would ask which wolf would wins? and the Chief would tell them the one you feed. As a kid myself at that time I didn't really understand the whole meaning until yrs. later. I just thought it was a story he would tell us. Anyone who feels they are stuck have the power to move themselves forward, inside themselves.

I'm saying this because I had done this to myself last yr. I had been losing weight for 3yrs. from 335lbs. down to 285lbs. just walking. I rejoined a gym last yr. thinking I would drop another 20 to 30 lbs. by Christmas it didn't happen that way. I became discouraged and stop going. I thought I was going to be stuck at 280 to 275. I see now with MFP food chart that some of the foods I was eating were making me yo yo up and down. After 3 weeks and back to the gym I'm down 7lbs. and haven't went back up so far.

Thank you MFP for being there for me.

hypodonthaveme

I agree that sometimes we can be our own enemy. I think peer pressure at any age adds extra stress and self doubt. Negativity is one of the hardest things to avoid these days.

If you want something bad enough, you will do whatever it takes to get it. Weight loss, being healthy is no different. We need to decide for ourselves if we truly want it or not. When the decision has been made without any doubts, then we can take the first step. After that first step is where we find courage to take another and another. It is where we find out just how much strength we have. After a month , we find out that self doubt tries to creep back in. We do this with questions like : am I losing fast enough, will anyone notice, does it matter,etc. Once we answer those questions, we will learn a small sacrifice here or there ( gym time, or not having that extra snack) isn't a big deal considering how great we felt when we exercised or said no to ourselves for that extra dessert.

We learn so much about ourselves through weight loss. We truly find our faults and our strengths. We must push all bad days behind and grab that strength that is buried. We need to look to ourselves for encouragement as there will be times other people won't be so excited about our accomplishments. That shouldn't be an excuse to quit. We need to remember how good it felt exercising for that first time. How excited we was after the first week of our journey. It's those positive memories that will get us through the rough phases.

SueInAz

Negative self-talk and feeding the wrong wolf can definitely undermine progress in any endeavor. I'm really happy you figured your way out of it and are seeing progress again. Right now you're motivated but there will come a time when motivation will wane; it does for everyone. While you're motivated now, try to create some good habits and recommit yourself to your weight loss and health goals every day. When motivation starts to dwindle it will be those habits and the commitment that will keep you going until your motivation gets retriggered.

bigguyreed

Hey guys or gals
Thanks for the great advise and I was undermining my own progress. I wanted others to understand how easily we can lose all of our progress and have to start over. But as of right now I'm motivated to stay the course. I'm glad to have others in here that give you that little push when it's needed. God bless you'all