Life management

ms_maruska

This isn't really a diet related problem per se but it is related.

When I first started doing CICO almost three years ago, I was unemployed so, for me, it made all the planning and sticking to calorie deficit much easier (timewise and motivationwise). Life happened and I ended up mostly maintaining without using mfp, maybe gained a few kilos back but not many. Right now, I'm working full time, I'm doing my phd, I have a girlfriend, a rather big house with a garden, trying to have a social life, trying to stick to CICO combined with gluten-free and grain-free and other intolerances (otherwise I get flare ups and it affects my work) and I'm planning on starting to exercise. All of these require time, commitment and emotional involvement and sometimes it just feels like being stretched (or rather, I'm stretching myself) on too many sides, while most feel like being rather important to me. Obviously, all of these are long term commitments and while I try and try to make some sort of daily/weekly/monthly plans to keep up with all of it, I just can't. I'm motivated most of the time but at some point I get exhausted from trying to manage it all and sometimes it feels like I'm on some sort of a mechanical schedule. I realise I'm doing all of these things for myself and I chose to do them. I do get back on track eventually but lately it's been taking a greater toll emotionally and I started getting sidetracked faster and more easily.

So I'm wondering how other people experience similar obligations, how do you "cope" or what strategies do you use when you start feeling the downside?

Machka9

I actually found the whole MFP/CICO thing to be a relief.

When I started I was up to my eyeballs in work (full-time) and university (working toward a Master's part-time) and trying to keep up with my sport (cycling) and the club etc. etc.

Knowing exactly what I would eat each day and being able to "Copy from Yesterday" in the Food Diary put all that into the background and I didn't have to worry about it. Eating became part of the automatic everyday background like getting up, brushing my teeth, having a shower, getting dressed, and finding myself at the bus stop each morning. It became habit.

Any time my situation varied a little became an interesting little challenge I needed to overcome.

A few weeks after I started, I had my birthday weekend. How was I going to handle that?? Well, as it happens, I cycle lots to celebrate stuff so that's exactly what I did. I cycled a whole lot that weekend ... enough so that we could go out to my favourite Mexican place for dinner!

A few weeks later, friends came to visit from overseas ... again, got in some extra exercise so we could meet them for dinner.

88olds

First, you have dietary restrictions I never had. Every restriction is a complication.

But most of your issues are tied to this- the problem isn't so much losing weight, but living our lives. Almost all of us, taken away from the grind and checked into the lap of luxury diet and exercise resort, would lose weight. If I could just swap my time stuck in traffic for time on the spa massage table everything would be so much easier.

You can do this. First, you need the long term view. Second, you need an attitude of experimentation. Last, you need to embrace the process. I used to go around saying weight loss was my new hobby. Time I spent on weight loss was a chance to step out of my hamster wheel.

I didn't make up specific menus but I made sort of a storyboard for my week. I would storyboard each day. If a day had a specific challenge, I would storyboard that. Not a lot of detail. Just a few notes on a calendar. Just walk through my week in my head.

Start a food diary. You don't need to fill in numbers to start. The act of tracking your intake is priority #1. I used pen and paper. The electronics reminded me of work.

Weight loss is a skill set. Plan and track. Test, evaluate and adjust. Do it again. All that's needed is a livable downward trend and time. Figure out how you will allow for time. The time factor wrecks most people.

Don't rely on motivation. It's too fleeting. Build,and defend good habits. Summon determination when needed. Try to keep reliance discipline to a minimum. It's a scarce resource.

Last- exercise is not a great weight loss strategy. It does have a lot of benefits. But at first, walking is certainly enough. Also, you can double use the time to plan. Good luck.

ms_maruska

Thank you for your replies and advice! I found them very useful. Like both of you have pointed out, it's a thing of perspective and a frame of mind. I keep seeing it as "yet another thing I want to do" instead of "i want to do it".