IM SCARED...

billingtonnacresha

Hello Everyone,
I'm Nacresha and I'm new to myfitnesspal. I decided it was time to get healthy and change my lifestyle.
The truth is, I'm scared of change... even if it's for the better. My anxiety kicks in and I start to " What if" things.
Ultimately, I know this has to be done because I'm not getting any younger and it's time to be better and do better mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Consistency and Discipline is the name of the game and results is the reward.

AnnPT77

Hi, Nacresha, and welcome to the Community!

I think many of us dislike change, and anxiety/fear about it is one of the ways that can manifest. You can handle this, and the results can be great - more than worth the bravery required to step into that new world.

I'm not sure what you're "what if"-ing, so it's hard to comment. As a generality, I think it's realistic to expect some challenges or even roadblocks along the way. The only reason to focus on those, IMO, is to figure out how to get over, around, through or otherwise past them. Focusing hard on the obstacle (vs. the wily route past it) is IMO a waste of perfectly good time and energy.

I'm going to go a little granny-advice at this point, possibly irrelevant: I was a somewhat worry-inclined, contingency-planning kind of person by nature myself. Sometime during cancer treatment, I realized that I was planning obsessively for some things that never happened, and not anticipating some challenges that did pop up. It turned out that I handled the unexpected challenges pretty competently when necessary, and it sank in viscerally for me that over-planning and feeling worried was a waste of perfectly good time and energy that I could've used more productively in other ways. I don't think that's a realization that a person can just decide to make by resolution, but maybe there's something in there to look out for. Dunno.

As far as not getting any younger, I don't know what that means to you, but there are lots of folks around here who've improved fitness and lost weight into their 60s and 70s, maybe beyond. (I got active "young" when in my late 40s, became a reasonably-fit fat woman, but didn't lose from class 1 obese to a healthy weight until age 59-60. I'm now 67, still at a healthy weight, still athletically active. Age per se isn't a barrier unless you let your thought-patterns make it one.)

Me, I'm not a big fan of discipline as a tool, because it's not my strongest muscle. What helped me was thinking how to make weight loss relatively easy, and fitness relatively fun, so that it took less discipline (motivation, willpower, etc.) to reach my goals. There are plenty of fun activities, and tasty foods that are calorie-efficient, affordable, and nutritious, if a person's open to learning about them and experimenting.

Weight loss and fitness don't need to be some punitively-extreme forced march of intense, unpleasant exercise and restrictive eating rules. Small, manageable changes in habits, finding things that can become long-term happy habits (so continue almost on autopilot long term) can be pretty magical, IME.

Best wishes for success!

mtaratoot

In general, I don't like change. Some say it's because of my star sign and the year I was born in the Chinese zodiac. Do I believe any of that? Well, it doesn't matter. I know change is uncomfortable.

Positive change is even uncomfortable. What if I fail? Or... what if I succeed and have to keep it up for the indefinite future? It's all so uncertain.

Then again, EVERYTHING is uncertain. I wouldn't be who I am and where I am in life had I not made every single change that I made and failed to make others. I'm fine where I am, and I hope you are fine where you are too.

And if you see that a change will be a positive impact, consider that the change may look a lot better from the other side than it does now. When you get there and turn around and look back at the path you just walked, you may see some things that you can't see now because of the direction you're looking.

Grab the opportunity. Ride it out. See what happens. When you succeed, smile and reassess and then think of what change is next.

nestra2393

Hi!
I feel like your really brave for deciding to do this, and your fear of failure it totally normal. You are absolutely right when you say consistency and dedication is what's needed to reach your goals and I'm sure you will reach them.