Eating/Exercising on Auto-Piloting

dockofdebey

Like many of you, I reached a point in my waistline that just was too much that I got myself back on track. This was about 5 weeks ago, and in that time I've really been proud of myself. I've got on a regular weight training/cardio routine, monitor my steps, and track my calories. I'm still learning a lot as to my food, but now I have a scale to weigh it and proper portion size. I have lost a pound a week over this time, and this is even with 3 work trips over the time.

Anyway, I'm a bit obsessive with things and that is playing a large role into me going all in on my fitness. But I am also aware of how this has played out long term for me. I get obsessed, life gets in the way, my motivation decreases and then I become obsessed with something else and let this obsession go away.

In addition, I have removed myself from the social aspects of life to stay committed to fitness. I know over time I won't be able to live every waking moment thinking about how many steps am I at, determining whether that is one teaspoon or two teaspoons of peanut butter on this sandwich.

I just want to live healthy without the constant obsession with living healthy. Basically turn healthy living on auto-pilot. It needs to be a lifestyle, but not get in the way of living life or be an all or nothing approach. Like if I go have a few drinks with friends on Saturday, it won't defeat me or make me feel guilty because I know on Sunday I will naturally just go back to eating healthy because it's how I live.

I'm not talking about being lazy to healthy living, I'm talking about using these habits and knowledge to make my life better not harder.

Sorry just needed to rant, because at times the mental aspect of this can be more exhausting than the physical aspect of exercise.

jemhh

You're right. The mental part can be exhausting. It takes quite a while for healthy choices to become your natural choices and to not freak out about the small stuff. You really have to retrain your brain. It's like when you try to learn a foreign language and the hope is that one day you'll be able to hear somebody else speak it and you won't have to translate it to English, decide on your answer, and then translate it back into the other language. You want to be able to just do it, pronto.

I started out with a few more strict rules for myself too. In particular, I kept bread, pasta, and sweets to Sundays only because they are foods that I had problems eating in moderation. It was 5 months or so before I started loosening up on that a bit because I felt like I would make better choices.

I am getting better but I still sometimes with catastrophic thinking if I have to skip a workout. "Aargh, I can't go run because of the rain. What if it rains all week and then I have trouble on my first run back and then I hurt myself and then I just stay home and eat a tube of saltines and butter and I gain all of my weight back and turn into a slug again?" And then my husband will look at me and say "Well...just don't do that." And it really does come down to that--just not letting yourself slip back into bad habits--but it sure can be tiring when you have spent so much time with those bad habits.

MomforNoah

This sounds too familiar to me. I have started eating only non-processed whole foods so I don't have to over think everything so much. I still log all my meals and snack, but it is making cooking easier

wonko221

the word "ethics" comes from the Greek for "habit."

Don't look at being healthy as a project with the end goal of your target weight/body image. Look at it as the development of healthy habits. Once you have developed good habits, you will be inclined to eat healthy, to exercise.. to be on auto pilot in a good way. And your body will adapt to your healthy patterns.

I've had bad habits my whole adult life. The biggest was smoking. I was able to kick that in March, and since June i've been paying attention to my eating and exercise.

I took a week long vacation recently, and decided not to log calories or worry - whatever damage i did, i would make up for when i got home. Even though i had excused myself to cheat at will, in these past few months my tastes have changed - i no longer craved the big portions or indulged to the extent i did before.