Losing confidence

lynheff

You are on to something with the weighing less frequently. You CANNOT gain two pounds of fat in one day. Water will shift. More carbs, or salt in your diet= more water weight. Slash your carbs and see a really dramatic weight loss. That isn't real either since much of the initial loss is water. you can travel and make good choices. The problem for many of us is that we see holidays or vacations as break from our normal routines to include dieting, exercising and making good choices. Keep logging in for inspiration or at least, take a journal and keep up with your food. If you are sightseeing, that is usually good exercise. Good luck. Have fun.

Poohsta0

Do or do not. There is no try. (Yoda)

draayer7

If you rely on the scale to give you motivation/confidence on this journey, you aren't going to get too far. Too many variables factor into scale weight...especially if you are weighing in more than once a week...and even that is unpredictable to an extent. I know this is hard to accept, but scale weight is not the end all, be all of this journey. I can only tell you that if you are persistent and commit to the journey, the scale will ultimately comply and you will achieve whatever goals you want (but not as quickly as you'd like).

I recommend that for motivation/confidence, you rely instead on the deep, dark, pulled from the inner guts of you, brutal truth(s) as to why you are on you are on this journey. Write down all of the things you hate about being overweight. If you dig deep enough and are honest enough with yourself...then either you have enough reason to stay on the journey or you are really okay with your current lifestyle. and, hey, if you are okay with your current lifestyle, I'm not going to tell you otherwise. I'm here to help encourage folks who hate being overweight enough that they want to make a change.

Now, once you have those things written down...and assuming they are enough motivation to stay on your journey...the next thing I want you to do is to start appreciating the little victories this journey has to offer (victories that are not always reflected on the scale). I recently suggested to my pals that they make a chart and check it off daily to show all of the little victories that pile up. For example, your chart could have the following items:

ate healthy breakfast instead of pop tarts (or unhealthy breakfast of your unhealthy lifestyle)

ate healthy snack instead of Ho-Hos (or unhealthy snack of your unhealthy lifestyle)

ate healthy lunch instead of Crapdonalds

ate healthy afternoon snack instead of cookies

ate healthy dinner instead of fried chicken wings

avoided nighttime munchies because I wasn't really hungry

exercised according to my plan

drank X cups of water today

logged all of my food and drinks today

ate within 50 calories + or - of my calorie goal


.... I promise you that if you persist, and make achieve these small victories most days, you will achieve bigger victories on your journey. When will you achieve those bigger victories? No one can tell you that. But if you think of this as a journey to good health that lasts your lifetime...who cares how quickly you achieve your goals (you certainly didn't destroy your health in a few short weeks or months)....if its a journey and you are achieving the small victories, then know the big ones will come.

This seriously made me stop and think! Excellent words...thank you for the motivation to look at things a little differently than I think I have been! I am a person who does look at the scale for validation of my success, and it can be downright depressing when it doesn't move fast enough. I told myself this was a life change not a diet, but mentally I think I am treating like a diet!