Fighting the demons

kari5285

I am 3 days in to eating better and I am very excited about it and feel better already. The problem is those little doubts that sneak into your head. One minute you are confident that you can do this and the next you think "I can't keep this up," "I should just quit now b/c I won't be able to stick to it." etc. Does anyone else feel like this? Even after weeks of doing it....or months? I wonder where those doubt demons come from?

I just have to remind myself that ultimately I am the only person in control of my habits, my eating, my exercising, and that nothing can stop me but me. It usually helps, but then later on, they creep bak in. It's annoying. So I was just curious to see if anyone else has fought these doubts and what did you do to expell them?

Thanks!

~Kari

ivykivy

I think we all have that negative chatter in our head. It's your mind resisting change. Change = discomfort.

What do I do? I tell the little voice to shut up. The more you tell it to shut up and you can do it, the less it will speak.

auntbliz

I had one of those moments today actually. The last two months have been a total bust for me as far as weight loss goes, but I finally started logging my calories a few days ago again, and it's been rough. Every once in a while I think that I may as well just stop trying, after all, I'm better than I was a year ago. Those times really get me when I make a bad food choice early in the day, I was saying, ah well, today's shot, I'll just quit logging and try again tomorrow. I almost did that today when I ate an entire giant hersheys bar, not the king size, but the one that's like, 3 times bigger. Instead, I thought on it, logged the points, and then drank my dinner. Had a small snack later, and only went over by 36 calories! Holy cow, it can be done! If only I had continued to log on those other days, maybe I would have had success and actually seen the numbers go down. I'm going to try to remind myself of that everytime I think I've screwed it up by making a poor choice, and not give up, because I actually got closer to my calories today than I have when I save a bunch of calories for the evening so I can snack. Anyway, don't know if that was any help, my brain is already shutting down for the night, not my best time for insightful writing

kari5285

I completely understand what you are saying and I really loved the advice. You are so right about just accepting what you ate and logging it and to continue on dieting. It makes me feel better since I am sure I will have future mess-ups. But now I know how to handle them. I just stress out thinking about future situations where people try to force food on you, and you say no, but they won't let up and what will to do + the voices in our head... It's enough to drive a person crazy. I guess we just have to say no to all of them!

Mindful_Trent

I read a great book that teaches you how to retrain yourself to deal with the doubts/thoughts that can impede your weight-loss effort's. It's called "The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person" - here's a link to the book on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Beck-Diet-Solution-Train-Person/dp/0848731735

Despite the use of the word "Diet" in the title - it is NOT a diet book - it's a book on how to avoid the common pitfalls of trying to lose weight, and works with any nutrition/exercise plan. It actually has a 6 week plan with daily goals/steps. It's based in cognitive therapy, which the author is trained in. I didn't follow the whole thing, but definitely learned some stuff reading it and would recommend it to anyone trying to improve their health/life by losing weight.

I found it at my local library - for those who can't afford to buy it or wouldn't want to buy it without checking it out first, I'd recommend looking at your libraries.

rori20

Yesterday was my very first day of my new diet and I blew it by astronomical amounts. How? By getting myself down over one treat and then saying "Screw it my day is shot.". Auntbilz's advice is terrific. I felt so down and ready to quit when I thought about how badly I messed my day up, but I got my butt in front of the computer and logged every painful calorie down. All 3,000 or so of them. Seeing how big of a deal it was to keep munching and think "oh it can't be that bad" really hit me hard, especially when MFP told me that if I kept that up I'd gain 12 pounds in 5 weeks rather than the precious 9 I wanted to lose. It's funny...9 feels like such a small number to me after 5 weeks of hard work, but I'd certainly rather have 9 pounds lost than 12 pounds gained. Tried and true: Hang in there! One day at a time! Set small goals. There's no better time to do this than right now!

BrendaLee

The "I already ate this sweet, so I might as well eat ALL of the sweets" mentality is the worst! Then it turns into "I went way over my calories today, even working out won't make a dent, so I won't workout". Pretty soon it becomes "I've gained back 10 pounds, I can't do this, I may as well quit." One thing leads to another if you let it.

Tarkine

The biggest demon at this time of year are all the yummie leftover christmas/new year goodies that your work colleagues bring in to share! The list of delightful tasty goodies is endless, but I found the best way for myself to deal with this was to politely say "no thankyou" I am trying to be healthy and want to avoid having to buy larger size clothes... on a bit of a budget post festive season They accepted this and didn't offer again!

kari5285

I am so thankful to hear all your guys' input. I makes me feel better and not alone. I am definetly going to check out that book Accountant_boi. It sounds like something I would like. And I also loved Brendalee's quote: When you look back in a year's time, will you be saying, "I'm so glad I stuck it out!" or "Why did I waste another year?"

I definetly don't want to waste another year. I've already wasted so many.

karen1950

I've been struggling with weight for years and now that I'm retired and a grandmother, I thought, jeez, what kind of example am I setting for my grandson? In the past I've always thought I could lose the weight fast, but every time I would become frustrated because I wasn't meeting the goals, or like others on this post, thought that one slip meant down the slope. But now I have my own little mantra -- One pound a week and off it must keep. Not beautiful poetry, but it helps me stay focused. I've also had the bad habit of wanting to do too many things at once -- get in exercise, cut those calories, walk more. Now I'm dealing with one aspect at a time -- portion control and one serving first; then I added in 2 ten minute sessions on the elliptical at 3.0 mph and I add 2 minutes a week. After a couple of weeks I'm adding in resistance bands. That gives me time to actually get some good habits.
MFP is great because I feel that I'm not alone.