How Long Can I Call it a Diet? Scared to Reach My Goal

MacApples

Well, after almost a year of dieting and exercising (a complete shift from last December 31), I am only 7 pounds away from my goal weight. It will be a total loss of 50 pounds. Truth is, I have secretly changed my goal a few times because I am afraid sometimes of reaching it. I am always thinking, "OK. I'm almost there. Then what?!"

I truly believe that I will need to be on a diet for the rest of my life. I don't buy the term "healthy eating habits." For me it is and will always be a diet if I want to keep the weight off. I still don't like exercise much; I still love and crave crappy foods that got me fat in the first place; I still look in the mirror and see problems.

This is hard to admit! In other words, I have not fixed the problems that got me here.

Is it OK to keep calling it a diet no matter how long it takes? Is anyone else afraid to reach your goal weight?

BeccaCares

I have met my goal weight. I am around 110-113 lbs. I am 5'1 and I am in the healthiest shape that I have ever been in my life. When I was losing weight, I didn't call it a diet. To me, it's learning to make a change and live a healthier lifestyle. Being fit is not the destination, it is a way of life (: To me, maintaining my weight is harder than losing weight unfortunately.

tdbad1

I never call it a diet. to ma that is another 4 letter word that does me no good,lol. When i do say it, it is often in the sentence "all dieting ever got me is the weight i am now" I topped out at 396lbs. Change is scary..to most of us. Any kind of change can turn our worlds upside down. think of it this way: youve got 7 more pounds to go, right? well, youve already had numerous "7 lbs to go" youve completed that task already. As for a time to stop calling it a diet, that time is long past. It will become a time to maintain your weight, rather than gain it back. that requires living this new life you have already made for yourself. You are not "about to "reach your goal, you have already reached and surpassed it. Hooray for you!!!! that is truely something to celebrate.

It took me almost 30 yrs to realize i need to change my life in order to change me, and in changing me, ive changed my life.
My cravings and binging will never go away. i know that, It is a part of who i am. However i am learning ways to cope with those cravings and desires. I love how im feeling as i loose the weight. Keeping watch over what i eat is now a way of life for me, and it keeps me honest. thats the best part. It makes it hard for me to go back on the weightloss cause i can't "cheat". Keep using the site, if nothign else cause its an awesome place to come to. Put it to use when you need it, cause we can all use a friend now and then.

DawnEH612

Dictionary.com defines diet as this:
di·et1    [dahy-it] Show IPA noun, verb, di·et·ed, di·et·ing, adjective noun
1. food and drink considered in terms of its qualities, composition, and its effects on health: Milk is a wholesome article of diet.
2.a particular selection of food, especially as designed or prescribed to improve a person's physical condition or to prevent or treat a disease: a diet low in sugar.
3.such a selection or a limitation on the amount a person eats for reducing weight: No pie for me, I'm on a diet.
4.the foods eaten, as by a particular person or group: The native diet consists of fish and fruit.
5.food or feed habitually eaten or provided: The rabbits were fed a diet of carrots and lettuce.

No matter how you define the word, its all about your mindset. That can either make you or break you. Honestly, it sounds to me that your setting yourself up for failure and another repeat of gaining and loosing.... It is a lifestyle change, whether you call it healthy eating habits, diet, limitations, altered eating, accounting... It really doesn't matter.. If you don't follow the simple rules of calories in are equal to or less than calories out, you WILL gain weight back... If you constantly tell yourself your restricted in some way, human nature is to eventually baulk at that.

In my honest opinion... Dieting, loosing weight and keeping it off has nothing to do with the food... It has everything to do with our mindset. If you have a pessimistic/negative mindset you're going to yield those same type f results over time. Perhaps you never really changed your eating habits, just ate less of the stuff you used to eat? If I did that, I'd be afraid of reaching my goal weight, too, because the real issue, which Is NOT food, was never resolved.

Be proud that you have been able to alter your eating choices and as a result shed some unhealthy extra weight, but it seems to me that you still have some cobwebs in your thought process that need some cleaning out. BTW, if you're interested, i do some blogging on here... I have attached one that has something to do with this very topic..

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/DawnEH612/view/it-s-all-in-my-head-257520