Why am I like this?

Give yourself the best birthday present...the choice to start today. If you have cake...just take half as much...and celebrate knowing that in one year you'll be "reborn" in a healthier body. Concentrate on one day at a time and if you have a "bad day" once in awhile...so what...it's the long haul that matters. Forgive and move on. Eat a smaller portion of the less healthy foods and add a lot more veggies and fruits. They'll help fill you up so you aren't hungry. It's a matter of substituting better foods. And move...even if it's to take a walk, play a sport or head to a gym. Each good thing you do for yourself is an added gift to YOU. And yes, those who succeed and keep off the weight haven't been on a diet. They've changed their way of eating and learned how to include all the things they have always loved, but in moderation.

Have a great first day of becoming healthier.

Read something in another post yesterday that may help you.

Don't say "I'm going to do better, get fitter, eat healthier."

Say "I am going to walk 30 minutes a day. I am going to eat a fruit or vegetable with every meal. I am going to drink water instead of Coke with my dinners." CONCRETE things.

To lose a pound a week, you need an imbalance of 500 calories a day. You can do that with all food, with all exercise, or with both. Look through the exercise database at MFP and find something you can do that will burn an extra 250 calories. It might be something as simple as a brisk 45-minute walk. Can you commit to doing that? Can you work it into your life in some way?

Track your food for several weeks. Look through your diaries. Do you see a pattern? Do you see where you could cut 250 calories out of your day? For me, this was relatively easy and just took portion control on certain snacks and foods, not giving them up completely. Tracking your intake lets you see that.

Try committing to moving your body 30 minutes a day and tracking everything you eat as accurately as you can. Use scales and measuring cups -- don't guess. Doing those two things are concrete, defined tasks you can check off a checklist at the end of every day. "Did I move my body?" Yes/no. Did I write down everythign I ate?" Yes/no. Much clearer than "did I eat better? Did I get fitter?

Happy Birthday!! I agree with start with logging everything!! That helps a lot!

ever since 1/1/13 started I wanted to change my lifestyle and eat right, I have not done that even for 1 day. The more I think about losing weight and eating right, the more I eat and go off track...:( I just can not get started. It is my B'day today and I really want to set things straight. I am not sure if I have some sort of hidden stress or what, but I DO WANT TO CHANGE, but I can't. WHY? when I put food in my mouth, I am not hungry and I do think that I should not and I still put it in anyway....:(

I keep thinking to leave carbs off for a week or two to get started and slowly add good carbs back in, but then think that is not good way to do I will just moderately eat everything, but the end of the day I feel bloated, stuffed, and disgusted....:(

Anyone want to help me giving me the set food and amt for me to follow to get started? or any other tips to stay strong would be appreciated as well

why? you are weak and are to busy feeling sorry for yourself that it distracts you from the most important step to and lifestyle change. That is, to start. Telling yourself you can't is just a story because somewhere in your subconscious you believe that you deserve to indulge yourself. Get over it. Pick any respectable diet and workout plan and follow it. It doesn't matter which one, just pick one.

Might seem harsh and mean, but If I was you, I would want someone to punch me in the face if it mean't a step forward to the strongest version of myself. If MFP allowed me to swear this comment would probably have at least 20 f-bombs.

Yes, It is ultimately ME. I understand, but I am really frustrated the way I have been since 1/1/13. I do know what has worked for me in the past and what it takes to consistently lose and keep it off, I still don't do it. That is why I wonder WHY I am like this? what is going to take for me to realize THIS IS IT?

One of the first obstacles in keeping a behavior change is overcoming what your mind does not yet recognize as your “future self”. On a subconscious level your mind can easily put changes off until the future where it believes the “new you” can handle anything!

Why is this? First, your brain thinks your future self is a different person. Here’s a great example of how this works: You know you have to be up at 5 a.m. in order to exercise before work. But you stay up late watching a movie you’ve seen a dozen times. On a conscious level you know you are setting yourself up to fail however on a subconscious level your mind thinks of the tomorrow version of you as a completely different person!

Believe it or not science shows that this feature is built into your brain through brain scans. Brain scans show that different parts of our brain light up when we’re thinking of ourselves versus when we’re thinking of other people. What’s interesting is that in some people, when they’re asked to think about their “future” selves, the region that lights up is the one reserved for other people. In other words, if someone asks you to think about what you’ll look like in 20 years your brain treats it as though you’re trying to picture a stranger. Second, according to one study, habits take 10 weeks before any sort of new behavior starts to feel automatic. That means that during these 2 months any kind of change in your routine can disrupt the process. If you have a week when you can’t exercise because of the flu, a pulled muscle or working late then the habit is broken. Typically, this is when most people go back to their old ways. Your brain likes efficiency and mindless habits are efficient so it wants to create mental shortcuts that help you get through the day using the least amount of brain power necessary.

Your brain uses progress as an excuse for self-indulgence. Think of a time when you were on a really great stretch for creating a new habit and then because you’ve been doing so well you “owe it” to yourself to take a day off. Sound familiar? There is actually a term for this: willpower depletion and its every bit as detrimental to your goals as it sounds.

This wouldn’t be a big deal if all it meant was that the occasional “You look great!” compliment resulted in one celebratory cheeseburger. Unfortunately, the basic principle is that if you slip up once, that one misstep causes you to say “oh, well I already slipped up. I might as well just keep going now!” So, if you make progress on your diet or exercise program you are very likely to give yourself an excuse to splurge just once. But as soon as you do, it’s like opening a floodgate of self-defeating behavior that could drag you all the way back to square one.

Your brain also prefers bad habits to real failure. So, while your conscious self is busy hating you for not fixing your bad habits, your subconscious self is secretly doing everything it can to sabotage any efforts to correct them, because self-indulgence, not self-improvement, is what your brain actually wants. Your subconscious would actually prefer and accept one type of failure out of fear of suffering a much greater one, almost like a plea bargain in court.

Wow misifer; that was so interesting.