A REALLY slow process

jamieaferguson wrote: »

I am ready for this change to happen! I know that I did not become overweight overnight, and it is a process. I also know that I want it to last. However, I am so ready for the finish line! I want my new body, and the health benefits that come from it. I looked at 2 pounds a week, and that puts me being at my "goal" weight in December 2016. That seems like a long time from now! I have felt some great benefits already from getting healthier, including more energy, less headaches, and just overall feeling great. I can only imagine what it will be like to have all of this weight off of me, that is hurting my body. I would love to hear from some of you who felt like this, and have success. Thanks!

See the bolded...that's where you're really going to have to have a change of mindset. There is no finish line. Achieving a healthy weight and achieving that goal is just the beginning...the process of weigh loss, learning about nutrition, developing sustainable and healthful eating habits as well as sustainable and healthful fitness habits are all just training for the real race. Reaching some arbitrary number on the scale is great...but really, you've just arrived at the starting line at that point.

I've been at this for over two years...I've come a long way...and I have a long way to go. Yeah...I hit my goal weigh quite awhile ago...but I can always be a little better today than I was yesterday...I can always make improvements to my nutrition...I can always be faster, go further, jump higher, and lift more. The betterment of one's self is a life long endeavor...not a few weeks or months or even a year. Get that out of your head and start looking at this process as a life long endeavor of betterment.

I have been here since 2010. Over 4 years and there is NO FINISH LINE. Never stop improving yourself or trying to be a better you.

Be prepared for the mental game. I've lost 60lbs in 6 months, however there was a 5 week stretch where I lost and gained the same lb over and over. It can eat at your confidence, make you yell and cry and ask if it's all worth it.

As you lose weight you struggle with "I don't feel like I've lost weight" and some vague form of anxiety at being different to how you've always been.

It's very hard to be all the time aware of what you're eating, and how much. Some days you think "why do I have to constantly monitor my food when everyone else can eat what they want". Self pity is the enemy.

External factors play a role. My partner doesn't say much about me losing weight. I mean he comments sometimes about me getting skinny, but it's always a neutral comment, not positive or negative. It occurred to me last night that I was big when he met me, and his ex wife is a big girl, and what if that's what he prefers and isn't attracted to me anymore when I'm thinner. He would never say it. And he'd love me anyway, but we can't help what we find physically appealing. So we talked about it. I told him he has a right to voice an opinion, as I'm changing from the way I was when we met.

Family can make it hard, you get the mother-in-law saying "you're not trying to lose MORE weight are you?". The Aunty commenting on how you look "unwell". People making a point of your eating at family gatherings, trying to coerce you into eating things.

Thinking about the end game is the enemy also. There's no majical weight and then you can go back to eating whatever. So many people manage to lose a huge amount of weight, and put it all back on again plus 10lbs. Because they aren't mentally prepared, because they think "I'm going on a diet to lose some weight" but not what happens after that.

If you told someone who's 150lbs overweight they could be a healthy weight but they have to monitor and restrict their food (from what they currently eat) FOREVER most wouldn't even try.

It's not all doom though. There are a lot of benefits to losing weight. Buying clothes a size smaller, or dragging out those jeans from 10 years ago and putting them on is pretty cool.

In the last couple of months I've discovered I have hip bones, collar bones, and cheek bones, in that order. I found my cheek bones last night.

My hips don't hurt anymore. I'm fitter, I have more energy, I don't get headaches and heartburn like I used to. No tummy problems.

If you can let go of old habits and convince your mind that this is how things are from this point, then you're half way there. Learn to love how you eat, and don't let yourself get hungry. This is the only way you'll stick to it.