NEED HELP WITH SELF-CONTROL

It's like a maze. Every time I hit a wall, I find a way around it rather than stop or go back. Although it's not like I haven't regained ten or fifteen here and there that I have to lose again, but I've never gone back to even being really overweight, much less obese again. Just put your brain in forward mode and figure out what works for you.

I don't think it is as simple s @herrspoons makes out. Otherwise there are a whole bunch of otherwise intelligent people missing the boat out there. I assume that most people have a fair amount of intelligence to work things out.

Sitting back helpless hoping someone will take over your willpower won't work either.

I find a personal brainstorming session followed up with a strategy to try for a few weeks gets me out of my funk. Here's some tips on halting a binge session.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/jgnatca/view/halting-a-binge-session-715131

AND you don't have to stop enjoying foods you love altogether. There's a pattern of thinking among dieters, called "all or nothing" thinking. It is self-defeating as the first time you fall off the wagon you give up altogether. Replace all-or-nothing with 80/20. Resolve to stick to your plan 80% of the time, or five days out of seven. You will continue to lose weight, without the sense of failure. Win-win!

doobzflo wrote: »

DKG28 wrote: »

Look for a way to make peace with food as fuel. It's tough when we want to use food for celebration, comfort, relieving boredom, and when other people do just that around us. It's a cultural convention to throw food at every occasion. I'll confess I love birthdays for the cake. When I realized that I should be celebrating with the person, not with the cake, and that the cake always captured my attention, I was able to redirect the focus to the person and ignore the cake. But every time I reach for food and it's not mealtime, I have to go through the process of figuring out if I really want to do that. It's not easy. It doesn't come automatically. But you have more strength than you know. Just like muscles, you have to exercise that inner strength for it to grow. But there's definitely some there already-that's all you need to get going in the right direction again.

Wow, that was extremely helpful! I like what you said about shifting the focus back on the event/people, and not the food, which is what I tend to do.

I like this, too. Especially when I think bday, I get an instant mental image of the cake, not a person!

What do you think of food addiction? Do you think it's a real thing? I feel that I'm an addict because it truly affects my mood when I can't have what I want. Some people have told me that I will struggle with this the rest of my life and that's what I'm scared of...

Well, it's not like cigarettes where we can give up the addiction cold turkey. Food is kind of necessary, and nice. There's plenty of evidence that some people become compulsive about food, and perhaps a simpler way of looking at it for most people is that they become habituated to their old patterns.

Looking back I think I self-medicated with carbohydrates to keep me calm. I'm much more bouncy these days; hard to keep me down. But a lot of my old habits are permanently gone, really! But I might be tracking and monitoring for a long while yet.

Diabetics have to track for life. Heart attack survivors must stay fit or fail. Cancer survivors similarly go in for their annual checkups. People with chronic conditions can deny it and descend in to ill-health, or face it and make it part of their new life. It's do-able.

I linked my blog on stopping a binge session above. Some of those strategies may help.

It doesn't have to be a struggle.

Believe me, I look forward to my runs, my new mobility. I like the new bouncy, bouncy me.