WHAT'S YOUR BIGGEST BARRIER TO CHANGE?

caci88
caci88 Posts: 53 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi,
I'm hoping to gain some insight into what prevents people from changing? For me, for years it was being WAY too strict & then bingeing, drinking on the weekends which meant I never had healthy food in the house because I was too hungover to shop & being too lazy and tired to cook or measure/weigh my food so ate too much and ate easy foods.. what about you?
Caci x

Replies

  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    My biggest barrier to change was simply resisting the fact that change was needed. :)

  • Alyssa_Is_LosingIt
    Alyssa_Is_LosingIt Posts: 4,696 Member
    I didn't really care for a long time. Food tasted good and I just wanted to eat.

    Now I care about how much I eat, and I care about making progress and being healthy. I can still eat the tasty foods that I have always loved, but I just eat less now.
  • blessingsfromabove721
    blessingsfromabove721 Posts: 161 Member
    I just loved food that was bad for me. Pizza, fast food, soda..all of it. And I didn't want to give up all that, go on a "diet" (hate that word) and be hungry all the time.

    It wasn't until I stepped on the scale and saw the biggest number I had ever seen in my life, that I realized something needed to be done...and now. So I guess it all came down to lack of motivation and laziness...oh, and a love of food that is not so good for you. Lol
  • ShandaLeaS
    ShandaLeaS Posts: 136 Member
    My biggest hurdle was sweet tea and Coke. I literally drank 2 gallons a day plus 64+ ounces of Coke a day for 15 years.
  • Varamyr38
    Varamyr38 Posts: 258 Member
    Staying away from fast food. Got to be strong all the time to say no to it.
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    My biggest barrier was that CICO works!!
  • Annr
    Annr Posts: 2,765 Member
    edited September 2015
    What I have come to realize is that change is messy. Change makes you rethink everything. How I look at food, how I cook, how I spend my time. Change does make you aware. Change wakes up your senses. Changing in this journey I have put myself on forever has taught me a couple of things. #1 I would rather change and live my life "eyes wide open than asleep". #2 Changing my lifestyle makes me feel capable of changing other things in my life. It starts the ball rolling so to speak. I am more adaptive of change than I was a couple of months ago. And that is a great thing...
  • zdyb23456
    zdyb23456 Posts: 1,706 Member
    Mine is the need to nosh while relaxing on the couch at the end of the day. It's a habit I can't seem to break. There are brief periods when I think I have it under control and then I fall back into the habit.
  • korifrancis
    korifrancis Posts: 17 Member
    Coffee creamer lol
  • Annr
    Annr Posts: 2,765 Member
    Im old...what is noshing....is that a cool word instead of saying snacking?
  • Varamyr38
    Varamyr38 Posts: 258 Member
    Annr wrote: »
    Im old...what is noshing....is that a cool word instead of saying snacking?

    According to a search, it's to eat food enthusiastically or greedily. Didn't know that word either haha

  • Annr
    Annr Posts: 2,765 Member
    I SEEE..... noshing sounds alot like scarfing... hahaha. I try not to scarf or nosh while dining. Thanks for the definition @KptCirk
  • zdyb23456
    zdyb23456 Posts: 1,706 Member
    Yep that would be me... Noshing, scarfing... Mindlessly eating
  • Annr
    Annr Posts: 2,765 Member
    hmmm @zdyb23456 well all that activity does burn some calories....its even SOUNDS active..."There she was noshing and scarfing like crazy....doritos everywhere!!"
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    Mostly, it was not knowing how to prepare healthy food. I'd eat plain, boring food and get sick of it. Like, if you cannot make a pan sauce, why even heat the meat? ;)

    I also kept trying to figure out how to eat prepared stuff and lower my sodium. Finally realized it wasn't possible for me...that kind of ties into making my own healthy food.

    Once I quit looking for the easiest way, I found the best way. The best way for me, that is. :)
  • Azuriaz
    Azuriaz Posts: 785 Member
    Waffling on picking my hard. It's all hard. All of it. Just gotta choose, stick with it, and suck it up.
  • Annr
    Annr Posts: 2,765 Member
    It takes time to learn how to marry flavors and tastes together... Its a matter of combining food and being patient while one thing cooks until you add another. My lunch today used a pan and a burner. I cooked some kelbasa with some baby red potatoes, asparagus and zucchini. I put water over everything and turned it down to simmer. That is when the marrying of flavors happen. The food is shy hahaha.. Anyway I put a tsp of chicken stock paste in it and waited until I could put a fork thru the potatoes. Then I put the whole mess into a large ramen bowl with fresh spinach and a sliced up Baby Bell cheese ball. The hot soup mixes with the fresh spinach and its heavenly. Its not hard, and it took maybe 20 mins.
  • zdyb23456
    zdyb23456 Posts: 1,706 Member
    ALL the Doritos make it into my mouth :)
    Part of the reason I'm here...
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,557 Member
    snickerscharlie wrote: »
    My biggest barrier to change was simply resisting the fact that change was needed. :)

    This.

    I gained the weight so gradually, and didn't gain a huge amount of it, that I just continued to see myself as I was.


    A secondary thing was instability. During the years where I gained weight gradually, we spend several months packing and preparing for an 8-month trip around the world, we travelled for 8 months, when we returned, we lived with a friend for a couple months, then we moved into our own place for 6 months, but during that time we were working but applying for work in another state, then we packed up and moved to the other state but into temporary accommodations, there was more travel and back and forth for a bit, and finally last November we moved completely into the place we're in now and were able to settle.

    And finally I was able to start focusing on things like losing weight and returning to university.

  • lintilla42
    lintilla42 Posts: 11 Member
    A big barrier for me is depression. If I'm in the hole, it's hard to muster up the energy to prepare even the simplest convenience foods!
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    yourself.
  • AbsoluteTara79
    AbsoluteTara79 Posts: 266 Member
    Patience.
  • caci88
    caci88 Posts: 53 Member
    edited September 2015
    Wow thank you all so much for your posts!
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    My biggest barrier was that CICO works!!

    I was definitely guilty of this!! I wanted to believe I could have the body I wanted AND eat what I wanted when I wanted and be inconsistent with workouts.. haha go figure!


    Annr wrote: »
    What I have come to realize is that change is messy. Change makes you rethink everything. How I look at food, how I cook, how I spend my time. Change does make you aware. Change wakes up your senses. Changing in this journey I have put myself on forever has taught me a couple of things. #1 I would rather change and live my life "eyes wide open than asleep". #2 Changing my lifestyle makes me feel capable of changing other things in my life. It starts the ball rolling so to speak. I am more adaptive of change than I was a couple of months ago. And that is a great thing...

    This is SO true!!! I saw a quote the other day "change may be difficult but it means soon things will get easier" and I loved it.. because it's so true!

  • goldthistime
    goldthistime Posts: 3,213 Member
    My biggest barrier was relying on sweets for "instant energy". Not enough sleep? Coffee and donut (or two). Feeling under the weather but there is work to be done? Nothing a piece of cake or a cupcake can't solve.

    The act of "propping myself up" with those sugary carbs (and concomitant fats), worked well the first time. If I tried it later in the day I'd have to eat a larger amount to get the same bump in energy. Then I'd fall into days where I had very little protein or vegetables, just lots of carbs.

    I was under the weather a week ago and I dearly wanted to have a sweet treat just so I could get up and DO something. But once that snowball starts rolling...
  • knelson095
    knelson095 Posts: 254 Member
    Change has always been really hard for me...but in June I had to move 2800 miles from home (my husband is an officer in the Navy),clear across the country from everything and everyone I have known my whole life. I was angry about it, and absolutely terrified...but really, it's not as bad as I thought. I mean it sucks and I hate it most days, but my life is not ruined like I thought it would be. Realizing I could manage this life changing thing and not have my world crumble around me helped me make the decision to finally be healthy. If I can handle missing my lifelong best friend having her first baby, I can handle anything. And honestly, once I tried it and stuck with it, it got waaaay easier. And I love seeing the scale of down, even just a fraction of a pound.
  • sbmcm
    sbmcm Posts: 32 Member
    My biggest barrier has been that I want instant gratification. I want the weight off, but I want it off now and for some odd reason it never complies (go figure). And when that happens, I turn to my old standby -- fun food, where the gratification may be brief, but it sure is quick. Patience may be a virtue, but it's one I've never been accused of having. (And yes, I'm working to change that :) )
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
    I think I've had to overcome many barriers to change along the way. The first one was probably just recognizing that I could do something about my extreme obesity. That it wasn't inevitable, and the fact that everyone else in my family was obese did not mean I had to be as well. That I had a choice.
  • Azuriaz
    Azuriaz Posts: 785 Member
    Despair

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