Which belief or beliefs have held you back from health/fitness goals in the past?
timtam163
Posts: 500 Member
For example when I believe that weight is tied to my self-worth, I either yo-yo diet or go in denial about how unhealthy I am/look. I have to confront and overcome that belief to see results.
What do you feel holds/held you back from achieving your health goals?
What do you feel holds/held you back from achieving your health goals?
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Replies
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I used to believe "it doesn't matter how many calories you eat as long as they're the right foods". This kept me on many a fad diet while simultaneously learning to consume an average daily intake far above what my body could burn.
Now i know that calories DO matter. I'm tracking my cals and macros, and finally seeing real success.7 -
There was a time when I believed that only weak willed people lost weight slowly. I was all in or all out.9
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I used to think if I got the weight off quickly by over exercising and not eating enough I would be able to maintain it later. Which is obviously not the truth.
I've learned that I can eat and be satisfied on healthy foods well within my calorie deficit to lose weight. That I'll have to be conscious of my lifelong choices to maintain my Goal weight (when I get there) and I'm okay with that.5 -
I used to think that eating any rich/fattening food would immediately scuttle any progress I'd made during the week.4
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That I was "meant" to look this way, I subscribed to the setpoint theory of weight and I remember telling people that the women in my family were all shaped like this and for me it lose 10lbs would be a full time job because I'd have to put so much effort in.
That eating to lose weight would trigger my eating disorder - now this one is sort of true, it has in the past but when I looked at the reasons why I found out it was due to deprivation mindset, the idea of eating "correctly" and an all or nothing mentality. MFP has me feeling mentally healthier about food than I think I ever have. It's taken away the fear and stripped food down to just a series of numbers. This is awesome.
That I hate most exercise, and that only a certain "type" of person does cardio or joins a gym. Think "I only run when I'm chased" type mentality. Oh how things have changed! I just bought new running shoes last week, didn't need them but I have several distinct palettes of colour in my gym wear drawer now and it annoyed me that my shoes clashed.
(Edited to fix 6am typos)9 -
That science was on the verge of solving the obesity problem with some silver bullet, whether it be a pill or discovering that a certain common ingredient in foods was the culprit, or whatever. Some solution other than eat less, move more. I had hoped, anyway.2
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I believed I was genetically not blessed with fitness genes and that because my legs/thighs/bottom were big I simply was not cut out to exercise. Plus you know allergies meant I could not run hike etc.
I also believed I did not overeat and that I got bigger just on air. I know now I was somewhat delusional a about what wind I was taking in3 -
That I needed to not do a thing on rest days. Now I walk 5 miles or cycle 20 miles on my running rest days.2
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I used to believe I had to follow a diet perfectly..and of course when I wasnt perfect at it I'd throw the towel in. Once allowed more leyway and wasn't so tough on myself, I found success.5
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It is obvious that the thing which held me back was a smug satisfaction that I could sit all day, maintain 270 lb, and only experience the deleterious effects of high blood pressure which was managed with only the smallest, cheapest dose of lisinopril. When my doctor informed me that those deleterious effects of maintaining 270 had grown into bad cholesterol numbers, I finally awoke to the need to lose weight and exercise.3
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I believed I couldn't run because I inherited these non athletic looking shaped knees from my Dad. His family had long since agreed that they don't carry the genes for athletics endeavours. Well I am training for a half marathon and I have run 16km so far with no trouble from these little chubby joints.5
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Sometimes I have the thought that nobody "sees" me in my life. The result is a "why bother" attitude and using food to comfort myself.
I've slipped up on my calorie goals having this thought the last few days! Thanks for this post and this question. I will be working to shift these thoughts.
I know that, really, it is not about how I look. It's about how it FEELS to be well: light, fit, less pain, comfortable. So whoever sees me or doesn't is truly irrelevant because I am working on my goals to achieve a state of wellness, and looks are secondary.5 -
wellnesschaser wrote: »I know that, really, it is not about how I look. It's about how it FEELS to be well: light, fit, less pain, comfortable. So whoever sees me or doesn't is truly irrelevant because I am working on my goals to achieve a state of wellness, and looks are secondary.
This one is SO hard to let go of,. Society encourages expressing shallowness rather than changing it, and normalizes tuning out your body's signals instead of tuning in. The internal work of health is so important.
As for "why bother"... YES. If you only value yourself for how you think others see you, it holds you back from making changes that others don't see. It's great to get validation from others sometimes, but (cheesy i know) it's important to validate yourself.
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All ironman triathletes are buff and lean. And I was scared and nervous at the start of the race that I wasn't lean enough or strong enough to even be worthy of starting.
Did my first one and just really loved that all types of bodies were out there and out there doing an amazing job!5 -
This thought held me back for the past five years: I'm meant to be this size and shape, and I should just love myself this way and there's no need for me to change.
I'm sure there are people for whom that is actually true, but it wasn't true for me. I was over-eating and unhealthy, and using this thought to mask how unhappy I really was.3 -
I used to tie being the "smallest" in the room to my identity as though I had nothing to offer other than being the anorexic girl. It was a very sad way to live.5
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Loose skin held me back for years ! Now I'm just embracing the best I can I rather be healthy with loose skin than morbidly obese again!4
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I believed that my emotional state was inextricably linked to food. Sad? Eat. Stressed? Eat. Angry? Eat. Now I can see that they don't have to be linked. I find that exercise actually improves, instead of masks, my mental state. Food is a way to treat myself well -- for short-term fueling, satisfaction and satiety, and long-term health.3
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Sheer ignorance. Yup.1
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Cookies are yummy. As is icecream. And pizza. And cake with lots of frosting. And pineapple upside down cake...2
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I remember about 10 years ago thinking that to burn, say a pound, those 3500cals had to be burned from exercise only and food had nothing to do with it. Then I would ride my stationary bike for 30min and completely exhausted would see I've burned 200cals only and thinking this is rediculous and give up.
I used to think at the time that losing 6-7lbs should happen in the span of several days (and I was normal weight trying to shed vanity pounds).
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The belief that hunger was a physical drive and I was at its mercy. Understanding the extent to which hunger is psychological (think about losing appetite when stressed, for example) let me spend some quality time retraining my fundamental attitudes; hunger is no longer an unignorable, insatiable craving. It's a suggestion, which I can ignore, and which goes away if I do.4
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This thought held me back for the past five years: I'm meant to be this size and shape, and I should just love myself this way and there's no need for me to change.
I'm sure there are people for whom that is actually true, but it wasn't true for me. I was over-eating and unhealthy, and using this thought to mask how unhappy I really was.
This. I always thought 16 stone was just 'my weight'. Even when dieting etc I could never seem to break that for long.
(tried slimming world and Alli pills, lost 2 stone but put it back on in a month and looked nowhere near as good as this time round with sustained effort and lifting!)I believed that my emotional state was inextricably linked to food. Sad? Eat. Stressed? Eat. Angry? Eat. Now I can see that they don't have to be linked. I find that exercise actually improves, instead of masks, my mental state. Food is a way to treat myself well -- for short-term fueling, satisfaction and satiety, and long-term health.
and this! I have learned so much about how to deal with emotional eating and eating when feeling anything. The logging has helped me to see whether a food is 'worth it' and keep me accountable, and keeps what I have achieved in view
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Another one: That my body was just a shell to keep my brain in. It never occurred to me that taking care of my body through nutrition and exercise is a way to be kind to myself and that it's a necessary component of a good quality of life. My body and brain are now integrated.
(When I first wrote that final sentence, I actually wrote "My body and I are now integrated." As if "I"="brain". I guess I still have work to do.)7 -
slimgirljo15 wrote: »I used to believe I had to follow a diet perfectly..and of course when I wasnt perfect at it I'd throw the towel in. Once allowed more leyway and wasn't so tough on myself, I found success.
^^^ Me too.
I believed that if I had an unplanned snack at work, then I might as well have another, and whatever I wanted for my evening meal, and a big supper, and probably eat crap all weekend, and start again on Monday.2 -
That my success was linked to my weight... It was linked to sports and the requirement to be a certain weight for that. Took me 7 years to find self worth in other ways.
That I could eat whatever I wanted and my body would change for the better if I ate little enough of it.
I was already at a reasonable weight, and it turns out what I needed to do was recomp, and am now happily leaning up on 2,000 calories a day but with carefully set macros.
That I could set an effective nutrition and exercise programme myself.
Turns out I can't. I need the outside input of a professional who can look at my body and my diet objectively, and suggest a way forward that wasn't the one I would naturally have picked. Admitting that I didn't know my body as well as I should was hard, and handing control over to someone else was scary, but OMG the results have been SO worth it.2 -
I used to believe I was "too busy." Too busy to exercise. Too busy to meal plan/prep. Too busy to weigh foods. Now I work out 5 times a week for at least 1.5 hours, plan and prep my meals every day/week, and weigh everything. And I'm no more busy now than I was before. Huh. Weird.2
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I've always thought that around 1200 calories per day, or even less and never eating back exercise calories was the best way to lose weight. Couldn't stick with it ever. Would do it for awhile, then start feeling sick all the time and have to quit. I'm over 200 lbs and active. So, it turns out that for me, 2300 calories per day IS a 1000 calorie deficit. Happily losing around 1.5-2 lbs per week eating 2300 calories per day. Now it's something I can actually stick with. 1200 calories are for older people, shorter people and people losing those 'last 10 lbs' not for people with significant weight to lose.7
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I used to think weight loss was primarily exercise and secondarily eating "diet foods" like salads. I thought I could never part with my favorite junk food and that I'd rather live a short life eating what I like than live a long life eating rabbit food and exercising. Learning what CICO is was a real eye opener.3
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