Being Too Hard on Myself (Anyone Else Do This?)

Weight loss should be a slow process. The less you have to lose, the slower it will be. You want your weight loss to happen at a reasonable pace, and if you're in doubt about what a reasonable pace is, slower is better unless your doctor says otherwise. Slower weight loss helps prevent undereating, and is easier for most people to sustain long term.

You may not notice any difference in the mirror for a long time. That can happen because your body is burning fat from places that aren't obvious, or because it's burning fat proportionally from everywhere and making the change hard to see, or just because you look in the mirror at least daily and that makes gradual change hard to spot.

The scale will not go down every time you weigh yourself. Sometimes it may be the same for several weeks at a time, or even go up. That's normal and doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong. The less you have to lose, the longer you may go without seeing change on the scale.

Everyone's body weight fluctuates every day due to doing more exercise, eating differently, being a bit constipated, hormonal cycles, and more. That's why people in maintenance usually have a weight range of about 5 pounds rather than a single number that we must always see on the scale.

Understanding those things helps with the frustration.

If it helps, don't think about your goal as the total amount you want to lose. Think about it as the next 10 pounds, or next 25 pounds, or whatever makes sense for you.

Terytha wrote: »

I was just having a whine about this last night at my husband. I'm 33% of the way to my goal. A third. That's a lot! But it feels so... not a lot, a lot of the time. There's a long way to go still.

Still, every bit of progress is a step forward, and taking steps forward is more than I was doing this time last year. Stop comparing yourself to possible future you. Compare yourself to last month's you. You're doing great.

If we were completely content we probably would not be pushing ourselves to lose weight. Since we are discontent it shouldn't be a surprise that it boils out of the pot a little here and there. The secret, as you know, is to keep it in check and not make poor choices because of it.

Totally understand. We have to trust the process, but I am a little "known" for my tendency to be my own worst critic. That's not always a bad thing, as it pushes me to keep trying, raise the bar, and to accomplish things most people don't/won't, but it isn't always good, either, when you can't realize everything you've accomplished thus far.

Taking a moment to recognize everything I've accomplished at this point helps me gain some perspective when I'm spending too much time with the "negative" thoughts, and helps turn those thoughts into something more useful than to put myself down.