The Mental/Emotional Part of Loosing Weight

BrownSugar174
BrownSugar174 Posts: 311 Member
edited November 2019 in Introduce Yourself
What plan do you have to handle the mental/emotional part of loosing weight? We all want to be physically healthy but how do we tackle the mental/emotional part of loosing the weight and keeping the weight off?

Replies

  • GlobeYack
    GlobeYack Posts: 42 Member
    Erm, it's hard for me this one due to personal circumstances, one of which I don't like to admit but I just got my amazon echo (gen 3) today from the Black Friday sale on Amazon and I must say, it's very helpful. I'm enjoying listening to the sounds of the forest and asking Alexa to play relaxing music.

    Before that, I didn't really relax. My life has been rather chaotic over the years and comfort eating is something I've always been partial to. I'd try to relax by watching TV and playing relaxing games on my phone but other than that, nothing really helpful as such.

    What about yourself?
  • skinnybreeches165
    skinnybreeches165 Posts: 3 Member
    I was literally just looking up articles about this. Im scared to lose weight....isnt that stupid? Ive realized it in the past year, even though i have been able to lose about 15 lbs, but now gained back about half.why would i be scared? I have to dig deep to figure thus this out. I can picture in my mind how i want to look, but will i let myself get there?
  • BrownSugar174
    BrownSugar174 Posts: 311 Member
    GlobeYack wrote: »
    What about yourself?

    Each day God sees fit to open my eyes I ask myself why am I not accepting of this gift. With respect to my health I admit that I have taken for granted this breath of life. Because I was constantly told as a child that I would never do anything or be anything...I’ve found that those words creep back into my psyche when I start to see success in my weight loss journey.

    I am a happily married retired mother of a beautiful 21 year old about to graduate from college. Sixteen years ago I did Weight Watchers and lost 25 pounds...I gained 50 pounds back. Since I retired on 2/2018 I’ve gone from 288 to 244 (I’ve lost 5 pounds after being on MFP for 4 weeks). Yesterday I posted this because I could feel those feelings creeping back in. I want to believe that I deserve to be healthy...to love myself as much as God and my family does. It seems to be a constant conversation with myself..and my God.


  • BrownSugar174
    BrownSugar174 Posts: 311 Member

    skinnybreeches165 wrote: »
    One of the things I’m also trying to focus on is getting off blood pressure medication. I think if I focus on monitoring my blood pressure and working to get it down (which will result from eating better and working out) it will give me a feeling of accomplishment that I won’t want to give back.
  • skinnybreeches165
    skinnybreeches165 Posts: 3 Member
    Definitely having a goal helps!
  • ReenieHJ
    ReenieHJ Posts: 9,724 Member
    What about starting a gratitude journal? Or even just throwing slips of paper into a jar, writing down your immediate thoughts of what you're grateful for. Find a cause that is within your interests, to donate time or items to. Helping others always helps the giver too.
    I have a hard time conquering negative self talk so really have to be mindful of that. :( Whenever I find myself cursing or sputtering about me being stupid, etc., I immediately change it into positivity. I find a positive mantra, say if I truly do NOT want to do my walking for the day; I'll say something like 'I CAN do this' 'I'll get started and see how it goes'. This a.m. I told myself I'd do just 15 minutes because that passes quickly, but when I realized I was there, I kept telling myself ok, 5 more minutes. I ended up with 30 minutes and hopefully will sneak in another session later. I think so much is what we tell ourselves and believe.
    Good luck staying motivated and determined!!!
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,740 Member
    For me there had to be a shift in the way I saw myself. I was used to being a certain size. I was comfortable being the big girl, the plus-sized woman, etc. I didn't mind it...truly. But then I gained more, and I started to encounter problems in life like not fitting into some chairs/booths, getting short of breath when climbing stairs, etc. That threw me for a loop. You may not think it would be that big of a deal for a lady who was always around 260-270 lb for YEARS to suddenly be struggling so much at 300 lb but for me it was a BIG deal and a big problem.

    So I had to make a change. And when I did, I committed to working toward my old self. The 260 lb person who was active & happy, even if still morbidly obese. That was phase 1 for me and it took a few years but I got there and I felt better. More like myself.

    Then it was time for another shift. I'd achieved phase 1. But I went through a ton in my personal life and had sort of a mid-life crisis at 35 (in a good way). I was sick of feeling like my healthy choices in eating & exercising were not providing results. I was kind of angry about it actually. I was in a new happy relationship and feeling pretty positive about my life but I was like, "Really, I eat healthy and walk miles and I'm still this size?!" so it was time for facing up to the numbers on the scale and the number of calories I was consuming. I started using MFP and I learned a TON and some of it was very surprising...little stuff like the calories I drank in milk, lattes, juice. It gave me a boost and I lost the rest of the weight. But I had to be READY mentally for this. I was ready to see myself smaller and ready to be someone a little different than I'd always been. I think that was a VERY big part of it.

    I've been maintaining for almost 6 years at a healthy weight (still like 15 lb overweight according to "the charts" but my doctor feels otherwise). I think back to when I was at my heaviest weight a decade ago and I know I was not READY at that time to lose well over 100 lb. I just wasn't. For me it had to go in phases.

    Sorry I've written so much & hope it makes sense, somehow.

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