MyWeightLossForLife.com

Archive for the ‘positive outlook’ Category

Everyone has experienced a plateau when losing weight. No matter what you do, not a single pound will come off. I’d like you to change the way you think about plateaus. Not only are they not necessarily a bad thing, weight loss plateaus can actually be a good thing.I’m speaking from my own weight loss experience, and I’d be curious to know if you’ve experienced something similar.

I tend to lose weight in bursts, not steadily. For example, I’ve recently lost 8 pounds, but that hasn’t been spread evenly over the last two months. I lost five or six pounds pretty quickly, and then the remainder over the next month. For the last three weeks, I’ve been stuck. I know how frustrating it can be to do everything “right” and still not see any results. There are more positive ways to look at the situation.

First of all, you’re not gaining.

If you’re anything like me, it’s not uncommon to lose weight and see it immediately come back on. At least when you hit a plateau, that isn’t happening.

A plateau can help reset your “normal” weight.

I’m speaking strictly from personal experience, but I think that plateaus are your body’s way of resetting your setpoint. That is, your body learns to recognize a new, lower weight, as normal. Have you noticed that when you gain weight, you tend to quickly bounce right back to where you were when you started? Why is that? I think it’s simply that your body is used to being that weight. If you can get your body accustomed to a new, lower weight, then that’s definitely a positive, don’t you think?

Positive attitude and actions

If you focus on not losing weight, then you’re likely to just increase your level of frustration, which in turn ups your chances for failure. Instead, focus on the positive things the plateau can do for your body. Given time and continued persistence, you’ll break through the plateau and keep on losing.

When was the last time you bought something new to wear?

Did you wear makeup today?

Did you do your hair?

Did you take any time for yourself today?

Of course, I’m speaking from a woman’s perspective, but I think men are guilty of this as well, even if not to the same extent. Sometimes I tend to put off doing things for myself, like buying clothes or makeup, until I’ve lost weight.

Why on earth do we do that?

Make a resolution today, right now, to do something nice for yourself. Do you need some new clothes? When was the last time you got a haircut? Take the time to look your best now; there’s no need to wait to look good. You’ll find that you feel a lot better about yourself when you do.

Yes, I’m taking my own advice. I did some shopping this weekend.

Motivation is a funny thing. You may want a healthier lifestyle, to lose weight, manage a health problem, get in shape, or simply look better. All of those are great reasons to eat right and exercise, but they can often be lousy motivators.

You’re having dinner out at a nice restaurant. Which is likely to motivate you more, a desire to get in shape, or the dessert menu? Will you be able to resist the bread bowl, knowing that you may not be able to get in those jeans you want to buy? You may be weeks from fitting in those jeans, and getting in shape is a pretty abstract goal. Will that slice of turtle cheesecake really blow it?

Sometimes it’s difficult to make the small, day-to-day choices that enable you to achieve your goals.

So, how do you motivate yourself to make the right decisions, even when your ultimate goal seems far away?

The short answer is, it’s tough. It’s why so many people struggle to lose weight, eat right, exercise, and take care of their health in general. It’s hard to resist temptation that’s right in front of you in favor of a reward that’s far off.

I fall to temptation just like everyone else, but I do have some tricks I use to help me stay motivated.

1. Envision the end result. I don’t mean the ultimate goal of being a size 10 or losing 100 pounds. I mean imagine the immediate end result. How will you feel on the drive home knowing you resisted dessert? How will you feel if you eat it? If you really take the time to imagine and compare the two, you can often offset the temptation when you think about the regret you’ll feel for succumbing.
2. Buddy up. Losing weight with my husband has really helped us both. If I order something I shouldn’t, I know I’m tempting him to eat something he really ought not to have. If I don’t feel like exercising, he reminds me that we promised to “make” each other do it.
3. Look at past successes. Think about the last time you dropped a few pounds, or the last time you tried something on and it was too big. It felt pretty good, didn’t it? Recall all the good choices you made to achieve that.
4. Remember past failures. What caused you to stop your latest exercise routine, or start eating junk food again? Often, those types of changes creep up on you. Maybe you start skipping your exercise, and in a few weeks, you’re hardly exercising at all. Remember that the next time you want to skip it again!
5. Reward yourself. Give yourself a reason to do the right thing. If you skip dessert, you’ll also skip the housework when you get home. If you exercise, you’ll go to the bookstore and buy the latest novel you’ve been wanting. It may be a bribe, but that’s okay.

It’s not easy to consistently do what’s right for your body. First, accept that you’ll give in to temptation sometimes, but don’t let that discourage you. Keep working at it, and try to make those times when you do succumb fewer and less frequent.

When was the last time you told yourself you’d have just one more cookie, since you had such a bad day? Or maybe you went through the drive through on the way home to treat yourself because you were exhausted. Whatever the reason, do you use food as a reward?

Food is not a reward

Whether it’s a relatively recent development or something you’ve been doing since childhood, it’s important to re-train yourself to recognize that food is not a reward.

Food is food, nothing else.

I think sometimes we get caught up in the “deserving” mentality. I had a hard day, so I deserve the ice cream. My boss yelled at me, so I deserve to not have to cook tonight. The first step, I think, is to realize those statements are partly true. You had a tough day, and you do deserve to be rewarded, even pampered. Of course you deserve some special treatment to help get over the rough day you’ve had.

But food isn’t a real reward. Yes, you may feel better temporarily, but don’t you feel worse after bingeing? Won’t you feel bad after eating that ice cream, cookie, hamburger, or whatever you chose? Instead, choose a reward that will make you feel good about yourself. Give yourself time to do something you enjoy, or take some time out to really pamper yourself. Think of all the things that you want to do and don’t have enough time for. Now’s your chance to give yourself a chance to take the time for them.

Food as punishment

If anything is worse than using food as a reward, I think it’s using food as punishment. Maybe you didn’t work out, so you’re skipping dinner. Or you ate a big lunch, so you’re allowing yourself only water and salad. Again, food isn’t a reward or a punishment, just food. If you can think of food as that, just fuel your body needs, you can go a long way to giving up your unhealthy eating habits.

Patterns often start as children

Whether you were sent to bed without supper or treated to ice cream as a reward for good grades, you may have been taught since childhood to see food as a reward or punishment. It’s terribly difficult to change your outlook, but the first step is to be aware of your perspective. When you’re aware of what you’re doing, you can start to take steps to change.

How are you doing with the habits we’ve tried out? Have you been able to stick with any of them?

Here’s how I’m doing….

I’m still doing pretty well with skipping seconds. I probably eat a second helping no more than once a week, if that. I’m really pleased about that.

I don’t head for junk food in the afternoons at work. I used to be in the habit of getting something from the vending machine, and I’ve stopped doing that. However, I’m still likely to munch on junk food in the evenings, even though I don’t do that as often as I used to.

I need to work on eating more fruits and vegetables, and on drinking more water, but I’m concentrating on the positive changes I have made! I believe focusing on what you have accomplished is important to staying motivated, so tell me what positive changes you’ve made in the comments.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes us fat, and what makes us STAY fat, and here’s one of my theories.

We stay fat because we’re so used to thinking of ourselves as fat. I know I do. I think of myself as fat, as needing to lose weight. So, I’m fat, and I need to lose weight. Needing to lose weight is as much a part of my identity as having brown hair, being a woman or being short is. It’s part of who I am.

How in the world can we change that? As long as I think about myself as a fat person, I’ll think, act, and EAT, like that in all likelihood. So, step one is to start thinking like a thin person. Begin to act like a thin person. How do you do that?

1. Thin people don’t obsess over every bite. They don’t count calories, weigh food, etc.
2. Thin people don’t eat when they’re not hungry.
3. Thin people don’t overeat. They quite when they’re no longer hungry, not when they’re full. Big difference!
4. For thin people. food is food, not comfort, not entertainment. Just food.

Think about these. If you can start to think about yourself as thin, then you can start to ACT thin, and then you can start to see some changes.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about feeling positive about myself and how that affects how well I do with my eating and exercise. (Note I didn’t say diet.) I believe a diet is temporary but making small changes isn’t.

I am very much an emotional eater. Happy? Celebrate by eating out. Upset? Comfort myself with something sweet. Bored? Salty junk food. Tired? Sugary energy fix.

You get the pattern.

What I’ve also realized is that when I feel good about myself, and what I’m doing, I tend to stick with my healthy eating plans much better. Afternoons are prime snack times for me because (more…)