jayjay-willpower
New Member
Lily said:Dieting to lose weight - it's a funny thing. After more years than I care to remember trying different diets, it seems to me that in order to be successful, you have to want the weight loss more than you want anything else in the world.
You also have to be more selfish than you've ever been before. Other people will want you to eat for all sorts of what they think are good reasons. You'll want to eat too and if you're put into a position where there's a lot of pressure on you, you'll cave if at that very moment, weight loss isn't your absolute priority.
Doing Cambridge can be both the most difficult and most easy diet in the world, sometimes at the same time.It's easy in that when you're in 'the zone', you know exactly what you can have and what you can't have. It's black and white.
It's often when you try to bend the rules that you come unstuck. You think, "I'll have a bit of chicken, that won't hurt." But then you find you're still hungry and there's no chicken left. "I'll eat that ham then," you think. "That won't do much harm. There aren't many carbs in it. I'll stay in ketosis."
And then, something weird can happen. A little voice in your head starts nagging at you that you've 'cheated'. The little voice gets louder and louder, especially when you realise that the chicken and the ham together might have kept you in ketosis but you've just eaten 395 calories more than you meant to - and worse still, you're still hungry. If you're really unlucky, this is the point when your "What the hell!" chip switches on and before you know it, your head's in the fridge and you start on an eating rampage, eating stuff you don't even particularly like sometimes. It kind of feels a bit like you're punishing yourself. Which come to think of it, you kind of are. :sigh:
So... back to the start. Is losing weight your number one priority? If it isn't, is there something you need to deal with first, or deal with at the same time? I'm particularly guilty of dieting when there are lots of issues in my life but losing weight seems to be the only one I might be able to solve. All goes swimmingly for a week or three - I feel great cos I've lost a few pounds but then - KERPOW!! The other problems that I should have dealt with as well, like catching up with outstanding tasks at work, tidying my house, having a confrontation with someone (that's one I put off a lot!) rear their ugly heads.
And how do I deal with them?
You guessed it. I start eating to feel better. I feel better for approximately 5 minutes. And then I realise that now, not only have I not dealt with the issue that upset me, I've also lost control of my diet. Great... :cry:
I repeat this pattern over and over again. I might be wrong, but I think lots of us do. And then, I give myself a really hard time about falling off the wagon - when what I really should be doing is giving myself a hard time about not dealing with whatever it is that should've been my number one problem first.
Now... This could just be my particular set of problems. Your desire to lose weight might well be your number one issue. I suspect it isn't though, otherwise you'd simply power on through it. It might simply be that you're made to feel selfish for wanting to be on a strict diet when people around you want to go out for the evening. It could be something you don't even want to admit to yourself...
Add on top of all this that it really is hard to diet at this time of year. You've got parties and Christmas dinners to negotiate. You've done the calculations and realised that even if you have two 100% weeks you're only going to lose half a stone before Christmas when you really hoped you might be a stone and a half down by then. And then the other 'what the hell!' kicks in and tells you that there's no point in trying to stick to the plan now cos you aren't going to lose 'enough'.
That's where I am with it all right now, if I'm honest. I've really struggled to stay on track this week - in fact, I haven't had a single 100% day. I can be 100% all day then binge my socks off all evening.
But, from tomorrow, I'm drawing a line under it. I'm going to aim to be 100% next week so that I get back, more or less, to where I was before I fell off the wagon. I'll call it damage limitation, so that I don't put all of the weight I've lost since the beginning of November back on by New Year's Eve. And then next year, the New Year, I'm going for it. And not just weight loss. I'm going to work on being better organised at work and getting to bed at a decent time too so that I can cope.
For once, my New Year's Resolution isn't only going to be to 'lose weight'. I wonder how many years I've kidded myself that that's all I need to do?
So loveloveyy - no, it's not the end of the road. It's a fork in the road, that's all. Maybe even a roundabout. Just pick any direction other than back the way you came, okay?
That was the most motivational and inspirational message I've ever read.. It really has made me focus like I uses to... I do have days when I just simply get bored of eating the same things. But I just remind myself what's at the end nd how much I want this!.. Thnk u so much
