IanH
Silver Member
Wrote this some months ago - but thought it may be of help to some here...
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I oft times see online, or hear, people say things like "compared to your loss, my mere *stone pales into insignificance" or "I only lost 3.5lb and was expecting more" or words to those kind of effect.
Making comparisions or statements liek that are only excercises in futility and could be seriously damaging to ones weight-management efforts. It truly doesn't matter if you have 7lb, 2st, 3st, 6st, 9st, or 15st to loose, we are all going through the same journey together. It's an indvidual journey though - and although we may stand side-by-side and support and help each other - everyones journey is neverless unique to them - we all have our aims; we all have our goals; we all have our reasons for undertaking the journey; and we all have our own expectations.
Comparing your own weightloss against someone else in group (or online) is pointless - we all have our individual journies to make, and we all have our individual quirks, and we are all going to loose at a different rate compared to anyone else standing next to us in these journies.
I'd much rather think of it as "I've lost *lb this week" as opposed to "I lost *lb but they lost more and I want those kind of losses". Those kind of losses are possible, and absolutely nothing wrong with aiming for them - but take the pressure of ourselves - aim for them, but providing we get a loss in that week, be happy. Providing we've done our best that week, if we don't quite hit the mark, be happy that you've done what you can and gotten a good result.
I once had a target weight I wanted to hit by a certain time - two weigh-in's before - it was very obvious that I wasn't going to get there - I needed 5lb off in that week to hit the target. I could have sat down and planned a weekend of minimal food, no syns, lots of excercise and be very disappointed when I didn't get that 5lb, or I could sit down, have a good think and realistically not expect a 5lb loss in a week at that stage of my weight loss journey (I had lost just over 13st at the time, and wanted to be down to 13st7.5lb), and take the pressure off myself, and just aim for a loss, be 100% on plan, use what syns I wanted to, and just relax, knowing I've done my best. I got a loss that next weigh in - much to my surprise - it was the 5lb I was looking for. But even if it had been 2lb - I'd have been happy (maybe not so happy as i was with the 5lb) but i didn't put the pressure on myself to get there, i didn't have false expectation levels to be dashed if i didn't make it, and the consquent disappointment from that.
There's a saying that's favourite amongst consultants that sums up the above perfectly - "Reach for the moon, set your standards high, if you dont acheive what you went out for then it really doesn't matter BUT you will know you tried your best and you can still grab a star on the way down."
The only expectations to meet though - are your own. Be realistic but aim high and if you don't succed totally in your aim - then be happy with where you do land.
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I oft times see online, or hear, people say things like "compared to your loss, my mere *stone pales into insignificance" or "I only lost 3.5lb and was expecting more" or words to those kind of effect.
Making comparisions or statements liek that are only excercises in futility and could be seriously damaging to ones weight-management efforts. It truly doesn't matter if you have 7lb, 2st, 3st, 6st, 9st, or 15st to loose, we are all going through the same journey together. It's an indvidual journey though - and although we may stand side-by-side and support and help each other - everyones journey is neverless unique to them - we all have our aims; we all have our goals; we all have our reasons for undertaking the journey; and we all have our own expectations.
Comparing your own weightloss against someone else in group (or online) is pointless - we all have our individual journies to make, and we all have our individual quirks, and we are all going to loose at a different rate compared to anyone else standing next to us in these journies.
I'd much rather think of it as "I've lost *lb this week" as opposed to "I lost *lb but they lost more and I want those kind of losses". Those kind of losses are possible, and absolutely nothing wrong with aiming for them - but take the pressure of ourselves - aim for them, but providing we get a loss in that week, be happy. Providing we've done our best that week, if we don't quite hit the mark, be happy that you've done what you can and gotten a good result.
I once had a target weight I wanted to hit by a certain time - two weigh-in's before - it was very obvious that I wasn't going to get there - I needed 5lb off in that week to hit the target. I could have sat down and planned a weekend of minimal food, no syns, lots of excercise and be very disappointed when I didn't get that 5lb, or I could sit down, have a good think and realistically not expect a 5lb loss in a week at that stage of my weight loss journey (I had lost just over 13st at the time, and wanted to be down to 13st7.5lb), and take the pressure off myself, and just aim for a loss, be 100% on plan, use what syns I wanted to, and just relax, knowing I've done my best. I got a loss that next weigh in - much to my surprise - it was the 5lb I was looking for. But even if it had been 2lb - I'd have been happy (maybe not so happy as i was with the 5lb) but i didn't put the pressure on myself to get there, i didn't have false expectation levels to be dashed if i didn't make it, and the consquent disappointment from that.
There's a saying that's favourite amongst consultants that sums up the above perfectly - "Reach for the moon, set your standards high, if you dont acheive what you went out for then it really doesn't matter BUT you will know you tried your best and you can still grab a star on the way down."
The only expectations to meet though - are your own. Be realistic but aim high and if you don't succed totally in your aim - then be happy with where you do land.