Saturday, June 14, 2008

Dieting is a mind game

I am convinced that 98% of weight loss happens in the mind. If you are not mentally ready to diet you absolutely wont be able to do it. On the same note it's amazing how my mind set for the day determines my food intake. If I'm feeling bloated I get scared and think I've gained everything back again. If I'm feeling a little thinner then usual I jump on the scale in the morning to see if it reflects what I feel. That is just ridiculous.

Ive came to a calmer place in my diet journey. I've basically been hovering at this same weight since the first of May. Well that's not entirely true. I am about five pounds lighter but it feels like its the same because in the last 6 weeks Ive seen the weights of the first of May. That make sit feel like I'm losing the same thing over and over. The truth is the scale is edging down.

I ask myself if I'm okay with it not going faster. I must be. If it weren't okay with me wouldn't I speed up the process? I could eat just fruits and veggies and lose much faster. But I don't. Why? I think I've sorta resigned myself to this being a long process and Im deathly afraid of doing something that I cant sustain for life. If I lose this weight with diet pills or eating cabbage soup or walking 3 hours a day I will gain it all back when I quit whatever it is I'm doing. I am determined to develop a lifestyle that supports the lifestyle I live now and still take off the weight.

The funny thing is that my diet is naturally gravitating to unprocessed foods because of the calorie content of those foods. Now granted, I'm in a better position than most to stay away from processed foods since I ate very little to begin with. But that didn't keep me from processing my own foods like baking cookies and cakes and pies and cinnamon rolls and all things lovely and fatty.

My new love is laughing cow cheese melted into hummus. Oh my word! I take just one wedge of the cheese and melt it into 1 T of hummus.If you are counting calories that's actually less calories then 2 T of hummus alone. Then I dip my veggies into its cheesy goodness all for 55 calories! If you buy the roasted pepper hummus to use with the cheese it tastes just like it's fattier cousin the nacho bean dip! Yum!

Well the weekend is here and that's always a hard diet time. But I shall prevail. I'm not turning back. I will come through this weekend with a loss.

7 comments:

  1. This is so true! For the last while i'm up then i'm down and so on and so on. Hopefully blogging is going to help me stay accountable. I've decided to be truthful about the good, the bad and the very nasty :) Great blog by the way!!

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  2. Oh it's definitely all in the head a lot of the time.

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  3. About three years ago my husband and I did Adkins. You are so true that it has to get in your mind. I did so good. I went on a retreat with 6 friends. We drove over on Friday and fasted for supper through supper the next night. We broke the fast by going to a steak place that put delicious yeast rolls on the table. I was so into the diet that I didn't even eat the bread and everyone was telling me to do it. I ate steak, salad and broccoli which were on the diet. Another meeting was later that week and we went to Ruby Tuesday and I got the low carb cheesecake. I ate 3 bites and was satisfied. She asked if I wanted a doggie bag and I said no. I let them throw it away! Big event. Frugal me let good food go in the garbage. I just can't seem to get my mind in the right place again. I think we should all take photos of us in bikinis and mail them to you and you keep them sealed unless we don't lose weight. Then, if we don't lose weight you post the photos. I would really work then!

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  4. Oh my word!! Ive heard of people doing exactly that! I dont own a bikini. Do other fat people? LOL

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  5. I didn't even like wearing a bikini when I could have pulled it off. Count me out on that one!

    Yep, it's a head game. I was just about ready to throw in the towel. During the week we didn't have weigh-in I had gained several pounds. Then I weighed my self and was back down to my previous weight this past Thursday. I think that saved my diet. I just don't have the time to go to Spark People to log everything in. Maybe I should just start a journal. Of course, I probably don't have the time for that either.

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  6. It's definitely a mind game, but don't do anything drastic that you're not willing to do for the rest of your life. Slow and steady...

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  7. Great post! You're only 2% off... TB summed it up perfectly. If you approach weight-loss with temporary solutions, your results will be temporary.

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Thank you for taking the time to encourage me on my journey! Your comment is appreciated!