Quote:
Originally Posted by CobraSalad
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Probably I'm crazy for starting a diet when I just broke up with my boyfriend and am having to move from Miami back to Iowa and try to sort out my life but I can't allow myself to procrastinate any longer
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It may be a crazy time to start a "diet," but it's the perfect time to pamper and take care of yourself by eating the best tasting, healthiest food you can afford and find, getting in some fun activity (for exercise and stress relief), and make sure you're getting the emotional support and rest you need.
If you're going to "beat yourself up" for every less-than-perfectly-on-plan bite, for losing slower than you hope to, for seeing stalls on the scale, for exercising less often or less intensely than you feel you should be, worrying that you should be doing more, or for not being perfect in any way... Then you probably don't want to start that now. You don't deserve or need the aggravation and stress.
However, if you're ready to pamper your wonderful self by choosing and eating the healthiest, highest quality food you can afford, and by choosing fun ways to use your body (exercising to challenge and reward yourself - not as punishment for overeating or for being overwieght), and by giving your body the rest it needs... then there is no better time to start than right this very minute.
Remember that stress can slow metabolism, and can drastically increase appetite, so don't be too hard on yourself if the scale numbers aren't what you want to see.
I'd highly recommend TOPS (take off pounds sensibly). The group support and weight loss challenges and contests can be incredibly motivating, and best of all you can follow any food plan YOU choose. It also allows you to see what average weight loss really looks like (When the weight recorder announces the net loss or gain, divide that by the number of members and you'll see that it is NOT anything close to 2 lbs per week - so don't beat yourself up if YOU don't accomplish 2 lbs per week, every week.
Remember that even maintaining, the act of "not gaining" is actually a tremendous acheivement in-and-of itself, especially once you've lost so much as one pound to maintain. If you've lost one pound, even if you never lose another, you are always entitled to celebrate the awesomeness that is maintaining a weight loss.
This is important, because if you do not see maintenance (even from the beginning, even of only 1 pound) as EQUALLY IF NOT FAR MORE IMPORTANT than weight loss, when the weight loss slows it can be very tempting to give up (and Giving up at weight loss, inevitably means regaining the weight you've lost so far).
I've failed at every weight loss attempt I ever tried, before this one. And it's no coincidence that THIS TIME is the only time that I chose to value "not gaining" above even weight loss. Anyone can lose a few pounds, keeping them off is the hard part (and it's only hard, because we tend to go on a diet rollercoaster only worrying about weight loss, not weight maintenance).
When only losing matters, and all non-losses are seen as failure, then during a zero loss, the "not-gaining" doesn't feel like a success, it feels like the failure of "not losing." And if both losing and not-gaining are seen as equivalent failures, then hey, if you're going to fail anyway you should at least choose the option that lets you eat whatever you want. Or you might as well have a consolation-prize binge and "start fresh" tomorrow or Monday...
However, when "not gaining" is MORE important to you than losing, then you not only get to celebrate more often, you also are less likely to make any or all of the little and BIG mistakes that create obstacles to weight loss.
So go and take care of your wonderful self, and pamper yourself with healthy lifestyle choices. It's a whole lot more fun this way. It's not always fast or easy, but it's never the agonizing chore it is when you're not doing this to pamper yourself.
Probably not the best time to start
