Hello there. I've been lurking for a week or two, and thought maybe I would de-lurk today and join the fray.
I'm due with my first child on August 8th, and will be (hopefully) using the "breastfeeding effect" to help me jump start my weight loss. I've been working out the whole time, and my trainer has been gleefully telling me of all the evil stuff she has planned for me once we don't have to worry about, in her words, "cooking little boo boo" by getting my heart rate up too much. I love to exercise, so it should be fun. Depending on how much whoosh I get with the birth, I will have 100-120 pounds to lose.
The last few weeks as I gear up for this, I've really been doing some work in my head in regards to what I've done in the past, and what has been good or not so good about it. So the changes I've settled on so far are these:
1. I will not make up time goals for myself. I will not spend hours figuring out how much I would weigh on my birthday if I lost a) 1 pound per week; b) two pounds per week; c) X pounds per week.
2. I will focus on process, not outcome. This is difficult for me. I'm a golfer, and I struggle with it there, too. There is a book called
Fearless Golf which talks about being process oriented rather than goal oriented. You have to have goals, but then you have to let them go and just "be in the process." That is my goal (doh!
) - focus on how much better I feel physically and emotionally and not worry about the numbers on the scale.
3. I've been intrigued by the Super Foods thread, and I have both books on reserve at the library. I have really been wanting to change the content of my diet, and this may give me the structure and guidance I need. I'm also going to check out the Sonoma diet, just to see some of the similar principles in action.
4. I purchased a journal, and I'm using it to help tone down what I call the "chaos in my head." This came about because I realized that I have certain thought patterns that I go through when I'm leading up to a period of poor food choices. For me, I specifically start wanting to make cookie dough and potato soup. Those may not always be the things I fall down with, but the pattern of wanting them often preceeds the poor choices. So I'm going to work on recognizing patterns like this before they come up, and hopefully find more beneficial ways of dealing with the (usually) emotional causes behind it all. I'm hoping just the act of writing down my feelings and frustrations and happiness will help release them.
Thanks for letting me share. I think it was good for me to write this out. When/if I come up with more of my "pattern breakers" I hope you all don't mind me putting them out there.
-Sara