Am I obsessed?
 

About a year ago, I started exercising and went from 189 down to 174 but fell off the wagon and ballooned up to 213 and felt horrible.

So I decided about 3 weeks ago to get serious about losing weight.
I started off by signing up for the gym again, and buying the "eat this not that" book so I could make better decisions while eating out.

Well since then, I've cut out fast food completely, I go to the gym regularly, and I eat A LOT healthier.

This is the part where some friends think I'm obsessed. I write down everything that I eat everyday and the calories. Then I take the total and write it on my calendar, so I can keep track of how I'm doing, if I have to see it everyday, I feel like I'm more likely to stick with it.

I also went through and made goals for my weight at the end of every month for the same reason, I feel like if it's there where I can see it, I'm more likely not to fall off the wagon. So I have goals all the way through the end of the year, and I designated a day every week that I have to weigh myself and put it on the calendar.

So does it seem like I'm obsessed? I just feel like all these little things are helping me, so that what happened last year, doesn't happen again.

I think those things *can* be obsession, if you're addicted to doing them for their own sake, or as some kind of avoidance. On the other hand, calling them an obsession when you're using them as effective tools to reach an important goal - is probably sour grapes. Another possibility is misguided, but genuine, caring and concern.

AKT - you are being accountable and by the sounds of it, it's working well for you. I think sourgrapes is definitely a possibility. Losing weight and making healthy choices for your body is hard work! As long as you are still enjoying life and doing well at school/work/family stuff then I don't see it as being obsessive.

I got blamed for that when I lost weight awhile ago. I worked out, watched what I ate and made better choices when I went out. Alot of my 'friends' teased me - but they were just jealous of my good choices and that I was feeling more confident - it's an adjustment for them too.

Does anyone say an athlete is obsessed...an Olympian? Perhaps, but they are doing everything they can because they are passionate about it and want it for themselves. Nothing wrong with that!

Keep it going and do what works best for you!!! :hug:

I don't think you're obsessed either. If that is what works for you, then do it! If it starts affecting your life in a negative way then it may be an obsession, but that doesn't seem the case.

I do the same thing. I have done the same thing for about six months out of the last year that I have been doing WW. I think sometimes it is hard for friends to wrap their minds around another friend trying to make positive changes, in the way that it makes them rethink some of their bad habits or lifestyle choices.

Different things work for different people. I think if you have a detail-oriented, organized personality then what you are doing is a perfect fit for your personality- which will help you lose. If you are ONLY detail oriented about this and not in other parts of your life, it might bare a little more introspection and consideration as something that COULD become obsessive. Only you could say for sure.

I am only losing weight SLOWLY because I'm an ADD personality and keeping track of every little detail (daily calories) in a specific way doesn't work for me. I know I'd lose weight a lot faster if I did track everything that tightly but I have learned that it leads to me giving up because it's too 'time consuming'. Even so, I have weekly, monthly and 12 week goals that I set and work toward those. My point is that even my NON-Detail oriented self requires some sort of framework or I'll never get where I'm going either.

If it's working for you, keep doing it. Everyone has to find their own personal 'right recipe' to make it work.

it can be considered obsess if you frustrated when u mis-do it 1-2 times per month for example. If it's just a habit and what you think is working for you so you do it, then no you're not obsess.

I dont think it's an obsession, I think you are doing things in the right way. Probabily your friends say so because it's not them to have to lose weight and they may miss your company at the fast food when they go, but to me you are just tracking your progress ad I think you are also doing fine, writing things down you also see mistakes if and when they happen, and find solutions to them.

I don't think you sound like you're obsessed. It sounds to me like you're taking accountability for your actions, and taking your weight loss seriously. It can get obsessive. I do think that it's good to not be 100% restrictive, and maybe that's where your friends are thinking that this is obsession.

I have a question: what are your friends like? Are the healthy or not? I think that sometimes friends that are unhealthy can get uncomfortable when one of their friends starts making a drastic change like this. Just don't let your friends talk down to you about it and convince you somehow to revert back to your old days. That happened to me and I wish I hadn't listened to them.

It sounds like you've got a great plan, but beware of getting burnt out, which is why it's a good idea to allow yourself a little bit of wiggle room for cheats.

If it's an obsession, colour me obsessed!

The only difference in what I do is that I log my foods into software - I'm migrating from DietPower to sparkpeople at the moment, so I don't make notes while I'm out, I just make very, very cautious choices; and I don't tell anybody either, I don't like sharing weightloss with anyone in the world outside blogs.
I also set lots of small goals, usually not time-related but I mark it an achievement when I get to the next 10 of pounds, when I've lost 10%, when I get to the next stone, when I've lost a stone, and so on.

I take the point that it Can become obsessive but for me it's just accountability. I drifted into being fat, I don't think drifting into being thin would work.

Thanks you guys, I think it might be sour grapes. I don't hang out with many of my friends anymore because they eat so poorly, and usually when I'm around them I do it too, so I don't want to get back into old habits. So its probably just a jealousy thing. One friend in particular will try and do things like eat chocolate pie in front of me on purpose, so I will continue to avoid her until I'm a little stronger lol.

I would way rather record everything on software, but I don't have my own computer yet so I really cant.

Also, I do have a little wiggle room, I guess you could call it. I might go out with my family or a friend (I do have one who eats healthy :P) But I will try and go somewhere that has healthier choices. I just try and limit it to once a week or every two weeks.

This whole last week I had been wanting Ice cream so this last weekend my friend and I stopped at a pinkberry, I only got a small and put fruit on it, but it was just as satisfying as the real thing. :)

I don't think you are obsessed. Also, I don't think it's necessarily jealousy from your friends, although that is a possibility. More likely, I think it's just misunderstanding.

I log everything that I eat - literally everything. I never eat ready meals and always cook proper meals for myself, so that means that every single ingredient is counted. I also weigh every morning, and log my weight into a spreadsheet, along with measurements that I take from seven areas of my body, every fortnight.

If I hadn't ever needed or wanted to lose weight, and thus hadn't thought about how people might achieve weight loss, I would probably think my behaviour sounded very strange. If a friend was doing anything like the above, I would probably feel a bit concerned - it does seem quite extreme. These feelings would be due to nothing but my lack of understanding, and my realising that this is "different" to the way most people eat. I think if you explained to a tolerant friend, in detail, why you are doing what you are doing, they would understand and cease to think your behaviour obsessive. Obviously, if their behaviour is motivated by other things (like jealousy), this may not be the case.

Perhaps what we do sounds obsessive, but to me, the word "obsession" has connotations with uncontrolled, unhealthy and compulsive behaviour, something that I can't help myself from doing. My strict logging of food, exercise, weight and body measurements, to me, feels like the complete opposite of that. I have a goal - weight loss - and I won't leave it to chance. I take control of it in this way, and it's worked really well for me so far. Through weight loss, I have developed a fantastic relationship with food, I don't ban anything from my diet, and if I eat fattening or high-calorie foods for a day or two and stall my weight loss for a few days, it's no bother to me. I don't consider anything a "cheat" or "off plan". What I'm doing is long term, and I've personally found that this approach (whether or not it seems "obsessive" to people unfamiliar with deliberate weight loss) works really well for me.

My understanding is that people who track their food intake have a much higher success rate than those who don't.