[thinvestor]

Hello everyone,
I'm totally new here... this is my first post on 3FC ever. I love that everyone is so warm and supportive of each other - something I haven't seen on other forums.

Recently I've been reading a lot of books about self-discipline and forming positive habits and was really curious about cognitive dissonance and what that exactly means and how it could apply to weight loss. It is defined as "holding two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time." And your mind tries to reduce the dissonance.

I read one article in particular where a man described a person who wants to lose weight. That same person is confronted with a pizza. He wants to lose weight. But he also wants pizza, which he knows will not help him lose weight, or even make him GAIN weight.

His mind will make up all kinds of justifications for eating the pizza like, "Oh, tomatoes are healthy so it's ok to have pizza." Or, "Forget dieting, what's the point? I NEED to EAT!" or "Our culture is so image and body obsessed...therefore eating pizza is more important than losing weight which is actually stupid and unhealthy anyway." - He is further justifying the pizza even though it goes directly against something he WANTS. Dude, THIS IS ME!!! I have done this a LOT in my life. But the thing is... that I truly want to change. I am changing my beliefs and attitudes about health and wellness and that is hard mental work! It is such a challenging mental journey. I'm starting to think that it's 95% mental and only 5% physical. But I'm doing it... one pound at a time. Who wants to join me? I know we can do this together. My plan is moderate calorie restriction (using the myfitnesspal app) and daily exercise - starting with 1 hour and working my way up to 2. I enjoy cardio activities like spinning and the elliptical trainer. I want to reach my weight loss goal and then train for and run a marathon.

[happybug]

Lol, I went through a similar scenario tonight. I'd already eaten my portion of cake but I just needed another piece. I finally ate it, but now I have to find another one and a half points to cover it, but yes, I did try to justify it in my mind, LOL. What's the answer?

[thinvestor]

Hi happybug! Are you following a WW plan then? I'm assuming that's the only plan that tracks points, but Australia might be different! I'm not sure of the answer and am trying to figure that out myself... I know that a friend of mine asks herself a question when she's tempted: "How is that a problem?" And then keep asking it over and over with every following statement and eventually she doesn't want to cheat. I will ask that question when I'm faced with cognitive dissonance this week and see how it goes.

(For example, "I want pizza but I want to lose weight?" How is that a problem? "Well, if I have the pizza right now, I'll be over my calories and won't lose weight today." How is that a problem? "It puts me further away from my goal." How is that a problem? "I want to lose the weight in six months." etc...)

[thinvestor]

Another day, another challenge… I'm just going to make a point of walking outside today.