I've been asking myself lately why I haven't given weight loss 110%, and I think I've discovered a reason. It could be because of the psychology degree I'm currently obtaining, or maybe I'm just finally being honest with myself.
Yes, exercise sucks until it doesn't anymore and healthy food isn't the greatest, but what I have realized that it's actually really easy to lose weight. It's not this mathetmatical formula you have to solve everyday, you just have to eat less (better) and exercise more. But why don't I do it?
I just found my mind wandering and I was thinking to myself, it really is easy to lose weight, but it's almost like, how can something so easy work? I think I'm afraid to see the results, because then I would have been proven wrong all the times I said weight loss was hard.
Yes, it takes discipline to say no to food and drinks that you've had your ENTIRE life, but it's just a word, a behavior, an action you commit once, but repeatedly. If I really wanted to do it, I would do it.
I don't like the person I am being overweight: tired, moody, irrational, ugly, angry. But why don't I change? I'm obviously not ready mentally. Now I just have to figure out how to be.
(Just a little rant/vent to myself that I had no clue where else to post. Forgive me if it's silly.)
I think there's sometimes a point where something in your mind just clicks and it really does become easier (even the no's). You finally realize 100% that no food is more important than a healthy and long future, so you just make it happen. Until the click happens, just fake it 'til you make it. Don't worry or think about past failures or current scale numbers because you have 0.0 control over it (it was what it was and is what it is).
Obviously you're making a choice to move forward with a healthy lifestyle and that puts you in complete control of your future weight. So embrace the choice you've made and concentrate on being 100% OP.
I don't think your post is silly at all. It's actually very insightful and thought provoking. However, I have to say that I don't feel as you do. For me, weight loss is very hard. I feel that I'm addicted to food. So, someone could say that not drinking alcohol is easy. Just stay away from it....which would be easy for me to do. However, an alcoholic wouldn't feel the same way. Sure, the concept is simple. But, the execution isn't. My entire relationship with food is not good. For example, I can't handle having variety. I need to eat the same thing every day. Anytime I veer off course, I'm at risk of a binge. Once I binge, I might stop or it might continue for weeks or even months.
I really think it's wonderful that you're seeing this as an easy task. I hope I'm not putting doubt in your mind because that's not my intention at all. I just wanted to join you in thinking about the psychological aspects of weight loss. It makes sense that everyone who is overweight is that way for different reasons so it also makes sense that everyone's experience of losing weight could be very different.
Not silly. I get what you mean. I'm very amazed at how easy the mechanics of loss are.
But weight loss IS hard. The mental stuff is what makes it hard. Dismorphia, fear, lack of motivation, denial etc. These are the battles we fight every day.
Not silly. I get what you mean. I'm very amazed at how easy the mechanics of loss are.
But weight loss IS hard. The mental stuff is what makes it hard. Dismorphia, fear, lack of motivation, denial etc. These are the battles we fight every day.
I agree! It is both easy and ridiculously tough. It's not just the ease of denial and body dismorphia, the mental battles, but also the difficulty of building healthy habits and undoing unhealthy habits, while also challenging your underlying assumptions about whether or not the food you HAVE been eating is actually healthy. Then there's all the planning and being organized and figuring out what to do when you are EXHAUSTED and still need to eat, and when do you shoehorn exercise into a schedule that arleady feels impossibly overloaded, and everything after that.
So: both easy, RIDICULOUSLY easy, and very, very hard.
PS - I am a foodie and I think healthy food tastes good. It just requires a bit more work from me, but with the work I get BETTER tasting and more enjoyable food than I ate before, that also has helped me lose alot of weight.
But I like to cook. And if you don't like to cook you have to find a different path to a satisfying method.
I think, also, we tend to hear all these studies and think that there is ONE WAY TO DO THIS THING AND WE HAVE TO DO x or y or z. In fact, there are as many ways as there are people, and instead of - say - never eating after 8 p.m. (I often eat dinner at 8, and have another snack after dinner) - or whatever else Oprah and Dr. Oz are telling us to do - instead of all that, we have to find something that works for us, doesn't stress us out, and feels good and sustainable.
I think there is truth in that, but there are other things to consider. It's easy because eating right and working out are what builds muscle and burns fat. In theory, simple. But yes, once you add in the other things it becomes much harder. For an alcoholic, or drug user, they can sometimes relocate, cut people out of their lives, and most of what was in their face as temptation is gone. For an addiction to unhealthy foods, it's always there, and always going to be there. A trip to the grocery store, a quick dash into the gas station to pay, parties, shopping, driving down the road. Around each corner is another fast food place, another candy display, another friend offering you a cupcake at her party. You can't quit food cold turkey, just the bad food, but you still have to pass by it each day. Basically easy, wrapped up in so much difficulty.
When I did my 89 lb drop, I had that brain click. I lost all that weight in 9 months.
Since then, work stress has beaten me down and weight loss has become much more of a struggle. Over the last 9 months I've gained back 20 lbs and it seems much more work because I want to eat junk food. It's so obvious. Insane cravings at work and once I get home from work. These are the times I usually binge.
I'm working on dealing with that and getting back on the right track.
A recovering alcoholic chooses to not drink alcohol even though they are drinking other liquids. We have to choose to not eat the foods that cause us to go off plan and binge. So while I'm not saying it's easier, to me, it's still the same thing - you have to "just stay away" from the foods that cause you to lose control, just like a recovering alcoholic has to stay away from alcohol.
Of course, in either case, the tough part is actually doing it! And it's certainly true that there are more opportunities to be tempted by dangerous foods - just step into almost any office in America and someone's got candy or cookies or other treats on offer, or there is a vending machine close by. It's extremely unlikely that the same can be said for alcohol. The way I look at it, the reality is that I still control my choices and my actions, and even if I have to say no more frequently than an alcoholic might, I can still do that.
But yeah, it's hard. I have to fight to break the old habits, the old patterns, the desire to use food for comfort, and the fact that no matter how long I've been on a diet, I have personally never reached the point where those things didn't still taste good to me. No easy answers.
I loved all the replies on this thread. Nothing silly about it at all.
I used to not be able to diet for a day (i.e. Cut calories, snacks, soda, etc.). I thank God every day that he gave me the strength and resources to help myself. Cutting the calories and eating better has turned out to be the easy part this time, believe it or not. And really, something did just "click", that's the only way to explain it.
I agree with all of you. I am trying now to discern now if 50+ years of being an on/off binge eater/dieter has been ingrained in my psyche.
I am 62 years old and in Weight Watchers now.
When I believe I can lose weight via a healthy weight method/group therapy, I succeed. When I get off that path via a binge, little or big, I believe I am a binger and won't ever be successful. What causes that binge...is it my belief that is what I need to psychologically numb myself from life's troubles? or is it physical....some gene that causes me to be different?
Whatever it is I know I CAN control it...it takes planning and dedication and a change in my mindset. I really believe that the more I tell myself that I am capable of being a "normal" human being and eat healthy foods, I will heal myself.
At least that is where I am today. One day at a time, sometimes one minute at a time.
Weight loss is psychological.
And if you don't like to cook you have to find a different path to a satisfying method. 
