How do you feel when you track? - 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community

DollyR · 11-01-2010, 05:43 AM

I have to say I get so mad at the tracker and then at myself. I really want more than what the plans or calories counting will allow. How do I get out of this mind set. I just want it all. I know I can't have it now but it make me mad when I have to limit myself. I did get through the day today on plan. (WW)

Maybe it is not mad but frustrated with myself. I have some really great things going for me. I just got a job promotion I applied for, I have a very nice companion in my life right now......I guess I feel frustrated because I get out of control and am throwing so many good things away...especially my health....what the heck is wrong with me!!!!

rockinrobin · 11-01-2010, 07:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DollyR

I have to say I get so mad at the tracker and then at myself. I really want more than what the plans or calories counting will allow. How do I get out of this mind set. I just want it all. I know I can't have it now but it make me mad when I have to limit myself. I did get through the day today on plan. (WW)
!

How do you get out of the mindset? You change the mindset. You re-define what it is you want most.

Sounds like you've got a top-notch job and a top notch companion, why not a top notch you???

You applied for a promotion because you were looking to your future, you were looking to better that future. You didn't settle for the position that you were in. The same thing with your food. What you eat today (and tomorrow and next week) has everything to do with your future.

Get where I'm going with this?

Why settle for second best, when first best is well within your reach? Why settle for morbid obesity and all the troubles, worries, anxieties and pitfalls that go with it, when you can be a healthy weight with all the benefits, rewards, optimal health, added confidence and self worth and self respect, joy and happiness, peace and comfort that comes with it?

That being said, it will take time to get used to the new habits that you will have to institute to become that healthy weight optimal person. You've got to give it some time. There will be some uncomfortable moments that you will have to work through, that you will have to push through. There is a transition period. You will have to hang on tight till the rewards start surfacing, at that point, the *sacrifices* won't seem like much.

Also, make sure that you're eating filling, satiating foods so that you're not actually hungry. And foods that won't keep your cravings alive for the *bad* stuff. And please make sure those foods are delicious. If the healthy foods you are eating are yummy, makes it a lot easier to pass up on the *bad* stuff. Raise your standards. Require more from yourself. Don't settle for foods that just taste good, they should taste good and be good for you.

Bottom line is, change what you want. Don't feel as if you're deprived NOT eating certain foods and higher quantities, feel deprived of not having the best life possible. THAT is the real deprivation. Don't feel that you're missing out on some extra food, but that you're missing out on a better, trimmer, more energetic, active, healthier, optimal you.

KatMarie · 11-01-2010, 08:32 AM

It used to upset me when I had been on diets before, because dang it I wanted to eat what I wanted to and it wasn't fair I couldn't. I always deluded myself into thinking how nice it was to eat everything and anything I wanted, unlike those poor normal weight people who have to deny themselves. I thought I had control because I could eat anything and didn't care how big I was...in reality I was way out of control and slowly killing myself. I'm not exactly sure how or why my mindset changed. I guess I finally decided I didn't want to die young and that I wanted to be able to do something other than sit on my butt.

DollyR · 11-01-2010, 04:15 PM

I understand that feeling that you are killing yourself. I sometimes can't believe I go to the snack isle and go straight for the potato chips. I am not a sweets person so much as a snacks with salt and fat person. I love cheese and crackers, chips, olives and pepperoni or salami. Sometimes I make a plate of that as lunch. Weird right? I eat it and then I think....why the heck am I slowly doing this to myself. I am better than I was two weeks ago. I have moderated myself when I shop. I have changed the snacks I choose and tried to measure them. Didn't the tortise win the race?

DollyR · 11-01-2010, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rockinrobin

Why settle for second best, when first best is well within your reach? Why settle for morbid obesity and all the troubles, worries, anxieties and pitfalls that go with it, when you can be a healthy weight with all the benefits, rewards, optimal health, added confidence and self worth and self respect, joy and happiness, peace and comfort that comes with it?

Thanks Robin.....your posts are always inspiring and make me want to change. I wish there was a meeting here I could go to discuss with other people like me. The interaction and support really helps!

caryesings · 11-01-2010, 05:12 PM

I feel empowered by tracking. I know I'm doing exactly what I need to do to lose weight and gain overall health. I don't have to cross my fingers and hope the scale will reward me with a good number just because I THINK I did enough.

ChrissyBean · 11-01-2010, 05:51 PM

I don't track. I feel overwhelmed and icky if I track or count calories...so I don't!

Rosinante · 11-01-2010, 07:17 PM

If I don't track 'n' count, I just get fatter. Mine is quite a rigid cage - but it's working!

Ciao · 11-01-2010, 07:33 PM

I understand how you feel about getting
frustrated. I had lost 2 lbs last week, and then I
started my period and gained it back from bloating!

hhichick · 11-01-2010, 08:26 PM

I love tracking! I love the control that it gives me; it's the tool I need to get the results I want.

And I love, love, love not being fat.

rockinrobin · 11-01-2010, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hhichick

I love tracking! I love the control that it gives me; it's the tool I need to get the results I want.

And I love, love, love not being fat.

^^^This^^^

With the exception of having my children, tracking is the best thing I've ever done for myself. It is the only thing that could ever manage my food addiction. It is a teeny, tiny price to pay for me having the best, healthiest, most productive, joyous, peaceful life possible. Oh yes, and it's allowed me to have an incredible wardrobe too!

catherinef · 11-02-2010, 04:47 AM

There are plenty of things about this project that I've resented from time to time, as I've gone along, but oddly enough, I enjoy tracking, and have from the very start. I can't even imagine NOT tracking, at this point, it's such an ingrained habit.

For me, it's probably the single most useful tool I've got, and I'm grateful to have my tracking program. The last time I lost any significant amount of weight was before internet tracking programs were available, and I had to do it with pen and paper, and a calorie counting book, and THEN I resented it, because it was far more time consuming and cumbersome than just firing up my tracker and plugging the data in. This is so much easier, and 'forgetting' is much harder to do. I love it, and I know it's been hugely instrumental in my success.

DollyR · 11-02-2010, 06:53 AM

Thanks ladies....on a side note....I thought about your post Robin when I was considering going off plan today. I have to say I could hear your post in my head saying how I was depriving myself of a good life rather than depriving myself of food.

Two days on plan......363 to go....

rockinrobin · 11-02-2010, 07:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DollyR

Thanks ladies....on a side note....I thought about your post Robin when I was considering going off plan today. I have to say I could hear your post in my head saying how I was depriving myself of a good life rather than depriving myself of food.

Two days on plan......363 to go....

Atta girl!!

I am convinced that for whatever reason we started to abuse ourselves with food, *legitimate* or not, at some point it just becomes habit. And those habits CAN and MUST be broken. And yes, there will be some uncomfortable moments - initially - as the old habits die and the new ones become established.

I'm also convinced that folks make this process much harder than need be by *giving in* so darn easily. Push yourselves. Push. Work past that moment of wanting it sooo much. It WILL pass. Every time you *give in* you make it soooo much harder. First of all you don't let the new habits become ingrained in you and secondly, you re-enforce the old bad habits. You delay letting this BECOME habit and automatic and a part of you.

You delay the weight loss and the rewards. You delay the joy, the happiness, the fun. You delay getting to the sweet spot.

Push yourself. Keep going. Don't stop!! Push, push, push. Reach. Stretch. Strive. Grow. Prosper. Amaze yourself!!!

Rosinante · 11-02-2010, 11:02 AM

An afterthought: the one downside about tracking is that, so far, I can't blend it with intuitive eating.

For example, today I've had lunch out. I chose appropriately, I can make a very accurate estimate of my calories. I am pleasantly full, I've got a fairly busy afternoon and evening. By the time evening meal comes, all I really want is some of the delicious home-made lentil soup in the fridge.
So far so good - but I've entered it all in DietPower, and it comes to 1260 calories. My daily allowance is 1400. I am not and will not be hungry for the last 140 calories but I will likely eat them; not because I think 1 day eating under is going to kill me but because 'I'm entitled'.

If I have to choose between eating my entitlement, and getting pigfat again, then I choose eating my entitlement every time. What I'd rather choose, though, is learning to eat checks and balances on my own, not eating stuff because I can, because that's getting precious close to 'I deserve this/I need this', which is how I got here in ther first place.