I honestly think one my biggest obstacles in weight loss has been my lack of patience.
After growing up a lot the last few years and giving up alcohol, cigarettes, drugs and a lot of the bad junk food I was eating I've finally learned how to cultivate a sense of peace and it helps when I find myself getting frantic, but some days I feel like it's going to take the rest of my life to even get out of the 200's!
I know that isn't the case, and I know that I'm losing healthily and slowly. I have a few mantras to get me through moments of impatience and one of them is reminding myself that it's better the weight come off slowly than not at all, and that every pound lost is a little victory on it's own.
It really helps. I was just wondering, how do you all find your patience when you feel yourselves getting antsy?
I suppose I'm most impatient during fall because I absolutely love scarves, hats, boots, gloves, fall jackets and other fall type clothes, but at the weight I'm at I feel like I have to wear certain things when I might rather wear something much cuter. I know that if I stick this out next fall I'll be wearing a smaller size, and hopefully another fall after that I'll be even smaller. So that's been helping too, I just try not to let myself throw a pity party. ;P
When I start feeling antsy about the weight loss taking what feels like forever, I go work out or go for a walk or something because then I feel like I'm doing something to speed it up This trick works sometimes, but I still find myself wishing I had a fast-forward button.
Yeah. I have started distracting myself when I can. If it's really on my brain I'll draw, or paint, or read or watch a tv show I really like. Or play music, which is the best distraction.
I suppose the best thing to do is just keep going, no matter what. When I take a 'break' my goal will be to maintain and when the scale goes up the best thing to do is keep pushing through.
In the past my impatience would've conquered me. No more! I am the master of my destiny! Muahahaha!
I'm not a very patient person... I admit this. However, I think that I have made a lot of progress over the past 6-7 months. I started working out 6 days a week in April of this year.... Eating low carb high protein 1300-1500 cal diet.... With no results so far. Literally I have fluctuated between 187 - 179 lbs since April and cannot get below 179 lbs, and actually was only at 179 on one day. SO.... I say this just to make a point that despite this horrible lack of weight loss, I have NOT stopped working out and eating clean. I continue going to the gym 5-6 days a week.... Do 2.5 hrs worth of intense cardio/weight lifting classes Tuesday's and an interval training class Fridays....
I admit it hat the fact that my body is giving me two middle fingers and saying "screw you" it really ticks me off.... I'm breaking the laws of thermodynamics over here - seriously!! But I'm still pushing forward. What helps me most is studying buddhism. I read a lot of books on mindfulness and meditation... It's so helpful! Anyone into spirituality should read some books by tich nhat Hahn... Amazing Buddhist monk and writer. Anyhow, thanks for listening
For me it helps to take the emphasis off of diet for weight loss and put it on overall health. That simple tweak in mindset has made a world of difference for me. In the past I would get obsessed with weight and go overboard in an unsustainable way. Focusing on health is great because when you hit those plateaus, it still stinks, but isn't nearly as disheartening when you know you are doing great things for yourself. Plus the harder I try to lose weight, the less successful I am longterm.
Also thinking of this being a change in lifestyle and not just a temporary diet is tremendously helpful. It makes the occasional slip-up or binge way less of a big deal when you are committed to living a healthy life. Then you also know its not temporary and its not just a means to an end that you have to endure. I don't do anything to lose weight that I'm not comfortable continuing for the rest of my life (minus the calorie deficit). It makes it all way more effortless and almost painless.
Having other simultaneous, but related, goals helps. For me strength training has helped so so much. When the scale isn't cooperating its nice to focus on strength gains and how much better my arms look and how awesome it is to be strong and feel powerful and amazing. It gets my butt in the gym when motivation to lose weight is waning. And working out makes me want to eat better and helps the fat come off a little faster (although it does cause some crazy fluctuations on the scale, but as long as you are prepared for that mentally its all good).
The weight will come off. But at the pace it wants to. This is a frustrating truth, but making peace with it is liberating. You have to let your body do whatever it is that it wants to do and just live your life.
Last edited by GardenBurglar; 09-16-2012 at 08:09 PM.
Reason: grammer
I have spent so much of my life feeling sorry for myself and hating my body but recently I've spent much more time appreciating it. Appreciating the things it can do. I might not be able to run but I can walk, and I can learn to run. I have functioning eyes, arms, legs, organs. All my five senses work pretty good, except I need glasses and as a teenager I damaged my ears a bit with loud music. In fact, the slight damage to my ears made me realize that the things I do now will change me later.
I also realize that I lose weight the way a person is supposed to. Most people can't maintain gigantic weight loss. It's discouraging to think it could take a whole year, possibly, to get to 199 and then even longer to reach 150! But then I realize, those are my best odds. I'd rather lose it and keep it off.
I'd also rather be losing slowly than not at all.
I do find books about Buddhism to be helpful, and the spirituali
Last edited by thewalrus0; 09-16-2012 at 06:42 PM.
I'm not patient at all. In fact I think the thing that has kept me going is that I still have hope I will wake up 20 pounds thinner one morning. Every day I think "THIS MIGHT BE IT!" And it never is, but the little bits of pounds have added up, and that keeps me going until I hit the weight loss lottery.
patience is something i struggle with majorly. the only thing that helps me is knowing that my impatience wont change anything. in 183 days, six months will have passed. no matter what happens or how impatient i get, that number is a fact. do i want to be where i am now or heavier or do i want to be closer to my goal and thinner? the time is going to pass either way. 6 months is going to be 6 months. how do you want to feel when it comes?
Patience is a virtue!
This trick works sometimes, but I still find myself wishing I had a fast-forward button.
