This process is frustrating and slow. But I'm so over my excuses and my irritation in trying to get healthy. I'm partially bitter that my other friends don't have to deal with this. And I'm also bitter that I have dietary restrictions. But I'm just so OVER MY EXCUSES! I'm so over my excuses, complaints, resentment, delays, secretive binges, avoidance of exercising. I know what i have to do to lose the weight. And I don't like it. I'm irritated that it's going to be so slow. But I'm tired of feeling that way. I have to change my lifestyle for health reasons. My only other options is serious health problems and/or an early death. So I have to do this. Yet I'm constantly fighting myself to stay on track. And I don't know why. So I'm over Me! I want to change. I want to learn to be healthy. And I want to figure out how to override myself and my bad behaviors.

Ugh, I'M SO OVER MYSELF. Yet, old habits are hard to break......I need something to shake me out of this. Just not sure what.

Just keep thinking that eventually, you won't crave the junk food anymore. After going without for around 3 months, most people start to actually DISLIKE it! I gave up soda last year, and now even at parties or the theater I never ever get it. I don't have to fight with myself or anything, I just stopped wanting it.

The healthier food will eventually become the norm and not a chore. You won't have to keep making this conscious decisions and using all the will power you have. It will become second nature. You'll feel great and love it!

To help myself, I printed out 2 lists that hang in my office. One is my "I hate" list which details in point form every item I hate about feeling overweight (things like not being able to wear whatever I want, feeling like the fat friend)... Well the other list is "I will love" which is a point form list of all of the things I will love about being skinny. This list includes things like wearing cute dresses, going to the beach and feeling like I belong there. This list really helps me when Im feeling down about having to exercise and not eat all the foods that I really want to eat, because after reading it, I realize how much MORE I will love being all those things on the list!

Good luck with everything and soon enough it will all become second nature.

I totally feel your pain. It's so easy to make up a quick excuse when the food you want is right in front of you. My usual excuses are "oh i'll do this for real starting on monday cause it will be easier to do at work" or "oh i'll really start this on the weekend when I can really focus on it" and I've just gone back and forth again and again.

We just gotta face the facts, if we don't do this, food wont even matter, because we won't be here anymore. I'm really trying to work on loving my body and respecting myself more, I think it will be easier once I do.

Anyway, I understand your frustration! Just remember this isn't forever.

About it being slow ... I was thinking of something the other day. Maybe it will help.

Suppose you gained 50 pounds in a year. Wouldn't that seem like an awful lot? Wouldn't you feel like, "Wow, I can't believe I packed on so much weight in such a short time! 50 pounds in a year, how awful!"

Well, some people complain about "only" being able to lose a pound a week, but if you lose an average of a pound a week, you would lose 50 pounds in a year. That same 50 pounds that would seem like SO MUCH if you gained it in a year - it's still a whole lot if you lose it in a year.

That's the rate at which I have lost my weight - roughly 50 pounds a year, for something over 2 years. And you know what? The time would have passed anyhow, even if I hadn't been losing weight. The time would have passed, and I would still be fat. So better to lose "slowly" than not at all. And on top of that, many people, especially younger people, lose faster than that if they stick with their plans.

So don't be discouraged by thoughts of how long it will take. The time will pass one way or the other. Wouldn't you prefer to be losing weight - at whatever rate - while that time goes by?

Eating is something we do while we live. Probably what you need is LIVE your life, not focus so much on the food and the weight loss. When we start dieting for real we tend to think about it all day long, and of course the scale moves too slowly if all you do is look at it. It is like staring at the watch waiting for your date to arrive: minutes get longer! But once eating right and exercising become an ingredient in your life, and your life gets richer with commitments, with friends and pleasures other than food, time will start to fly. And one day you will look down at your scale, see THE NUMBER there and wonder when that happened --you were so busy doing other things! My little piece of advice would be to weigh only once a week, and to schedule your day for activities which will start to build around you the kind of life you think worth living. The weight loss will happen, sooner or later. Your life is now...

My first thought was that you need to find healthy, lower-calorie meals that are MORE delicious (to you) than junk food. That's been the key to my own weight loss and maintenance so far. Today I had a large crepe with stewed apples for breakfast and whole-wheat bread with my home-made spinach-cheddar dip for lunch. Both very delicious and satisfying. You have to create conditions that don't leave you feeling deprived, IMO.

Freelance

Thanks everyone. I'm a bit better today after my night time vent fest. It's a new day and I should feel blessed that I have one more day to make things right.


I think this is very true. I think about it all the time because when I don't then I make bad choices. But I have to figure out how to just make it my routine because this plan is never going to end. It has to be a part of my life for the rest of my life. So I need to stop obsessing and come to terms with that. I just haven't figured it out yet.

One thing that's REALLY helped me stay on track.... CalorieCount now has something called CalorieCamp, where everyone can choose to report their daily food intake and exercise. It kind of makes it hard to make excuses why I should eat that extra egg roll when I have to post my food intake for all the world to see. I want to see a deficit listed next to my name on the forum that looks respectable when compared to others'! (Okay, maybe I'm just competitive...) But another cool thing about getting to see exactly what everyone else is eating is that you can get ideas for meals that are filling as well as healthy. Seeing what people eat and what they do for workouts gives me a better idea of what I need to eat to fuel my workouts.

;-) And if you've had a "bad" day--in my case one involving plum sake--you can always choose not to report. I make it my personal goal, though, to be proud enough of my numbers to report them every day.

I like your attitude! I sort of said the same thing. You HAVE to do this. It is a responsibility, not a choice. You're responsible for your own health! You can do it!