I am a bit hesitant to post this. I hope it helps not only me, but someone else as well. It is a bit long, but hopefully worth the read.
I have tried to "diet" my way thin many times in my life, only to fail each and every time and regain the weight. And though I have only lost 23 pounds so far in my final journey to being healthy, I have gained knowledge about myself that I did not have before. I had a lot of knowledge before regarding how to actually lose weight. But the missing piece, which I only realized this time around, was knowledge about my SELF.
I read a lot of posts in these forums. I don't respond to all, but I read *a lot*. Over and over again I see people struggling to stay afloat on their eating plan. I see people who have fallen and are finding it hard to get back on. I see people with stress in their lives that find it difficult to stay on their eating plan at those times. I see people who eat their feelings. And, I see people with medical issues who have to deal with those along with trying to lose excess weight. The one thing that all of these seem to have in common, is that it's a struggle - some days on plan, some days not. Some days wanting to give up, some days perfectly happy.
Why is this? What really makes us grab that donut? Is it just because we haven't removed it from our house? Is it because of the food industry making things so tempting? Is it because there are fast food places on every street corner? Is it because we are stressed or emotional? Is it our environment? Is it because of the co-worker that keeps bringing in the tempting food?
We need to stop playing the blame game. Let's get real here. Does the food leap off the plate and stuff itself into our mouths? No. Does the food call to us to eat it? No. Does the local McDonalds employee yank us off the street and stuff a Big Mac in our mouth? No. Do restaurants force us to stop there and eat piles of unhealthy food? No. Do advertisements leap out of the television and shove a candy bar in our mouth? No. Does the convenience store open the bag of chips, hold us down, and shove them into our mouth? No.
So what is it then?
This is the single most important thing I have learned in the last two months about myself - and possibly in my life. It is what keeps me on plan and will keep me on plan for life. It's not the food. It's not emotions. It's not the food industry or the co-worker or the friend who likes to eat out. It's ME. It's my MIND. It's all the excuses I have ever made for why I eat. It's completely MENTAL. It has always been mental and will always be mental. Unless you have a medical condition (and there are those!) that makes it nearly impossible to lose weight, it's YOU.. you and your mind. Your thoughts each and every day. It's the mental beating you give yourself when you go off plan. It's the mental beating you still give yourself when you are on plan and are disappointed by the mirror, or the scale, or the tape measure.
To lose weight and keep it off, I need to master my MIND. My thought processes. I need to develop a mind of steel. I need to recognize that it is folly to blame someone or something else for my food issues. At the end of the day, *I* am the one who puts food into my mouth. No one does it for me. I am in complete control. I make the decisions. I have no use for excuses anymore. All of the above (except for medical conditions) are excuses. I am not saying I have no empathy for struggles. I have had many of them, and still have some. But now I am mastering my mind.
I daily replace negative thoughts with positive ones. I listen to my internal conversation (yes, we converse with ourselves all day long!). I blast out the negative and replace with positive. As a result, my resolve is even greater than day 1. When stress or another struggle presents itself I ask "Who is in control here?" No thing, event or person is my master. *I* am my own master. *I* am in control. And so are YOU. YOU make the decisions on how to deal with things. We should not let anything take our power away from us... especially food. One cannot expect perfection, but if we examine our mental selves, recognize our decisions as our OWN, and take responsibility for our own actions.. we are growing and changing by leaps and bounds. We are conquering not only our weight & health, but also our minds. No more negative thoughts that intrude on our well-being and our power over ourselves.
Recognize it, examine it, OWN it, and change it.