In the beginning - were you ever afraid to wake up and have all the pounds back??
This might sound really neurotic....but I wake up every morning afraid that all my weight will have come back since yesterday's morning weigh-in.
I have just started this way of eating. I can't tell much of a difference, but I have lost 16#. Sometimes I'm worried that it was all water weight, and that I'll weigh-in one day and it will all be back. I try to tell myself that I probably couldn't gain 16# in one day....even in water.
I didn't do that exactly, but the first few times the scale went down I assumed it was just a fluke. It probably wasn't til I'd lost ten lbs that I realized it was really working.
While I never woke up worried it would come back, I did fear the creep of pounds back or of the scale moving uncontrollably upward and me not knowing why. Fortunately, after doing this for a few months I figured out neither of those things could happen so long as I was honest with myself and stuck to my plan. So that took the fear out of it.
When I was too scared to weigh-in for a long duration (1-2 months), I thought I undid all I did but thankfully I maintained. I've learned now not to avoid the scale... when I do, I'm not accountable and it's super hard to summon up the courage to step on it again.
I'm less worried about suddenly waking up and finding all the pounds have come back as I am about slowly creeping into old habits and waking up one morning, months later, only to realise I've undone all the progress I've made.
I dreamed last night that I ate some off plan things that aren't even in my house. I swear I could even taste them. I woke up and was upset with myself. I realized it must have been a dream and had to tell myself OK it was a dream...It was a dream.... I'm not even that fond of the food I dreamed about. When I weighed myself I saw a loss.
Oddly enough, I haven't had nearly as much fear this time around, but mainly I think because I told myself the number wasn't as important as the lifestyle (initially I decided to commit to changes whether or not they resulted in any weight loss at all - and for two years that's exactly what happened - healthy changes, but no weight loss).
Still, even the no weight loss years were productive. I managed to keep off the first 20 lbs (that were lost without trying after being prescribed a cpap for sleep apnea - when the doctor said I'd probably lose some weight without trying I though he was crazy - I've never - or rather had - never lost weight without trying.
I also regained a great deal of mobility and strength, so no-loss wasn't no-progress.
From decades of weight loss attempts, I knew that my food plan wasn't going to be my problem. The only way I could regain was to stop trying. In the past, I did that whenever the weight loss slowed down. When it seemed that the efforts weren't worth the pitiful results.
It was not because I was failing, but because I was interpreting slow success as failure. Even not-gaining is success. That's what I didn't understand.
Now I weigh every day, but I celebrate no-gains just as much as I do losses. My first priority is to the healthy habits themselves (eating a balanced diet and exercising are important no matter what I weigh), my second priority is to weight maintenance, and my third is weight loss.
Weight loss is slower this way, but I've taken "giving up" off the table as a possibility. Even if I were to start inexplicably gaining, it wouldn't give me a reason to give up, because maintenance is still a high priority, and the habits themselves are even more so.
My motto has become "maybe just one more pound." I don't look at the 150 lbs to go, but at the success of 88 lbs gone, and "maybe just one more."
I've been on a downward trend for six years now (actively losing the last three) and it's dawned on me that I've never before had a downward trend of more than two years before, and I've never had a no-gain (not counting small fluctuations) trend of more than four years. I've broken all sorts of prior "records."
I know that I could go back to my old habits if I chose to, but that doesn't just happen, it's a choice. As long as I choose to weigh daily and keep maintenance/loss as a priority, I don't have to worry about backsliding. Before I'd done it, I might have said it was impossible, but doing it has proved it very possible.
I dreamed last night that I ate some off plan things that aren't even in my house. I swear I could even taste them. I woke up and was upset with myself. I realized it must have been a dream and had to tell myself OK it was a dream...It was a dream.... I'm not even that fond of the food I dreamed about. When I weighed myself I saw a loss.
I had the same thing happen when I quit smoking. It was very upsetting for those few minutes until I realized it hadn't happened. Hopefully I'll be able to be as strong willed about my food choices as I have with cigarettes.
I dreamed last night that I ate some off plan things that aren't even in my house. I swear I could even taste them. I woke up and was upset with myself. I realized it must have been a dream and had to tell myself OK it was a dream...It was a dream.... I'm not even that fond of the food I dreamed about. When I weighed myself I saw a loss.
That exact thing has happened to me! I had a dream once that I just ate and ate and ate mounds of junk food but couldn't stop. And then felt sooooo bad after. I woke up and almost cried because I was so happy it was just a dream. Then I was super good with my food the rest of the day.
I think that fear will sink in when I hit goal... I fear getting to goal and having the pounds come back for whatever reasons. I actually think this fear stops me from getting to my goal sometimes!
In the beginning - were you ever afraid to wake up and have all the pounds back??
