What Has Been Your Biggest Weight Loss Insight
 

Hi everyone just wanted to know what have you found that is your biggest weight loss insight. Something that made you say aha!. Mine has is the cliche "you are what you eat"

Small changes and slow weight loss are ok. It's more important that you're consistently going in the right direction no matter how quickly you're going there.

If you think you can, you can.
If you think you can't, you're right!

Here are a few that I love:

• "I'm not telling you it's going to be easy. I'm telling you it's going to be worth it."
• "Time is going to pass anyway, so you might as well do something with it."
• "The only way I am going to fail is if I give up."

Can't claim ownership of any of them (or the one in my siggy -- found that one on a website), but I love 'em all and they all motivate me in some way! :)

That frustration, extreme sacrifice, and suffering are the enemies of weight loss, and none of the three are inevitably part of the process. They're obstacles we throw in our own path.

someone had this as their sig not sure who but i just fell in love with it

no one ever said "i wish i hadnt gone to the gym"

For me to stop eating the fast food. I am on no particular diet, just smart eating. Once I realized the fast food carbs were so bad for me AND they left me hungry to boot, cutting them out was easier.

Find a plan that works for the rest of your life.

Umm... I have. :p But that was because I had just had a REALLY rough day at work, was really upset, and then I felt even worse when during my zumba class at the Y I looked in the mirror and saw how horrid I looked... so I tried the treadmill, and because I hadn't had enough water or food beforehand... got quite close to passing out.

But yeah... I've said it. :p But with most circumstances... never would have been said. ;)


Back to the OP... I guess for me... hmm... probably "you are confident, you are sexy, you are capable, you are strong, you can do this" has been my best mantra. It's kept me running even when I was in pain from the stupid stitch in my side (and I'm glad I did), it's made me able to keep eating the stuff I should and not eat the stuff I shouldn't, etc etc. :)

Hmm my biggest would be dismissing all the weight loss 'recommendations' and doing what worked for me, even though it means skipping breakfast, eating the same foods over and over, eating most of my cals late night, etc...
It comes down what you can live with and stick to, no matter who is telling you you're doing it 'wrong'. It was so freeing to realize that! :D

Also, when I'm feeling down about slow weight loss I remind myself what the scale would look like if I WASN'T making an effort... I'd be gaining at a rapid rate! In that respect, even no gain is an accomplishment.

Mine was similar to Glory87's - I realized that I needed to overhaul my entire life, not just the food, and it has to be such that I can live it comfortably for the rest of my life.

Hunger is not an emergency.

I use to always treat my hunger as if it were the end of the world. Now I ask myself if I can wait until xx o'clock when I will have the next opportunity to eat, or if I need to eat right now.

Ooh, that's a good one! That's going on my little stickynote next to my work computer.

:D I'm glad you like it...I borrowed it from someone else on 3FC. ;)

Oof... I mean there are so many!

One that sticks out at me this moment is when I used to think "It's not fair that so-and-so is so thin. She doesn't have to think about what she eats."

And that's a lie. While they may not think about food the same way that I do -- they DO have to compromise. They might eat that huge piece of cake in front of me, but they go to the gym 4 days a week and they ate a very small lunch today that I didn't see.

It is unfair of me to assume that no one has to work hard to get what they want.

Maybe there are a couple people on earth who CAN eat 3,000 calories a day of crap and not gain weight, but so what? I need to stop whining about what isn't fair and DO something in order to achieve what I want.

Or forever be 331+ pounds and complaining. Instead of under 200 and in control.

My biggest insight? That I need to get out of my own way! I have (slowly) realized that the majority of obstacles and road blocks along the way have been things that I put there. These obstacles have either been all in my head or if they were real, external issues, they were things that were definitely in my power to control or change. Physically, there is no reason I can't lose weight (I know I'm lucky here)- I just needed to ditch the excuses, cop to my own BS and get to work!

the only one I can think of that hasn't been mentioned where:

-No matter how slow you go, you're still out lapping everyone on the couch.

-Think you can't get a good workout in 20 minutes? its better then a 0 minute workout.

That this is the most important thing I can do for myself right now. It's more important than a better job, more important than World of Warcraft, more important than going back to school. All of those things can wait, but my health is at risk now. Every day that I'm not working on it is another day that I can't get back, and another day that my body will have to recover from.

Also--if you hate a specific exercise, don't do it. I hate the elliptical. I mean, I really, really hate it. I've posted ragecomics to Reddit about it. I therefore do not do my cardio on the elliptical. Forcing myself to do something I hate isn't going to help me establish new habits; it's just going to make me poop out.

Adaptability and perseverance matter more than anything else. There is no one thing that will work....many things that worked will stop working...new things can be found...being able to adapt to life and just keep going is what matters.

this is something I've just realized lately but I think it's huge.

I can remember every single social event in my life where I was the fattest woman in the room and I can remember in vivid detail how much that hurt.

I cannot remember a single meal or binge that got me to that state.

I've had a lot of insights since I've started, but I think the biggest - which I work on every day - is that my body tells the TRUTH but my mind LIES. The trick - when it comes to hunger or exercise or whatever - is to figure out who is really talking!!

I am not immune to falling back into old habits if I am not diligent and checking myself. Whenever I begin losing weight, I always assume I've broken the bad habits for good. This past week was a rude awakening that I am human and capable of falling back into bad habits. This knowledge also makes me more forgiving of myself and able to dust myself off and start over when I do slip.

As long as I just keep going back to the gym, without fail - even if I don't think I'm seeing results, and just as long as I drive *away* from mcdonald's instead of *to* mcdonald's - EVENTUALLY there will be a change. So just keep going back.

Wow great stuff girls :)

Eating out is a diet killer. I eat much less and much healthier food when I cook at home. Since beginning my diet 2 months ago, we haven't eaten out except on a weekend vacation for our anniversary. We used to be a 2-3 times per week family. Surprisingly, I don't miss it much anymore. At first I missed it because it was something to "do"-- like a fun Saturday activity or something. Now that we're out of the habit, I simply don't even notice that we're not eating out. It has made it soooo much easier to stay on plan, and I'm so glad my husband is being so supportive of me that he's willing to forego eating out.

Also-- the "Hunger is not an emergency" phrase comes from the Beck Diet Solution-- basically a book that teaches you how to diet. It works with any diet and helps give you good habits/ways to stick with whatever program you decide to do. That book is awesome-- really helped my ability to stay on plan. I think it's really going to help on maintenance, too. Practicing what the book suggests has really made me feel so much more in control of my eating, and that has made all the difference in the world. I don't feel like I'm a slave to cravings anymore-- it's a lot easier to turn down off plan food than it was before, and it keeps getting easier. I still "cheat," of course, but most of the time it's when I've made a well-thought out decision ahead of time, and I think that's key. It takes away the addiction part of food.

:lol: I totally thought that this morning as I was trying to drag myself out of bed when a certain cat kept me awake all night. It worked!

Hmm my biggest would probably be that while I could lose weight eating the things I used to eat just in smaller portions, it was harder to maintain. I've been far more successful since realizing that I needed to chat not just how much I eat but what I eat. The closer to a paleo diet that I eat, the better I feel and the easier it is for me to lose.

That weight loss can be enjoyable. I wish I'd realised this years ago, I'd have started much earlier but I was afraid that dieting would be too tortuous to manage.

Number one for me is chose a plan that suits you. Stick to it, and if you cheat, you are cheating yourself not anyone else.
I adapted my plan to suit me and my lifestyle. Like RJ1980, some of what is included would be seen as a :nono: by some people-guess what? It's not their plan, it's mine. It's my plan that has seen me lose 147lbs :)

"losing weight is simple...
simple does NOT mean easy"

I was not enjoying life at the weight I was and I was locking myself inside my house and eating fast food everyday because I felt like crap all the time. My lack of energy was my own fault, I was not feeding my body what it really needed. On top of it all, I learned that emotions are not an excuse to shovel food into my mouth. You have to give yourself permission to feel all your emotions, and learn how to handle them without the crutch of food.

I've learned that I have to do it my way and not succumb to the temptation to compete with my friends.

I cannot work out 2 hours a day. I'm not an athlete. I don't want to be an athlete, although I'd like to be more fit. But this doesn't fit in with my lifestyle.

Also, the more weight I lose, the more interested I am in prettifying myself. Eyebrows. Nails. Hair. More thought toward clothes and accessories.

There is some great advice on here!

One thing that helped me was to identify the source of my overweightness, which can be different for everyone. The number one thing for me was portion size, the number two thing was too much dining out. Once you identify your issues then you can work to learn how to resolve/cope with them. I realize that is much harder when a medical or emotional problem is hindering weight loss so, please, no one take offense.

When you feel like you had a bad food day DO NOT use it as an excuse to give up. I did that so many times before because I wasn't losing fast enough or I was becoming bored with the routine or whatever else I told myself that ultimately resulted in my quitting. But they were all just excuses.

Develop thick skin. People can be mean, undermining, all sorts of things when you lose weight. They can be co-workers, friends, family, etc. I am lucky that almost everyone around me has been extremely important but there will always be people around you that are less than supportive.

Honestly... The other day I realized, while eating sugary snacks (cookies) that eating an unhealthy sugary snack makes me want more.. and more.. and more.. its a negative addiction. I don't want a negative addiction.

But eating a healthy snack that is naturally sweet (like apples) is a healthy addiction. Between the two, I'll take the addiction that is healthy.

Last 3 days were holidays for my husband. Today i am alone at home and feel like eating some thing. Also this is my carb cycle of 17 day diet. So, i had brownrice and lentils and potato subjee. I had 2nd fruit at 2pm. With cheese singles. I also had oatmeal in the morning. I guess it is too much of carbs. So my craving has increased.

Those claims of "EAT WHAT YOU WANT AND LOSE WEIGHT" ring true. You CAN eat what you want and lose weight, you just have to watch HOW MUCH of it you eat :)

I always thought weight loss meant eliminating foods I loved, but instead I still eat what I want and continue to lose. This means that I CAN go out to eat (and I admittedly did so quite frequently during the summer) and have the occasional fast food or pizza slice. I just have to control my portions.

That eating too little and restricting calories too much can hinder your weight loss. So many people make the mistake of eating too little and when they lose a lot at first but then the weight stops coming off, they wonder why. Educating yourself is important and I have recently realized this and now have a lot more knowledge on how to continue my journey.

Patience. That's what I've learned.

To accept small losses with grace. As long as I weighed a little less, and kept weighing less over time, then I was progressing.

Everything in our culture says do it as fast as possible and get off as much weight as possible. Be as strict as you can & still be able to bear it. That just doesn't work for me. I become conflicted: Part of me is a stern taskmaster, the other part becomes mutinous and eventually rebels by bingeing.