Every day I read another self-loathing post authored by someone who has regained weight and hates themselves for it. It SUCKS and many of us have been there. Can we make a "silver-lining" thread where we talk about the things that are easier/better because this isn't our first time?

I've been full of self loathing for letting myself gain back so much weight. I see similar sentiments posted here every day. I've lost about half of it again. (204>134>204>171) and only in the past few weeks have I been able to see past my resentment enough to see that I did and do have some advantages this time around.

I thought maybe if I had stumbled upon a thread like this when I was "starting again" I may have been able to stay more positive. Also, others may have noticed silver linings I haven't, so I'd love to hear if anyone has noticed any.

1. Knowing more or less how many calories are in your favorite foods, because you've already looked it all up before. Even if you're very vague in your estimation range because you're not THAT good, you can still get a good idea of what options are more or less healthy.

2. Knowing more or less how big a portion size is supposed to be. If you've ever tried to lose weight before you know that a "bowl" of cereal is SIGNIFICANTLY larger than "a single serving" of cereal. However, a meal size of chicken may not be that much larger than a "single serving" of chicken. Not QUITE the same as point 1 but kind of.

3. Knowing how you react to hunger. Some people get cranky. Some people get tired. Some people get thirsty. Some people (me) get anxious that they might get hungry later so they preemptively eat food they didn't even really want. Knowing these things about yourself gives you a chance to make a strategy to manage the hardest moments. For me, this means throwing a snack in my purse "in case of emergency" so I'm not eating to avoid something that may never happen.

4. Knowing how weight loss ACTUALLY works. Taking away the veil of secrecy. If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you lose weight. If you don't manage your hunger, you're probably gonna regret it. (Yeah, you can technically lose weight eating 1200 calories of french fries and macaroni and cheese a day, but that food won't make you feel satiated and you'll make yourself miserable trying to stick to that diet and will probably end up bingeing.)

5. Having practiced self control. This didn't come over night for me. But this is the thing that got me thinking about this whole thing the past couple of weeks. In my fridge, right now, I have chocolate truffles from Costco. I don't even remember when I bought them -- probably 6 or 8 weeks ago. I've grazed on one or two of them when I have a chocolate craving, but now that I understand how satiation actually feels and I don't enjoy feeling uncomfortably full -- hell, the fact that I can even /identify/ uncomfortably full -- I don't behave the same way. Now just one or two feel SO RICH that I honestly don't want more. I honestly feel like "that was really good but god is it so heavy. I /could/ eat another one I guess but honestly I will enjoy that same chocolate so much more tomorrow when I haven't just had it." It used to be that by buying a box of costco truffles, it meant that I'd basically be eating handfuls of chocolate truffles any time I felt /not full/ and I would have eaten the whole box in 3-4 days. (Remember, I'm talking costco truffles. Any old supermarket box would have just been "dinner".)

I would be really curious to see what other people could add.

submitted by /u/BetterBeRavenclaw
[link] [comments]

from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/2JU5XfA