First I want to wish everyone and their famiies a Happy Holidays. I would also like to thank everyone who has responded to the previous thread or messaged me in private. If I haven't responded yet I will please be patient with me I didn't expect such a huge outpouring of love from the community.. Also thanks to the wonderful person who gave the reddit gold!
So on with the tips, tricks and thoughts.
BLAME- I see this alot. Numerous posts regarding coworkers who brought in food, spouses, parents, the random person on the street. It seems to always be someone else's fault for the extra food, the reason you didn't go to the gym. I would like to say it's no one else fault but your own. You can take that as a negative or you can use that knowledge and cause massive change in your life. Think of this next time you think its someone's fault.. There is some food your spouse eats that you don't and nothing will make you eat that food, there is a cookie or donut you just don't like and no matter how much a coworker pushes you won't eat it. So the things you do indulge it's because you want to not because a parent, spouse, coworker or random stranger offered it to you. BLAME OF PARENTS - if your parents fed you bad food, you blamed them for not teaching you how to eat well, If the parents held back treats you blamed them for not exposing you to things so you wouldnt binge later, No matter what they do or we do as parents we will get blamed. If you are older than 2 and even 2 years olds throw away things they DON'T LIKE then your eating is not your parents fault. IT IS YOUR'S!! They may have set the framework but you are the one still following it.
DEMONS- This is a big one- The journey to reform myself from overweight and I can't run to save my life to eating well, fit has thought me that my biggest fight is with myself! Doesn't matter what the coworker said, my mom who told me I was too skinny I should stop now, the random stranger in the supermarket who commented on my arms, the guy who asked me if I was born male because muscles, the co worker who brought all the food that I'm weak in the knees and can't pass up. The sign from Mcdonalds just luring me to buy the egg mcgriddle. The fight is inside myself, it's my own demons making me binge eat when my boss says something to me- It could be a compliment or a critisim the result was all the same- the need to stuff myself with food or not go work out. All the food scales and workout programs in the world will not help until you start facing your own demons in the mirror and working on them slowly.
GADGETS- Despite what instagram, facebook and commericals tell you- You don't need the watch that calculates heart rate and the lululemons and the $150 running shoe and the dishes with perfect portion or even a food scale to start to lose weight or get fit.. ALL DIETS WORK, ALL FITNESS PROGRAMS WORK.. EVERY SINGLE LAST ONE OF THEM.. Don't believe me- pick one, don't change it. Do it for a year no variation and ta dah you've lost weight and gotten fitter.. They all do the same basic things- restrict food doesn't matter if it's paleo or keto or IF - they all restrict food which causes weight loss and all workout programs cause movement. If you research you will find tons of people who have used every single method to lose weight or get fit.. they all have one thing in common they didn't stop using it. A torn teeshirt and shoes with holes running around the block work just as well as the $150 shoe - barefoot even works. Throwing away some food off your plate or dropping the first bite in the trash, throwing away left overs works just as well as any diet.
MARATHON- This journey is a marathon it is not a sprint! That doens't matter if you are 10 years into the journey or the first day.. BE THE TORTOISE NOT THE HARE! Doesn't matter if people are judging you for only running to your car- I remember my coworker laughing the first time I said I ran from my house to my car, I didn't hear much laughter when that grew to a mile and then 8 miles... My coworker is stil not running. Everyone wants to hurry up so the journey and the pain can be over but there is value in the tortoise approach- the value is in the TIME.
Losing 100lbs in 5 months might be amazing but losing it in 3 years helps you to go thru alot of scenerios - it helps you to deal with alot of mental drama, it helps you to learn how to be better next christmas, it helps you to anticipate the coworker who pushed food in your face every day for 2 years. TIME will help you run in the cold, in the sun, in the heat, in the rain. It will help you go to the gym when its cold, dark and when it's nice and sunny.. Time will help you fight the brain saying its cold - well we've run in the cold many times before so lets get our shoes and get going. There is value in the slow journey. USE IT.
FEAR- It seems most new people are always forward projection how they will stick to the diet. How they will eat well for 1 year and the results will be amazing.. I am the opposite-I'M SCARED OF MYSELF BECAUSE I KNOW MYSELF. I know if I let myself I will not go run so I keep a constant tab on myself to make sure I'm doing what I need to do . I think fear is good - I know that if I feel weak I might want to go eat a cookies which will make me sick and derail my progress. So I don't trust myself to make good decisions when I'm weak.
REGRESSION- You will regress, you will regress hard, expect it, plan for it and KEEP MOVING FORWARD. Emotions are strong and when you start to lose weight that emotion will make you run a marathon with 3 weeks running practice, it will make you eat well and stick to the diet but with all things the brain realizes at some point THIS IS WORK AND IT'S HARD AND IT SUCKS! You will go from running a mile in record time to barely being able to run 30 seconds again.. You will go fromn sticking to your diet to barely being able to make it one day without eating badly.. It is fine- it is part of the process- do not become depressed and give up.. Do not think I used to do so well but now I suck at this.. JUST KEEP MOVING FORWARD.. If you could run a mile last week but now you can only run 30 second say no problem- I will be back out here running my 30 seconds tomorrow and the next day till I build back up to a mile.. If you ate well for 3 months but now you can't go a meal without eating badly say okay.. I will be back next meal and the one after that until I am eating well again.. Get used to the failure- get used to taking tiny steps when in the begining you took huge leaps.. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
ANTICIPATE YOURSELF - Before you binge eat, before you miss the workout, before you have 20 days straight of cheat meals you feel it coming. You will start to mentally talk to yourself hours before you decide not to go work out.. Listen next time how your brain will tell you that you deserve a cheat meal 3 hours before lunch and will keep telling you all the way to lunch. It will tell you how its cold the night before a run, it will tell you how gym people are judging you before you decide to not go today.. ANTICIPATE YOURSELF AND TAKE ACTION.. if you find that you run after work- put our your clothes before work, get home get dressed immediate leave no room for your mind to sabotage. Do you find that you don't meal prep then eat mcdonalds- Stop the rerun of friends and go make the food, put it beside your purse so you pick it up on the way to the car. Do you drive by starbucks and feel the need for a calorie filled drink- look up a new route and decide to drive diffrently and save the calories tomorrow. You are predictable- YOU HAVE DONE THE SAME ACTIONS REPEATEDLY.. USE THE INFORMATION TO YOUR ADVANTAGE TO GET THE RESULTS YOU WANT.
MY FINAL THOUGHTS- life isn't fair, you will be alone in the journey, it will suck, it will take a long time if you are overweight, if you are regular weight maintaince is forever, if you are fit or unfit- the battle will never be over. No one will care, no one will accomodate you or understand. Noone will stop living or eating badly because you have decided to change. You will get teased, you will be mocked for being "HEALTHY", you will be sabotaged, you will lose friends, you will fail alot. You will have to navigate a world praying for you to fail with candy and chips at the checkout isle and piles of food in the lunchroom. The spouse, coworker, family, friends will all keep eating badly, they will all keep offering you the foods you are struggling so hard to stop eating. They will not come to workout with you despite the promises and they will be the first telling you to stop going after the one thing you want most. You will spend alot of time thinking everyone is enjoying life but you.. You will think some people have it easier like the naturally thin, athletic types (There is no such thing- we all know the jock who got fat after high school or the cheerleader who packed it on) you will spend days, nights in tears and frustration about how something as simple as EAT LESS MOVE MORE can be so hard but there is strength on the other side- it will get eaiser. YOU WILL GET STRONGER AND YOU CAN DO THIS!
