Years of bad habits can't be fixed in a week. It's common sense, especially on this subreddit.
However, I see it a lot... the same narrative I went through. You cut your calories to 1000 when the calculations show that based on your BMR you should be consuming a minimum of 1200. The motivation you feel on monday might get you through the week, but by Sunday you are going to feel it waning as you stare longingly at the food truck across the street as you simultaneously gag down your green smoothie for the day. You've always hated them, but they are "healthy" and you need to fast track this whole diet thing, and it's easy to pick up at the grocery store.
"i'll just get used to this" you tell yourself. You head home tired and sore and reluctantly get yourself together for the third spin class this week. You remember to bring electrolytes this time because you felt a little bit faint the last time. You scoff at yourself a bit, what a wimp I am. But as you are in the midst of Kaylee's psycho 90 minute cardio class you start to think... Geez this whole lifestyle change thing sucks. It hurts my body, and it is kinda tasteless and unappealing. You start asking yourself questions; Do i really want to be thin for the beach this summer? Is it really worth it to be off this blood pressure medication? Is it really THAT bad to have joint issues at 32?
By the time you drag yourself home you feel defeated and empty. You stare at the vegan salad you bought in the fridge with disgust and then eyeball the pizza menu tucked up the side of the microwave.
You decide that its worth it to "cheat" a little bit. So you order up a large pizza and those first few bites are glorious and cheesy and stringy. It should be no surprise as you've just spent the past week eating nothing but flax and spinach leaves as well as trying to keep up with the psychos in your spin class.
You are basically malnourished at this point, but you don't realize it... or maybe you refuse to accept it.
You slowly slip further off the wagon, and the scale goes from being your friend to your mortal enemy. 2 weeks later you step on it again and discover all that water weight you lost appears to be back on your body, and then some.
You sigh, and the feeling of failure creeps in. You just can't hack it, this whole weight loss thing. Maybe you'll try again in a month.... and in fact, you do... and once again you rush headfirst into it... perhaps even harder and more aggressively than before.
See the problem?
Often when we have an "all or nothing" mindset we are behaving like a demeaning and controlling parent to ourselves. You are observing and punishing yourself for every little wrong move you make. You put yourself on a ridiculous, high pressure schedule because you need to "pay" for the bad choices you've made. At company lunches you tell yourself to enjoy looking at the food, but you can't touch it because you aren't ALLOWED to eat that, you CAN'T HAVE sugar. You push yourself to extremes on the treadmill because "this is the consequence of all those bad choices you made, so deal with it you wimp".
Can you imagine if your own self talk was a person? You'd hate them so much.
This is often how we talk to ourselves as we try to migrate into better habits and choices. There is no room for love in that "all or nothing" mentality. There's no opportunity for us to look ourselves in the mirror, and see that wonderful, miraculous vessel of a body that we have been responsible for our whole lives. There is no room for appreciating just how much it deserves to be fed well, and cared for, and handled gently.
Try to see that inner child again, that vulnerable part of yourself that feels afraid to fail, and get to know youself again so that you can listen carefully to all your own insecurities, hold your own hand, and thoughtfully think of solutions to make yourself feel good again. When you start there, the idea of a finish line begins to fade away and eventually disappear... because the idea of there being an end goal was always an illusion to begin with.
I mean, the point was always to give yourself a better life... right? Not to simply bully and bruise yourself into getting to the end, where you'll just hate yourself as much as when you started.
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/u/Bulliesvegetables
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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/1RGudzD
