Struggling? Looking to Restart?

NOTE: Abbreviations:

OP:  On Plan (on the 5/1 TSFL plan using Medifast meals)

DH: Dear Husband

LOL: Laughing out loud

MF: Medifast (as in Medifast meals)

 

If you've been struggling and/or you're thinking of 'restarting'....may I make a suggestion?

Set your weigh-in day for SUNDAY. 

I did this and it works.  Here's why I recommend it:

- First of all, it can prevent you from going off the rails over the weekend.  Look at it this way. On Saturdays...when you're busy but also may be tempted with off-plan foods, maybe a party or barbeque Saturday night, complete with mayo-laden 'salads' and food pushers, maybe a night at the movies, whatever....you will have to think to yourself "I weigh in tomorrow morning".
Do you really want to overdo Saturday night, knowing it's going to show up on the scale tomorrow morning?

- Secondly, it can prevent weekend binges in another way....!  Having gotten through Saturday and weighed in Sunday, hopefully what will happen is you'll be encouraged by Sunday's results (or it will make you more determined that ever!) and that sets you up for a great Sunday and Sunday night....when leisure time is paramount and everyone's relaxing. 
You don't want to blow it the FIRST DAY of the week, do you?  LOL...Of course not!  So again, it helps PREVENT Sunday 'blow outs'.

- Last but not least, by Monday morning you already have one day under your belt...good, bad or indifferent....and it's time to buckle down and get things DONE.  Now you've got Sunday's weight in your head and you're aiming at THIS COMING Sunday....and you've got 6 more days to 'make it so', to stay OP and get it done.

BELIEVE in yourself!

If I were granted one wish, and one wish only, I would wish for a giant infusion of self-confidence and belief in yourself - for everyone here. 

I would grant the gift of belief that you CAN do this, you can lose the weight -- and not only can you lose the weight, but you can change on the INSIDE and grow in confidence, maturity, patience and self-love -- while shrinking on the OUTSIDE.

What does all this self-confidence and self-love stuff have to do with losing weight?
After all, all I have to do is stay OP, right? Eat my 5 MF meals and 1 L&G every day and that's that;  the weight will come off.  Why bother with all this 'headwork' and 'self analysis' and stuff about 'fat brain'?

If you've come here to shed 5-10 lbs of vanity weight....maybe even 20 lbs...because you feel you have too much belly fat, or you have 'thunder thighs' or whatever...then YES, maybe you don't need to do all that headwork. If you're basically a 'normal' eater; (you know, the kind of person that can 'save' half a candy bar or stop eating chips or nuts after 1 oz. worth), if you KNOW when you're 'full' and you've never considered yourself a food addict or someone who fixates on food or diets....then OK....your eating habits just got a little sloppy. All you need is advice like 'eat slower' and 'put your fork down between bites' and 'don't eat after 8 pm' and 'eat more veggies and lean protein'. Fine.

Lessons from History

My husband and I were watching a very interesting documentary on the History Channel last night about WWII. Do you see it? It was very well done. (it was called 'The World Wars - Extended Edition' in HD).  I'm sure they will run it again. It may be available on demand on cable as well.

Specifically, it focused on the lives of the world's leaders and movers and shakers of the time period, and how they each rose to power.  Men like FDR, Churchill, George Patton, Douglas Macarthur ...even Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. How did they get to be so powerful? What drove them, and motivated them, to do what they did? What pivotal role did they play in the war?

What I found most fascinating was the fact that many of these men suffered hardships, setbacks, and personal tragedies and/or humiliations -- and came out stronger and more determined (but sometimes more twisted) because of them.

Vacation Mode

Now that Summer is truly (finally!) here, many of us are thinking about going on vacation or planning one.

And the question always come up, "To stay OP or NOT to stay OP?" over vacations.

Obviously there are plusses and minuses -- and only YOU can decide -- bun t here's my 'two cents'.  I've tried it many ways. I've even tried to split the difference and stay 'somewhat' OP.

Here's what happened in each case:

FAILING TO PLAN

Early on in the program we went on vacation to San Francisco. Ah, what a beautiful city, right? And I just couldn't 'decide' what I wanted to do....I had been OP, I had been doing great and losing weight....but here I was, in this beautiful city, and there were SO MANY wonderful things to EAT...OMG....
so I didn't make a plan. I just decided to 'wing it'.

Not a good idea.

AVRT....say 'what'?

I'm a big proponent of AVRT in dealing with staying OP and my food addiction, in general.

OK, Linda, what the HECK are you talking about?
What IS AVRT?

...LOL...well, AVRT stands for Addictive Voice Recognition Technique. And it's something I learned from Jack Trimpey's "Rational Recovery"....a book, by the way, that I recommend so highly, that it's the basis of my thinking when dealing with my weight...and it's how I got to goal! 
(Well, the THOUGHT process, anyway. The MF meals were the actual 'tool', of course).

The weird thing is, Rational Recovery isn't even ABOUT overeating! 
It's not even a "diet book". It's about alcoholism! 

But the similarities....the process our BRAINS go through...are so identical that you literally can substitute 'food' for 'drink' in his book and immediately see the benefit of it.

So what IS AVRT?

Well, first of all, it's recognizing and realizing that we all are of 'two minds'.

We have an intellectual side, the 'higher level' of our brain, the human side that wants to get healthy, wants to lose the weight, and is SICK AND TIRED of being overweight.

She (for lack of a better pronoun, guys, this isn't a denigration...just bear with me) just wants to be slim and 'normal'. She wants to lose this weight once and for all. She wants CONTROL over her eating. She knows if she keeps down this path she'll wind up with more health problems...if she doesn't have them already...such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, pain in the knees and feet from supporting all that weight, all the associated horrible diseases that can occur when you're overweight.

BUT...we also have ANOTHER side. And this other side is what I call 'Fat Brain'....but she isn't something I made up, she's a very REAL part of us, she's the lower level of our brains, our 'animal nature', left over from thousands of years of evolution. She is the part of your brain that is resisting your efforts to lose weight.

Why can't I be NORMAL?

We're getting into (yet another) fascinating discussion on the B.E.D. thread...this one concerning 'normal' eating.  And I wanted to explore that in a little more detail.

What IS normal eating, anyway?  We all know 'normal' people who don't have a problem with their weight, or with food.  These people fascinate me, to tell the truth.

My DH, for example, can eat HALF a two-bar candy bar and put the other half away!
In a drawer! 
...For like, DAYS and DAYS!
...and even....
...FORGET ABOUT IT!  I mean, honest to God forget it was there!

OMG this is so foreign to me it blows my mind.

I mean, I would KNOW that it's there. It would CALL to me in the middle of the night...."Linda...I'm waiting....oh I'm such a sugary chocolately delight....wouldn't you love to...Linda...."  LOL

No WAY could I do that.

But hey. I'm NOT NORMAL! 

And that's OK!

What happens AFTER Goal?

What happens ... AFTER goal?

I think it's fair to say that there's a lot of anxiety that happens when we get close to goal.

I know I felt that way....in fact, I was terrified!  LOL....you worry, will I be able to maintain my weight loss? (after all, the statistics aren't great....fully 85% of people who lose the weight do NOT keep it off).  Will I regain it all?  Will I have to 'live on packets' the rest of my life? etc.

I wanted to share with you all what I did...and hope it helps some of you who are getting close to goal and worried about it (or just worried in general!) to feel better.

First of all, Transition exists for a reason. The idea is, to add food groups 'back in', one at a time, little by little....and work them into your food plan IF they make sense for you.

You BUILD up a menu of foods you like, HEALTHY foods.

Introducing FAT Brain!

Please allow me to introduce myself.  

My name is Fat Brain.

I live inside of you and am a part of you. In fact, I am a piece of your brain....and I am responsible for every food binge you ever had, every time you 'slipped up' or went off program, every time you tried to have 'just one' and wound up on that slippery slope down to .... nowheresville.

I won't apologize for it, either...because that's WHO I AM and what I DO.

I am the part of your brain that remembers your old, bad eating habits.
That's my job!  To remember them, and remind you of them, and try to get you to go back to them, because it was easier.

And not only do I remember them, but I cherish them!

I remember every piece of junk food you ever ate, and exactly how it tasted. All the wonderful gooey-creamy-sticky-sweet-salty-whatever 'ness' about each food.
(Of course, I do NOT remember how you felt afterwards...and don't remind me, because I don't 'go there'. I do NOT remember the guilt or the shame or the weight gain. These are secondary, 'not important' things to me).
Because they don't matter.

All that matters to me is getting you to do what you did 'before'.

They are the 'good old days' to me. And my entire purpose in life is to get you to GO BACK THERE again.

Wanna BET?

Good Sunday morning, everyone!

Beautiful day here in rural NJ (yes NJ DOES have rural areas LOL)....and I'm loving the sunshine and the flowers and the birds singing....sigh...

But I digress.  I just read something in this month's issue of Woman's Day that I thought might help MANY of us! 

Are you are gambler?

Are you willing to take a chance on YOURSELF?

If so...you have GOT to check out this website:
http://www.healthywage.com

What you do is, you make a 'bet' with YOURSELF that you will lose 'X' # of pounds in 'X' period of time (the minimum time by the way is 6 months. and minimum amount to lose is 20 lbs.)

Then you pay that money....and if you win, you win MORE than you paid in.

Questioning 'WHY'

On my B.E.D. (Binge Eating Disorder) thread on the Medifast/TSFL Community Website, we are into a discussion that I thought was very appropriate for ALL of us to consider...so I decided to talk about it today.

The subject is....WHY?

There are two big 'whys' in my life in regards to my problems with overeating.

One of these 'why's is something I shouldn't worry about or dwell on....and the other is one that I MUST question, analyze, and figure out if I'm going to be successful.

Let me explain.

The 2 WHYs

There is the BIG 'why'.....
'WHY' did I wind up with this stupid food addiction?
WHY is it my skinny, 'normal' friends can eat and eat and never seem to gain weight, whereas I just SMELL a donut and gain half a pound?
WHY is it that my DH can lose weight just by 'cutting back' whereas I have to go whole-hog into the 5/1 to get ANYWHERE with my weight? 
WHY does sugar and sludge give me fierce cravings that I have to fight, tooth and nail, whereas a bowl of lettuce doesn't encourage me to overeat? 
HOW COME I've had to fight with my weight all my life, whereas my 'skinny' sister never has had to? 
"IT'S NOT FAIR!"

- VERSUS -

The little 'why'....
'WHY' did I want to keep eating even after I was FULL after dinner last night?
WHY did I crave _________ (insert food here!) all of a sudden? 
WHY did I want to sink into a bowl of ice cream when I had a bad day last week?
WHY am I suddenly thinking of bingeing the moment I'm home alone?

The big 'why' versus the little 'why'!

Slow your Roll!

One of the keys for me on this program was learning how to....SLOW DOWN, believe it or not.

I mean just in general....'stop' overanalyzing every situation, 'stop' overthinking and overstressing, and just WORK the program.

And STOP gobbling my meals like there was no tomorrow! 

Maybe it was because I grew up with 4 other siblings...I don't know...all I know is eating SLOWLY and MINDFULLY has always always been a challenge for me.

Over the years, I read about things like 'Just put your fork down between bites' and how the brain needs 20 minutes or so to 'know' the stomach is full. But it was usually wasted effort because sooner or later, I'd be speed-eating again!

Well, when I started this program and GASPED at the SIZE of the meals (OMG is that one portion! A BIRD couldn't live on that! LOL)....I realized I had to do something if I was going to stick with it...and slowing down became not just an 'option' but a reality.

But HOW to do it?  Well I learned various ways....and hopefully they will help you!

Monday, Monday...

How's it going, everyone? Another Monday....gorgeous weather here in NJ and I'm feeling guilty because I'm not out in my garden (LOL).....BUT....!
....I did Spinning this morning so I get a 'pass'. I can only do so much. If I overdo I'll be s-o-r-r-y bigtime due to the FMS.

I woke up this morning STARVING. Ever feel like that? Weird, isn't it? And I eat my final MF evening snack right before bedtime so there's really no explanation for it....most times I'm fine, having that meal in my stomach is enough. But this morning I was starved. And all I could think about was eateateat.....it took a LOT of strength to talk myself 'down' and just have my planned MF cereal and Almondbreeze.

What happened though...and I've found this happens a LOT...is that if I can do that, if I can hang in there and NOT 'give in'....the urge DOES go away.

If I can have a CRAVING WITHOUT CAVING (I love that, just though of it and I think it's my new mantra LOL)....then I find that about 1/2 hour later I'm like, "Hey, I'm FINE! I'm not hungry anymore!"

And that's WONDERFUL.