Challenges? Diet bets? Why I'm not playing!

So everyone's into doing these 'Challenges' lately.

TSFL even has one going on....a January "Healthy Games" Challenge. There are Coaches who are participating, hosting a 'hotel room'...but I will not be one of them.

WHY NOT?

Well, let me explain why (and this comes from not just my opinion, but my actual experiences with Challenges like these).

These types of challenges are 'hot' right now, In fact they are everywhere you look! Websites like Dietbet.com, TheMeltdownChallenge.com, and others offer 'diet bets' or 'diet games' like this where you compete with others, and/or swear
you're going to lose 'X' amount of lbs.in 'X' amount of days.

And if you do, you 'win'. Money, bragging rights, whatever. Free MF meals? Sometimes.

I've even done some of these challenges for my own clients!

But they always backfire.

WHY?
.

Because challenges and bets like these are what I call 'Event dieting'. For instance, you have a wedding coming up and you
want to look good or fit into the size 'whatever' dress you bought for it. So you diet like crazy, you go into severe deprivation mode, you're really into it, you do great, you lose the weight, you get into the dress, you parade around in it at the wedding and feel like a million bucks....

...and then what?

Then you put the weight RIGHT BACK ON again. Because your REASONING was faulty to begin with!

You didn't lose the weight for YOU, you lost it for the EVENT. Or for the specific DATE set in the Challenge, the specific goal that was laid out (stay OP for 30 days!) Whatever.

And once that timeframe is up, if you're lucky and you 'win'? Then you look around and think "OK, I can eat again".

And that does that. You regain the weight and you're RIGHT BACK WHERE YOU STARTED again.

How many times have you had to RELOSE the same 20, 30, 40, etc. pounds....over and over and over again?

Aren't you SICK of that? I know I am!

So what does it take to get it RIGHT?

It takes losing it for YOU. Not for an event, not to 'win' some bet or to 'beat' other people, it's not a competition, it's a (sometimes LIFELONG) JOURNEY, not a race, to HEALTH and HAPPINESS for yourself to BEAT your food addiction and learn how to eat healthy FOREVER.

You do it "Just because" it's the right thing to do for your body and for yourself.

Not because you'll 'win' the game or the challenge or the money or whatever.

You see what I'm saying?

We don't do well, as food addicts, with this type of thing.

And I'm no exception.I tried Dietbet.com once...and it was a failure. And the worst part was, I 'failed' because I didn't meet my goal by like, ONE POUND! I still lost weight, but it wasn't EXACTLY what I'd 'bet' I'd lose so I lost the 'game'.

The scale can be a fickle fickle master. And if you don't reach the weight you swore you would, you 'lose'!
That's not cool. Because ANY loss is good!

Also, I realized something. I need to lose weight for ME. I am INTERNALLY driven, not externally.

And I don't think I'm alone.....moreover, I think that to truly lose the weight and KEEP IT OFF, we ALL need to be internally driven.

Again, you need to lose the weight for YOU, and for no one else and NO OTHER REASON!

Not to fit into the dress, or to 'beat out' your neighbor or friend, or even to reach that 'magic number' on the scale.

The key is to lose the weight until you reach a HEALTHY BMI (or as close to it as you can get!) and get MOVING, get exercising, too, and KEEP eating healthy and MAINTAIN that weight loss.

Plus here's another thing. These types of challenges...ESPECIALLY the ones where you 'predict' you're going to weight 'X' lbs in 'X' days...put a lot of extra stress and pressure on you and your scale.
And isn't there ENOUGH pressure on you when you step on that scale?
Lord knows most of us are upset enough about it. We fight with the scale, we have a love/hate relationship with it, we measure our moods based on what the scale says every morning, we even change our outlook on LIFE based on what we weigh on any given day.

Think about that. Is that any way to LIVE?

Now I'm not saying "Go forward and eat whatever you want and be fat".
LOL.

FAR FROM IT!

I'm saying "Get CONTROL over your eating.....because it's something you NEED to do, period. For YOU!"

Whether it's for health reasons or personal reasons or a combination of the two, if you're overweight, you KNOW it, and you know you have to lose the weight, and you KNOW, in your heart of hearts...that this is an ADDICTION you have to get CONTROL over it, for GOOD. And it's a long long battle...it takes many battles, and again it's a JOURNEY, not a race. The 'dirty little secret' no one tells you when you start this program is, losing the weight is just HALF the battle! You can lose the weight in a matter of months, usually. But it takes YEARS to change your MINDSET, your VIEW of food, how you LOOK at it.

And YOU are the only one who can do it.

Right?

I can help, as your Coach, and certainly good websites like the MF Community website USED to be, and Facebook websites, and blogs, and whatever books you find that help, can definitely be a big help. But YOU do the work.

But it's NOT A COMPETITION!
Not with ANYONE but YOURSELF.

Isn't that ENOUGH competition?

Please, don't get yourself all wrapped up in these 'Challenges'. If you do it in a lighthearted manner, fine....if you need to 'jump start' your weight loss, sometimes this can START you going on the right path, but please don't take them too seriously.

And don't stress out over the scale. Worry more about what you're doing day in and day out. It's your HABITS that have to change. The little things...like nibbling before dinner, like eating in front of the TV, like making excuses NOT to exercise, that have to change.

And obviously you need to work the program 100% and not play games with it. None of these "I'll do it during the week but on weekends I can eat what I want" type of thing....because that gets you NOWHERE.

When I did the Dietbet.com challenge, I thought I was a 'shoo in' because we can lose 'more' weight on a weekly basis on this program than on other diets, right? So I figured I had an 'in'. And then I somehow got all wrapped up in the pressure of it -- there were lots of emails asking how was it going, etc. -- lots of pressure, and I got all stressed out, worrying about it. It was nuts. And I struggled.
And played all kinds of games to get to that 'magic number' I had SAID I would reach...
fasting...using fiber pills, etc.. UGH....not good.

Look at shows like The Biggest Loser. It's all about extremes....extreme diets plus (too much!) exercise and all to obtain a lower weight than the next guy.
And here's the clincher!
What happens when the "Challenge" is OVER?
What about changing your eating habits PERMANENTLY?
I'd be really interested to know how many 'Biggest Losers' KEEP the weight off.

Bottom line? I need to lose weight for ME, not to 'win' some sort of competition.

This is our LIVES we're talking about, right? For me, it's all about regaining CONTROL over my eating....PERMANENTLY. Not just to lose 'X' amount of pounds in 'X' amount of time That's what I HAD been doing over and over and over again....always regaining....because I never really understood the truth. And the TRUTH is, we need to learn how to abstain from our compulsive eating FOREVER.

We all try to get out of that....to find an 'out clause', to 'experiment', and I'm no different. I'm STILL on my journey....

It's NOT JUST ABOUT THE WEIGHT.

It's about your HEAD. CHANGING YOUR HEAD.

And I can't do it most of the time. I have to do it ALL of the time.

That's a hard truth and it's still something I'm wrestling with, but I'm getting there.

My weight has been the single biggest challenge of my life.

So it's a control issue for me. I NEED to do this, for ME. For MY LIFE.

No matter HOW long it takes. And it may not be the right number of pounds by the right date in order to win a challenge. Some weeks it may be a lot, but others, it may not. It's a journey, NOT a race.

BUT!!!.....if this kind of thing works for you, then go right ahead, and sink yourself into it and GO FOR IT!

As always, I am speaking MY truth. No one else's. So again, if this type of thing works for you, go right ahead!

Just don't get too involved in it....remember the ultimate goal, and that is to CHANGE your eating habits FOREVER.

Keep on keepin' on!