I feel like I am making things harder on myself than necessary. Today, especially, I am feeling the effects of that. I can't lie to myself. I have an addiction. To sugar. To fast food. To taking the easy way out. I am an emotional eater. When something goes wrong, I eat. When something goes right, I eat. When I'm happy, sad, bored, or otherwise, I eat. I have always done this. A learned habit that I cannot seem to break. I am two pounds down from when we started this challenge. While I should be proud of myself, I am just beating myself up. Mostly because I know I have been letting my old habits get the best of me. I know I have what it takes to get where I want to be, and I know how hard it is going to be to get there. Instead of fighting, I've been hiding. I've been letting my emotions about work and family and everything else get the best of me and I've been taking the easy way out. Eating fast food for lunch at every chance that I get. Even when I know that I need to do better, I somehow find a way to talk myself into doing the wrong thing. I have been using My Fitness Pal, almost religiously, and while most days I stay under my calorie goal there have been days where I have gone way over my limit. I don't know how to fix this. I don't know if I need a hobby to distract me from eating, or an alternate route home so that I don't drive past the fast food I "need to have" at any given moment. I have given myself some means of accountability, but it just doesn't seem to be enough. We post our goals on the fridge, so every time we open it we are reminded of where we want to be. I have someone teaching me about nutrition and checking my calorie intake, but still I have not successfully followed my goals on any consistent level this past month. I get through a day or two and then I'm right back in the drive thru line at McDonald's. I'm so frustrated with myself, I cant even begin to explain. I could really use some advice on how to trick myself to stay away from bad for me crap and staying on track with my goals.
We have created new goals for the upcoming month. We changed up our personal goals, or at least the ones we've been succeeding at, and left the ones we still need to work on. I have Erik joining My Fitness Pal as another way to keep myself accountable, hoping that it will be the push I need to truly succeed this next month. Below I have posted our new goals on the spreadsheet we hang on the fridge to track our progress. It's just a simple spreadsheet that I created in Excel and it works perfectly for our needs.
It won't be easy. You just got to keep at it and put yourself to not go back to old habits. If you do have to eat out go for better options with smaller portions. Keep at it girly. I'm proud of you and your blog. Miss you so much.
ReplyDeleteTonight we went out to dinner at Ruby Tuesday for our eat out meal this week. I went for a lighter calorie option (they post on their menu all the options with less than 500 calories). It was easier than I thought and I still left full.
DeleteOne healthy decision at a time. Don't look at all the days you have had fast food or might want it. Say "can I make it a little while longer without it?" EACH healthy decision you make is a victory. Do not ever judge those victories on days that are more struggling. Be proud that you can see this and be proud that you are taking these steps. I see such a strong woman who is making these changes and is about to be on an amazingly fun and crazy ride in life no matter what the scale says.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! I really appreciate your kind words. I'm working really hard, and its stuff like this that reminds me I'm on the right path-- no matter how hard it may be.
DeleteBobbi, You're on the right course. Just keep getting back on the path after you take momentary wrong turns for now. Different methods may work at different times for you. Have you read this already? http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/eating-disorders/binge-eating-disorder/binge-relationship-food
ReplyDeleteHey Bobbi - I've been reading your blog and keep meaning to comment.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who lives a real world life my advice (unlike those who work in the health and fitness industry and sometimes are a little disconnected with the reality of a normal life), is that you are firstly being very hard on yourself.
I dont know about you, but I would rather make choices that add to the richness of my life (cheese.... food of the gods) some of the time, and strive to achieve balance in general - rather than having a hard and fast rule.
I think you should focus on fewer changes (but achieving them as often as you can) - for my household the number one and most important goal was eating out less. We choose this goal as the most crucial because it is really difficult to be fully aware of how much you eat, and what is in your food when you eat out, and also the cost adds up over time. So there are many positive outcomes from just that one goal.
Secondly, when you're moving from a diet full of take out and convenience food, it is really challenging to go straight into meal preps and "real food" all the time. My husband and I eat low carb/paleo but we have an emergency spinach and cheese thin crust pizza in the freezer which has stopped us from buying burgers many times. Because hey, we're human and sometimes after a long day, old habits die hard.
Your challenge is being surrounded by food all day, and the inconsistency of your work schedule.... routine is the easiest way to make a change and you don't have that. You probably need to nail down some very easy meals (I would be looking at high protein smoothies you can make quickly and take with you at short notice for lunches, with snacks to keep you going).
Cutting sugar out of your diet as much as possible is probably the other goal you could achieve and see the biggest benefit from. Since cutting out most carbs and sugar from my diet, I have dropped 42lbs. That's without any exercise, and has been slow and steady over 7 months.
I am also a bit of a soda fiend at times, so I replaced any large family size bottles with 6 packs of slim line cans.... that's all I can have in a week ... of diet soda. Otherwise it's a drink bottle with fresh lemon, loads of ice and water. Which I've come to love over time.
Everyone has an opinion on what works for them, and it's hard to know what to follow and who to listen to... but I think if you guys narrowed your goals down to the things that are most beneficial or important to you (just one or two), you would feel more successful, which in turn makes you happier and more likely to lose weight.
I used to be like you, spreadsheets and lists and charts and I felt organised, but I never saw much success. There is something to be said for letting go and keeping things simple.
I can share my eating plans with you if you are interested too.
We still have frozen pizza in the freezer-- we're just finding stuff with less junk in it. No preservatives, etc. I'd be foolish to think we could go cold turkey on so many things at once-- I'd drive Erik crazy, and vice versa.
DeleteI would definitely be interested in seeing your eating plans. You can send them to me via Facebook or to my email (bobbibee011@gmail.com). I could use all the help I can get, so thank you :)