Archive for the ‘motivation’ Category

Be the Weight You Want and Stay There | Reflections on 2008

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

After being online for a year, I began thinking about this blog.  What is my theme?  What is my purpose? Who do I write it for?

Well, first of all “be the weight you want” means two things.  One is that you can be slimmer – you do not have to be as heavy as you are.  Second is that you can choose your weight goal.  You do not have to choose a weight from some sort of chart  that tells you your ‘ideal’ weight.  You will know when you are at your ideal weight. You will feel healthy, stronger, and have more energy.  “And Stay There? ” Well, what is the use of losing the weight if you are going to put it right back  on.

I guess the main reason I write these posts is to share with other people like me – men or women – what I have learned through my life experiences and situations and also what I have learned about weight loss.  I didn’t just put weight on.  I became very depressed in my life, my marriage to an alcoholic.  I went from 100 lbs to 130 lbs over 5 years (and had two children during that time).  After my divorce, I was able to lose back down to 105 lbs.

Then I found myself in a marriage with a very controlling person.  He was very adamant that his wife not put on weight.  My way of rebellion was to slip out and eat Mexican foods and anything else.  When events happened to end the marriage, I again fell into depression.  I felt like I was a total failure in my life in every aspect of my life.  Eating was enjoyable and made me ‘feel’ better.  Going on with life, my social life became eating out with friends.  Year after year my weight went up.  I would ‘diet’ once in a while and lose some weight, then put it back on plus.

When I found myself feeling weak and tired all the time with no ambition or energy, I finally made a huge step.  I got on a program where I buy the food from them, it is portioned correctly, has the correct nutrients, and has the correct calories.  This is what worked for me.  But more than that, I met with a mentor once a week to weigh in and  talk. I had to realise and BELIEVE that I deserve to be healthy, and slim.  That I have the ability to lose the weight.  That I need to change my relationship with  food and my view of myself.

One of the first things I had to change was my ’self-talk’.  I had to stop downgrading myself.  When things disappointed me, I could not beat myself black and blue over it (verbally).  Then I had to realize that the amount of food I was eating was the correct food to keep my body healthy.  It contained everything my  body needed during the day.  Next, I had to start realizing why I was  ‘hungry’ when I felt hungry.  Was I sad, angry, excited, bored, nervous, etc?  Or maybe even thirsty.  Besides changing habits, I needed to find alternate ways to deal with these emotions.

Who is this blog for?  It is for anyone who can learn from it.  Since I weight 200% of what they say my ‘ideal’ weight is, I guess it would be  for seriously overweight people who do not have a medical reason for their weight problem – and maybe even for them also.  It would be for the people who share my emotional eating patterns, for the people whose self-image and self-worth is bad and skewed, for the people who eat to socialize, and for the people who have tried to lose weight unsuccessfully.

If anyone reads a post and a light bulb goes on “Hey, that is true for me.  I can change that”, then this blog has fulfilled its purpose.

I hope that you will browse through the site index.  There is a lot of good content – real content – that might help you or someone you care about.

Please, feel free to leave a comment.

 Be the Weight You Want and Stay There | Reflections on 2008
Listen to this post Listen to this post

Making New Years Resolutions To Lose Weight

Saturday, December 27th, 2008
my ultimate n3rd New Year Resolution

Image by jonolist via Flickr

This is the time of year for New Years resolutions.  One of the most popular resolutions is to lose weight.  To make the resolution real, you must make it a goal, then find  your plan for reaching that goal.

Before you jump in and make a New Year’s Resolution think about it. It is easy in a moment of inebriation or frustration to declare “I am going to lose weight this year.” This resolution is also very easy to break. Why? Is it because you are addicted to overeating, or you enjoy the couch too much, or you are lazy? These may or may not be true, but are not the main reason the resolution might fail. The main reason is because the resolution is too vague.

How can you accomplish a New Years resolution objective if you do not have any way of measuring your progress towards accomplishing it?  We need a goal to strive for.  This goal needs to be reachable and reasonable.  You must have reasons why you want to be successful. If it is to lose 10 pounds to  fit into a size smaller prom dress you have a reasonable goal for most people.  The time you have to reach it is 3 or 4 months. If you lose the 10 pounds early, then you will have to maintain it until the prom. If you wait, you may not be able to lose it quickly enough.  Another thought:  what happens after the prom?  Do you forget about your weight and gain it right back?  Or do you continue to maintain a healthy weight?

For those of us who have more than a few pounds to lose, we have to follow through with a long term goal.  We have to change habits in our lives:  eating, sleeping, activity, schedules, etc.  Our resolution needs to contain levels of accomplishment.  One way to do this is to make our goal 10 pounds, then another 10, etc.   Say someone is 229 pounds and need to be about 140  pounds.   Make your first goal to get into the 200 teens, then the 200’s, then the 190’s etc.  Make it totally unacceptable in your mind to be above the goal.  Most of us, including me, are too comfortable at our heavier weight. How can you obtain a goal unless you feel it is a meaningful goal?

If you do not like the sub goals of  tens of pounds, try a percentage of the total pounds you are at the initial point.  So, if you start at 200 pounds and lose 10 percent of your body weight, you would be at 180 pounds.  In this instance, you simply need to know what percentage of your original weight your goal weight is.  For example, you weight 200 at the initial point, your healthy weight is 150 pounds, you need to lose 50/200 or 25% of your weight.

In weight loss, you also need to keep the time frame reasonable.  It is reasonable to lose 5 to 10 pounds the first week or so IF you have not been watching your food intake and IF you go on a strict 1500 calorie diet.  Most of the initial weight loss will probably be excess water weight.  After that, the safe weight loss rate is 1 to 2 pounds a week.

I have mentioned defining your goal in your resolution and making a reasonable time line.  The time line must be flexible as you will have plateaus in your weight loss.  To reach your goal, you need to decide what your eating plan will be, what your activity or exercise plan will be, and work on changing your mental attitude and picture of yourself.  I will not expand on that here.  That is the plan or the journey you will be starting on.  The resolution is the beginning of an interesting and challenging journey.

How do you plan on keeping your weight resolution?

Listen to this post Listen to this post


SEO Powered by Platinum SEO from Techblissonline