The Science of Figuring Yourself Out

Roasted salted nuts have a trigger effect on me.  It’s the classic “one is too many and a thousand isn’t enough” problem.  I can’t try one and be satisfied.  If I have one, I will obsess about them until I binge and realize that I have no control over nuts at all.

Carbohydrates have a physical effect on me.  After eating too many carbs at once, it’s no longer a matter of will power or what’s on my food plan.  My body has some sort of blood sugar meltdown.  I eat more carbs for a while, and then I switch to protein.  I eat lots of protein, trying to get my blood sugar restabilized.  No matter what I eat later, after I have that big dose of carbs the rest of the day is shot.  It’s a different feeling from craving a particular food, or being triggered by one food.  It’s a physical thing that happens with my metabolism, especially when I’ve been low-carbing it. 

The important thing for you is that you avoid the shame spiral when you’ve eaten off your food plan. 

Not Eating Around Busybodies and Food Pushers

Restaurants are easy.  Your hostess’s five-course meal, the pizza party at work, the drinks at the bar, or the cupcakes one of the other moms made for a class party – these are hard.  Because each of them comes with food pushers, sabotagers, invested givers, and busybodies.  These people are a problem, no doubt about it.

Somehow, these people have decided that it is their business what you put in your mouth.  They’ve come to the conclusion that you’re rejecting them if you reject their food.  They think you’re the enemy of fun if you don’t drink with them.

Well, honestly, they may be right.  You might indeed be the enemy  of fun. 

Small Goals, One Day at a Time, Rewards

You need to lose fifty or a hundred or three hundred pounds.

Wow.

That’s a really big number.  That’s a horrifying number.  That’s an impossible number.

Make it less intimidating.  Break it down into smaller pieces, and lure yourself along to one small achievement at a time.

Many people find that having smaller goals lets them set their sights on something that seems achievable.  It’s not a hundred pounds, it’s ten pounds ten times.  And then it’s not even ten pounds ten times, it’s this ten pounds.  Just ten pounds, looking no further than that.  They set their tickers to reflect a ten pound goal and call it “Goal #2.”  They manage themselves so they don’t freak out about the giant task ahead.

Screw Exercise When You're Obese

Do you know how hard your body is working all the time, just being fat?  Sitting still you’re working hard enough to put yourself in an early grave.  Deciding it’s time to lose weight and starting some Boot Camp to do it?  Suicidal.

They say that every extra pound you weigh puts four extra pounds of strain on your knees.  All that fat is putting strain on your heart, lungs, muscles, joints, and bones.  Talk to fat people about their feet.  Hear any stories of plantar fasciitis, orthopedic inserts, fallen arches, walking fractures, and just general pain?  Have any of these yourself?

It's Not a Diet, It's a Lifestyle Change

A diet is okay when you’re one of those horrible people who want to take off five pounds so their adorable little girl six-pack really pops.  A diet is a great idea when you want to take off fifteen pounds of beer fat so you can wear your wedding dress in a size four instead of eight.  A diet is the perfect thing when your inclusion in the Mission to Mars is contingent on your weighing a stone less than you do.

But a diet is not okay for losing a large amount of weight and keeping it off.

A diet is inherently about tension and deprivation.  A diet brings to mind living off grapefruit and a single lettuce leaf.  It makes us think of plain celery sticks, and quite frankly, if you get excited about plain celery sticks you’re going to need to rethink things.  Maybe some therapy.  You’re not doing this “fat” thing right at all.

Handling Cravings

Cravings are the powerful urges we get to eat off-plan foods.  They can be tightly laser-focused on one thing, and we walk around like zombies with our arms out, saying “Pizza… pizza… pizza…”  They can be broader, and we just have an itchy “sweet tooth” or “snackish… crunchy…” feeling.

However your cravings show up, they’re a problem you need to actively address.  Luckily there are lots of things you can do.  Any of them are just ideas.  If something doesn’t work, or doesn’t keep working, try something else.  Experiment until you find the best way to manage yourself given your relationship with food.

Cravings Management Strategies:

Are You Really Ready to Lose the Weight?

Being fat sucks.  But so does dieting.  In fact, it’s kind of a toss-up which sucks more.  If you think about it, I’d go so far as to say evidence suggests dieting sucks worse than being fat, because almost every person who says they want to lose weight stays fat.

Dieting is about foregoing temporary pleasure in favor of long-term rewards.  That sucks.  Dieting is about deprivation, doing without comfort, entertainment, companionship, getting drunk off your ass, and chili nacho cheese fries.  Did I mention it sucks?  It sucks.