Yesterday I posted about how I knew food wouldn’t help my emotional situation yet I turned to it anyway. I wrote about how I knew it was wrong but did it anyway. My mind told me what the right choice was yet I didn’t do it. At the end of the post I decided to try exercise to get me out of the weird mood that had descended upon me. I KNOW that even a little bit of daily exercise makes me feel better and makes me happier. Even though I know this lately I haven’t been practicing it.
I was completely right about the exercise. Just a short walk and half a workout from the Biggest Loser Bootcamp dvd (which kicked my butt) completely energized me and made me feel like my normal happy go lucky self again. Even a little bit of exercise made me feel 140% better. I knew it would.
So why do I do this? I KNOW what makes me feel good and what makes me happy. I KNOW how to lose weight. Most of us KNOW how to do these things. We know how to be successful and lose weight and be healthy, but we don’t do it. Why is their a disconnect between what we know works and what we actually do? Is it because the right road, the road that works, is the hard one? Its full of obstacles and takes effort and time to complete. Its a long, hard road to success so maybe that is why we don’t stick with it. Failure might just be easier than doing what we know works.
I’m working on this… doing what I know I should instead of doing the things that don’t help. I need to do the things I know work, not just revert back to the easy stuff.
Are you at all a visual learner? It took seeing myself in some really unflattering photos to get motivated and start making the right choices. I had a bad couple of months and shopping for a dress to wear to a wedding in January made me realized I’d lost it for a while and needed to refocus. So Feb was my rededication and determination. Keeping those yuck photos around keep me from backsliding! I’m going to put you on my blogroll if that’s OK. That way I’ll remember to check in on you.
MamaBearJune’s last blog post..Updated blogroll
I’d daresay most of us know what we should do. The hard part is getting motivated to manage it. Motivation is the key. Once you find “the moment” you’ll never look back. Hang in there!
Greg’s last blog post..Tennis With A Friend
When I was trying to find my way, the first thing I got “under control” was regular exercise. I felt like if I got one thing working, then the other would follow. It took a few months, but it DID work. For one thing, I needed the nutrition *g*, and for another, I was more motivated to make progress with healthy eating by my success with the exercise. Maybe worth a try for you? Think of it as success in smaller doses. :)
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Hugs. Struggle is all a part of the learning process! You’re making awesome progress, and like Cammy mentioned, it’s all about the small steps.
Sagan’s last blog post..Poll: Identifying Food Vices
This really speaks to me. I think most of us know all of the ‘rules’ of dieting, it’s just doing things we know. I’m with you. About the gaining the weight back. Gosh, that’s me. I gained almost all of it back (minus 20 lbs) It’s a terrible feeling. I know I’m a different dieter this time. I’m being less drastic, more realistic and I’m not throwing away my fat(er) clothes. And this time I’m blogging, as both an outlet and something to keep me busy from eating! Thanks for sharing, these are hard thoughts to share…
Beth’s last blog post..Despite my best efforts…
There is comfort in failure. I know it and feel it every time I stand in line at Mcdonalds.
I totally agree with the whole fear of success thing, but for me it’s a fear of what happens once I reach my final goal? Where do I go from there?
What I do to combat my failures is let them happen. Then from there I can assess what lead up to it and try to make the changes so that it can’t happen again.
Example: I was going to the mall in the afternoon with my co-workers and buying snacks (pop and chips). I had 2 choices stop going to the mall (which I didn’t want to do) or some how stop buying the junk. The solution for me was to leave my wallet in the car and park my car in the farthest spot from my building.
Can’t buy junk if you don’t have the money. It’s been 6 weeks and I’m going strong. I don’t even miss it anymore.
Good luck Mary,
Steve
Steve@weightlossweapons.com’s last blog post..Battle of the Workout Routines: ChaLEAN Extreme vs. Tony Horton’s 10 Minute Trainer
Sigh I totally know what you mean about knowing the right thing to do but not doing it. I kinda like how Dan Ariely, professor at MIT and Duke(?) puts it, when he says that humans are “predictably irrational.” We know what is good for us in the long term – what is good for our health, our bodies, but then what we “see” is short term – the donuts, the pizzas we reach for, skipping workouts and such, the easier options. He doesn’t exactly say how we’re supposed to win over the irrational self, but I guess it’s from knowing ourselves, and what we really want. If we want to get the goal bad enough, we will motivate ourselves to do it..
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Hi Marry,I am glad to hear that the Bootcamp DVD has come in handy for you.
You sound like you are going through tough times; that’s the ups and downs of what you (we) are trying to achieve. Just keep going, moving forward, don’t let little screw ups stop you, just pick yourself up and keep going.
When you are about to stray from your nutrition program take a moment and talk it out (audibly) about what this BAD food choice is going to do to you and the fact that if you choose it you will feel worse later on and beat yourself up about it, this usually works for me.
Take care and KEEP GOING!
Andrew
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