Roger Zoul

Luna wrote:
:: I don't know what is up with me lately. I've been way too emotional
:: about this stall. I go from being really depressed about it to
:: really excited about breaking it, and I get really gung-ho about
:: exercising and eating less, then I get really angry if I do
:: something like have one bite of a croissant, then I get really
:: depressed again. I AM still using Fitday, I skipped a couple of
:: days and then used it again yesterday, and even on the days I didn't
:: use it I ate about what I'd been eating for the days I was using it.
:: So, I know I'm not overeating. I'm going and working out even when
:: I don't feel like it, but I have very little enthuisiasm for it any
:: more.


JFYI....I find often that ahead of a workout, if I don't feel like doing it,
but go anyway, that it turns out to be a very satisfying workout. See,
after you get into it, starting kind of slow, giving yourself time to warm
up -- because, you're really taking it kind of easy because you didn't want
to do it anyway -- then, before you know it, you've found the groove...then
you'll end up wondering why in the hell you didn't want to workout in the
first place. When that workout is over you feel really good.

Sometimes, the plain simple truth is less is more.

::
:: It used to be, I'd get weighed and measured every month at Curves,
:: and I wouldn't even think about my weight until those monthly
:: weigh-ins. But my happiness was not a reflection of the number on
:: the scale. Now I find myself weighing at home every day on my cheap,
:: unreliable scale from Wal-mart, which is still not going down, and
:: feeling bad about it.

You're on the part of the curve where things start to get harder. You've
heard it mentioned here many, many times and hence you know this happens to
all dieters, exercise or not.

What do you think is the solution to your problem?

::
:: I want to keep working on losing weight, I want to hope for an end
:: to the stall, but I wish my emotions weren't so tied up in it.

Then to get your emotions out of it, focus on being more analytical in your
approach. Truly make it "Luna's science experiment." Check Carol Ann's
monthly challenge pages. You'll see that I've gone months on end in what
some refer to as a stall. But I kept at it...grinding away. Eventually,
things change. Sometimes you simply get bored. So, even though you want to
lose weight, you end up just maintaining (which, imo, is good to since you
didn't go back up). But after a while you decide that "hey -- it's time to
push a little harder"...and then your body wakes up....you start losing
again.

It's a journey, Luna, and everyone walks a different path. Your's will be
what it is, but the important thing is you keep on the path. Just refuse to
give up. Eventually, with that kind of attitude, you get where you need to
go.

::
:: I have found in the past that when I really want something, the
:: straining, yearning, desperate hope for it doesn't make it come any
:: sooner.

Absolutely. Actions, backed up my intelligence, are the only things that
give results. Having "hope" is fine, but without actions it's useless.


All it does is make the waiting harder. It's like when you
:: want a relationship, and you want one so badly that you have this
:: aura of desperation around you. I finally woke up one day and had
:: to face the possiblilty that I might be single forever. It was
:: scary and sad. But I faced it, I visualized my life as a single
:: woman forever, and it wasn't as bad as I'd feared. I realized I had
:: friends, family, interests, and enough good things about me to keep
:: myself occupied for the rest of my life even if I never have a
:: partner. I still wanted a relationship but being single wasn't the
:: end of the world anymore. The desperation left, and I became more
:: attractive to the opposite sex, and now I'm dating again.
::
:: I wonder if I should apply the same sort of thought process to
:: weight loss. Keep limiting carbs and calories, keep exercising, but
:: become at peace with the possibility that I may be this weight
:: forever.

That is a form of "less is more."

Twenty pounds less would be better, but this weight isn't
:: the end of the world. I don't have to be miserable if the scale
:: doesn't move. I don't know if there's some cosmic process at work
:: here beyond simply "calories in, calories out" but I do know that
:: the brain and the body are connected, and changing one often changes
:: the other. So maybe if I stop fighting so hard (emotionally, not in
:: the practicalities of what I eat and how much I work out) my body
:: will start cooperating.

That is very true in the sense that you won't get frustrated and give up, or
flip-flop from week to week. Some things just have to be given time to have
an impact. Instant results just aren't realistic. Persistence pays
dividends, big time.

People do get over illnesses quicker when
:: they have a more positive outlook, could it be that a more positive,
:: peaceful, emotionally balanced mental state could help with weight
:: loss as well?

Absolutely.