Eliminating Obstacles

Originally Posted by Pam Turner on 04/18/14:
There are basically two things we are dealing with when it comes to doing this or any other diet. Thing one is the physical part of experiencing some hunger for a few days, maybe some fatigue or a headache. No biggie. It's not fun, but the way I figured it, I'd had my years of gluttony and excessive indulgences. It was time to pay the piper. Hunger has its limits.It's not terminal. It doesn't keep expanding in to an unbearable agony or anything. Plus, you are consuming Cambridge and other non caloric beverages so you're not completely on empty. Nothing terrible is happening. Hunger is a normal part of life for all creatures...although most of us rarely actually experience it in our food laden lives so when it happens...we freak!

Thing two is the mental stuff and that is where the greatest cause of failure (for lack of a better word) happens. When you are fat and feeling negative about yourself, not just in appearance, but in your very character due to a sense of no self control, there is an endless dialog running in your head reinforcing that opinion at the same time there is a library of justifications and excuses playing as to why you should give up and endlessly procrastinate. There are the outside influences as well that do a fine job of discouraging someone when they are on a diet, but ultimately it is our own thoughts that stimulate action. The body is not in control of any of this. It does not go on autopilot and start ransacking the pantry forcing you to eat. Other people do not hold you down and force feed you. Every single action a person takes begins as a single speck of a thought. One thought builds on another and before you know it, your body reacts chemically to the signals and starts producing adrenalin and stress hormones and you need something to smother it all out. For us...that is food.

To be successful you MUST get control of your thoughts and the self talk that leads you to caving in. Pay attention to it. It is not the smell of a co-workers lunch or your mamma's mac and cheese that will be your undoing. It is your willingness to allow the germ of a thought to abandon your diet for one more day or week, or to assimilate any negative ideas about your self worth that will take you out.

Create an environment that nurtures your efforts. Do not fall in to the trap of setting yourself up to fail so you have an excuse to do so. I'm convinced that having a scale as part of your weight loss experience is detrimental to your success. Maybe with other diets you need one to make sure you are not screwing up, but that's not an issue with Cambridge. Just have your 3 or 4 servings a day and let nature take its course. When you're skinny enough for your own comfort, you are done. You'll know when you get there. Scales are the reason most people abandon their diets. We are as hopelessly addicted to numbers on a scale as we are to our bad eating habits. We see a good number..we eat. We see a bad number..we eat. You can't win at this game. Eliminate it.

Do not allow others to implant negative thoughts about what you are doing in your head. It's no body's business but your own and you are perfectly justified in letting them know that. Put them in their place. You're not a fool and you know what you're doing. If they also have weight to lose they'll see your success and and either want to try to improve themselves too from your example,or they will try to sabotage you (for reasons coming up) or they will avoid you like the plague. When a person is not ready to help themselves, they don't want someone else around them getting their act together and shine a big old spotlight on their unaddressed weight problem. Friends, family, co-workers, even spouses can feel very threatened when someone in their life loses weight. They may not like losing their "eating buddy", or feel left behind or suddenly not good enough...so many emotions. It may not seem fair, but it is up to you to set their minds at ease and let them know this is something you are doing for yourself and in the case of a spouse, it's ok to let them know you are doing it for "us".

The main message is, the secrete to weight loss success is not in a can or a pill or a doctors operating room. It is between your own ears. Your thoughts made you fat, and your thoughts will be what gets you thin. No one gets fat because they were hungry. You change your thinking, and you change your life.