Six Years, Six Posts: Post 5 - Uhhhhh...

Man, I made it all the way to post 5, but I can't really think of anything *aaaaarrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhh*. So, I bring to you bullets of random nuggets, which unfortunately seem to me to be a bit repetitive to the other posts in the series (oops!)...

• The band is only a tool. I can remember when I was just starting out that one of the things I read on one of the boards somewhere was "unfortunately it doesn't band your head". This is so true. So for those of us that struggle with disordered eating, the band may not help you in that regard. If you want to, you can "eat around the band". For me, I took the cliche route to addressing this challenge - shrink, books, and a helluva lot of practice that still continues to this day, but that path worked for me.


• Healthy choices and exercise will lead to loss. The scale may not reflect hard work/healthy choices immediately, but it eventually will. It's science, there is just no way eating well and exercising will not lead to loss. Unfortunately, our bodies can kinda suck at times and seem to fight back. If this happens, while it's frustrating, hang in there. Perseverance is your friend. There were plenty of times that I was questioning the process and wondering if it was going to work for me, but I just pushed my way through and hung in there. I should also mention that there was also a time that it turned out that I wasn't eating enough! Go figure, my body actually needed more food (healthy stuff) and weight loss started again.


• Exercise is key in my book. Without exercising, I believe that maintenance would be a cycle of gaining/losing/gaining/losing and for me, this cycle was one of the main things I was trying to leave behind! I'm sure there are people that get to goal without exercising, but for me I want to be thin and fit. Read this post skinny fat for more.  


• Eat your meals, don't drink them. I think I should and like to be able to eat most foods. If you look back through my blog you will see that there were times that I wasn't doing this, but in hindsight I was too tight.When I eat non soft food, I get full and stay full for a pretty decent amount of time even now. Soft food (sliders) / liquids don't do that for me. Also, I generally eat at least some of my protein first, but I love me some veggies! The million dollar question is what is the right restriction? Check out this post that contains an article that I think does an excellent job of covering restriction.


• Practice has led to improvement on not eating for the sake of eating. I've beaten the emotional part to death, this is really about is the food good? I have really grown in this area. If food isn't good, I don't eat it and while it can be wastefule, I've gotten over that. Food snob? Foodie? Whatever label that goes with this, this was a definite growth item for me.


• One bad day does not wreck the journey. It's one day, seriously get over it and don't beat yourself up. What purpose does that really serve other than making yourself feel bad and at times leading to thoughts of giving up? And no, I'm not saying to deny what happened or not analyze why it happened. I think that's important. It's the mean negative self talk that which I think can actually lead to another bad day. For those old enough to have VCRs, it's kinda like that slogan, be kind rewind. Be kind to yourself and yes rewind, review, and try to learn from it. Then move on. 


• As a bandster, I think everyone starts out with this hope and excitement to get going on this journey and motivation is 110%. Many people lose initially (some the entire time - lucky!) without a lot of effort. Then there are others that have to work hard to get every stinking pound off---I fell into this category, but now I think it was good. It allowed me to slowly work on myself and the things I needed to address to ensure my personal success. Regardless of whether the journey is "easy" or "hard", changes have to be made. You can't (and shouldn't) eat the amount you used to, are encouraged to change your eating habits, and encouraged to exercise.

If you are at a point that your are hitting a rough patch in your journey (been there on multiple times myself!), then I encourage you to not look at how far you have to go, but how far you have come. Consider making a list of all the positive changes that have occurred. I think you'll be amazed at how many you come up with. Consider posting that list on your bathroom mirror. Read it every morning and add to it as it grows. Avoid falling into the trap of: "but", "shoulda", "coulda", etc. What you list are accomplishments and you should be dang proud!