I don't limit myself of anything 100%. Yes, I try to keep ny calories in check, but if I really want that piece of chocolate one day, I have that chocolate.
Perhaps a therapist could help?
I found that the more the pounds dropped, the more I was able to control my eating
For exercise, the best thing for me was to find someone to do it with. We started by walking. Then added in exercise classes, then added using the weight machines at the gym.
Maybe try yoga. I love yoga.
Last Edit: Jan 5, 2023 12:45:31 GMT by freecharlie
Tribbey: I believe, as long as Justice Dreifort is intolerant toward gays, lesbians, blacks, unions, women, poor people, and the first, fourth, fifth, and ninth amendments, I will remain intolerant toward him! [to Ainsley] Nice meeting you
Exercise is just something I do - every day. It feels odd to me to go to bed at night if I didn’t exercise all day. Similar to brushing my teeth or washing my face.
This. It just has to become a habit. I got way off track this fall. I am finally back to my regular schedule and it took a couple of months for me to get back to feeling like it's a habit.
Also, as others have said, it really helps to have a workout buddy. I have a friend who picks me up every morning for the gym. It helps us both stay accountable.
Choose healthy foods that you truly enjoy, which will be a shift rather than a denial. That is, if there are healthy foods you enjoy.
Even for carry-out, there are ways, for instance I asked that my favorite dish from a Chinese restaurant be steamed. With a little soy sauce it was still very good.
What do you like to eat? Because the shift will be different for different people.
I think walking is a great start. Find a music playlist, podcast, or audiobook you can listen to while walking. Getting to listen to a new episode of a favorite podcast makes that long walk something I look forward to. If I’m walking on a treadmill, I watch a show or movie.
Once you’re out there and moving and enjoying the process, you might find that you’re ready to try some new workouts and routines.
Good advice about the music or podcast or audiobook... But, I have to laugh about your comment that I bolded. I have walked on and off (mostly "on") since the pandemic. And I have yet to enjoy myself. Maybe in certain kind of weather -- a crisp almost-cold fall day -- it's not too bad. But never enjoyable. I'm with the OP and I always roll my eyes when people say "find an exercise you enjoy". Nope. lol.
Look, I’m not trotting down the road with a big grin on my face every time I walk, but I do enjoy the process overall when I pair it with something else I enjoy. And I love the way I feel when it’s over. 😉
Good advice about the music or podcast or audiobook... But, I have to laugh about your comment that I bolded. I have walked on and off (mostly "on") since the pandemic. And I have yet to enjoy myself. Maybe in certain kind of weather -- a crisp almost-cold fall day -- it's not too bad. But never enjoyable. I'm with the OP and I always roll my eyes when people say "find an exercise you enjoy". Nope. lol.
Look, I’m not trotting down the road with a big grin on my face every time I walk, but I do enjoy the process overall when I pair it with something else I enjoy. And I love the way I feel when it’s over. 😉
That's true, there is a great feeling of "hey I did it" when I'm done.
I just downloaded "Chamber of Secrets" on audiobook so I'll try listening to that while I was this afternoon. I've read it more than once and watched the movies, so I know the story well enough that when my mind wanders I won't be too lost.
Look, I’m not trotting down the road with a big grin on my face every time I walk, but I do enjoy the process overall when I pair it with something else I enjoy. And I love the way I feel when it’s over. 😉
That is it for me, too. I have started listening to audio books when I walk, and that has made me enjoy it so much more. And when I get home from a walk, I feel so good. Especially on days when the weather is less than ideal. LOL Yesterday was one of those days. I met a friend to walk at a park, and it was cold and windy, and we had scarves wrapped around our faces. I would rather have been at home cozy and warm, but when I did get home, I felt so good that I had made myself go out on such an inclement day and walk.
I still need to do that today, and it is even colder. I am dreading it, but I know once I am finished, I will be glad I did. I never regret going out for a walk, but I do regret it when I am lazy and don't. I sometimes use that to get me out--I tell myself, "Okay, justt. If you go for a walk, you will not get home and say, damn, I wish I wouldn't have gone for that walk!" But if I don't, I will be pissed at myself for not going.
Look, I’m not trotting down the road with a big grin on my face every time I walk, but I do enjoy the process overall when I pair it with something else I enjoy. And I love the way I feel when it’s over. 😉
That is it for me, too. I have started listening to audio books when I walk, and that has made me enjoy it so much more. And when I get home from a walk, I feel so good. Especially on days when the weather is less than ideal. LOL Yesterday was one of those days. I met a friend to walk at a park, and it was cold and windy, and we had scarves wrapped around our faces. I would rather have been at home cozy and warm, but when I did get home, I felt so good that I had made myself go out on such an inclement day and walk.
I still need to do that today, and it is even colder. I am dreading it, but I know once I am finished, I will be glad I did. I never regret going out for a walk, but I do regret it when I am lazy and don't. I sometimes use that to get me out--I tell myself, "Okay, justt. If you go for a walk, you will not get home and say, damn, I wish I wouldn't have gone for that walk!" But if I don't, I will be pissed at myself for not going.
I’m jealous! You’re probably just about over the cold weather, but I love a walk on a really cold day. We get so few of them here, and it feels so good to me.
Look at it as a way to take care of yourself so that you can try and avoid diseases and medication later in life. For my out of control diabetes I’m on 3 different medications right now (should be on 4 but people using the shot for dieting are making it unavailable for others), eating super well and very low carb, and I can’t get my glucose numbers under control. The lowest it’s been in a month is 238. You don’t want this, take care of yourself now.
Choose healthy foods that you truly enjoy, which will be a shift rather than a denial. That is, if there are healthy foods you enjoy.
Even for carry-out, there are ways, for instance I asked that my favorite dish from a Chinese restaurant be steamed. With a little soy sauce it was still very good.
What do you like to eat? Because the shift will be different for different people.
This too. Learn to cook well, high quality foods that you enjoy. Healthy food can be delicious, and once you get used to it it may be that fast food and junk food (low quality unhealthy home cooked stuff) don’t taste as good to you any more.
I used to use to feel like you, but after dealing with breast cancer and Hashimoto's it is something I GET or I'm ABLE to do.
It helps me deal with physical and mental health issues. I just feel so much better when I do it and it enables me to do all the things I couldn't do when I was sick. HTH
What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us. ~ Helen Keller
So many people don’t have healthy, fully functional bodies for reasons outside their control. I do and am so grateful for that. I want to take care of this body and appreciate what it does for me so I can live a life without physical limitations for as long as possible. This body and life are gifts I don’t want to squander. So I do what I have to and don’t view caring for it as a burden.
Need a mindset shift: how do I stop viewing healthy eating and exercising as a punishment for being fat?
Just talked to my Dr and I am a smidge over the line into pre-diabetic. I am prob 25+ lbs overweight. I know what to do. I know how to count macros, how to buy/make/eat healthy foods, how to exercise. I know how to do all of those things. I just hate doing them. They feel like punishment. I really need a mindset shift. How do I view those things as a privilege, and not punishment or drudgery or torture?
(And before you tell me to find a form of exercise that I like, I really don’t like any kind of exercise. I get extremely sweaty and hot and I turn purple in the face and I generally feel sore and tired and worse afterwards. I genuinely don’t think I will ever love exercise. I’m not sure I could ever even get to the point of liking exercise. At best I’m hoping to tolerate it. I was the kid who would sit at recess reading a book because I didn’t want to run around and get sweaty and hot.
Can you teach me how to count macros? Maybe that will help you🙃🙃
Kluski AncestralPea PeaNut 39,382. Refupea 2014 May 2002 Posts: 4,732 Layouts: 10 Loc: mid-atlantic region
Look at food as fueling your body instead of something that gives you pleasure. I can eat really healthy when I am fueling. I try to do the 80-20 philosophy. 80% of the time I eat healthy, 20% of the time I allow myself to eat things I like. But I also love fruit and vegetables so those aren't a punishment.
Start small on exercise. Walk and listen to music or a podcast.
I enjoy walking and strength training. I wouldn't exercise if getting on a treadmill or running was involved. I will do HIITS for cardio. Try to find something you enjoy so it doesn't feel like punishment.
I have always struggled with my weight. For me, so much of my weight is tied into my mental health.
After I had my oldest son, I felt so empowered and grateful to my body. It carried me through a healthy pregnancy (at 36) and endured nearly 3 days of hard, unmedicated labor.
I felt like I could do anything with my body if I could survive that.
I worked with a trainer and I was the strongest I've ever been. I felt better than I'd ever felt.
And then, I had several miscarriages. I stopped working with the trainer because he gave my 6am spot to someone else while I was recovering from a D&C for my 4th miscarriage. He told me he thought it would be fine because I was "just a stay at home mom and (I) could come anytime." (I actually could not, which is why I worked out at 6 am.)
I had a few more miscarriages. My mom became ill and eventually died.
The weight came back. I managed to become, amd stay, pregnant with my 2nd baby, and here I am. Depressed and overweight.
I'm trying to get back to the person who loved her body and marveled at its strength. I did not really love the actual working out, but I did love learning that what body was capable of.
I love exercise when I don't think I'm exercising. I hate running: always have, always will. I loathed when we had to run the mile starting in 6th grade PE. It was not a natural thing for me and, like the OP, I don't like being sweaty. Now, that same 11 year old kid could take a two hour ballet class or play volleyball or any other games endlessly and absolutely love it.
I have to force myself to go for a walk. I live on a beautiful beach with a flat road running parallel (unlike the crazy hills of my old neighborhood). I shouldn't complain...but I just find it boring.
So I have no answers for you. Like someone mentioned above, I look at it as something I need to do, like making the bed and cleaning the litter box. I'm also a compulsive to-do list maker and I hate leaving items undone. If I put "walk!" (see that manufactured enthusiasm?) on my list, it will most likely get done.
I have had 10,000 steps for 3hrs now. I am still going to the gym grumbling because I have to do weights. I hate doing them. My shoulders will ache tomorrow and I am doing level 2 because I am so weak. Walking today was wonderful! Truly. I came up with a new route plus the animal and I had a nice walk. I am going to go walk him again now then go to the gym. They do have a treadmill there and I love doing inclines on a treadmill!!!!!
Clarice Starling with my good bag and cheap shoes.
I was going to add this too. I don’t have a choice to not walk a few times per day because I have dogs. For example, it is Sunday morning and cold, but I’m about to put my warm clothes on and walk a mile because the dogs have to go out. If I didn’t have dogs, I would spud out on the couch.
“ There is something uncannily adaptive about anti-Semitism: the way it can hide, unsuspected, in the most progressive minds.” James Lasdun
I was going to add this too. I don’t have a choice to not walk a few times per day because I have dogs. For example, it is Sunday morning and cold, but I’m about to put my warm clothes on and walk a mile because the dogs have to go out. If I didn’t have dogs, I would spud out on the couch.
Better yet, get two dogs who can't be walked together because one of them is a herding b*tch who won't leave the other one alone on walks. Twice the walking! Twice the fun!
Need a mindset shift: how do I stop viewing healthy eating and exercising as a punishment for being fat?
Just talked to my Dr and I am a smidge over the line into pre-diabetic. I am prob 25+ lbs overweight. I know what to do. I know how to count macros, how to buy/make/eat healthy foods, how to exercise. I know how to do all of those things. I just hate doing them. They feel like punishment. I really need a mindset shift. How do I view those things as a privilege, and not punishment or drudgery or torture?
(And before you tell me to find a form of exercise that I like, I really don’t like any kind of exercise. I get extremely sweaty and hot and I turn purple in the face and I generally feel sore and tired and worse afterwards. I genuinely don’t think I will ever love exercise. I’m not sure I could ever even get to the point of liking exercise. At best I’m hoping to tolerate it. I was the kid who would sit at recess reading a book because I didn’t want to run around and get sweaty and hot.
How are you doing with this? It’s the time of year when the newcomers have left the gym and people are eating carbs again at work lol.
I tell myself ‘ I get to go running today’ but ‘I have to go running today’ it makes all the difference. I know many people who would love to run, but cannot. So you truly do have to change your mindset, which isn’t always easy to do so.
I would stop the high intensity cardio and just start with long walks. I believe it’s the best for everyone young and old. From there, you find a sport or exercise that when you are doing it or are done, you feel happy and accomplished. For me it’s running. I love it and the feeling I get when I finish is great.
I have found that I am way more committed to my mental health than my physical health. And don't get me wrong, they are both completely entwined. However I have always been of the mindset that there's no way I can improve my physical self when my mental is suffering. And let's face it, I can't function optimally at work or in my personal life or anything really when my brain is crazy. So reframing things for me really helps. I am much more likely to have a happy and productive day if I exercise. that's just the fact. It makes me energized and my brain calm. I embrace that.
I have also done a lot of reading lately and a lot of mindset work about my weight. I am no longer going to focus on my weight at all. I am accepting myself for who I am and what size I am. This was probably a smidge easier for me than some others because I've never been particularly focused on looks or fashion. But I am working on just embracing myself as is.
Finally when it comes to food, I am refusing to consider dieting, tracking, calories, anything of the sort. I am lucky because I like all kinds of foods and I am not picky. so I am choosing to improve my health by making better choices of things I want to eat by calling it self care. In other words, I choose a whole grain bun instead of a white one. Or I make and serve myself twice the veggies I would normally eat and eat them first. Not only are veggies better when they are freshly roasted, but they fill me up a bit first and then I get on with the business of eating other things. But I eat whatever I want and however much I want.
I've found that these little changes are not hard to make. And I'm telling myself as much as I possibly can that these are instances of self care. I have the choice to take care of myself or not. But wherever and whenever I can, I frame it in a mental context because that is much easier for me to work toward good mental health.
I feel better and am in a better mood when I exercise so that is what gets me going. When we got a dog I had to start walking outside and that I don’t love. I bought AirPods and started listening to audiobooks and now I can’t wait to walk the dog every day and wish I had more time for it.
As far as food goes, I feel much better when I eat better. I allow days when I don’t eat as heathy but overall I prefer to eat healthfully. It just makes me feel more energetic and happier.
PeaNut 74,479 March 2003 Posts: 17,867 Layouts: 116
Need a mindset shift: how do I stop viewing healthy eating and exercising as a punishment for being fat?
Just talked to my Dr and I am a smidge over the line into pre-diabetic. I am prob 25+ lbs overweight. I know what to do. I know how to count macros, how to buy/make/eat healthy foods, how to exercise. I know how to do all of those things. I just hate doing them. They feel like punishment. I really need a mindset shift. How do I view those things as a privilege, and not punishment or drudgery or torture?
(And before you tell me to find a form of exercise that I like, I really don’t like any kind of exercise. I get extremely sweaty and hot and I turn purple in the face and I generally feel sore and tired and worse afterwards. I genuinely don’t think I will ever love exercise. I’m not sure I could ever even get to the point of liking exercise. At best I’m hoping to tolerate it. I was the kid who would sit at recess reading a book because I didn’t want to run around and get sweaty and hot.
For your first question my answer would be after a month or two, or longer, of embracing the new lifestyle choices. It just becomes a part of who you are after some time.
As to the exercise component, I'm am with you on the hating to sweat thing, totally. My exercise is walking 3-4 miles, days a week at a good clip. I've made a playlist of songs where the beats per minute match my goal speed. I'm at about 13.5 minutes per mile. It's a great challenge for me. You can google your speed and find songs to meet that goal. I also do some at home stretches and core strengthening exercises from my PTs over the years. I also have made a habit over the last 10 years to walk where I'm going rather than driving and/or taking the bus. You can also do little things like parking across the lot from where you want to go, that sort of thing.
Exercise at its very essence is about moving your body, that's all. You move your body all day long, so you just have to start moving it more.
Simply doing things like stepping in place while standing at the sink or counter is moving more.
You can move in the privacy of your own home; hell, you can do the cha cha slide in your kitchen or practice a belly dance while brushing your teeth. All of that is exercise.
As trite as it seems, the old adage that the more you move the more you want to move is true. You will eventually find yourself looking for ways to move more and increase your steps, like parking farther away from a store.
As far as eating healthier goes, embrace the "ier". You don't have to do a complete overhaul of your diet and eating habits all at once.
Just try to find small ways to improve your diet, one day at a time. Maybe only having a half a sandwich one day or not having toast with breakfast.
Doesn't have to be the same thing every day, but just by asking yourself if there is something you could substitute (hummus instead of cream based dip) or forgo (not having a muffin at breakfast so you can have something sweet later) those small things start to add up.
For me, it is all about moderation. As soon as something is "forbidden " that is all I want. As long as the less healthy foods are only eaten occasionally, I do pretty well. I might go through a week or two of wanting/eating a particular food like captain crunch or pop tarts and then I won't eat them again for six months.
IMO, having a positive attitude is key, not matter what you want to do. I follow Catherine Horn on Facebook. She has such a wonderful personality and positive, upbeat attitude and it is so contagious. You can't help but smile at her posts.
I have found that I am way more committed to my mental health than my physical health. And don't get me wrong, they are both completely entwined. However I have always been of the mindset that there's no way I can improve my physical self when my mental is suffering. And let's face it, I can't function optimally at work or in my personal life or anything really when my brain is crazy. So reframing things for me really helps. I am much more likely to have a happy and productive day if I exercise. that's just the fact. It makes me energized and my brain calm. I embrace that.
I have also done a lot of reading lately and a lot of mindset work about my weight. I am no longer going to focus on my weight at all. I am accepting myself for who I am and what size I am. This was probably a smidge easier for me than some others because I've never been particularly focused on looks or fashion. But I am working on just embracing myself as is.
Finally when it comes to food, I am refusing to consider dieting, tracking, calories, anything of the sort. I am lucky because I like all kinds of foods and I am not picky. so I am choosing to improve my health by making better choices of things I want to eat by calling it self care. In other words, I choose a whole grain bun instead of a white one. Or I make and serve myself twice the veggies I would normally eat and eat them first. Not only are veggies better when they are freshly roasted, but they fill me up a bit first and then I get on with the business of eating other things. But I eat whatever I want and however much I want.
I've found that these little changes are not hard to make. And I'm telling myself as much as I possibly can that these are instances of self care. I have the choice to take care of myself or not. But wherever and whenever I can, I frame it in a mental context because that is much easier for me to work toward good mental health.
I love love LOVE that mentality. I think I am going to write it on a post it so I can reference it and not feel resentful about certain choices.
There's lots of useful suggestions here but one I second is finding your why. You know why I exercise and try to eat healthy? I don't want to lose a leg due to complications of diabetes like my grandfather. I don't want to want to lose my eyesight because of diabetes like my aunt. I don't want to be fragile and worry about breaking a bone trying to get out of a chair like my mom. I want to be healthy, strong and disease free in my elder years. My dad is going down the same path as my grandfather and he doesn't see it and it worries me. But that is not going to me! I want to keep up with my grandchildren and bug my kids when I'm in my 80's, not sitting on a couch waiting to take my next pill/shot/etc. Find your why, it helps to make it easier to do what you need to do to stay healthy.
Lynn
~~Enthusiasm and a good pair of shoes can take you anywhere~~