So a new month, time to start adding in extra challenges. From the reading I’ve being doing it’s a good idea not to overload when trying to set up new habits or behaviours, so I have not felt guilty about not starting on this one yet! The exercise that I have already started forms part of the plan anyway, so I’m building up my tactics which should help me to stick with it and develop good habits.
I’ve also been reading about how to change behaviour or motivations here. Analysing why you want to change something and what’s stopping you is a good idea, as I know weight loss is a goal I feel I’ve not successfully tackled before, at least in not the long term.
I have been reluctant to step on the scales, and looking deeper into that it’s because a) I probably fear what the true figure will be b) I hate the obsession with counting down the numbers. If you feel like you are sacrificing a lot for not much shifting of the digits it can be dispiriting.
So how to chart progress? Celebrating getting into clothes that I hadn’t fitted into was great last time I lost weight. Seeing changes to my body rather than number on the scale inspired and spurred me on. With this in mind I’ve decided to take weekly photos so that I can chart progress this way.
How will I know if I’ve achieved the 40lb challenge? I’m going to bite the bullet and step on the scales when I start. I think I’ll keep the number to myself for now. Once I’ve seen a significant change from the pictures, I’ll weigh again. Hopefully it will be encouraging! But if I’m happy with how I look, I won’t stress if the numbers aren’t massive.
In terms of how to do it day-to-day, I will start off logging food on myfitnesspal, a really useful free online resource. I used it a couple of years ago and the technique that worked best was plotting out what I’d have at the beginning of the day and factoring in snacks so that I would eat mindfully. I was also following a clean eating plan which I intend to do again, but as an 80/20 – that is allowing yourself to including a proportion of things that are processed and not feeling bad about it. The programme I used was based on body-building diets – I don’t mean drinking lots of protein shakes, but there was a lot of info on what to eat when for best results and it worked for me. This included having 6 ‘meals’ a day. Meals would not be a large 3 course effort. For me it meant factoring in a snack mid-morning and afternoon and something before bed. For example, porridge for breakfast, an apple and babybel mid morning, noodles and veg for lunch, some nuts and a clementine for snack, veg curry and rice for dinner, a glass of warm milk before bed time. I’ll talk at a later date about the reasons for eating often and the balances of food as I get back into it.
I was also looking at something called paradoxical intention and it struck me how this fitted in with the 6 meals. I’m a grazer and tend to feel better eating little and often, but when dieting snacking can be seen as a bad thing. So I might start off ok on the healthy 3 meals a day but would fall off the wagon and snack and feel bad then give up. Allowing myself to eat more often, in fact insisting on it, is kind of the theory behind paradoxical intention. Instead of feeling deprived and ending up obsessing about what it is I’m are trying to avoid, this gives me head room to forget all about it. With this in mind I have identified my chocoholic nature as something I need to apply paradoxic intention to. Instead of avoiding chocolate altogether I’m going to factor in a portion each day that I have to eat. I have a store card for John Lewis which has an offer of free cake and coffee once a month. I started off the year thinking I’ll give up all other sweet stuff and just have that cake as my treat. I’d not managed to give up everything else, but on the 2 visits so far I’ve found that the lack of guilt has meant I haven’t actually finished the slice of cake on either occasion, and both times it substituted a meal. I will definitely enjoy this part of the challenge! Wish me luck.
orourkesdrift 