Since the 100 Days theme is such a powerful tool for motivating me, I have decided to harness it to focus on weight loss this time. Reading Life is Too Short to be Fat, which is filled with basic truths about losing weight, and why making excuses and simply waiting for a trigger is not good enough reason to stay fat.
Like not reaching for that first drink (or stopping by the pub, or ever buying alcohol i the first place) - there is a certain time when you can stop yourself and consciously choose not to eat the wrong food. And not to make excuses or add emotions or some sabotaging context to the food. It is a biscuit - bad, simple as that. It is not 'deserved' or 'because I am tired' or 'a special reward' - see where the alcoholic thinking has some cross over here?
I found myself finishing a project or late shift and coming home via a liquor store, buying two or three bottles of wine, a sixpack of beer and a couple of packets of potato chips for some savoury 'balance'. Then I would start on the beer around nine am, and graduate to wine before eleven am. By five or six that evening I would be asleep in bed, or stumbling around outside staring at the chickens. This was my 'day-off' reward, or so I thought.
In a similar way, I have been eating chocolate like never before in my life - and it is a sad reality that some people have remarked they thought I would have lost more weight stopping drinking. I probably have, but the chocolate has not helped at all.
So, here we go with a new list of commitments and the next series of challenges...
Like not reaching for that first drink (or stopping by the pub, or ever buying alcohol i the first place) - there is a certain time when you can stop yourself and consciously choose not to eat the wrong food. And not to make excuses or add emotions or some sabotaging context to the food. It is a biscuit - bad, simple as that. It is not 'deserved' or 'because I am tired' or 'a special reward' - see where the alcoholic thinking has some cross over here?
I found myself finishing a project or late shift and coming home via a liquor store, buying two or three bottles of wine, a sixpack of beer and a couple of packets of potato chips for some savoury 'balance'. Then I would start on the beer around nine am, and graduate to wine before eleven am. By five or six that evening I would be asleep in bed, or stumbling around outside staring at the chickens. This was my 'day-off' reward, or so I thought.
In a similar way, I have been eating chocolate like never before in my life - and it is a sad reality that some people have remarked they thought I would have lost more weight stopping drinking. I probably have, but the chocolate has not helped at all.
So, here we go with a new list of commitments and the next series of challenges...
I can totally relate. Reward driven emotion eating is a horrific addiction for me. I suspect carbs in junk food and carbs in alcohol are similarly evil.....
ReplyDeleteI totally eat by emotions. When I first stopped drinking I craved sweets all the time. I thought I would loose tons of weight by not drinking anymore but that hasn't happened so I'm going to check into that book you are reading.....
ReplyDeleteHave been walking everyday - there is something like 100 days to Christmas so there's another 100 goal - walk everyday, no matter what, for the next hundred days - going well on day five so far...
ReplyDeleteJust discovered you. Thanks for commenting on my blog. I am also a skinny sober person trapped inside a fat lush. Sober for almost a year, through writing. Amazing isn't it? Cheers to the power of writing and love of family and self! I'll be following you!
ReplyDeleteBest of luck to you on this new journey! I actually run a nutrition company coaching people on how to loose weight along with exercise and diet. The best thing about knowing how the brain works with addiction gives you full advantage to being more successful at this goal of loosing weight. I have found that especially people who have battled addiction before they loose weight, seem to be more successful at losing the weight. Knowing what it takes to be so disciplined. If you approach weight loss with the same theory and attitude as any other addiction...I guarantee you will be where you want to be in 100 days.
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