self sabotage...need help to get to my ultimate goal!!
 

hey everyone,

I have changed my eating lifestyle after years of yo yoing. I have been doing this for close to a year and a half. Previous to this I had some major binge eating issues. I have lost 35lbs, roughly and i have gained a lot of muscle. I am probably the fittest and thinnest I have ever been as an adult. I have a good 25 lbs til my ultimate goal, which I feel i will never and can never get to. I find that even tho I am not necessarily hungry all I can think about is when I can next eat something "bad" even if i am not craving it. Its completely psychological. I have tried all the tricks of finding other things to do etc...but i wake up thinking about and fantasizing about all of the crap I can binge on. If i actually ever do eat anything "bad" I rarely do enjoy it the way I used to so it isnt even really serving any purpose. I go to the gym 5 days a week and do a lot of weight training. I cant help but feel that part of this has to do with being a woman and all the hormonal times of the month tho I dont want to blame it only on that. Any advice would really help me. I know that if i could just stop sabotaging I would get to my goal at a nice steady pace over the next 4 months or so.

You say you're the thinnest and fittest you have been as an adult. That's no small accomplishment! So, what's wrong with just 'keep doing what you're doing'?

If you're obsessing over crap food, then that has to do with your diet program/ beliefs. I finally have cycled through all the diets - there have been many, and all successful for the short-term - and now I've discarded the whole idea of 'bad foods.' Some diets push that idea, 'bad foods,' more than others. I recently had some fast food and, believe me, it was very affordable on my (Weight Watchers) diet. I had been craving a Big Mac, or something equally jumbo, fatty, salty and tasty. I challenged myself to stick to a Happy Meal. It turns out that the new, more 'healthy' Happy Meal has a tiny portion of fries and some sliced, fresh apples. I didn't even know that! It's fewer calories, but still a splurge. After I ate that for lunch, it was much easier to say, 'I don't need that Big Mac.'

The point is: your diet isn't made up of fast food or pastries or cakes. Even if it was, you'd still lose weight if you ate fewer calories than you burn. Sodium jacks up your weight and that's a drawback to eating a lot of fast food. But - come on - calories are on the McDonald's box. You add 'em up, you stay within the limit you've set and THAT's where your success lies. Obsessing that a food is bad and off-limits is going to make that food always sing its siren song for you, while other foods seems angelic in comparison. As my WW leader often says, 'You can get fat eating too many bananas... but people don't eat too many bananas, they eat too many calories, which are packed in densely delicious foods!'

I totally sympathize. I wanted pizza so badly last week. It went on for days.

However, pizza is bad news for me. I can't have a couple of slices. I usually have minimum four.

I was out at a friend's place helping her unpack and they ordered pizza. Not only did I keep it to two slices, I didn't even enjoy it! It was really strange.

So, I suggest you have a reasonable amount of your favourite bingy food. Just don't get too carried away and try not to bring more than you should eat into the house.

Also, being the thinnest and fittest you've ever been, great work! This random internet stranger is proud of you.