I guess I have a different perspective. But I think I am right

It is not "do or die" It is do or do not, then do again and again and again for the next 40 years, then die.

I think people (certainly me in the past) set themselves up for failure right out of the blocks by the way they go about losing weight. They make all sorts of grand resolves. They are sick and tired of being fat and "ready to get serious!!!!" They write impassioned first diary entries outlining Herculean diet and workout regimens. At first they lose a few pounds as if to validate their new lifestyle choices and in a couple of days or weeks, poof! They're gone.

They wanted too much, too soon! They were willing to work their asses off (literally) as long as they saw clear results. When that at some point failed the whole idea gets pitched in the bin and they overeat with the same abandon and gain back all they lost and more. It is binary thinking, I'm either "all in" or "all out" and it's all wrong.

Did you ever steer a really big boat? Small adjustments to the rudder begin small changes in bearing over time and distance. Eventually you change course. I think weight loss has to be like that.

Small changes, made over the long term. Changing incrementally the way you think about eating and exercise, learning bit by bit to enjoy a healthy lifestyle forever, rather than to force a huge lifestyle shift all at once upon yourself that you can sustain only until the burden becomes too great and you falter.

I think the biggest pitfall people face is the idea that weight loss is a linear progression. You change your lifestyle, you lose a bunch of weight, you're thin and all of your dreams come true!

It's not that way. We are involved in a complex partnership between our mind and our body. Our weight responds dynamically to the way we live in our environment. We behave in that environment, eating and moving, based on the way we feel physically and emotionally. How we feel physically is based on how we feed ourselves and exercise. It is a big circle. Weight loss is not linear, it is a log roll! And for some of us, we're in the water more often than not, because we fail to achieve the balance and rhythm necessary to stay on the log. Stop moving, and you get wet in a hurry.

Let's see, are there any other weird analogies I can work in here? Nope, that's enough for now.

David C

lol you guys are great. I love hearing different opinions and diagnoses on life. You two have amazing minds. I take both into consideration greatly. I surpassed my 50lb mark this morning and even though im getting my wisdom teeth out today and am going to have to eat a liquid diet for the next three days Im going to work on making the last half of my journey better and healthier.

that's actually not true... it's the same percentage of people here that believe 1200 is the way to go... a portion of them yeah but not tge majority -and spark does encourage resistance training as much as they encourage cardio - plus they have a lot of material on their site to educate people.. t

Amen to that...

Part of the whole lifestyle change thing is setting reasonable expectations.. I'm stuck in that myself right now -I demand more of myself than I do of others... but for all the roadblocks I've hit myself - I at least know I haven't gotten into the throw it all away and do what I was doing before - It just stagnate... because I went about this as a habit forming exercise -my new habits are formed and I can't go back...

I've said that countless times here and on other places.. and had a diary entry recently where I talked about an old book called the power of one... the most compelling quote from the book was about how a waterfall started from a single drop of water and now look at it.. small changes eventually become massive changes.

Really... that's good to hear. I read one thread yesterday and was impressed. But there's so much going on there, it's hard to stay on top of it all.

Different perpspective than my own?

Because I completely agree with everything you've said here. Actually, I've said a lot of the same things multiple times on this very forum.

Very nice post David.

Congrats on the 50lbs!

That's fantastic!!!!

my biggest issue with their boards is the same issue I have here... people who don't search first to see if their question has been asked already - so you'll find the same question being asked over and over and over again -and they just do a really bad job of moderatig that stuff but the quality of information is pretty good... least in my opinion...

No Steve, not from yours. I should've been clearer. I was responding to the "do or die" statement in one of the posts, but not even that poster's post specifically...more in general.

I've really enjoyed this thread, it has got me thinking.

David

I started reading this thread in response to a suggestion mal had made in another thread. It was really really good for me to read, so I thought it might be good for others as well. I am/was an all or nothing type of person. But I'm working hard to change that. I think the mental issue is a really big, important part of weight loss. I am fairly close to my goal, but I still struggle with being able to picture myself there, and what it will be like when I get there. After reading this, I'm going to begin working more on the mental aspect.

Thanks very much for bumping this thread. I had totally forgotten about it. I think I might use this (or something like it) in my blog soon.

Hi,
Any procrastination reflects a fear of the responsibility of an action, the fear here is from starvation, strenious exercise...etc. For those people, it's better if they began by just training to diet, they should have been eating more than 4000 calories/day to reach the present state, just make them 3500, 3000, 2500 calories and so on.

Huh?

They should have been eating more than 4000 calories? Why?

And what do you mean, "training to diet"?

The starrting point is that if any of us eats 2000 calories/day, he will neither gain nor lose weight, overweight and obese people should have been eeating far more than that - I do not know how much exactly - the point is that they will begin to reduce calorie intake gradually to find it an easy process.

I say that because I do not like the scam of losing weight in a few days or a week, people will regain weight and be reluctant about what should they do.

This is completely false.

Is English your second language?

How on Earth does this apply to this thread?