Time, Patience, and Consistent Effort
- POSTED ON: Jul 25, 2012

Losing weight needs time, patience, and consistency in eating less food than one's body uses. Maintaining weight-loss also requires time, patience, and consistency in eating ONLY the amount of food that one's body uses. The sad fact is that most people give up before they've even barely begun. There are always lots of people starting and giving up diets, and many more coming up behind them to do the same thing.

We are now so used to the instant gratification that comes in so many areas of our modern life, that a part of us can't help but expect it to also apply to the size of our bodies, so we become disenchanted when the first few days of a diet doesn't bring much by the way of a result on the appearance or size of our bodies. It has been such hard work, why hasn't it made any difference?

Dieting needs Time, Patience, and Consistent Effort, three things that are in short supply nowadays. Regrettably many people are just not inclined to participate in the long run, they want results, and they want them NOW. That's just not going to happen.

We can be successful at losing weight, and at maintaining weight-loss
…but only with Time, Patience, and Consistent Effort.


Perfectionism
- POSTED ON: Jul 22, 2012

 

Perfectionists are those people who strain compulsively and unceasingly toward unobtainable goals.
Pressuring oneself to achieve such unrealistic goals inevitably sets the individual up for disappointment. Perfectionists tend to be harsh critics of themselves when they do not meet the standards they set for themselves.  Negative thinking surrounds perfectionism, in particular the "all-or-nothing" thinking in which a person believes that an achievement is either perfect or useless.

Perfectionism is:

* an all pervasive attitude that whatever you attempt in life must be done letter perfect with no deviation, mistakes, slip-ups or inconsistencies

* the irrational belief that you and/or your environment must be perfect

* a rigid, moralistic outlook that does not allow for humanism or imperfection

* the striving to be the best, to reach the ideal and to never make a mistake


* a habit developed from youth that keeps you constantly alert to the imperfections, failings, and weakness in yourself and others

* a level of consciousness that keeps you ever vigilant to any deviations from the norm, the guidelines or the way things are "supposed to be"

* the underlying motive present in the fear of failure and fear of rejection, i.e., if I am not perfect I will fail and/or I will be rejected by others

* a reason why you may be fearful of success, i.e., if I achieve my goal, will I be able to continue, maintain that level of achievement

* an inhibiting factor that keeps you from making a commitment to change habitual, unproductive behavior out of fear of not making the change "good enough"

* the belief that no matter what you attempt it is never "good enough" to meet your own or others' expectations

Irrational beliefs that contribute to perfectionism:


* Everything in life must be done to your level of perfection, which is often higher than anyone else's.

* It is unacceptable to make a mistake.

* If I have a failure or experience a set back in my efforts to change then I should give up.

* You must always reach the ideal no matter what.

* The ideal is what is real; unless I reach the ideal I am a failure.

* You are a loser if you cannot be perfect.

* It is what you achieve rather than who you are that is important.

* I have no value in life unless I am successful.

* There is no sense in trying to do something unless I can do it perfectly, e.g., "I don't attempt things I can't do well."

* There are so many roadblocks and pitfalls to keep me from succeeding. It is better just to give up and forget my goal.

* Unless I am "Number One," there is no sense in trying. Everyone knows what "Number Two" is. To win is the only acceptable goal.

* If you screw up in your efforts to achieve a goal, just give up. It must be too hard to achieve.

* You must always strive to reach the ideal in everything you do because it is in the achievement of the ideal that you give meaning to your life.

* Don't ever let anyone know what goal you're working on. That way they won't consider you a failure if you don't reach it.

* If you can't do it right the first time, why try to do it at all?

* There is only one way to reach a goal: the right way.

* It takes too much effort and energy to reach a goal. I save myself the aggravation and discouragement by not setting goals for myself.

* I'll never be able to change and grow the way I want to, so why try?

* I am a human being prone to error, frailty and imperfections; therefore, I won't be able to accomplish things in a perfect or ideal way. I'll just give up on achieving any of my goals or desires.


Rational behaviors needed to overcome perfectionism:

* accept self as a human being

* forgive self for mistakes or failings

* put self back on the wagon immediately after falling off

* accept that the ideal is only a guideline or goal to be worked toward, not to be achieved 100 percent

* set realistic and flexible time frames for the achievement of a goal

* develop a sense of patience and to reduce the need to "get it done yesterday"

* be easier on oneself; setting unrealistic or unreasonable goals or deadlines sets you up for failure

* recognize that the human condition is one of failings, weakness, deviations, imperfections and mistakes; it is acceptable to be human

* recognize that one's backsliding does not mean the end of the world; it is OK to pick oneself up and start all over again

* develop an ability to use "thought stopping" techniques whenever you find yourself mentally scolding yourself for not being "good enough"

* visualize reality as it will be for a human rather than for a super human

* learn to accept yourself the way you are; let go of the ideas of how you should be

* enjoy success and achievement with a healthy self-pride, and eliminate the need for self-deprecation or false humility

* learn to enjoy success without the need to second guess your ability to sustain the achievement

* reward yourself for your progress, to reinforce your efforts to change even when progress is slight or doesn't meet up to your idealistic expectations

* love yourself; to believe that you deserve good things

* to eliminate unrealistic expectations and the idea that you are infallible

* visualize yourself as "winning" even when it takes more energy, and more perseverance, than what you had planned

* let go of rigid, moralistic judgments of your performance and to develop an open, compassionate understanding for the hard times, obstacles and temptations

* be flexible in setting goals and be willing to reassess your plan from time to time to keep things realistic

* be open to the idea that you will be successful in your efforts to change, even if you are not "first," "the best," "the model," "the star pupil," "the exemplar" or "the finest"

* realize that the important thing is to be going in a positive direction


Steps to Overcome Perfectionism

Step 1: Identify your perfectionism.

Step 2: Identify a problematic behavioral pattern you want to change; then list the characteristic negative behavior traits of the pattern. For each of the negative characteristics list positive alternative behavior traits. For each of the new alternative behavior list your likelihood of achieving them 100 percent of the time. How many new behavior traits could you achieve 100 percent of the time?

Step 3: Once you have recognized that no change can be achieved 100 percent of the time, continue changing your problematic behavior patterns. If you continue to be hindered by perfectionism, return to Step 1 and begin again.


Serving Sizes Around the World
- POSTED ON: Jul 21, 2012

I find the information in this graphic: "Serving Sizes Around the World"
to be interesting enough to share here
.


Making Choices
- POSTED ON: Jul 20, 2012

                             
Just as a student should limit extracurricular activities so their schoolwork doesn't suffer,
we need to pick the food we eat carefully so that we don't eat too much.

We live in a society of overabundance.
We have a million choices to make every day.
We need some sort of internal guide or compass to guide us in those choices or we'll get lost.
We must FOCUS and use self-discipline as we make our choices in life.
In the case of eating, we must remember that we can't eat EVERYTHING we desire.

We must prioritize and pick fewer items or smaller portions of the food we want to eat
if we're going to lose weight and maintain that weight loss.

 It's called self-discipline and it's just a part of being a mature adult.


Worlds Best Diet?
- POSTED ON: Jul 19, 2012

             
A comment by a DietHobby member directed me to this article, which I found well worth reading.

What Is the World's 'Best Diet'?
By YONI FREEDHOFF   - July 18, 2012

There sure are a great many diets. Low-carb, low-fat, vegan, raw, paleo, gluten-free, and on, and on. Which one should you choose? Is there one diet that's been proven to be head-and-shoulders better than others for weight management? If so, how might you figure out which one it is?

Looking to bookstores won't be terrifically helpful, as it will likely take time to wade through the 124,000 or so diet titles that currently populate shelves. Looking to the internet may be confusing, too, as you'll immediately encounter duelling nutritional gurus—each one loudly discrediting the next. Looking to your friends will only get you as far as where they're currently at, since they'll undoubtedly champion whatever it is they're currently trying themselves.

So how about looking to the scientific literature, will that shed light on things?

Unfortunately not.

The fact of the matter is that despite the $60 billion a year North American weight-loss industry; the incredible desire and motivation of folks trying to lose; and the medical researchers that have published literally tens of thousands of dueling articles on diets and obesity, as far as weight management goes, there is no single "best diet." That conclusion might lead a person to bemoan the futility of dieting, but maybe the glass is actually half full.

What if there were many best diets? What if part of society's struggle to lose weight is the pervasive notion that there's only one right way to go? Could our belief that dietary rigidity, suffering, and restriction are the ingredients to success in fact be distracting us from the truth—that there are innumerable roads to success?

Here the scientific literature is helpful. Looking at an ongoing 18-year-old research project called the National Weight Control Registry—a 10,000-plus member registry of adults who've lost more than 60 pounds and kept them off for 5.5 years—reveals that there are no absolutes to success. Registrants have lost weight every which way there is, from fast to slow, from low-carb to low-fat, both on their own and with programmatic help. And while they do share some habits in common—many eat breakfast and limit TV time—still 22 percent of them skip breakfast and 48 percent watch more than 10 hours of TV a week. Clearly there are different dietary and lifestyle strokes for different folks.

Carefully controlled laboratory studies echo the registry's findings. One such study conducted by Columbia University's Rudy Leibel and colleagues in 1992 followed the impact that diets differing in fat and carbohydrate content had on body weight. What they found was that if they held calories constant, participants' weight remained constant, even in the face of diets that ranged from 15 to 80 percent carbohydrate and from 0 to 70 percent fat. Translation: Irrespective of diet type—whether low-carb, or high-carb; low-fat, or high-fat—in a perfectly controlled laboratory environment, weight stays stable when calories are fixed. Of course life's not a perfectly controlled laboratory environment, and what leaves one person happily satisfied will leave another wanting.

So what does all this mean?

Your best diet is the one that keeps your calories reduced, your hunger at bay, your cravings controlled, and provides you with a regimen that isn't merely one you can tolerate, but rather one you can honestly enjoy. The reason there are so many diet books and gurus out there is that there truly isn't one right way to go.

So feel free to wade through the bookshelves, sample from the gurus, and poll your best friends. They may offer up some really wonderful suggestions and strategies. But ultimately, never let yourself get cornered into a dietary pigeonhole. If one approach isn't working for you, try to identify what it is you'd need to tweak in order to like it. And when it comes to those real-life moments where what you want doesn't fit with your chosen approach, try to remember that perhaps it's that very inflexibility that's led you to give up altogether in the past.

Live the healthiest life that you can enjoy, not the healthiest life that you can tolerate.

health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run

Yoni Freedhoff, MD, is the author of “Why Diets Fail: And How to Make Them Succeed” to be published on March 5, 2013

He also co-authored “Best Weight: A practical guide to office-based obesity management "(2010) which is a guide to managing obesity in a clinical setting, and a resource for doctors and other health professionals to help patents lose weight.

This article was my introduction to Yoni Freedhoff  who has a blog, “Weighty Matters”. 
 I look forward to reading more of his articles and his books, 
 So thanks, TexArk, for the quote from his article.


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