What helped you make the switch to "thinking healthy"?

What did you change in your thinking that helped you to drop your old, "fat" thinking?

Did you use positive self talk or some other technique?

What keeps you holding on to your old unhealthy thought patterns? 

What thought patterns do you still want to change and why do you think it is important to change that pattern?

Combination of things....  Wanting to go to a doctor's appointment and not be given the usual ... 'you know you could benefit by losing a little weight'.  Seeing a picture of myself from a Christmas party that wasn't especially flattering.  Realising that greedy self-indulgence and laziness was very pleasant but probably a bit childish to expect it not to affect my size!  I think the phrase is 'wake up and smell the coffee'..... stop ignoring the crunchingly obvious.

I don't want to change my thought patterns, especially.  I quite like the way I think..  However, I would expect to become a little wiser with age and not repeat the same mistakes....

I quit smoking on Jan 16th. I started feeling really good (breathing). I was over weight to start then gained 5 lbs. Lost my job on March 12th. Thought I will not be depressed and gain more weight. Now I will have the time to get healthy.

Then my husband and I decided to rent a house for 2 weeks down the shore. We invited our daughter and our 2 grandchildren. I wanted to be able to run and play with them on beach.

I have lost 10 lbs and I'm really motivated. I do yoga, 30 day shred, weights and walk 3 miles. I am really proud of myself.

I WILL NOT GO BACK TO UNHEALTHY LIVING!!!

Anne

i was just so sick of being fat and lazy.  i lost 30 pounds a few years ago, got lazy and stopped watching what i ate and exercising.  then i gained back 50.  my boyfriend wants to lose weight, and he is currently in a biggest loser competition at his work.  that competition was the last bit of motivation we both needed.

we've been on track for about 2 months now.  he's down 13 pounds and i'm down 14.  we're working on this as a team.  i crab about the water weight that comes with my time of the month, and he listens and reminds me that it will come off soon and i'll be down even more weight.  and i help him by making sure he is eating enough calories and having well balanced meals.  we even have our cheat days/meals together.  we also go on nice, long walks together.  trying to lose weight has really brought us together.  he definitely helps keep me motivated.

i know this sounds mean, but extremely fat people keep me motivated too.  it seems like everywhere i go now, i see people who are morbidly obese.  at the mall, at the grocery store, everywhere!  i don't look down on them, but it reminds me that i'm losing weight because i don't want to be like that.  it pushes me to keep going even when i feel like giving up or taking a day off.

i don't hold on to my old way of thinking at all.  i can't eat like that anymore, and i don't feel lazy either.  after a cheat meal, i end up feeling sick and i spend a lot of time in the bathroom.  my body just won't let me eat garbage anymore.  i actually want to get out and exercise more.

the only thing i still want to change is my exercise habits.  i like walking outside, but i need to get myself moving on days when the weather isn't so great.  i keep telling myself to go mall walking, but i just haven't been able to motivate myself enough.  luckily the weather has been goreous the past few days.  hopefully i'll be in the exercise groove when the weather gets bad again so i'll want to hit the mall for a walk.

After years of trying to lose the weight that was creeping up on me, I came to the conclusion that the only way it was going to happen was long term commitment.  It took me a long time, including 2 years of psychotherapy, to reach that point.  The trigger was seeing pictures of myself at my daughter's wedding in a size 22 dress.  Something just clicked and I realized that if I didnt' do something the slow weight gain was going to continue. 

I follow this Simple Diet Plan, eating all the food groups, and I use portion control and measure my food. The Mediterannean Food Pyramid and the Mediterannean Diet are my guides.  Also, the List of the World's Healthiest Foods is a big help in making the right choices.  In a nutshell - lots of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and replace most fats with olive oil.  Then limited amounts of chicken, fish and dairy products.  Saturated fats, red meat, and added sugar are kept at a minimum. 

I use the CC tools to determine my burn and deduct calories from that.  I don't have a time goal because it doesn't matter how long it takes.  All that matters is long term progress that I can sustain forever.

I'm studying pharmacy and we learn a lot about heart diseases, cancers, diabetes etc and the risks of being overweight or having high blood pressure or high cholesterol... what scared me was thinking that if I continued the way I was, I would face a lot of problems in the future. And I did not want that at all. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life being overweight and obese.

So I made a pact to be healthier. I wasnt really thinking about losing the weight, I just wanted to eat healthier and be more active. Everytime I think about falling off the wagon I will remind myself why I started this journey, and all the good things that have happened to me once I began.

I've missed out on a lot because I was overweight my whole life, now I want to experience all that and never look back.

I was in the last year of high school and I was tired of being the fat girl. I started some crash diets and they worked, but I immediately went to a nutritionist who told me to start walking daily and taught me her way of eating. A bit of low-carb eating (no complex carbs, and then added once a week) with a combination of something else, I can't recall what it's called. She advices to eat fruit by itself, and not mix complex carbs and protein or vegetable protein with animal protein... Stuff like that. It was a good kick-start as I lost 30 pounds and I was happy as can be.

I've fallen off the wagon and gone back to not watching my weight and eating what I pleased a few times, but I usually get a grip... I've pretty much maintained though I did gain back 4 pounds that I can't get rid of.

As far as the exercise, when the nutritionist adviced to walk... We started walking, but then my parents purchased an elliptical trainer and that became my new best friend. And now that I have opened my eyes to the world of workout videos, I'm digging those, too. I feel unsafe outside in my country, so I enjoy being able to get a good workout at home.

Now, after 3 years, I've kept habits from my nutritionist, learned some new stuff along the way. As I can't afford to keep going to her, and I love cereals and milk and yogurt which I wasn't allowed to eat. So, I just try to keep to a calorie range and include those things, too, since they are not unhealthy. I've also learned that it is alright to have treats every now and then, and try to control my portions or balance it out with the rest of the day. I'm committed to my body and health (which is excellent), and I hope I can keep this up forever and at least maintain, if not lose a bit more weight.

What did you change in your thinking that helped you to drop your old, "fat" thinking?

Like many other people, seeing myself in pictures....having a check up at the doctors...got me to a decision point.  Do I really try to lose weight again?  Do I start now?  YES!

In order for a "diet" to work for me I knew I had to be mentally ready and into it...it was difficult to begin.  The first few days of eating healthy and making that change are the toughest.  I had to really think every day...."I am going to stick with it and see what happens".  I started feeling lighter and better even before I lost weight, just because eating low fat foods, whole grains, more raw veggies and fruit, much much much less red meat all made me feel better.  After the first week when I saw that I actually lost some weight I was sold on this way of eating.  Results are a big motivation.  Now, after 4 months, it's more of a habit.  It is just the way I eat.  This is my normal now.  It's the normal way of eating for my family to now, they are great and that is a HUGE help to keeping me eating well.  

Did you use positive self talk or some other technique?

Just like eating well became a habit for me, so does thinking better about myself and thinking motivating thoughts about eating better and losing weight.  I have learned that if I try some change in my life.....push myself through the doubt...eventually it becomes a habit, especially if there is a fairly quick positive result.  The positive thoughts and motivation come easier due to the fact that I am actually losing weight.  I am concerned that if/when I hit a plateau that it might set me back with my motivation....but I hope I am smart enough to work through it.  That's where reading everyone's posts and learning from others helps out a ton. 

What keeps you holding on to your old unhealthy thought patterns? 

I don't think I am holding on to those anymore....YAY!  Maybe some wisdom comes with age to .  Turning 40 helped.  Just taking it one day at a time, or trying to at least...that's easier said than done most of the time.

What thought patterns do you still want to change and why do you think it is important to change that pattern?

My confidence in myself needs strengthening so when that plateau or some other setback hits....I will handle it without a total meltdown.  I will just keep moving forward in the journey and deal with what happens next. 

All I really did was talk some sense into myself. The whole, "This is what god gave you" crap is bull. God gave me this body, not this fat. After being tired of depending on food for emotional happiness only to be pissed offf, sad, and fat in the end, I said, "I quit." I've lost 25 poounds so far this month and haven't looked back once. :)

What keeps me holding on? I have a goal. To loose as much as possible before next fall semester, when I go to Japan. Thinking of being the local Godzilla terrifies me like no other thought could. Everytime I think, "I really want a soda," or a donut, or anything else I really shouldn't have right now, I think of it putting me back, even just one more day. I can't do that to myself any more.

If there were some thoughts I wanted to change...Well, thinking about my weight all the time. Even though I'm losing, the thought that it could creep back makes me a little crazy, but I guess it's good for now since I am still losing. Also, I would like to get to a point where I can have some soda or a dounut and not want to slit my throat. XD But I haven't accepted myself just yet. :)

Original Post by madamq:

I started this journey back in January when I was faced with major surgery in February.  Although I knew if would be impossible to lose a significant amount of weight before my surgery, I bumped up my activity level and increased the amount of healthy foods and decreased the amount of unhealthy foods I had been eating to get to 295 pounds (!) over the course of the past 25 years. 

Did you use positive self talk or some other technique?  I try to focus on thinking about being healthy rather than being thin (although I would like to be both!).

What keeps you holding on to your old unhealthy thought patterns?  Since I have so much weight to lose, I sometimes focus more on what is left, rather than what I have already accomplished.  Something someone said here on this site really helps me with this problem  -- to paraphrase, The time will pass anyway, and if I don't take control of my weight I will be 3 years older and still fat.  Or, I can be 3 years older and at a healthy weight.

What thought patterns do you still want to change and why do you think it is important to change that pattern?  I sometimes fall into an "all-or-nothing" mentality which can lead to saying every time I make a poor food choice "well, may as well eat everything in sight since I already ate ____ (fill in the blank).  Good habits seem to take forever to develop, one misstep seems to lead to a bad habit if I am not careful.  I need to keep reinforcing the positive (down to 267 pounds) not the negative (120 pounds still to lose).  Or, I recovered from surgery really quickly due to the positive changes I made in January -- not, I wish I hadn't been so fat when I had my surgery.

 

Great forum topic, madamq!  After years of false starts and quick rebounds, changing my thinking has been key to my success...

What did you change in your thinking that helped you to drop your old, "fat" thinking?  I changed the belief that I could not be uncomfortable, that if I was hungry or craving something it was an emergency that needed to be addressed that second.  Breaking the thinking habit of expecting immediately gratification was tough, and very important.  Part of what led me to be morbidly obese was attachment to the instant reward of eating junk foods.  I needed to retrain my brain to think about how I would feel on weigh day, tomorrow, heck, 15 minutes from now! - in order to withstand temptations and maintain healthy eating.

Many people here have talked about making healthy habits stick, and that's been very important to me too.  I realized that every time I emo-eat I am reinforcing a long-ingrained behavior pattern that would make it harder to change.  That's another message I would tell myself when I was tempted to eat off plan - "I wanna practice a healthier response to this urge." 

I also needed to stop verbally abusing myself.  I treated myself in ways I would not tolerate from anyone else.  Discouraging thoughts and self-loathing led me to the numbness of binge eating way too often.  Who wouldn't want to escape the critical hostility that was going on in my head?  The negative attitude needed to change before I lost any weight - waiting until I was slender to feel good about myself never worked!

Did you use positive self talk or some other technique?  Certainly positive self-talk has been part of my plan.  It has been equally important to be mindful, to pay attention to what I'm thinking and feeling, so that I don't just switch into automatic pilot (which of course means I'm going to act on well-practiced bad habits).  I've had to teach myself to pay attention to that tiny, weak little voice that said "You don't feel good when you eat that way."  Originally, the fat voice would respond, "I don't care, I want it!"  I had to learn to shove that loudmouth aside and encourage the teeny voice that had my best interests at heart.  As time goes by, that little voice has gotten stronger and bigger.

What keeps you holding on to your old unhealthy thought patterns?  The comfort of familiarity.  Sometimes I miss taking a day off work, going to the store first thing, buying every kind of crap I love and spending the day watching old movies and eating until I feel like I'll explode.  This was a way of "taking a break" from real life.  And I really needed to "take a break" since real life, carting around 100 extra pounds, was difficult and unhappy.  Of course, by escaping into binge eating, I was comforting myself with the problem.

Sometimes I split into a responsible adult and a rebellious child.  The child will resent the healthy lifestyle, start complaining and wanting junk food.  I have to remember that I am rebelling against my own desires, which of course is a ridiculous path to follow.

What thought patterns do you still want to change and why do you think it is important to change that pattern?  I have lost 98.6 of the 100 I want to lose, and yet I still feel "fat" all too often.  I am structurally large and while I wasn't overweight for most of my childhood and young adulthood, I always felt way too big.  In some ways, becoming obese just confirmed a self-image I had held all my life.  So now, despite the size of my new clothes, despite the number on the scale, despite the positive feedback from friends and family, despite being able to leap out of bed in the morning instead of heaving myself out, despite having energy to bound instead of lumber - I still sometimes feel too large.

It is very important for me to change this pattern, because if I don't, I believe I am doomed to regain some or all of the weight - I will be who I think I am.  So I need to continue work on knowing I am the physically healthy and strong woman I am!

What did you change in your thinking that helped you to drop your old, "fat" thinking?  My moment of change occurred during a doctor visit when my doctor told me that my blood pressure was out of control.  I'm 55 and have been taking BP medication for many years, and I didn't like the idea of my doctor having to increase my dosage, so I came home and told my wife that I was going to start going to the gym and start counting my calories.  That was 4 months and 53 lbs ago.  I still need to lose another 100 pounds, but I'm on the right track and WILL meet my goal.

Did you use positive self talk or some other technique?  I purchased a BodyBugg.  I saw them using it on "The Biggest Loser" and decided to give it a try.  It's great.  It shows me exactly how many calories I'm burning, so when I'm just sitting around on my job, then I can easily see that if I don't get up and move, then I'm not going to lose any weight.

What keeps you holding on to your old unhealthy thought patterns? I think I'm doing pretty good here.  I do cheat once in a while, but I eat right more than I eat wrong.

What thought patterns do you still want to change and why do you think it is important to change that pattern? My biggest problem is my workouts.  I go to the gym 6 days a week and spend 1 hour doing aerobic activities.  I usually spend 30 minutes on the ellipse, 15 on the treadmill and 15 on the bike.  That's getting somewhat boring, because I don't have a workout partner, and so I tend to watch the clock.  I need something to motivate me in this area.

My big change came when I realized that I was sabotaging my own efforts to be thinner and healthier out of some delusion that I didn't deserve any better.  Once I gave up mentally punishing myself for being fat and accepted that I am who I am, it became easier to make healthy behaviors the norm.

I inhabit this one body, and this body only; and I need to make this one the best body it can be.  I'll never be a supermodel, or an athlete, or any one of dozens of idols held up to the mainstream as who we should be, but that's no reason to not see what is the best I can be.

I still struggle with thinking of food as a consolation prize; a panacea for all my ills.  When I eat right I feel so much better that I still get mad at myself after a carb binge, and I can't believe I fell for that trap again.  I'm getting better at seeing it in time though. 

What did you change in your thinking that helped you to drop your old, "fat" thinking?

It was more health thinking than "fat" thinking.  I've always been heavy even in childhood, but I'm 33 years old and on wayyyyy too much medication.  I started loosing weight a couple of years ago and did well but then I got sick with my gal bladder and after having that out, they told me I couldn't go back to the gym for 3 months.  Well like that was going to happen!!  It was hard enough to get started in a routine, but after being off for 3 months, I never got it back.  I just decided it was time to conquer this battle once and for all.

Did you use positive self talk or some other technique?

Just lots of prayer.

What keeps you holding on to your old unhealthy thought patterns? 

When I don't have a plan.  I have to make sure that I plan or have access to what I'm going to eat for the day.  I mess it up when I haven't made provisions for myself.

A few things helped me. For a while I had been mystified by weight loss. "Eating healthy", weight watchers, slim fast... none of it was magically doing anything for me. Then a couple things happened. Our vet  said our dogs were overweight, and that we needed to rein in their portion sizes. The lightbulb went dimly on for me. Then, my father went on a regular reduced-calorie diet with almost instant results. It was like the common-sense switch finally went off in my head: I have to stop eating so much, period. Laissez-faire doesn't even begin to describe how I was eating... whole packages of Trader Joe's peanut butter cups, things like that. Because they tasted good - it was just mindless eating. Anyway, so I began counting calories. When most of the really excessive weight came off, then I started exercising daily.

Sometimes common sense just has to knock you upside the head. And you have to resist the pressure when those around you (my family, for example) aren't watching what they eat and are offering heaps of food. No excuses. I'm down to 150 from an all-time high of 220. Viva free will and common sense.

Being told I was pre-diabetic and realizing that unless I got my blood sugar under control, I could expect the hell my father went through for the rest of his life after he was diagnosed with Type II. I'm now at 256, down from 311 right after Thanksgiving, headed for an ideal weight of 203, through a very satisfying 1950-calorie diet and three- or four-a-week workouts. As side benefits, the blood lipids are down; I can walk up the stairs without stopping halfway to rest; and I'm trying new foods and enjoying them more.

I watched a programme on food additives, and how in NZ (where I live) we use some additives (colours, flavours, flavour enhancers, etc) that are now banned in other countries because of thier safety issues.  It really made me think about how much we put our nutritional health in others hands.  I decided then that I was going to make a concious decision about what I put in mine and my family's body. We now only eat food that contains no additives.  This then automatically excludes all processed food that is usually high in sugar, fat and additives, and this has enhanced my weight loss - and because our bodies are free of all those nasty chemicals we get sick much less often!  We still eat really tasty meals, and we also have fun finding new things to try.

Also after I finished having children (youngest 1yr old) I decided that because my body was mine again, and I was not going to have to share it with anyone else ever again, that I would make a real effort to look after it.  After all there is nothing worse than getting into shape then getting big and fat with pregnancy again!  I have been walking every day for 40 mins pushing the buggy around our hilly streets (have now added ankle weights too as I can't run due to knee pain), and am now the lightest and most energetic that I have ever been in my adult life!  Only 4kg to go to get to my target weight.

Your body is the only one you get, and with cancer, heart disease, etc on the rise, you really need to take responsibilty for it and care of it. 

Think about how you want to see yourself as an elderly person - weak and disabled needing care; or strong, fit and able to take care of yourself?  I know which one I'm now planning on being!

My thinking changed quite suddenly, but I can't really explain why things finally "clicked". I've had weight issues since I was a child, I've been painfully aware of my size forever, I tried so many times to lose and eventually gave up.

Then one day I woke up and decided that was the day I'd truly commit to changing my lifestyle. My diet changed radically, I began tracking all intake and output, I incorporated some exercise into my life. This time it's for good...maybe I just finally realized that I am in control of my choices, and that those choices affect my body, one by one, and they add up. It's not my genetic fate to be fat, i can choose to change my eating habits and affect my body and my life. I am in the driver's seat! I think what really helped drive this home for me was my boyfriend. He really believes in me and makes me feel like I can accomplish anything I set my mind to, and that has had an effect on many parts of my life. And...I really want to be around to enjoy our releationship and my life in general for a long long time!

My commitment has not wavered, in fact I feel as though there is nothing to really waver from, this is just how I live my life now. I am an active, healthy, health-conscious person who cares about the choices i make and how they affect me.  I've lost nearly 80 lbs (in fact this week I reached my midpoint goal!) and I've gained an incredible amount of confidence in myself that I didn't even know was possible. Positive self-talk? Absolutely. I CAN accomplish anything I set my mind to. Thought patterns I still want to change? Hmm I feel like I have changed so much, and I am so proud of myself...but sometimes I still allow doubts to creep in. So I guess I would say, not letting those doubts have any power.

 I don't really know what changed. I swear I woke up and my whole way of thinking. I've started exercising a lot more and I watch what I eat better and it seems to be working. I have lost 8 pounds in the last 3 weeks. Whenever I want to just forget it and eat an entire cake or something, I just look at my weight log and it keeps me going.

Original Post by mad4moon:

What thought patterns do you still want to change and why do you think it is important to change that pattern?  I have lost 98.6 of the 100 I want to lose, and yet I still feel "fat" all too often.  I am structurally large and while I wasn't overweight for most of my childhood and young adulthood, I always felt way too big.  In some ways, becoming obese just confirmed a self-image I had held all my life.  So now, despite the size of my new clothes, despite the number on the scale, despite the positive feedback from friends and family, despite being able to leap out of bed in the morning instead of heaving myself out, despite having energy to bound instead of lumber - I still sometimes feel too large.

It is very important for me to change this pattern, because if I don't, I believe I am doomed to regain some or all of the weight - I will be who I think I am.  So I need to continue work on knowing I am the physically healthy and strong woman I am!

I feel the same way.  I am just 20 lbs. into my 93 lbs. weight loss goal, so I am not as far as you mad4moon...Congrats on losing so much!!!

In the back of my mind, I am worried about this issue to.  I have always thought I was too big...even when I was thinner.  I look back on pictures from my teens and 20's....I thought I was too big then but, in reality, I was much smaller than I am now.  I guess it is more than just a physical process if I want to keep the weight off for good.  I have to really look at how I feel about myself.  I won't have the extra weight as a reason to not like myself.  My self-esteem has risen by leaps and bounds as I get older and hopefully a little wiser....I just want to keep working on getting it a bit more solid so I can accept myself now and when I have reached my weight goal. 

I started by cutting out certain things out of my diet that all contribute to weight gain.  So first I cut out Chocolate and all chocolate things, so chocolate milkshake had to go as did chocolate cookies and chocolate ice cream, think you get the gist.

Next sweet biscuits went so shortbread and other had to go, next thing I planning on dropping is all sweets but I'm not ready for that yet.  I'll be keeping crisps, cakes and other ice cream because I don't eat them very often anyway. Same with alcohol I don't drink too often.

So once I've taken those other demon bits out I would have dropped all my fat thinking as these things were major in my weight gain.