Hi, Bobby, took me a while to get round to write here something. I agree with Chuck and others who have said that it is a question of changing perspective in life more than actual diet. I have a history of serious back problems, it's been operated twice for prolapsed disc and once my right leg got paralyzed so that I had to learn to walk again. One might think that experiences like that would make me take concern of my fitness level or what I eat, but it didn't. As I have said before in other threads I got so disconnected from myself and my well being that I just didn't bother. In some really perverted way I chose that my personal well being wasn't a priority. Well, the results were what they were. I have never been really heavy (not least by American standards) but seriously overwight nevertheless.
And boy, could I diet. But for me diets became exercises of will, I cheated as much as I could, gained results and the gained weight again. Now I have realized that I can not make any progress with diets, they just don't work for me. I am too disorganized, too prone to temptations (and I love guilty pleasures) and too prone to cheating myself that being on steady diet would work for me. I had to make changes in a way I live and commit to my own life. I had started doing something before Brokeback already, I had acquired a physiotherapist who did a program to exercise the mobility of my back and to work with the ischiatic nerve. One of the reasons I have always been reluctant to exercise was that I was worried I might hurt my back again. So, I started working with it, getting to know what it can take, what things feel good. I have considered starting tai ji in order to improve my balance.
After Brokeback I have made some promises to myself:
Exercise regularly but not too often (if it becomes a bore, I know that I will quit), walk everywhere you can, do back stretches almost every day (some days are off even from that)
and then the "diet". I made some basic rules:
1) Do not use food as prize. Give yourself other prizes when you have done good.
2) Eat regularly: breakfast, lunch, dinner
3) Lose pizzas and fast food, concentrate what you eat, set the table, enjoy the taste, think what you are doing
4) Eat everything but in moderation (except junk food). I have never eaten candy or chocolate, so they have never been a problem. I have been addicted to carbs.
5) Lose the weighting scale - this is not a competition because if it becomes one, I'll lose. Use clothes as evidence for success. Like everyone who has gone up and down with weight I have jeans for every size, so I am very aware about the level of success (slow but obvious) that I have made
6) Never go to buy food when hungry
These work for me. But they work because for the first time I have defined the goal in terms how I want to feel about myself, see them as part of my ongoing dedication to the quality of my life. I choose to do them, not because I want to look better but because I want to feel better.
