Everyone always says weight loss isn’t easy, and “everyone” is right. Just like most things in our life, anything that is worth doing is going to be challenging and rewarding at the same time. It’s easy for life’s challenges and disappointments to get in the way of our desire to get healthy, get fit, and lose weight. As I was gaining weight I faced challenges, and as I was losing weight I still faced challenges.
As a big girl, I reacted to challenges by submerging myself in the joy of food. Cooking excessive amounts of sweets, preparing sour cream and onion dip to eat with entire bags of chips, and finding excuses to swing through the drive thru were just some of the coping mechanisms I developed. Looking back, I realized that none of those coping mechanisms did anything but make me feel worse about myself.
When I started on my final weight loss journey, I knew I needed to stop eating in response to life’s challenges. I finally understood that it would take time for me to lose the weight, and during that time, I would face the challenges of day to day life. For me, as a stay at home Mom with small children, my challenges may have been different than the ones you are facing, but they were hard just the same. We faced financial difficulties, outside family stressors and second jobs. This last time around, I had a plan on how to successfully continue with my weight loss even through times of stress.
♦ No more running to the pantry for fortifications after a stress filled phone call, instead I got active. If possible, I physically left the house, leaving the stress behind for a few moments. I’d either go for a walk, take a drive in the car, or take the kids to the park. By removing myself from the potentially dangerous “food” situation, I was able to calm down and think rationally about what had just happened.
♦ When life got so busy I couldn’t even keep track of our activities on an over-sized calendar, I scheduled time for myself. Rather it was exercising, or spending an evening out with a friend, I made sure that I had some alone, down time to keep me grounded, and remind myself of what was important.
♦ I built a support group of a couple people who knew what my goals were, and were supportive of them, and me. These few people, including my husband, were the glue that held me together during that very stressful time. If they sensed me faltering, they were always there to encourage and uplift me. They were my rocks when I was doubtful of my ability to succeed.
♦ My faith got me through many a difficult day. Relying on God definitely gave me a feeling of peace and serenity, even when my insides were in turmoil.
The important thing to remember is that you will face challenges along the way. Just like last year, or the year before, life will throw you some curveballs that will need to dodged and/or caught. Whether you catch them with food, or let them go by with your eating plan intact is up to you. Like many other aspects of weight loss, planning ahead for life’s challenges will make a difficult time much easier.
What challenges have you faced throughout your weight loss journey? Have you handled those challenges in a positive manner, or were there challenges that caused you to stumble and falter? My encouragement to you today is this: Let those day to day challenges teach you something about yourself, and use what you learned to move you in a positive direction, not push you farther away from your goals. Diane
I am in the middle of a legal dispute, which should be over by next Wednesday, but of course I have had to find ways of dealing with it that would strengthen me and not weaken me. As I’m also still recovering from a debilitating health condition, my strategy had to take that into consideration too. I now meditate every day. I eat only very healthy food, drink lots of water, get plenty of sleep and sunshine and walk the dog every day. And I am training my mind to remain positive and solution-driven. It really works!
Hanlie´s last fabulous musings ..And two finger bowls of glass
I sometimes think that the challenges for stay at home moms, are much bigger when they are trying to lose the weight. Cause food is freely available in the home, which make it so much more difficult. And that is what I admire of you. That you have lost the weight being a stay at home mom and overcame the emotional eating when food was so freely available. Well done to you.
“Relying on God” & “Move you into a positive direction” – Such great advice, thank you.
blackhuff´s last fabulous musings ..Yoga together
I think a lot of my success had to do with ‘removing’ myself as you wrote.
I spent a lot of time in exercise classes. This was more about ‘removing myself’ and doing something positive (as you also wrote) and learning where my body parts were than it was about calorie burn, but of course the calorie burn was important to my process too.
I also walked pretty much every day of my losing years – either treadmill or outside. And I am talking FAST walking. I think that action helped me burn off negative emotion. Again, calorie burn was there, but there were many more benefits to that exercise time.
good post
I also stopped the
Vickie´s last fabulous musings ..4th year in registry- time flies
I also stopped the ‘pairings’ that were linked to food – mostly eating in the car (which meant drive thur) and eating while on the phone. Learning to eat just at meal time was major step for me.
Vickie´s last fabulous musings ..4th year in registry- time flies
In early 2010, just as I reached my goal weight, I was hit with back-to-back news that in each eye, I had a new (different for each eye) disease that was vision threatening. The shock of losing one’s complete eyesight threw me in a tailspin that has taken me a full year to recover from. Eventually, I learned I can face problems fat or not fat…..eating didn’t solve or correct any of these issues; they just added literally and figuratively another layer to my problems. This go around, I’m focusing almost exclusively on the WHY’S I overate/tend to want to overeat, and focus on non-food ways to soothe me during troubled times, no matter how big or small those troubled times are.
Great post, Diane!
Sunny´s last fabulous musings ..Back to the Grind
There were a lot of challenges in my journey to lose 100 pounds.
1. Myself. The excuses. The stress/emotional eating traps.
2. The time it took TO lose the weight. I could have given up in any of those 2 years but I kept at it…even when I was only losing 1 pound a month.
3. Medication that was causing weight gain to begin with.
Great post! I am still working on emotional eating. It is so hard. One day I think I have it, the next I catch myself mindlessly eating in response to an emotion.
Shawnee´s last fabulous musings ..Spring fever briths yardwork
Even on the days where I wouldn’t allow myself to snack or nibble based on the emotions of the day, I always ate dinner based on the emotion. Dinner had to be something that I like, something that I loved. And I would overeat for dinner, whether I was happy, sad, angry, frustrated, in love, out of love, whatever. I have had to remove the emotions from dinner – sometimes easier said than done.
Good topic as always!
jessey´s last fabulous musings ..Mid-week Check In
Diane, a very important post! I found lots of ways to manage the challenges but for me, the gym & especially weights helped me so much. Find an activity you like that you can go to work off the stress…
When I lost my parents & other family members, the weights & gym were part of helping me work thru it…
Jody – Fit at 53´s last fabulous musings ..Teach & Lead by Example
Excellent post Diane. Until I found my way around my challenges, I was constantly getting in the way…not anymore!
Kimberley´s last fabulous musings ..Disconnection and Reconnection
Plateaus have been a major challenge — they sometimes make me want to stop all of my efforts but I manage to keep exercising and watching what I eat anyway.
‘Drea´s last fabulous musings ..Even More Stuff People Say To Me
A very timely post as I’ve just been bitten by another potentially devastating health problem for my lovely hubby (we’ll get more information at an emergency appointment tomorrow). Emotions are rampant so what I want to do is submerge myself in chocolate and misery. What I am doing is drinking hot water and planning a grouchy stomp in my lunch break to see if the spring flowers will renew some good in my world view.
Deniz´s last fabulous musings ..A bit less podgy- a tad less unfit progress!
I am a SAHM and mother of nine. I feel stress too and I feel like I always have to “hold it together” until I don’t and become a closet binger. Sometimes the stress is in pretending instead of allowing ourselves to admit that sometimes it’s just too much and we need a release.
I’ve had to face plenty of challenges, though not really in the area of weight loss. Some bent me, but as of yet haven’t broken me.
Life is full of challenges. Sometimes I handle them well and other times I falter.
When I am well rested, exercising and eating right I seem to deal with all kinds of challenges and stress so much better.
Another great post, thanks. I feel better when I read that I’m not the only one who uses(d) food as a comfort, stress reliever, etc. My challenge is emotional eating. I’m very active and exercise is a large part of my life, but the calories consumed during emotional binges are huge. However, I’m getting closer to my goal of reducing emotional eating. Blogs like this help!
Jenna´s last fabulous musings ..On track again!