Everyday Systems: nosdiet: message 935 of 3212

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Hi Lee,

I'm so sorry to hear you're having a hard time. I
think the reason people keep making the same mistakes
is that there aren't really that many mistakes to
make: weight loss is one of those "simple but hard"
problems. That being said, failure and frustration
have a way of making things murky. Here are a few
"diagnostic questions" to get you focused again.

1. What exactly have you been doing? The scale isn't
some magic oracle. It's reflecting, albeit
imperfectly, the results of your behavior. It's your
behavior that you really need clarity about (case in
point: I'm not sure exactly which "same mistakes"
you're talking about; it's a small universe, but > 1).
You've got to take stock of what you've been doing
before you can change it. One of the advantages of no
s is that it makes your behavior relatively easy to
monitor. The following questions are really just
subquestions of this.

2. Are you good when you're good? It's important that
when you are following the rules you are really
following the rules and not just loosely inspired by
them, that you could answer a simple "yes" or "no" 
to
the question "did you follow the rules today?" And I
mean "good," not great. Excess of virtue
(unsustainably tiny meals and such) can be a setup for
disaster. 

3. Assuming you are ever "good," how long are you able
to go before slipping up? Clarity about this will
help keep you motivated to stay on a winning streak.
It will also show you how few (I suspect) days it will
take to beat your current record (kind of an
"inspirational byproduct" of previous failures). Try
that slashing out the days on the calendar trick I
mentioned.

4. What tends to slip you up? Now that we have (I
hope) clarity around when you've been *on* the system,
let's make sure we understand what knocks you off.
Presumably the answer isn't "everything." Is it mid
afternoon snacking? Dubious "s"pecial days? Just
keeping in mind that these specific issues (whatever
they happen to be) are personal problems for you will
help fortify you against them next time. 

5. What happens when you slip up? How do you react to
it? I have a feeling this is the biggie. Everyone has
a slip up of sorts now and then. How you react to them
makes all the difference. Catch yourself as soon as
possible and get back with it. Catch yourself on
cookie number 1 and not after you've eaten the whole
pantry. And as I mentioned in a recent post, don't
fall for the self-revenge trap. If you're using the
calendar, maybe draw an up arrow on days when you had
a scuffle with the enemy but recovered before it
turned into a route (yes, it's still a failure, but
it's an F+).

The important thing is that you yourself get clarity,
but posting the specifics to the group might be a good
way of forcing yourself to do that (plus we can give
you more targeted advice). 

Looking forward to hearing about an astonishing
turnaround and recovery,

Reinhard


--- lee33183 <lee33183@...> wrote:
> Hi Everyone, I am very frustrated. I really fell
> of the wagon. I 
> am at my top weight again. It started last week
> when my cousin gave 
> me the South Beach Diet book. I tried it for a day,
> then I thought I 
> would just cut down which included snacking and then
> all hell broke 
> loose. I came back to check the posts and had 25
> and read them all. 
> It seems some of us keep making the same mistakes. 
> It seems when I 
> have success that is really when I fall??? Is it
> because my body has 
> lost some weight and it is trying to get it back? I
> guess I have 
> been trying for about 3 months now and I should have
> done better. I 
> have continue my exercising. I really look forward
> to that so that 
> is good but I feel like a food junkie. Well enough
> of the whining.
> 
> I kind of have a goal. We are going to Key West the
> end of July and 
> I wish I had done better these past 3 months but I
> guess I can't go 
> back so I have to let it go. I know what I am
> suppose to do I am 
> going to try real hard to do it.
> 
> Thanks for listening.
> 
> 
> 
> 

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