It seems timely to post this piece, from Zoe Harcombe's 'Back to Basics' plan (which started on 1 Jan, just like this Bootcamp). Every day she posts a motivational piece, and this one is especially relevant:
How to overcome the ‘sod-it’ mentality
It’s easy to give up. It’s easier to give up things than to stick with things – but what does that achieve? Nothing!
There are many wise sayings about this topic…
“There’s no gain without pain”;
“You get out of things what you put into them”;
“You reap what you sow”…
… and so on. Sayings become folk lore because they are true. Making a commitment to real food and working to overcome the cravings for fake food is going to take some work. There will be times when all you want to do is to give in – but you have to remember that’s the addict talking. Unless you want to stay an addict for life, you have to overcome addiction. And you have to do it sometime – so do it now!
It will be tough to start with, but it does get easier by the day. And the rewards of being natural weight, healthy, full of energy, enjoying great food are immense! Hang on to those rewards – that’s worth the effort that you’re putting in at the moment. Here are our top tips on overcoming any inclination that you have to give up…
The scenario that we need to address is when someone is disappointed with their progress and this can lead to the ‘sod it’ reaction: “if I’m not losing, I may as well eat whatever I want”… You know how it goes. I used to suffer from this badly myself.
As we discussed yesterday, expectations are crucial in the weighing game. If you are not losing as much as you expect to, but you are still losing, this is an expectation issue. You just have to remind yourself of the fact that the 2lb a week promise is a complete myth and always has been. I weigh 110lb. The 2lb a week promise says that I could cut back by 1,000 calories a day and then, allegedly, I would weigh 6lb in a year’s time! (Actually, because the 2lb is supposed to be fat loss, let alone weight loss – I would actually be minus 10lb at the end of the year). It really is this daft.
If you are losing weight – not even every week necessarily, but chipping away at your weight loss, rethinking your expectations will make you much happier and less likely to give up. One of the key things to put in the forefront of your mind is – a pound lost on The Harcombe Diet® is a pound that can be lost for good. Because you haven’t eaten less, you haven’t slowed your metabolism or reset your equilibrium at a lower level and there is no need for that weight to be regained (provided that you don’t go back to a diet of processed food of course).
Develop a ‘chipping away’ mentality – if you keep losing, even a pound here and there – and then maintain and then lose a bit more – you are on a steady downwards trend and will achieve long lasting results.
Let’s now hold the ‘sod it’ mentality up to the mirror and see it for what it is. The ‘sod it’ mentality is never, ever helpful – in any circumstance. It takes you back to being the food addict that you were. You need to remember (especially in the early days of The Harcombe Diet®) that you will still be looking for excuses to go back to your ‘fix’ and that’s what this reaction is – your mind playing games to drive you back to the biscuits, cakes and sweets that you are likely still craving – to get you back on the drugs.
Why ‘sod-it’ really isn’t worth it
^^
You have every right to feel the ‘sod it’ mentality. It makes complete sense. But you have to choose NOT to go down that route and here are three reasons why:
1) You will gain weight.
‘Sod it’ is not something you can do for even one day, let alone a few days, and not suffer serious consequences. Disappointed as you are that the scales are not showing a loss, how much more upset would you be if they showed a gain? And show a gain they will. You could easily gain as much as 5-6lb in one day (yesterdays’ information on glycogen explained how) and you then have even more to lose than you had before the binge.
2) You will feel terrible.
Having been off processed food for a period of time, going back to it may feel enjoyable for the first mouthful (maybe not even then – usually the relief is really truly the only OK feeling). The actual food consumption usually starts feeling terrible as soon as it starts. You hate yourself, you become a food stuffing zombie, you feel sick, you bloat – it really is anything but fun.
3) You will reawaken cravings.
If you have avoided processed food for several weeks, even months, you will probably get away with a slip day slightly more easily than someone who slips after just a few days or weeks. The sooner you slip, the more likely you are to be still addicted to certain foods and still have the conditions to overcome and the more likely that a slip is going to have consequences.
To get the taste for flour and sugar soon after having given it up is too risky. The body is highly likely to continue to want more of this stuff. So, you may have your ‘sod it’ day and the body thinks “great – we’re back to the processed stuff that gives me sugar highs and feeds my parasite” and the body doesn’t want to turn back.