Tips for changing mindset?

[strawberrylove]

Hiya, I need to lose weight. I'm so unhappy with how I look. I vowed after my miscarriage I would lose weight as it put me in the high risk category. Cut to now and I've put more weight on.

I just can't stick to anything?? I joined the gym, went for a bit and stopped. I start a diet and I fail before I've even got to the end of the day, 2 if I'm lucky!

I know it's all about my mindset, the way I think about food and perseverance. How do I change my mindset? Change the way I think about food? I'm a comfort eater and have terrible habits eg eating in the car on the way home from work. My issue is not the motivation to start it's the motivation to stick to it?

What worked for you?

Tracking calories in and calories out.

I now see food in terms of the equivalent exercise to burn it off - so a bag of crisps is a 15 minute run, chocolate cake is a 5 mile run or 45 minute spinning session.

It's a bit depressing but does stop me shovelling anything and everything in my gob.

I can do it for a while - but then I slip. I try to remind myself on these occasions that it's JUST ONE DAY, and it won't make too much difference in the overall scheme of things.
I then psych myself up to get back on track for the next day. and sometimes it works too
It's all in the head, isn't it?
I've lost quite a bit on the IF diet but it's slow and I have to constantly reinforce my resolve. Still working on it!

@Tartyflette what is the IF diet?

I've just seen in another post people talking about the 12 weeks to Wow app. Having a look at that now but can't work it out!

Excellent presentation by the university of California. It discusses the mindfulness as well as the urges to over eat. It’s been a real eye opener for me.

I'd just decided enough was enough.

I'm doing SlimmingWorld and when I go to eat something off plan or over my syns I think about what would I rather have, that food or to see the scales come down.

It's hard to put my finger on exactly what changed but my mind is completely focused now and the cravings for junk have either gone or are easy to ignore.

The first few weeks were the hardest but it is so much easier now. I will not go back to eating how I did before.

Intermittent Fasting (or 5:2, or variations of it, 4:3 etc)

When I realised that I gained more in December than my (admittedly 22 year old and very skinny and petite) sister in law gained in her entire pregnancy. I basically reasoned that, as she is now a permanent part of our family (complicated!) , I was destined to be ‘the fat one’ forever- every holiday, every party, every family photo. No fucking way. I wasn’t hugely overweight, but had bmi in the overweight range. So- I decided to go back to a low carb/sugar free diet and give it a proper go, and decided to run for 10 minutes every day. That was 1st January

It’s now my 5th month, I’m still running, I ran 100 miles in April! I’m still dieting. Lost 25lb, dropped a dress size, and I look visibly slimmer and oh my god, I am feeling so healthy! Best thing I ever did.

The biggest change from previous times I’ve dieted is 1) exercise and 2) I stick to the diet every day. Sometimes have more calories, but I have no sugar (twice only since Jan) and avoid the high carb foods always. It might sound like no fun, but being self conscious and miserable was no fun either.

I have probably only been two stone overweight. I have done Slimming World which was good but I found I was thinking about food all the time. What i have done is use slimming world & my fitness pal to work out the best breakfast I could have that is low cal but will see me through the morning. I have done the same with a couple of lunches. I have just kept tweaking things to try and reduce the calories. Its not very adventurous but I find the more I think about food, the more I eat.
I also try not to think that I'm on a diet, I'm just trying to eat better each day.

I'm about 3 weeks into My Fitness Pal, the basic version of which is free. It tracks calories in and out and just helps me realise how fatty/sugary some stuff is. Early days but I'm shifting it slowly, I'm hoping it will help long term (the initial mindset change was driven by a particularly grim set of holiday snaps, this is helping me keep it up though)