Losing Weight: Mental Hurdles

Now I said “simple,” not easy. Losing weight sucks. The first couple weeks were extremely challenging, especially in the first two introductory days where I limited my caloric intake to just 500-600 calories, to kick-start the fat burning process.

It was painful to start realizing how frequently I ate because I had nothing better to do and how I often gorged myself for…some reason. (I’ll leave the pop psych out of it.)

Here are a few realities you have to own up to if you want to lose weight:

• You consume too much food and will have to eat less for the rest of your life.
• It will take several months of discipline and frustration to lose all the weight you want.
• You will have to turn away food in situations where you may not want to.

Eating too much is obvious: If you weren’t eating too much, why are you fat? (Fortunately, the stomach shrinks quickly, making less food seem more satisfying.)

You also need to get out of your head that there is some trick that will allow you to eat as you do today while still losing weight. There isn’t. You’re going to have to change what and how you eat. It will make you angry.

You’re going to find yourself in situations where you’re being set up to fail: eating out; finding yourself with no food in the house but a pizza delivery number; when you’re very drunk. By anticipating these situations, you’ll be able to deal with them if you want to. But if you ignore the decision you’ll have to make about each of these scenarios until you are faced with it, you’re going to flake out.

If you aren’t ready to make yourself uncomfortable for several months, then don’t start. Enjoy a nice butter sandwich and file away your desires to be thin for another day. Seriously. It’s better to not try at all than to go at this half-assed.