Intro
Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:21 am
Hello all.
Short version: I'm going to begin being a NoSer this coming Friday, the 20th.
Long version: I quit smoking January 20th, and can proudly say I haven't had a cigarette since the Bush administration! Quiting smoking was step one of Plan 2009 for me, and step two is changing my eating habits. But until yesterday, I had no real set creed or motto for what my diet would be.
I was talking with some of my friends nearing the end of the last holiday season, and they were talking about diets. One of my friends is an off-again, on-again WW point counter, they other is an on-again, off-again vegetarian low-carb dieter. And with New Years around the corner both of them were planning on being on-again.
Now, I haven't done an official weight in or anything yet, but I'd guess I'm at over 400 pounds. My friends were not the people in the room who needed to be thinking of going on a diet, and I told them so, and railed against system diets a bit, suggesting that we all really know that to lose weight we need to eat less and be more active.
Since then, I've been thinking a lot about how the human mind works, and why eating less and being more active can seem like such an easier thing to say than do, why it has seemed such an impossible thing for me to do. I think I've got some great things figured out, since I managed to quit smoking effortlessly without any cravings or regrets, when it too was one of those things that previously seemed about as possible as swimming the Atlantic.
See, I've always found some noble novelty in fighting the good fight and giving the old college try towards goals that I knew before I started I'd never reach. But things are different now. I've realized that thinking of all this as a fight in which the odds are against me is the wrong way to think.
What I need to do isn't conquering myself, or seeing if my willpower can endure. What I need to do is change, and not change what I do, but change who I am.
See, it's hard for me to explain. My thoughts aren't very organized. But the best way I can explain with smoking was, I woke up on Jan 20th, and I was a non-smoker. And non-smokers don't buy cigarettes, non-smokers don't smoke cigarettes, non-smokers don't crave cigarettes. And I had known Jan 20 was the day since Dec 20.
And Feb 20th, I'm going to wake up as someone who doesn't eat because he's bored, or sad, or happy. On Feb 20th, I'm going to wake up and not feel like there is some empty place inside me that I need to fill to the brim with excessive amounts of food.
I'm not going to change what I eat. I'm not going to try to act like I'm a nutritionist crossbred with an accountant. I'm just going to eat smaller portions.
I'm happy to find this community, and I'm happy to find such a well said statement of principles as the 14 words of No S. I actually was looking at reviews of kneeling chairs, two people mentioned Shovelglove, and Google did the rest.
Speaking of Shovelglove, guess what I'll be starting March 20th?
Thanks for reading, and I look forward to being a part of this community.
magicman
Short version: I'm going to begin being a NoSer this coming Friday, the 20th.
Long version: I quit smoking January 20th, and can proudly say I haven't had a cigarette since the Bush administration! Quiting smoking was step one of Plan 2009 for me, and step two is changing my eating habits. But until yesterday, I had no real set creed or motto for what my diet would be.
I was talking with some of my friends nearing the end of the last holiday season, and they were talking about diets. One of my friends is an off-again, on-again WW point counter, they other is an on-again, off-again vegetarian low-carb dieter. And with New Years around the corner both of them were planning on being on-again.
Now, I haven't done an official weight in or anything yet, but I'd guess I'm at over 400 pounds. My friends were not the people in the room who needed to be thinking of going on a diet, and I told them so, and railed against system diets a bit, suggesting that we all really know that to lose weight we need to eat less and be more active.
Since then, I've been thinking a lot about how the human mind works, and why eating less and being more active can seem like such an easier thing to say than do, why it has seemed such an impossible thing for me to do. I think I've got some great things figured out, since I managed to quit smoking effortlessly without any cravings or regrets, when it too was one of those things that previously seemed about as possible as swimming the Atlantic.
See, I've always found some noble novelty in fighting the good fight and giving the old college try towards goals that I knew before I started I'd never reach. But things are different now. I've realized that thinking of all this as a fight in which the odds are against me is the wrong way to think.
What I need to do isn't conquering myself, or seeing if my willpower can endure. What I need to do is change, and not change what I do, but change who I am.
See, it's hard for me to explain. My thoughts aren't very organized. But the best way I can explain with smoking was, I woke up on Jan 20th, and I was a non-smoker. And non-smokers don't buy cigarettes, non-smokers don't smoke cigarettes, non-smokers don't crave cigarettes. And I had known Jan 20 was the day since Dec 20.
And Feb 20th, I'm going to wake up as someone who doesn't eat because he's bored, or sad, or happy. On Feb 20th, I'm going to wake up and not feel like there is some empty place inside me that I need to fill to the brim with excessive amounts of food.
I'm not going to change what I eat. I'm not going to try to act like I'm a nutritionist crossbred with an accountant. I'm just going to eat smaller portions.
I'm happy to find this community, and I'm happy to find such a well said statement of principles as the 14 words of No S. I actually was looking at reviews of kneeling chairs, two people mentioned Shovelglove, and Google did the rest.
Speaking of Shovelglove, guess what I'll be starting March 20th?
Thanks for reading, and I look forward to being a part of this community.
magicman