Everyday Systems

I've been "on and off" for several years, with sanity while "on" and always eventual annoyance and diet head while "off." I have been on since before Christmas now, and have seen some amazing, mostly psychological, improvement. I know for certain I will only slowly gain weight while off. That I have learned for sure.

I had three red days last week, and this is normally where I think I would veer "off" and think I can't do it because I have failed. Not this time. This time I will see every failure as a learning process, so I never have to get back to that icky, I've gained a few pounds even while trying to "diet" feeling I always get.

I will now see red days only as learning opportunities. This week I have learned that I truly dislike spoiling my appetite, and that when I eat full meals, overdoing it makes me uncomfortable and unhappy. I may have to have this reinforced through future failures, but it's the journey.

Why would I go "off" sensible eating? Duh. I think I get it. I hope I get it.

I've always looked at the No-S habits like any other thing I do habitually. I'm not 100% compliant at most of them, but yet I've never thought that not being 100% compliant meant that I wasn't following that habit.

I may have a goal to do something daily, but only do it 3-4 times weekly. The fact that I'm not doing it daily doesn't mean it's time to give it up. I just keep striving towards that goal. I may never make it or make it only occasionally. I'm still making progress.

For instance, I have a goal of walking 1 hour daily. I almost never make it. I do walk daily, but most often not an hour. But I'm still making progress.

As I've said several times previously, whether it's No-S on some other habit, we're going to have good days, we're going to have bad days and we're going to have downright awful days. That's life. That's normal. Having bad days or awful days doesn't mean that we stop, we just keep moving forward.

I truly don't understand why we think we have to be perfect in order to follow this or make progress with it.

End of rant. Hopefully.

finallyfull wrote:
I will now see red days only as learning opportunities. This week I have learned that I truly dislike spoiling my appetite, and that when I eat full meals, overdoing it makes me uncomfortable and unhappy. I may have to have this reinforced through future failures, but it's the journey.

Why would I go "off" sensible eating? Duh. I think I get it. I hope I get it.

You've Got It! Congratulations!

PS. Just remind yourself of these truths when you temporarily forget. That will happen, too.

That's such a good point about this being a habit. We don't say when we've forgotten to floss that "Hmmm, I missed a day of flossing, I'm never going to floss again."

Rose