N Day Thoughts - "Choose your Hard"

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Elyssa
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Location: Eastern USA

N Day Thoughts - "Choose your Hard"

Post by Elyssa » Mon Jun 05, 2017 10:13 am

Feel so much peppier and in a better mood today than usually (previously) after Sundays! Today feeling better after loosening up - but not going overboard.

Oolala mentioned something I've been pondering: "Choose your hard." True that! I realize that difficult moments will arise even now, on this new (old-fashioned) path. When that happens, I will know it'll have been my own decision! And if this path is what leads to long-term sanity around food as I suspect (and will help me drop those lbs my body doesn't actually want or need), then any difficult moments will be well worth it.

There was a really great post I was reading that said, essentially, "how hard ist it really to eat three meals a day - what a First World problem to have!" (I will need to find it to give due credit.) Happy N Day everyone!
Ahh... relief!

"No S" has become the life-changing answer to my agonizing questions around food...

Trust in the wisdom of structure.

oolala53
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Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2008 1:46 am
Location: San Diego, CA USA

Post by oolala53 » Mon Jun 05, 2017 8:35 pm

"Choose your hard" I got from Brightangel who I think got it from someone else. But it's appropos. (She makes my "hard" look like a cake walk, pardon the metaphor. )

I think this sentiment is why some people actually do succeed long term with some dieting. It's rather mysterious to explain that though it doesn't make things easy, it can almost seem like it does because it's more obvious that it's the preferable way to behave. It's getting you something you want more than giving in would. Something you're really sure you want and are willing to do a LOT for. The resentment and rebelliousness declines or even disappears. The successful losers quit looking for what will be a breeze, and paradoxically, it sometimes or even most of the time feels like a breeze enough of the time that they just keep going. That's why you'll often hear people claim that their plan is easy. Well, for the lucky few, it sometimes IS easy. But EXPECTING it to be just doesn't seem to last.
Count plates, not calories. 11 years "during"
Age 69
BMI Jan/10-30.8
1/12-26.8 3/13-24.9 +/- 8-lb. 3 yrs
9/17 22.8 (flux) 3/18 22.2
2 yrs flux 6/20 22
1/21-23

There is no S better than Vanilla No S (mods now as a senior citizen)

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Elyssa
Posts: 52
Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2017 12:27 am
Location: Eastern USA

Post by Elyssa » Thu Jun 08, 2017 11:05 pm

Oolala, there is so much compact wisdom encapsulated in your response!!!

It actually takes a lot of time to read and then (ah yes, pardon the pun) DIGEST the thoughts you shared so generously.

You are absolutely right - what seems so easy may very well be --and probably is-- at the end of the time the result of a (often difficult) CHOICE to engage in a certain types of behavior consistently, even though a certain OTHER types of behavior beckon also!

So there is that all-important determination that "I will take this path, not that path" - and that determination, followed through, is what may make things seem easy for a while...or maybe for a long time, until obstacles rear their predictable head.

In that sense, this food journey CAN also become a path towards personal growth. But only when we engage with our food issues constructively, right? Growth (except piling on lbs, haha) does not really happen when we keep falling back into our own worst habits that keep us stuck.

"The Unbearable Lightness of Being," or something like that.
Time to go read "The No S Diet." So excited it arrived today!!!
Blessings on your path.
Ahh... relief!

"No S" has become the life-changing answer to my agonizing questions around food...

Trust in the wisdom of structure.

oolala53
Posts: 10059
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2008 1:46 am
Location: San Diego, CA USA

Post by oolala53 » Thu Jun 08, 2017 11:15 pm

Thanks. It took me quite a lot of obsessiveness to come to these conclusions. I'm glad someone besides me gets a little benefit.

(Whereas our fearless leader seems to have great insights WHILE he juggles having had three children, a few compelling jobs, extended family interactions, and philosophical salons. Maybe everyone in Cambridge is like that. But who's comparing...)
Count plates, not calories. 11 years "during"
Age 69
BMI Jan/10-30.8
1/12-26.8 3/13-24.9 +/- 8-lb. 3 yrs
9/17 22.8 (flux) 3/18 22.2
2 yrs flux 6/20 22
1/21-23

There is no S better than Vanilla No S (mods now as a senior citizen)

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