Tired of the 140s

As I have been changing things up over the past month or so, I feel like I have become better at eating more naturally, I haven't binged which is good, but I also feel like I have been stuck here in the high 140s for a long time and I for one am sick of it.  As you know I haven't been tracking.  I really think that I have reached the limits of what tracking can teach me.  I know how many calories are in the foods I eat and how many points, I know what foods are good and what foods I should avoid it is just a matter of doing what I am supposed to be doing.  Now, while I may not learn anything new from tracking, I do think that there are still things I could benefit from tracking.  First of all I know that I have not been eating as well as I should be.  I have been snacking a lot and I have been eating a lot of extra food. I feel like I have been doing an excellent job maintaining my weight, but that can be very frustrating when you are trying to lose weight.  I'm also hovering right outside my healthy weight range which is infuriating.  And so I am going to use the I Track Bites app to help me be more aware of exactly how much I am eating.  Also when I am tracking my food I tend to snack less as I don't like going over my points/calories.  The challenge comes when being persistent.  I need to make sure that I don't deprive myself, forbid any foods, and even if I go over for the day I need to write it down and not think I have blown my whole plan and throw away the day.  Every piece of food you put in your mouth counts and the best time to start fixing overeating is right after you have done it.  Just get right back on track and don't make things worse.  That is something I really need to get good at doing.

I've also just started reading a book that I absolutely love called "The Beck Diet Solution" by Judith S. Beck.  If "how to have your cake and your skinny jeans too" is about how to eat like a thin person and "food triggers" is about finding and fixing the emotional roots to why you emotionally eat, then this book is the third piece to the picture and is all about teaching you how to think like a thin person.  How to think about food and how to think about dieting.  It is retraining your brain to think differently about food.  Some of the examples given in the very beginning I just love.  It's about talking back to your self sabotaging thoughts.  Here is a great example "When you hear that little voice in your head say 'Oh, just eat it, it won't matter.' You will be able to tell yourself 'Yes, it does matter, I want to be thin, every time I eat something I'm not supposed to, it makes it more likely that I'll give in again in the future, it matters every single time,  I'm just trying to fool myself.  If I eat it, I'll get a few seconds of pleasure but then I'll feel bad, I can resist this, I want to lose weight much more than I want a few seconds of pleasure." page 18

Source

Talking back to your self sabotaging thoughts is one of the big things she talks about, but you also learn to change your thinking from "I wish I could eat that" to "I'm sure glad I didn't eat that!"  What an amazing mental transformation!  This book doesn't teach you how to eat but how to think, and that was a big missing piece of the puzzle for me.  I'm also just tired of spending every waking moment thinking about weight loss.  I need to start thinking about other things, and only think about food at appropriate times like when I'm food planning or hungry.  I'm ready to change, and ready to progress.  If you are not happy with where you are now or what you are doing then you need to change, and change I am.