Frustrated But Keeping On

Good morning!  It's Tuesday (a day closer to Friday!) and the sun is shining!  Yay!!  I don't know what the temps are supposed to be today, but the sunshine alone is encouraging to me!  I've been in a little mind-funk lately; mainly due to frustration with my scales not moving despite doing a great job with eating and working out.  I know that the scales should not be my measure of success, and I do give myself credit for all the good things I'm doing for my health and body.  But man!!  I used to see pretty fast results for my hard work, and I just can't understand what's going on now.  :{ 

But I'm really going to try and not let the scales bring me down; I know that it'll happen and I just have to keep on despite frustration.  It's been awesome to have friends to workout with; I met Sylvia & Cindi at the gym this morning at 5:30am and did 15 minutes on the elliptical to warm up then a solid 30 minutes or so on the weights.  Good stuff.  This evening I'm going to meet Sandra for some brisk walking and catching up; that'll be good too!  

Okay.  Back to my book, The Beck Diet for Life.  I love reading my Advantages and Response cards each day, knowing I'm retraining my mind and thought patterns. Here's what I read each day:

• The only way to lose weight permanently is to learn dieting skills and practice them every day!  Then dieting will get easier and easier.
• What is my ultimate goal?  To do what I feel like doing? Or is it to lose weight for good?  I cannot have it both ways.  I must commit to the task at hand & practice the skills over & over.
• NO CHOICE!  To plan food for the day, eat only the planned food at the planned times and exercise at least 5X a week.
• I'm choosing to say NO CHOICE!  If I want to lose weight, I have to do what I need to do, not what I feel like doing.
• If I choose to eat this unplanned food, I'm strengthening my GIVE IN muscle; if I resist it, I'm strengthening my RESISTANCE muscle.
• Either I resist eating this unplanned food today OR I deprive myself of all the advantages of losing weight.
• I can always PLAN to eat this food tomorrow!
• OLD THOUGHT:  "I'm hungry!  I have to eat!" 
• NEW THOUGHT:  "I'm hungry!  Oh well, dinner's in an hour and I can wait."
• Negative Fast-forward 10 minutes after eating unplanned food:  How will I feel after eating this?  Will I feel weak and out of control?  Disappointed with myself?  Hopeless about ever losing weight?  Discouraged that I undermined my efforts?  Will it REALLY be worth a few minutes of pleasure??
• POSITIVE Fast-Forward 10 minutes:  Will I feel strong & in control?  Proud of myself?  Hopeful for success?  delighted that I exercised my RESISTANCE muscle?  Which is better; eating or NOT eating unplanned food?
• My weight isn't who I am.  It's not a measure of my worth.  It doesn't define me as a "good" person or "bad" person.  It's just information.  
• Eating slowly makes me feel satisfied sooner, makes me aware of quantity, gives more enjoyment of food, visually satisfies me, helps me be calmer, keeps me accountable and builds my self-control and resistance skills.

I could go on & on, but this gives you an idea of how I'm going to learn new dieting skills to help me succeed this time!  

Okay, gotta hop off here and get ready for work; have a great day!  And think good thoughts!  :)