Monday, January 21, 2013

Oriented Towards Health or Oriented Towards the Yummy Food?

This is something I have dealt with in my own journey, and I'll tell you I am much more peaceful and content about this process of attaining and maintaining a healthy weight NOW that I am oriented towards health.

There seem to be two mindsets that I can adopt at the start of any day.  The first mindset is what I call the "dieting" mindset, which is overshadowed by a fear of deprivation.  It is a yummy-food-seeking mindset which keeps the "dieter" focused both on what he/she is depriving himself of, as well as keeping the "dieter" focused on how to make everything yummy, because unless everything is yummy I'm having a bad day.  This is a very food-centric mentality, it is 100% the mentality I had the first time I did Medifast back in 06/07 when I lost 140 pounds.

The second mindset is the "oriented towards health" mindset. 
"What can I do today to attain and maintain a healthy weight?"  If I am on the 5&1 I would grab 5 meals and set them aside.  I would go to the store to make sure I had appropriate lean and green material.  I would schedule in some time for a 30-minute walk or run.  And then I would go about my day. 

I didn't think I needed to "change my mind" about food back then.  I thought I could keep my "relationship to the yummy food" in tact, that this "diet" was just temporary, that once I was "done" I could go back to eating my beloved yummiest yummies.

I was in for a rude awakening.

When I began the program again, in the summer of 08, I began the comprehensive Take Shape For Life Program.  I focused on "changing my mind" about things.  I focused on health instead of how to make everything the yummiest I could.  I learned that indeed, people CAN change.  We change by making the decision every day that we will act in accordance with our primary goal today.  If our primary goal remains food-centric, and a quest for the yummies, then we will get exactly what we want.  We will be tempted by the off-plan yummies, we will try to make the on-plan yummies as yummy as we can, and we will remain food-centric.

I didn't want my second journey to be a repeat of my first.

Behavior modification is absolutely KEY if we hope to make this a permanent solution. 

I understand the whole argument that "if the food tastes horrible then the adherence will be lower, which will give lower success, etc etc."  And I see the validity in that.  But there is a difference between food being tolerable, edible, pleasant, and striving to make it the yummiest for yummy-sake.

This is not an anti-yummy blog.  But this blog is begging the question "What are you focused on today?  What are you wanting?"

Because we usually get what we want.  And if we SAY we want something but continually act in a manner that is NOT in accordance to what we SAY we want, then truly we need to re-examine our wants. 

I deprived myself of HEALTH for most of my adult life.  I will do so no longer.

I WANT HEALTH.

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