Maria's Last Diet

Overweight Woman Wants Answer

by Maria's Last Diet

Dear Maria...

I've never felt as helpless as I do at this moment. I'm overweight by 40 lbs, and I just can't lose the weight.

I've hit rock bottom. I know it's time to put fresh eyes on this problem.

Like: Really, why do I eat like I do?

Tempted… By No One But Me

by Maria's Last Diet

When does a temptation turn into a lapse? The answer is simple: when you don’t know how to cope well with the temptation.

So what does it take to cope well?

It would be helpful, first of all, for you to understand why you were tempted. In other words, what made it a temptation for you.

Lots of things can tempt us: the kind of food, the time of day, our level of hunger, the occasion (e.g., a party], our emotional state (e.g., angry, anxious, down, bored), the need to feel better, comforted, loved, energized, etc., etc. There are endless possibilities. 

Identifying the cause is the first order of business when it comes to coping well with temptation. But doing something about it is the second, which is a lot harder.

If the cause of your temptation is situational (e.g., a party), can you think of two quick options? One is to take total control—don’t even attend the party. Another is to go to the party, but prepare yourself in some way not to be tempted by the allure of party food.

When temptation is caused by your need for emotional regulation (e.g., quelling anxiety), you could again take total control and get rid of all the non-diet food at home. Or, you could deal more directly with your anxiety so you won’t have to eat over it.

 A temptation that you cope with well won’t turn into a lapse because it loses its power to tempt you.   

Dieting Tests Your Self Worth

by Maria's Last Diet

One thing you will confront when you are dieting is the matter of your self-worth.

Dieting means changing your eating habits and maintaining new habits, both of which present a challenge to your sense of competency. The more competent you feel, the better your sense of self-worth.

Trying to lose weight ratchets up the potential for feeling like a failure. If you’re a dieter who needs to protect her feeling of self-worth, you might be afraid to try, fearing failure. But if you can risk feeling not so competent for a while, you can take your time and develop the skills you need. That’s how you can feel a heightened sense of self-worth.

Dieting is indeed a test of your self-worth, but it doesn’t mean you have to get a perfect grade. Give yourself lots of opportunity to master the subject, mistakes included. 

 

Weight Loss Diets as an Escape

by Maria's Last Diet

Sometimes, a focus on dieting can be a way to escape self-awareness.

When a woman goes on a weight-loss diet time after time, and concentrates on nothing but the diet in order to lose the weight, she may be abandoning her "self".

There may be worry, fear, and anxiety just below the surface of her weight problem. There may be a world of meaning and understanding that could enrich her "self", but she may wish to escape all of that, sensing the experience would be anxiety-filled.

This is not uncommon. We all have a tendency to stop our minds from having disconcerting thoughts. We don't want to be reminded of our problems and our worries and our anxieties.

So, a woman may narrow down her thinking to that circumscribed area: the diet and all it involves - counting, portioning, weighing, meal-planning - all that may minimize the dangers of delving deeper.

However, this use of a weight-loss diet can also prevent a person from learning new things, from broadening her scope of understanding, and from finding new answers to one of life's difficult problems. She may not make any attempt to understand her own behavior. She banishes any upsetting or threatening thoughts from her mind by putting all attention, all hope, all expectations of a solution, all energy on THE DIET. The details and procedures of dieting take the place of true discovery, keeping her on the surface of things where it's very unlikely she'll find a way to fix the problem.

The weight-loss diet is only one part of the answer to a weight problem. The "yourself" part is where the meaningful and powerful answers lie.

Weight Loss Success Can Inspire

by Maria's Last Diet

I just met a woman at the grocery store, someone I haven't seen in a while. It was a much-needed jolt of inspiration.

Ruth lost 56 lbs during the time I hadn't been in contact with her. I was very interested in how she did it. I've always admired her - she's smart, her kids are really nice kids and I know she's got a great job. I could always see that she was quite a bit overweight, but i didn't know it bothered her. She seemed so pulled together.

So I asked her. She said she went to a nutritionist who helped a lot. She also said she'd been to a nutritionist - the same one, in fact - two times before, and hadn't been able to stick with it.

I asked her what was the magic bullet? She said she told herself it would take a year. She didn't try to rush it. She didn't get impatient, or give up in a week when she didn't lose an ounce.

Time, Ruth said, I gave myself time to learn how to stick, to go through the steps, to accomplish the changes necessary. Time, she said, did the trick, the time to get there.

That got me to thinking, if she could find a key, one that's completely available and free, so can I.

Dieting Tips to Get Your Diet Going

by Maria's Last Diet

Are you stuck? Can you not break out of your weight-loss rut? What problem are you facing that prevents you from dieting successfully and losing the weight? Is it that you easily get defeated, do you give in to your cravings for comfort foods, are you a procrastinator, can you not keep your promise to yourself? Or is it that you overeat, don’t think you’re resourceful, or get sidetracked?

If you have been facing one of these problems or any other dieting and weight-loss blocker, don’t just dig yourself deeper into the rut. Don’t use the same old thinking and the same old behavior to solve the same old problem. Try a new way. Use a dieting problem solver. What’s that? It’s a psychological tool that you plug your dieting problem into. Then you and your problem-solver work together to find a doable solution.

You can find such an indispensable helper right on the internet. It’s called Diet Tuffy (www.diettuffy.com), and it was developed by a psychologist to help women dieters solve their dieting problems.

Here’s how Diet Tuffy works. First it helps you clearly define the problem. Next it shows you how to come up with a creative, new solution. Then Diet Tuffy guides you in devising a plan of action and gets you to see where your plan could get hung up. And finally, Diet Tuffy and you fine-tune the plan to make doubly sure it works.

A problem solver like Diet Tuffy takes care of the psychological side of dieting so that your food plan works well for you on the dietary side.   

Every Woman Dieter’s Gottahave “Gadget”

by Maria's Last Diet

Gadgets are great, aren’t they? They make life way easier, more fun, and sometimes they can be a lifesaver. 

Here’s an example of a life-threatening problem solved by a gadget.

People with heart rhythm problems face the possibility of cardiac arrest. What they need is a defibrillator, those big paddles that deliver a needed shock to the heart to get it back into normal rhythm. But too many people can’t get access to a defibrillator in time. So how can someone get that kind of help right away?

Gottahave gadget: A defibrillator right inside the person. That’s silly, you can’t fit those big paddles inside a person―and where would the electric power source be? The small implantable, battery-operated defibrillator was invented. It saves lives every day—a serious gadget.

Of course, a gadget doesn’t need to be a shocking experience, nor does it have to be a lifesaver.

How about a DIET-SAVER gadget—a fun gadget this time, but serious too. And since women are the most notorious dieters, how about a dieting gadget just for women! 

The truth is, dieting is mostly mental. Whether you can stick to a diet or can’t stick to a diet has to do mostly with what goes on in your mind.

So, we need a serious and fun mental gadget that saves women from diet failure. Now let’s ask this question: what mental obstacles prevent a woman from getting on a diet, sticking to it, reaching goal, and staying there for good?  Here’s just part of a very long list: low motivation, vulnerability to temptations, emotional eating, feeling deprived, negative thinking, hard to break habits, and lack of confidence. And there are so many more.

What kind of gadget can be fun yet serious enough to solve problems like these? 

Here it is: Diet Tuffy. It’s the serious and fun gottahave gadget that makes doubly sure your diet works. Diet Tuffy is universal, and can be used with any diet. It is personalized self-help that gives women dieters a mental edge. You can start right away—feed your dieting problem in and come out with the perfect solution. www.diettuffy.com    

 

Gaining Weight by Mistake

by Maria's Last Diet

Is gaining weight something you do without giving yourself permission to do it? Does it kind of happen behind your back, so to speak - sneak up on you, catch you by surprise?

If this accurately describes your situation when it comes to putting on the pounds, then AWARENESS is the word for you. BE AWARE.

Sometimes a person can so unaware that she can look in the mirror and actually not notice a

weight gain. She may simply tune it out, be blind to the reality staring her right in the face. So, while some women look in the mirror without a critical, realistic eye, some look through rose-colored glasses.

Of course, we are not advocating that you be highly self-critical. That's the last thing we would encourage.

Awareness is important if you find yourself overweight and the weight is not a good burden for you to carry.

Don't play a trick on yourself like being unaware of gaining weight. Open up your mind; open up your secrets; open up your thoughts; open up your feelings. Think, feel, discover, figure out, create, succeed.

Ability to Make Changes

by Maria's Last Diet

At Maria's Last diet, we're always investigating the concept of personal change.

FYI: there is a nice piece in the New York Times (July 24, 2009) written by a young woman who had a serious eating disorder. She tells how she took the opportunity at college to believe in her ability to change.

Weight Loss Success Deserves Rewards

by Maria's Last Diet

Sometimes we hear a woman say that to keep rewarding herself as she loses weight seems selfish.

It's a funny thing about selfishness. People are usually the most selfish when they don't have what they need. To make up for what they lack, they tend to grab, to take, to keep for themselves, even at the expense of others, and that's what makes them selfish.

Actually, the more you can give to yourself, the more you allow yourself courtesy and respect, generosity and consideration, the more you have to give to others. The more you have, the less greedy and needy you become. The more you have, the more easily you can give, and the less selfish you are.