Maria's Last Diet

by Maria's Last Diet

Do you do this? You decide to go on a diet, and you will start the next day. So on this day before, you eat everything in sight, stuff yourself. It feels like a last fling, because you are telling yourself you’re in for a long period of deprivation, so live it up while you can.

Then the next day you go on the diet, and it’s such a drastic change. Not only have you gone from at least some degree of your usual, everyday overeating, but you’ve actually gone from a day or night of even more eating, to a sudden day of strict limitation—hard, to say the least.

We’ve talked before about the idea of harm reduction. It’s a concept used in helping people break bad habits, as well as addictions. The idea is not to suddenly impose an absolute, total shift in your behavior, but to start out by trying to not make things worse.

Applying the concept of harm reduction to breaking the habit of overeating can mean simply trying to stay where you are for a period of time. In other words, don’t jump into a weight-loss plan, a diet, a big change in how you are eating. Just make an interim goal of not gaining any more weight at this point, the goal of staying right where your weight is now.

This is a good goal to keep in mind during the holidays. And you don’t need to make out a food list, or chart your weight every day, or banish certain foods from your allowed list. The point is to have this idea of staying where you are firmly in mind, and let it guide you—gently. You’ll be surprised to see how potent an idea it is, if you take it seriously.

There are many weeks between now and the start of the New Year. Try to achieve this new kind of goal, the goal of steadying yourself, achieving a balance in your eating that will stop further weight gain.

Attaining this goal of causing yourself no further harm will surely make you feel triumphant. It is not a small achievement—on the contrary, it is quite big. And once you have reached this goal, it’s a much shorter journey to actually losing weight, if that’s what you want.

by Maria's Last Diet

So, here it is, black Friday. Shopping, yes. Online sales and 4 a m door buster sales are in full swing. It’s fun, if not a bit exhausting.

Do you also say to yourself, well, I have 4 weeks until Christmas, enough time to lose 10 pounds? Some women put off going on a diet until the New Year, but some think about using the Thanksgiving—Christmas interlude to drop some weight quickly.

Do you think that way? Think again, maybe. Is it realistic? Even if you were able to pull it off, would you gain the weight back quickly over Christmas and New Years? What good is that?

This time, what if you make a really solid plan to fix your weight problem, and not try to cram it in between holidays. Resolving issues with food and weight is too big a task to be squeezed into a time frame like that. If you want to do it—really do it so the problem stays resolved—then you need to give it all the time in the world.

The main thing is, stop deluding yourself into thinking that you can do something good for yourself on the fly like that.

Think. Prioritize. And most important: Be as honest with yourself as you can be. That’s how to figure out what you can do that will make your life better, especially if your eating and your weight are interfering with your happiness and comfort.

by Maria's Last Diet

Maria’s Last Diet thanks all the women out there who take the time to listen to another point of view, who are willing to consider that psychology has at least something to do with solving a weight problem.

Thank you to our loyal readers who add so much to our ideas by contributing their own, and help us better understand the issues surrounding women and losing weight.

As you prepare for tomorrow’s celebration, enjoy, don’t be too strict with yourself, have a very good time.

And again, thank you.

by Maria's Last Diet

So it’s Thanksgiving time, and I’m mad. Why? Because last Thanksgiving I said it would be the last Thanksgiving that I would be too big, that I would need to worry about how I look, that I would be fretting over not being able to stay on my diet, that I would be dissatisfied with myself.

But here I am again, same old, same old, and I haven’t lost any weight. I’m not up, but I’m not down. I guess that’s something.

So I’m mad at the three diets I went on this year that didn’t work. I’m mad at my best friend for not staying on a diet with me. I’m mad about the money I spent this year on dieting products. I’m mad at the clothes hanging in my closet that don’t fit, and haven’t for ages. I’m mad at Amazon for having so many diet books that all say they work. I’m mad at my cousin Terri who will be at Thanksgiving this year and will show up in her size 4 pants. I’m mad at my husband who can’t help me. I’m mad at my kids who wear me out. I’m mad at my mother who always had a weight problem and passed it down to me. I mad at the size 14 and 16 clothes that don’t even look good on me. I’m mad at TV and movies that keep rubbing it in with all those super skinny women. I’m mad at the boots I want so much that I know won’t zip over my calves. I’m mad at the pecan pie in the freezer that calls my name. I’m mad at my mirror that says awful things about me.

But mostly, I’m mad at myself. Why? Because I’m the one who didn’t fix this for myself, and I’m the only one who can.