Maria's Last Diet:

When it comes to losing weight, there are the goals you know and the goals you don’t know. Just think of it this way. There were certainly times when you violated your weight loss goals. Oh, you might have thought that your commitment wasn’t what it was supposed to be, or your losing weight motivation was down that day, or you didn’t have enough willpower or self-control. You probably didn’t think for one moment that your weight loss slip up was the result of a goal you didn’t know.

Such a goal could go like this. I wanted to fill myself up on junk food the way I did. I didn’t care that I was on a diet. I just wanted to have what I wanted to have, and that was that.

To identify hidden goals that are in conflict with weight loss, try writing out a set of pros and cons for weight loss and then a complimentary set of pro’s and cons for not losing weight.

Weight loss Not losing weight

Pro Con Pro Con

Pay careful attention to the weight loss cons and the not losing weight pros. For these are the hiding places of the goals you don’t know.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Monday, March 30, 2015 in Goals/Planning/Intentions/Expectations | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

Weight Loss for Women—The Perfect Conditions

by Maria's Last Diet

What if you could create the perfect circumstances to lose weight? What would this look like? What would you want to include? What would you make sure you excluded?

Here are some possibilities for the perfect circumstances to lose weight. You’d probably want a supportive environment with people who are encouraging and who make you feel safe and secure and adventuresome to a reasonable degree. There should probably be consistency and a predictable routine with a chance to remedy situations that are not conducive to weight loss. This Shangri-la for weight loss would most likely offer you solid methods by which you could work out what stands in the way of losing weight. There would also be plenty of opportunity to learn and practice any and all new skills that would ensure weight loss success and integrate these new experiences so the weight loss challenge is well within your capability.

What would be the perfect circumstances for you? Give this some thought and see what you come up with.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Sunday, March 29, 2015 in Problems and Obstacles | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

What’s Wrong? I Can’t Lose Weight

by Maria's Last Diet

There are a million and one reasons women give for not losing weight. “I don’t have the time.” “I can’t stay motivated.” “I just have to have my comfort food.” “I’ve tried before and I don’t want to go through that again.” These reasons may or may not be accurate, but whether they are accurate or not, they don’t tell the whole story.

For every woman who says she can’t lose weight there is a backstory. The backstory is a set of events that precede and lead up to the current main plot where weight isn’t getting lost. This historical backstory gives a more accurate reason for not being able to lose weight?

Do you know what your backstory is? What were the past events in your life that made you gain the weight you are now maintaining? See if your backstory is still very much a part of you, and this is why you can’t lose weight. If so, you will have to do more than diet and exercise. You’ll definitely have to do something about your backstory.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Monday, March 23, 2015 in How to Get There | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

Can’t Stop Eating Too Much Food and Fattening Foods—What to Do?

by Maria's Last Diet

She wanted to know what to do about her out of control eating. Lately, she can’t go a day without cookies or doughnuts or an assortment of other fattening foods, which she eats in between her regular meals or instead of eating breakfast or lunch. She’s done this before. This isn’t the first fat time for her. Ever since she was a teenager, she dieted and gained back, dieted and gained back. Right now at age 32 she is in the gaining back phase and she is disgusted with herself for not being in control. Head shot, glasses copy

Her focus for the most part is on not eating like this. But the longevity of her eating and weight problem suggests taking a broader look at what’s going on. By the time she was a teenager she developed a pattern of particularly harsh self-criticism, which led to self-doubt and dislike of many aspects of herself. Rather than see what she was missing from a mother too self-centered to give her the mothering she needed, she felt unworthy of such comfort and approval from anyone. The amount of food and the kinds of food she ate were what held her together when she was feeling at her lowest.

Going on a diet, like she did so many times before, would definitely be a waste of time. More to the point is how she is going to address the emotional circumstances that lead to a repeated pattern of emotional eating to feel better.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Monday, March 16, 2015 in It's Not Just About Food | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

Can’t Lose Weight, Too Many Conflicts—Here’s What You Can Do

by Maria's Last Diet

There is no escaping it. For breakfast should I have one of my favorite banana muffins or should I stick to my diet-faithful scrambled eggs with cheese? Decisions, decisions, decisions. Conflict, conflict, conflict. What’s eating if you want to lose weight but a bunch of decisions and conflicts? Hair over eye copy

With conflict, of course, comes frustration, indecision, avoidance, and quitting. Better to follow a prescribed diet and avoid conflict altogether. But that’s impossible. There is always going to be conflict, even when you are on a food plan that tells you what you should and shouldn’t eat. You might not feel like eating just so much of this today or have not enough of that tomorrow. There is always conflict in human affairs.

So what to do? Conflict doesn’t have to inhibit your choices; it can augment your choices as well and prove useful to your decision-making. In this regard, just think how often you have taken a proactive approach to a conflict you were facing. It’s a mindset, isn’t it? If you establish a mindset that is ready to deal with conflicting feelings, ideas, goals, beliefs, and what to eat and what not to eat, you will already have the inner resources to deal more effectively with conflict. A mindset such as this could mean that you will spend time thinking out the conflict, be more systematic, and use a variety of information to solve the conflict.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Sunday, March 15, 2015 in Conflict | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

How Overweight Women Can Put Their Eating Habits in Remission

by Maria's Last Diet

So you think you’re going to go on a diet, do some exercise, and lose your unwanted weight. Boy, are you in for a rude awakening. Perhaps you already had such a shock, and more than once. Waist_pants too big

Before you hop right on the first or the next diet and exercise routine, just ask yourself the following. What are the remission rates for a pattern of weight-gaining and weight-maintaining eating? How many women achieve remission with the first treatment (read: diet and exercise)? Do remission rates decline or increase with subsequent treatments? How many treatments does it take for you to wake up to the fact that your pattern of eating is treatment-resistant?

With treatment-resistant matters, what are the key factors associated with higher remission rates? Well, for starters you must have ways of changing your eating pattern. Now this is going to involve some pretty difficult personal changes. Notice the focus is on personal changes, not eating changes. A weight-gaining and weight-maintaining eating pattern always involves personal issues that need to be resolved. For weight loss success, the personal issues must be resolved by making changes to your thinking, your feelings, your personality, and/or your interaction with others.

You can’t simply target eating and exercise and expect the result to be permanent weight loss. For full remission, you must work out the personal matters. There is no other way.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Saturday, March 14, 2015 in Difficult to Lose Weight/Easier Weight Loss | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

The Snack Attack and You

by Maria's Last Diet

If you were asked why you snack on fattening foods, what reasons would you give?

Just respond with a quick YES or NO to the following statements.*

Because…

1. I’m watching TV

2. I’m with friends

3. I’m rewarding myself for working hard

4. I can’t refuse food that is offered to me

5. I'm at a party

6. I’m relaxing

7. I like pleasing someone else who wants me to eat

8. It’s my way of comforting myself

9. I really need to eat something or else I would faint

10. I can’t resist the temptation of the food

11. It’s my way of dealing with sad feelings

12. I’m drinking coffee or tea

13. I’m enjoying the moment

14. I need more energy

15. I deserve it

16. I don’t want to stand out and be different from others who are eating

17. I feel bored

18. I feel disappointed

19. I’m having a nice day

20. I crave tasty food

21. It’s a special or traditional part of some social occasion or celebration

22. I finished a project

23. I feel sad

24. I feel good and I’m in a great mood

25. I’m rewarding myself for having done something I feel proud of or feel good about

How many of these statements did you answer YES to? Did the YES answers form a pattern?

     to enjoy a special occasion
     because of the opportunity
     to gain energy
     as a reward
     because of social influence
     to cope with distressing emotions

*Adapted from Reasons to Snack inventory by Aukje Verhoeven and others.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Friday, March 13, 2015 in Junk Food | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

Trying to Lose Weight—Why Microanalysis of Your Day Moment By Moment

by Maria's Last Diet

If you took apart a typical eating day for you and broke the day literally into moment upon moment, what do you think you would find? What would such a careful analysis tell you? It probably would tell you what led up to the afternoon binge or to the nighttime snack that you said you weren’t going to have because you want to lose weight. Just think what you would discover about yourself if you videotaped your day and then went frame by frame over exactly what happened.

Looking at your day frame by frame like this is a way to know what influences you have to beware of and do something about when you’re trying to lose weight. See how even the littlest things mount up and become the biggest influences. Often what you mistake for waning diet motivation is just such an assemblage of micro-moments, too much for you during any one day.

Posted by Maria's Last Diet on Thursday, March 12, 2015 in Monitoring/Feedback | Permalink | TrackBack (0)

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Weight Loss Goals and Goals You Don’t Know You Have

Weight Loss for Women—The Perfect Conditions

What’s Wrong? I Can’t Lose Weight

Can’t Stop Eating Too Much Food and Fattening Foods—What to Do?

Can’t Lose Weight, Too Many Conflicts—Here’s What You Can Do

How Overweight Women Can Put Their Eating Habits in Remission

The Snack Attack and You

Trying to Lose Weight—Why Microanalysis of Your Day Moment By Moment

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