Maria's Last Diet

by Maria's Last Diet

There, even with the grace of God, go I.

Week after week Libby didn’t lose weight, despite the frequent weight loss meetings, despite a lot of talks with good friends, despite all her desire to lose weight. In fact, she gained 9 pounds. “ I was good this week, she opined. I stuck to my diet.” How could that be?

It couldn’t be. If Libby stuck to her diet week after week, like she claimed, she would have lost some weight. Average weight loss is about a pound to a pound and a half a week. You might suspect that Libby was lying, outright maybe, or deluding herself, or just plain not aware. It was probably lying. That’s what women who weigh too much do. They lie to themselves about how much they eat.

It’s hard to confirm any of this, especially if the person says how well she is keeping to her diet. In fact, it’s hard to say right to someone’s face, you liar you. But it’s like you’re in a hailstorm where pellet-sized ice rocks are hitting you on the head, and you are being told it isn’t so.

The truth is that Libby violated her diet easily and often. There were whole weeks when Libby said she ate only one or two meals a day. This was one of her ways of dieting off her diet. She had shifted from portion control to number-of-meals control. She tried cutting her portions and being more selective about what she ate, but she couldn’t stick to that regimen.

What’s with Libby’s lying? Women who have weight to lose make lots of excuses for why they aren’t losing weight. But they also tell outright lies, just like Libby.

by Maria's Last Diet

Is what you expect what you get? The bag of chips, the bar of chocolate, the richness of the lasagna, the heaping spoonfuls of sugar, and the twice-baked cheesy potatoes are the stuff that pleasant expectations are made of. What happens, though, when you actually eat one of your pleasant expectations? Do you revel in your satisfaction and delight? You may. But you also may rue the fact you ate something which spoiled your weight loss routine.

Why is it so common for us to be unaware of the consequences of our actions when it comes to ditching the diet and going for the fattening food? Do pleasant expectations rule? What can you say about this for yourself?

by Maria's Last Diet

When you anticipate how you would feel if you violated your weight loss regimen, does the feeling you anticipate then prevent you from violating your weight loss regimen?

There is research showing that anticipating you are going to feel ashamed works better than anticipating you are going to feel guilty. In this research, anticipating feeling guilty was an effective deterrent only for those who had a neutral attitude toward the food temptation.