Diary of a Fat Girl

I feel like the butterfly that is you is getting ready to fly Lisa! Much love on your journey! Xo deb xo

"Don't try to make giant sweeping changes too quickly."

This is the principle that I have based everything I have done for the last two years on. It doesn't matter if it's weight loss, study, house cleaning, reading, or whatever. Humans are creatures of inertia and routine and trying to overhaul any area of your life wholesale will be met with resistance after the initial burst of energy and enthusiasm wears off. The only way to really change your life (again, not about food or weight, but it applies there as well) is to make a small change. Make that change absolutely routine, and then expand a little more. Make that new level routine, and only then expand again.

I've had the luxury of time in making changes, however. It sounds like you may not. It sounds like you may have to do some serious overhauling right away (I guess this based on you being given a food list).

However, and I say this with trepidation because there's already too much advice out there, I'd say the best approach is to view change as building a snowball extremely slowly. Start small, roll it very slowly, stop when you get tired and hold at where you are, and expect that as it gets larger bits may occasionally fall off and you'll lose some ground. This is all good. Even when the bits fall off and you lose ground, you gain something because when it starts rolling again, you know that set-backs are just blips and that you can keep moving to where you want to be. Recovery from setbacks is a powerful confidence building, far better than perfection all along.

As long as you move ahead steadily, it doesn't matter how fast you go or how big or small your strides are. You'll get there.

I started making minimal changes. Then more. Then more. Then tweaking. Then more. I find incrementing change is less disorienting and painful and when the first changes become habit, new ones can be tackled with less mental/emo exhaustion.

I wish you the very best on this plan.

I looooove fruit. Every time I hear "cut down or out fruit" I get nervous and antsy. I have cut down (not 7 fruits a day or 8 anymore, now it's 2 to 3 tops). But live without fruit ? CRAZY. Can't and don't wanna. It's one of life's great pleasures.

And baked apples are so numsy. Enjoy!