New Year's Resolutions

This is the first time in my life I haven't had to make a "fitness/exercise/diet" type resolution for the New Years! Why? Because I don't have to resolve anything. I have been making gradual lifestyle changes. I just need to continue with whatever I've been doing because what I've been doing is working! I attribute my weight loss to an overall lifestyle change- I don't eat processed foods because I can't find them here! I don't even get tempted. Where is the sourcream? I don't know. Where are the cheezits? Non-existent. Where is my car? Gone. I must walk everywhere. I must eat healthy because the vegetable market is much closer than any real grocery store.

I am losing weight gradually without really realizing it. It's only when I've had to alter my pants twice now that I've figured it out. It's only when I've noticed I don't have a bump on my tummy that I've figured it out. Can a stomach actually be flat? This is such a strange and new concept to me. I feel good having a clean slate. (Like an artist that gets a new piece of paper) Now that I have lost the weight, I don't need to worry about losing any more but instead I can sculpt what I have: aka: continue with my abs of steel workouts!! =)

I want to share an article with you. The original source can be found here. For those that don't want to click, I've copied and pasted below:

"I've read various diet books where they talk about the "Last Supper" syndrome, or the "Last Meal" syndrome. Basically, people build a diet up into this huge event, and it's usually a massive event they are not looking forward to. So, rather than telling themselves "okay, I'm going to make some small changes, gradually, until I get to a healthier place" they have this "this is the last cupcake I'm ever going to allow myself to eat in my entire life!" freak-out, and it causes them to binge because everything is the LAST time. So, they give themselves a period (the holidays just lend themselves marvelously well to this, because of all the fatty and sugary foods) to have a prolonged funeral of sorts for indulging in unhealthy foods and sitting around. January 1st is their death and rebirth, because they can't understand how to make it a gradual life-style shift. And they have so many people around them also dying that day that they have plenty of people to have their food freak-out with, and plenty of people to commiserate with when they're depriving themselves and forcing themselves to jog 5 miles a day.

This can be prevented, I think, by not making any food a forbidden food. Eat the frickin' cake, just don't eat it every day, and don't eat half the cake in a sitting. Eat healthy most of the time, making those small adjustments, and allow yourself a little treat when you want. You won't overindulge if you know "this is just one of many, many brownies I will eat in my life. I don't need to eat six right now." You also don't force yourself to exercise so much or so hard that you hate it, and don't want to do it. Go for a little walk. Stop when you want. Feel how your body feels better. Do it again a couple of days later. Bike for fun. Play tennis for fun. Enjoy it and it won't be a chore.

Why this is so hard for people, I don't fully know. I would guess that it's largely our instant gratification mentality. We don't want gradual changes (even though those tend to be the ones that actually last). We want to be thin, and we want to be thin NOW. We don't trust our will power, because we've never built any, so we treat ourselves like inmates and "sentence" ourselves to grueling diets and workout regimes. Then we fail, and because we're so all-or-nothing, devastated, we just give up. Until January 1st of next year."