Why am I having such a hard time starting a diet?

Question

Eveyday I plan to "start fresh" with a diet/exercise routine and it doesn't happen! Now I am feeling that with the holidays coming up, I should just wait until after the holidays to start but that is what happened last year! What would be some of the psychological issues to not being able to start a diet?

Answer 1

Hmm...sounds like you aren't ready for a huge change. That's OK. It's scary to start something dramatic, especially if you know that you're going to have to maintain a new lifestyle if you want to change forever, which essentially means the first day of your diet is the first day of the rest of your life. That's daunting. And you probably figure you can't do it, so you might as well not do anything. Pretty typical response, I've even suffered with it myself. Sometimes I basically feel like, "oh, I've cheated once, I've ruined everything, I might as well go eat a cheeseburger." hehe. :)

Anyways, for you, I'd recommend starting small. Just start making an effort to do something so easy, that you know you'll be able to do it. This could be as easy as making and effort to work out for 30 mins or an hour just one day a week, and making an effort to eat just a couple healthy meals per week, and not sweating the rest of the meals. Once you've done that for awhile and you've accepted it as a part of your routine, add another exercise day, more healthy meals, etc. Keep transitioning slowly until you've gotten to at least 4 days of exercise and mostly healthy meals every week.

Doing it like this is NOT going to cause a dramatic change in your body very quickly. It's going to be slow and you should not expect a lot of weight or inches to be lost like this. But, several studies have proven that weight that is lost more slowly has a better chance of being kept off for the rest of your life.

Make sure that whatever life change you want, that you can live with it. A diet is useless if you hate every minute of it.

Answer 2

You think the food is going to be awful and that you will be tired and bored with the exercise and that you are going to give up anyway - all negative thoughts.

If you start out expecting to fail, you are pre-programming yourself to do just that.

Don't say "I am starting a diet today". Say "Today I will eat healthy and go for a walk".

Take one day at a time - never mind tomorrow or next week or next month - work on today. That way if you have an "off" day - it doesn't matter - there is always tomorrow.

Make the food for your diet as interesting and filling as possible. Spend time making it, garnish it, make it look really nice and then sit down and savour every mouthful.

Don't punish yourself by going hungry - a proper diet should fill you up.

Try buying exotic fruits to treat yourself and have as snacks.

Instead of a "punishment" make the diet a treat.

Go for interesting walks for your exercise or get a treadmill and watch a movie while you walk/run. Make this a time just for you.

Losing weight should be all about feeling good about yourself - isn't that why you want to lose the weight?

You are a great person - treat yourself that way - you deserve it.

Answer 3

Don't procrastinate! It will be harder and harder!
I don't know your weight, but I suggest you check the links I'm giving below. Chances are diets don't work or make you gain all weight and then some when you start eating normally again.
By having 100 to 400 flavorless calories a day, you can reset your weight set point to your ideal weight. No hunger, no special foods, no pills, no exercise (you may add some if you want, for the health benefits but it isn't a must).
Don't waste another day, see the link below and then the boards. You will be amazed at the quantity of people having success!

Answer 4

do this easy concern and you will see some outcomes, merely eat the comparable yet decrease lower back, eat much less of that one concern, working example extremely of having 2 warm dogs have merely one. as nicely to this upload in cardio exercising and you will see progression. do not tell your self you're going on a weight loss software considering could desire to be too huge of a objective to be committed to. merely every day persist with my suggestion, set objectives for a single day and set yet another one the subsequent.

Answer 5

Plan a start date and stick to it. Dr. Joyce Brothers said its not a good idea to start right before the holidays.

Answer 6

It is all in the mind. Your hesitancy and procrastination are signs of your inner anxiety and fear of failure. Change your mental attitude and you will change your waist size.