I LOVE this comic! I do this ALL the time (witness January and February), I make what I think is a huge effort, but in reality it's nowhere near enough. (Also witness my shirt which is now so tight it barely fits at all).
I had another visual, but this one is just in my own head. I see the road to fitness in front of me, but there are giant black monoliths in the way. With great effort I've been able to move some of them out of the way enough that I can walk the road a little way---one huge monolith is jealousy of men and their "easy life," (they actually don't have it easy at all), another is entitlement, but the last---(I think, because I can't entirely see around it) is "The Amount of Work it Takes". WHEW. This whole blog is here because I'm still simply unwilling to accept just how hard and how much work this is going to take.
I can't wait for the Hungry Girl book---I somehow feel I need to see that book before I finalize my new plan. Right now, I'm not exactly trying to go crazy, but I'm not prepared to work either. Obviously, whatever I decide is going to have to have some rest times planned in--but probably not nearly so many as I think I need.
Two other thoughts--it's interesting the problems people have. I was reading my new blog discovery--the fatnutritionist (or something like that). And she gave out a little guide. It cheered me up--the whole thing was about guilt, especially guilt when eating in public and how to handle rude comments that people might make. It was a real relief to read about problems I don't have!!!! Nobody looks at me one way or the other, and I have ZERO problem going to any restaurant and ordering exactly what I want no matter how huge and eating all of it.
Lastly, I figured out long ago that I can't compare food. An apple is NOT the same as a candy bar. If I want the candy bar, eating an apple isn't going to take care of that desire. However, both are good. I CAN learn to enjoy apples for what they are AND enjoy cake when I can get it too.
It's the same with portions of the same food. They are NOT the same. I have a picture of a huge woman at a parade gnawing on a 32 oz brick of cheese. I kept it because it reminds me that what I eat DOES actually make a difference. I don't weigh what she does, because I don't eat cheese like that. What would I tell this woman? Probably the same dumb thing that I rebel against all the time! "Hey, you can still have cheese---look at me, I have it everyday--just don't eat 32 ounces at once! Have you tried cutting it into cubes and eating a smaller amount with apple slices or crackers?"
The answer is that NO SHE CAN'T!! She doesn't want to, because eating a small bag of cheese cubes with apple slices is not at all the same experience as biting into a big brick of cheese. Eating a small amount of cheese would be profoundly unsatisfying for her. Just like eating 1 slice of pizza is deeply unsatisfying for me.
So how can I help her? How can I help myself? By recognizing and honoring that eating right is not all all the same as eating wrong. It's not going to be as satisfying--BUT I CAN practice. She CAN eat the smaller cheese with apples if she knows full well that it's a different experience than what she's used to eating. I CAN eat one helping IF I don't expect it to feel the same as two helpings. We both need to recognize that we probably won't LIKE the new experience very much. Certainly not as much as our beloved old comfortable experience. But I can at least move forward if I realize that I'm doing something different even if I'm eating the exact same food.
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