Letter to Myself for 7/3/19

This topic contains 8 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by -Lizzie- 6 years, 9 months ago.

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

-Lizzie-

9:42 am
7 Mar 18
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Dear Me,

It’s March 2018 already and your attempts to ‘start again’ in January failed after about a week and a half. The standard pattern is to repeat this throughout the year but it will fail all over again and you will end up fatter and unhappier. You will miss out on a hundred opportunities because you feel so terrible and will disappear inside yourself, affecting relationships with your loved ones and your working life. You will convince yourself that you will give it one more try (and one more try, and one more try, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow).

This has been the pattern many, many years.

You have tried every diet under the sun and they never – ever – work after the first few days/weeks. However, you tried 5:2 (with occasional 4:3) a couple of years ago and it was slow but sure. You lost weight, felt better and were still able to have a social life and enjoy amazing food – unlike VLCDs, extreme low fat, extreme low carb etc etc. But then you convinced yourself that [insert excuse here].

I am writing to ask you to give it one year to see how it goes, with no restrictions other than: don’t eat processed crap. That’s it. Nothing is out of bounds as long as you stick to your fast days. Enjoy it. Take it slowly, breathe, relax.

I am looking forward to tracking your progress over the year and you coming back to this post regularly to remind yourself what you need to do and why you are doing it.

You have amazing willpower for doing exercise and it is the one thing that has kept you from going under completely. Keep it up, improve on it, feel the strength growing in your body.

Oh, and stop stressing about absolutely everything. There’s not much you can do about most of it. And maybe learn to love yourself a little bit along the way.

How have we done? I’m really looking forward to a massive celebration, hoping it will be epic.

Love, Me.

penguin

9:48 pm
7 Mar 18
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Lizzie. I think most of us have had that kind of conversation with ourselves. All I will offer is that starting any new regime in January is a much overrated approach., My gym subs stay as low as they are because of all of those people who start in January and are never seen again. But this isn’t January and you are still here, so already you are winning.

-Lizzie-

9:33 am
8 Mar 18
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Hi Penguin

Thank you for your wise words. I am with you on the gym membership – I must have had ten memberships over the years that I paid hundreds of pounds for and used a handful of times before giving up in the second or third week of January.

I am on my second fast day for week one so baby steps but I’m determined to stick with it.

Thank you again, it’s great to have some encouragement.

Penz

2:31 pm
8 Mar 18
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Hi Lizzie

I love your letter. I hope that Future Lizzie writes to Current Lizzie and says something like: Hello me. Thank you for giving me the encouragement to undertake – and commit to – this way of life. You’re right! It worked. I am now so much happier in my life, and I look and feel great. Love, me.

diverdog

3:56 pm
8 Mar 18
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Lizzie, we all have times when we just can’t maintain the effort and “fail”. None of us are perfect. It takes around 60 days to establish a new habit. If you have a bad day just forget about it and move on to the next successful day.

You might want to join the March group and post every day for accountability and support.

You can do this.

Chris48

5:12 pm
8 Mar 18
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Lizzie
It could have been me writing that letter to me, it sounds exactly like me.
Having lost some weight on this, and many other diets In the past I give up because it is soooo slow for me to loose weight.
I am trying again and am on my second fd today. I know it will work if I am patient, and be content to let the lbs (or in my case half lbs) disappear slowly. I have a holiday in Australia coming in October so it gives me lots of time to get rid of the excess pounds I am carrying.
Good luck. I hope we can both do it this time.

-Lizzie-

5:50 pm
8 Mar 18
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Hello Penz, thank you for you comments and I truly hope those are the words I will be writing too. I will look back on your post in one year’s time and hopefully say “thanks Penz, I did it!”.

Hello Diverdog, thank you also for your kind words and I will join the March group – a fantastic idea. I’m also determined not to let my negative thinking derail me. Slow and steady this time is the plan and I feel like I’ve let the air out of the balloon by writing my letter, and finally giving up on the idea of quick fixes.

Hello Chris48, thank you and I’m so delighted you are getting back on track. It’s amazing isn’t it; we waste so much of our lives obsessing about food and doing these diets that make us unhappy and less healthy. I am a slow loser too but I need to be more realistic and just keep going. I’m in a different frame of mind this time and comments like yours really help. Maybe we could check in on progress from time to time. Australia – how lovely. I’ve never made it that far south but I’m imagining you there, sitting with a drink at sunset being content, healthy and the weight you would like to be.

FatFingers

5:55 pm
8 Mar 18
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Dear Lizzie, just to say, welcome and well done!

You have taken the first and most important step – a commitment to this way of eating (WOE). You WILL do it this time! I’m a relative newbie, too, just 4 months into my 5:2 journey. I keep posting on the monthly challenge threads, which helps to keep me accountable on a day-to-day basis. I’ve also created my own ‘fatfingers’ thread, where I write my musings as they occur to me! I too am hoping these posts will give me encouragement in the months and years ahead, especially if and when I hit a rough patch – as is inevitable in life.

Keep posting, and this wonderful community will keep on encouraging you!

-Lizzie-

6:59 pm
8 Mar 18
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Hello FatFingers, thank you for the words of encouragement. I’ve just been reading through the March challenge postings and it’s great to learn how people do things in their own way – with some great tips for us newbies.

Congratulations on sticking with it for 4 months. I’m hoping to make this a way of life too and look forward to reading your thread.

It really does seem to be a wonderful community and I’m looking forward to listening to, and learning from, all the amazing people on here.