Here it is, time to update you on my personal weight loss and fitness progress. It’s funny because the reason I started doing these weekly updates was to help you motivate and inspire yourself to get moving and start losing weight and at the same time, help myself stay accountable and stay on track with my goals. Sounds like a good plan, right? 😉
Now this is the funny part: I have written many many posts about motivation here at Fearless Fat Loss, especially when I was doing the daily motivational posts.
Update 2013: Note the date on this article, 11/19/2007. This is an old article that I wrote 6 years ago. At that time I had the thought that I had a sugar addiction and that “motivation” was needed. Today I know this is false.
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I have put a large focus on the topic of weight loss motivation because in my experience, I’ve learned that it’s my level of motivation that will either fuel or bring down my success. I’ve had ups and downs with my motivation, and I’ve also learned that it’s something that I have to stay on top of.
As far as my update for you this week, not a lot has changed since last week. I did not lose any weight on the scale, but I did drop one inch. Why is this, is it my healthy eating and fitness plan? Nope, not at all, in fact I know from experience that when I follow the Six Week Body Makeover plan as it’s very simply laid out for me, it works. So, what’s going on with me so that I have not been following it exactly as it’s written?
The main reason is my sugar addiction. Yes, that’s true, I am addicted to sugar, something that’s nothing new to you if you’ve been reading here at Fearless Fat Loss for a while now. As long as I stay off of the sugar I maintain my motivation and feel great, and then I do want to eat well and exercise. But, if I’m eating sugar, I just want more and more, can you relate to that?
So, refined sugar is obviously not a part of my healthy weight loss plan or healthy lifestyle. It sends me into a spiral of always wanting more and the feeling of it “never being enough”. Now you could be asking, “How did you start eating sugary foods again?”, to which I don’t have an answer to that doesn’t sound like an excuse. I do know that my motivation began turning with the approaching holidays, but I’d mainly have to say that I’m miserably addicted to that refined, sweet tasting white powder, and that a little of it is just too much for me.
The bottom line is that for me, if I indulge my sugar addiction, it pretty much wipes out my motivation. At this point, here’s what I see my options are:
- Keep eating those sugared foods and stay in the addictive cycle.
- Give up, eat whatever I want whenever I want to and gain weight eating sugared, processed foods.
- Get clean, lose weight, feel great.
I don’t want to give up on myself, so here are a few things that I’m doing to regain my motivation:
- Listening to Richard Simmons on Sirius Satellite (Sundays on Sirius Stars).
- Reading the past posts I wrote when I was full of motivation (including my series on Loving Yourself Thin).
- Doing the 30-Day Personal Power
program by Anthony Robbins.
- Taking it one meal at a time, drinking 100oz a day of plain water each day and journaling my progress.
So how in the heck can my experience help you with your own goals and your level of weight loss motivation? Well, if you are also addicted to sugar, it can help you if you stick around to see how I get out of this self-sabotaging behavior. 😉 In general though, I feel it’s important to share how my sugar addiction has brought down my motivation and affected my progress. It’s a tricky situation because I’ve learned that I can lose my weight loss motivation very quickly by getting back into my sugar addiction, and that I won’t be feeling 100% motivated like I did before until I am 100% off of the sugar again!.
I do have something positive that I am focusing on in regards to the fact that I am losing weight very slowly; stay tuned for that topic in tomorrow’s post. 😉
I too am a sugar addict!! I have not been successful at kicking the habit entirely, even though I know it is something I need to do. It’s so hard to resist!!
I am a sugar addict. I love it. And I know it’s a great part of my biggest challenge. The desserts always have a way of getting on my plate 😕 Great insight about how you’re facing your challenges. I’ve found the weekly updates help me face my own weaknesses. I’m ready to adjust my diet to remove Fatty and sugary foods from my daily intake! Thank you for sharing. You’re doing a great job and it shows.
Hi Lisa (workout mommy),
I know exactly what you mean about sugar being hard to resist. One thing that really helps me is to not have it in the house. If you’re having a hard time getting the rest of the family off of it too, you could designate a cupboard that is only for those sugar-filled foods, a cupboard that you just don’t go in! 😉
I know that it can be done (living sugar free) because I’ve done it before. The hardest part is getting started and sticking with it until you get over the hump (3 or maybe even 7 days). Then if you just stay off of it, you’ll be feeling great, it’s amazing. 🙂
Hi Cindy,
Thanks for letting me know that my weekly updates are helping you! I can certainly relate to sugar addiction and have been on the positive side (when I was off of it) and the negative side (immersed in it).
You know what’s fun is that there are desserts that are just wonderful and tasty that don’t include refined sugar, desserts made with fresh fruit. I want to get back to enjoying those kinds of “desserts” again, because when I was sugar free, I truly did love the food that I was eating. I’ll keep you updated on this. 🙂
Also, it’s great that you’re ready to make changes….that’s what you need to get started…I am confident that if I can do this then anyone can. 🙂