{"id":15748,"date":"2017-01-23T10:22:28","date_gmt":"2017-01-23T15:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/?p=15748"},"modified":"2017-01-23T10:22:28","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T15:22:28","slug":"the-question-to-ask-yourself-when-you-want-to-quit-losing-weight-weight-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/the-question-to-ask-yourself-when-you-want-to-quit-losing-weight-weight-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"The Question to Ask Yourself When You Want to Quit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"When<\/p>\n

One of the hardest parts about sticking to a new healthier lifestyle is the dread that comes from thinking about how far you have to go to accomplish your goals. Whenever I have a big task in front of me, I can\u2019t stop myself from getting overwhelmed by all the work I have to do. I think of all I have to do today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year…and it paralyzes me. Readers of this blog know I tend to procrastinate once in awhile (or more accurately, all of the time). This is a major source of my procrastination. I think it is also a major reason for why people fail at establishing new habits and accomplishing new goals.<\/p>\n

The first day of packing your own lunch instead of ordering Thai food, or turning down the mid-morning doughnut, is easy. But on day two, day three? Your mind starts to wander. You start to think about how you\u2019re going to have to pack your lunch every damn day, which means you\u2019re going to have to plan ahead…go shopping…and then you start thinking \u201cshould I buy a real-deal lunch bag or use paper bags? Probably buy one, but which one, maybe I should check out Amazon…gosh there are so many choices. This one is highest rated but Prime shipping is only available for the orange color\u2014can I pull off orange?\u201d Then Karen announces there are plenty of muffins\u00a0available in the break room and you should get in there before the\u00a0banana nut\u00a0is gone (why does she always insist on everyone getting a muffin? Does she own stock in the bakery?) How am I going to tell Karen I don\u2019t want a damn muffin\u00a0every. single. day. Also, when will my intense cravings go away?\u00a0And when am I going to be able to have muffins again?<\/p>\n

Fine Karen, I\u2019ll split one with you.<\/em><\/p>\n

You\u2019re spiraling. Stop thinking about how hard it\u2019s going to be tomorrow, or next week, or on your family vacation in April. You can\u2019t tell the future. You can\u2019t know what your cravings will be (have they always been persistent and\u00a0consistent? Probably not); you can\u2019t say how much energy you\u2019ll have to exercise tomorrow. For all you know, you might be stronger and more committed with each passing day. Thinking about the future\u2014and assuming that healthy eating and exercise will always feel as hard as it does now\u2014is where we derive so much suffering when we\u2019re trying to change.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what you can do instead:<\/p>\n

When the feelings of anxiety overcome you, whispering weakness and doubt, stop and ask yourself, \u201cCan I do it right now?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Can I ride out this craving\u00a0just for this moment\u2014this hour?<\/em><\/p>\n

The vast majority of the time, the answer is going to be yes, you can do it now. If you have to crawl through the day minute by minute, hour by hour\u2014asking yourself “Can I do it now<\/em>?”\u2014do that. Make it through by staying present and committed to the hour\u00a0in front of you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the hardest parts about sticking to a new healthier lifestyle is the dread that comes from thinking about …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[998],"tags":[271],"class_list":["post-15748","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weight-loss","tag-emotional-eating"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}