Think Thin

Over the years I have somehow managed to forget about one of the most important aspects of this weight loss journey.  I totally forgot to 'Think Thin".   How in the world did I forget this?   There is no telling why, but I remember now! 

A week or so ago, I was filming a segment for my youtube channel.  I was talking about my choices in this weight loss journey.  More specifically, I was talking about my question "DO you want to eat this food and be fat or do you want to not eat the food and be thin."   I immediately jumped in and said "ok, not thin now...but thin in the future, but thin up here in my head so that it will trickle down to my body.  That was enough for me to remember my old motto!

Yes, I used to have a motto!  That motto was "Think Thin"  and I wrote about it as early as February of 2007.   It was the concept of thinking as a thin person thinks.  You see, thin people do NOT think like a fat person!   This was startingly clear to me when I had a really thin manager who ate cheesecake for lunch quite a bit.  Ohhh yeah, I hated her to for a while because I would LOVE to be able to eat cheesecake for lunch every day!  But one week I realized what was really happening.

This manager arrived to work on Monday and talked about how she had brought some cheesecake for lunch.  I didn't say anything but  inside I was seething and asking myself why could I not have cheesecake and be a size zero?  On day two she left for her lunchbreak and once again talked about her cheesecake that she was eating for lunch.  REALLY????   Again?  Life is not fair!!!!!  Every day that week she talked about eating her cheesecake at lunch!   on the fourth or fifth day she brought her cheesecake down and eat it in the office.  THAT is when I realized that she was thinking thin.

You see, She sat down and opened her container.  Inside was a half eaten piece of cheesecake.  Half eaten??  Who leaves a piece of cheesecake partially eaten?  I watched my manager pick up her fork and take a tiny bite of cheesecake.  You could see the absolute bliss as the taste hit her taste buds.  She loved it!  She took another tiny bite and moaned in delight.  She took a third bite and her eyes closed as she reveled in the taste.  And then something crazy happened!  She closed that container and took it right back to the refrigerator! 

She ate three bites and stopped.  She thoroughly enjoyed those three bites too!  But she stopped!  For a whole week she worked on ONE PIECE OF CHEESECAKE!  Me, I would have eaten the whole piece in one sitting and licked the plate clean....literally!   And right there is the difference.  Thinking fat....thinking thin.  

Thinking thin is the art of making wise decisions.  Stopping after the bliss of the first taste dies away and putting it away for the next day.  Thinking thin is deciding to do what is good for your body versus what your mind tells you to do.  Thinking thin.  

Thinking fat....well that is eating something until you are sick, long after the good feelings and taste fade away.  Thinking fat is eating everything in sight, because you can, not because you are hungry or craving something....just because.  Thinking fat.

Which do you want to be?   I do not want to be fat.....so I have to really work on making my thoughts and my actions match that of a thin person.  I need to THINK THIN!

Evolution: Beginning, middle and end

Another one bites the dust...weeks thatbis.  I just have today at work and then I’m free as a bird...for two days.  A somewhat typical week, I guess.  I’ll let you be the judge!   I did however make some discoveries about the evolution of this blog.

I have been writing posts on here for twelve and half years.   This blog has undergone some changes, ideas and beliefs.  I have recently been going back and reading old posts and it has been interesting.  There have been a few things that I totally forgot.   I apparently forgot the original name for my blog!  I also forgot a 'mantra' that I had for a while also!  Both of them were pretty good too!

A NEW START
Back on February 11, 2007 I wrote a post.   In reality the post was rather insipid.  But it contained  a neat nugget of forgotten information.  The first line of the post was  "Ok...this is crazy...today's post title  is a new start..and that is the name of my blog."    As I read this the other week, I had to do a double take!  Really?   This post wasn't always called belief in myself?  When did this change occur?  How did this happen?  I have no memories of this early name.  Nor do I have any memories of what sparked the name change.  I am however still in the process of reading through and labeling old posts, maybe I will find another nugget of information giving me clues to when and why the change.

Even cloaked in my faulty memory mystery, I can look back and see where this was the perfect name for my blog when I started.  I was embarking upon the journey of a lifetime.  It has led me to experiences I never thought I would have.  It really was a new start for me.

THINK THIN
In those early days of losing weight and success, I had a motto, think thin.   I actually called it my motto in blog posts.  I finished every comment on fellow weight loss blogs with the two simple words. I was in a few weight loss challenges and even led a few).  Every email and correspondence ended with the words, Think Thin.  I literally used it as my sign off.  Instead of "sincerely, MaryFran"   or  "love, MaryFran"  I would finish everything with "Think Thin, MaryFran."

Think thin worked for me.  It guided my decisions.   I was always thinking thin, meaning that my decisions were ruled by the thought of beng thin.  It also reminded me to try to pattern my thinking after 'thin people' in terms of eating and food.  And yes, there is a difference in how most thin people look at food versus how a morbidly obese person looks at food.  (Generally Speaking at least.)  The perfect example of this was the cheesecake lunches of my size 0 boss.  I also talked about this different thought process in 2008 when I found an article that talked about the difference between thin and not thin people.

Belief In Myself
Somewhere along the way this site and blog segued into belief in myself.  It was a good change.  It encompasses every aspect of life.  We have to believe in ourselves if we want to have success in weight loss.  We have to believe in ourselves if we want to follow our dreams.  We have to believe in ourselves if we want to achieve true happiness.  

I don't foresee the name of my little piece of the internet world changing anytime soon. I like Belief in Yourself.  It covers it all! 

Week Recap

It was a somewhat typical week.  Work, eat sleep. With the commute that does seem like my work week.  (Even with a much shorter commute, since our move it was cut from 2 hours down to one, my days are still 11 hours long.  Yes I leave the house at 7AM and don’t get home until right around 6.).  So let me give you the week in bullet points.

**I had some experiences with hunger this week.  What typically has worked for my food options, this week just didn’t cut it!  I was hungry to the point of being sick a few times at work. What makes this ironic is the fact that I had already written the main part of the hunger post a while back to use at a future time.  (Yes, when I have a nugget of information that I want to include in this blog I will write it out.  Sometimes it immediately makes its way to a post..if it’s appropos for what’s going on.  And sometimes it just sits in the hopper awaiting the right time.)

**I've been having some pain in my right foot.  This isn’t too extraordinary though.  I deal with a fair amount of pain in my feet...they are a mess and have always been!

** I am in the process of self publishing a collection of stories/tales of my online dating experience.  The collection of stories are totally true. The collection started as emails to friends because they wanted to know how my first date after divorce went  (or second...third). They encouraged me to keep writing the experiences...so I did.  Now it’s time to just put it out there instead of having the writing sit untouched forever.  So I spent a lot of lunch and 15 minute breaks this week on my final edit and final read through.

**What?  No walking on my breaks?  Yeah...that didn’t happen this week. NOT because of the final read through.....but because we had rain...lots of rain!!!  I think they said 10 inches in like 5 days or something crazy like that!

** The magical cookies are gone.  And literally two days after they were gone, my weight popped back up on the scales.  I didn’t panic or anything. I was still within the three pound acceptable fluctuation range all week. (But I was nervous about the official Friday weigh in!). But seriously...maybe they are magic!!!

**I have joined a transformation challenge.  I am as of yet, totally undecided how I want to approach this challenge.  I have waffled back and forth!  Do I want to dive in full force and go for the win (ha I don’t hold out hope of that...but at least really try)...meaning work my goal end off for 8 week.  Total restriction of calories and high amounts of exercise (well as much as I can fit in).  Then at the end of 8 weeks move back into my ‘live life’ approach of finding a balance.   Or do I want to stay the course that I’m on...which is slow and steady.  Ok...very slow!

**Weight..the official numbers  for this week?  Low of 244.6 and high 247.2.     Today I was 247.0.  

So as as I write I realize that the title of this post  Evolution:  Beginning, middle and end is not really correct.  It does cover the beginning.  It also covers the middle.   However, it doesn't cover the end.  This is an ongoing story.  There is no end.  Each week I will be moving forward in some way.    I will be striving for success until the day I die.  I will believe in myself until the day I die.   My hopes and dreams have no end!

No panic attacks allowed!

I'm trying to remain calm and tell myself that I didn't do anything wrong this week. It may just be one of those weeks where I don't lose and I don't gain. I'm getting tired of this cycle though. But I refuse to panic and obsess about it. THus..that's all I'm gonna say about the subject.

I have decided that my way that I sign off of emails a lot of times Think Thin...is so utterly immportant in this weight loss journey. I have to keep my ultimate goal..reasons and dreams in the front of my mind at all times. If it is in the foremost part of my mind, then it will be there side by side with the temptation. AND I can see which one is more important to me. I can't make that decision if I don't have those mental images in ready and waiting to go head to head! That way, when I do decide to eat a little something I've weighed the options..and the possible consequence (a little more time to get to goal) and I can thus have no guilt about it later! SOOO my motto is THINK THIN!