This Week's Weigh In

I have today off work and so I have a little time to do an update! Yay!

It looks mighty beautiful outside. The birds are chirping - I love that sound by the way. The sun is shining! In my opinion, it's pretty perfect. I have a lot planned today. I have to get my fasting blood work done this afternoon. No food for me yet today. I can handle it *wink*.

I weighed in Tuesday afternoon and I was down another 2 lbs. Hip Hip Hooray! I can't even begin to convey how much happier I am that I'm finally doing this and making it work. In our group meeting this week, we talked about urges. It was the Behaviorist presenting and asking us questions. We had to draw on a Human Body Outline what an urge looks like to us. Guess what I drew? A piece of pizza. I love pizza much like Garfield loves his lasagna I guess. It is probably one thing that if it's there, I will eat some. I'm glad I've been learning this moderation thing :) Anyway, pizza is an urge for me. My redirection for those urges.. I drew a camera. I love taking pictures and the beauty of the resulting image. It's a sense of pride - I took that! I've added some more pictures recently to my Flickr account. Check it out if you'd like :) My Photos - and feel free to comment if you'd like. Some of the earlier ones aren't the greatest quality, but I'm getting better.

Ok, back to the urges. Why do they exist? That was the next question. I learned that there are three main reasons: 1. Habit, 2. Biological (i.e. that time of the month) and 3.)Psychological and of course number 3 is the major reason for an urge. Why do you suppose that is? Urges are not about physical hunger. Overeating behavior is usually about some unmet need - a lot of us seek food in an attempt to fill that unmet need. Some of the warning signs of unmet needs:

1. Low self-esteem (yup that was definitely me)
2. Poor communication skills - difficult expressing needs and wants (yup..me again)
3. Lack of motivation (for some things...yup)
4. Depression (oh yeah...definitely)
5. Unusually high stress reactions - a level 10 response to a level 2 event. (probably... if you count crying a lot as a reaction to something)
6. Loneliness (yes, at times even though I have a husband and beautiful kids..I did feel lonliness at times)
7. Feeling a "loss of control" in life (I probably didn't think so at the time, but looking back..yup I was not in control)

By the way - they say urges last 10 to 15 minutes. So..that's why I pick up the camera. Doing that, takes my mind off the urges.

In my case, it was all about the depression and not taking control. I feared a lot. I didn't think I could do it. But once I took the first step to get help...there's no stopping me now. When there is depression involved, you really need to find help to begin the journey of weight loss. Help can come in all shapes and forms. My help and kick in the pants was going through the MMPC Weightloss program. I also started going to church and learning about God. I didn't have that growing up. By the way, singing is a great stress reliever too. I sing in the church choir now and I'm having fun with it. Building new friendships has been a huge help with the weight loss effort. They cheer for me each week when I share my successes. Someone like me who has always dealt with poor self-esteem and depression really needs that cheering and pat on the back. It makes me smile and feel worth it. It's a boost for the self-esteem. It's like a natural high!

So you there...reading this...do you have your cheering section? Do you deal with self-esteem issues or depression? Do you have urges?

Til the next time I post..peace and love.

♥ Dottie