Confessions of a Cooking Fool

7/19/21

• Thinking Thin
  • Picture yourself thin
    • As we lose weight it is often hard to see it in ourselves, it takes a lot of time for your mind to catch up to weight loss and therefore we do not see our achievements and this can cause us to give up.
  • Have realistic expectations
    • When you are looking at a realistic goal weight, it is often better to have a weight range instead of a weight goal. When we have a weight goal it can cause undue anxiety in reaching that weight whereas a range and cause mini achievements that we can look forward to
  • Set small goals
    • Break up your journey into small goals
      • The next weight loss amount
      • The next pant size or shirt size
      • The next meal you can create
    • Setting large long term goals will often seem out of reach and unattainable
  • Get Support
    • We all need support, a friend, family, a mentor
    • It’s great to have someone to talk to, bounce ideas off and be accountable to
  • Create a detailed action plan
    • This can be a menu
    • An exercise plan
    • Weight loss goal plan
    • Mark your achievements
  • Reward Yourself
    • Pat yourself on the back
    • Do something good for yourself
    • Buy new clothes
  • Ditch old habits
    • Reinvent your menu
    • Be creative
    • Dont get stuck in the same ole thing
    • Make new habits and eventually the old habits will die away
  • Keep track
    • Weigh yourself on a consistent basis, daily, weekly ect
    • Same times same circumstances each time
    • Keep a journal, weather, exercise, what did you do today? What did you eat, how do you feel,
    • This will allow you to see where things are going good and not so good and allow you to achieve and celebrate your goals
• Learning to love to cook
  • Who gets tired of the same ole thing day in and day out
  • Food prepping can be a great way to keep on track but it takes a special person to be satisfied eating the same thing every single day.
  • If you are a busy person start out with 2 or three recipes under your belt and prep those for a week and then try adding one new recipe a week or every two weeks,
  • Having staples in your house available will make it easier. This will hello you to not get bored and seek out food that is not so good for you
  • Cooking does not have to be a chore. Learn to embrace it, be creative.
    • Fun exercise…..
      • Look in your cabinet, fridge and or freezer find two or three ingredients that you have on hand
      • Go to google and type in those ingredients and then type recipe
      • You will be amazed at what you can find. Try new things. Replace items for things that you think may be better for you
      • Remember cooking is an art, embrace it.
• Hardest parts of losing weight
  • Being around others who are eating food that you can’t have-
    • Is it that you CAN’T have it? Work on a mindset change, could you have it in the proper amount? Do you really want it? Could you make it in a way that is better for you. Embrace the challenge.
• Embrace your inner chef
  • Be creative
  • Don’t give up
  • Be open minded
  • Try new things
• You don’t have to give up what you love but you do have to be open minded in how its cooked, what ingredients you use and do the research, find a way to make it so that you Can eat it
• In my opinion, the goal to successful weight loss is be constant even when your weight isn’t going down,
  • find support support in your friends books, tv shows ect, facebook groups
  • Be open minded
  • Make time to get it right
  • Most important- keep aware of your mental stability
    • Your emotions can be your downfall
      • Most overeating can be attributed to emotional eating
        • As you lose weight, be aware that when you remove one vice from your life you will naturally try to fill the void with another one. When people quit smoking they often over eat, when they quit eating sometimes alcohol consumption increases. When you have eliminated or do not have some of those vises in you life then beware that it may be your emotions that will suffer. This is what happened in my case
        • Remember i talked to you last week about my emotional roller coaster, these changes can be the hardest to recognize because like an iceberg most the issue is under the surface and we never want to make ourselves vulnerable to our inner thought nad feelings with others,
        • Find that one person who will be honest with you no matter what, that person can be your lifesaver if you are really willing to listen to them when they tell you something is off.
• We are just getting started on this adventure.
• Next week we are going to talk about staples in your kitchen
  • What are some great things to have on hand. Not to make life easier so u dont have to cook, but so that you can cook.
• Food for thought
  • If you do it right the first time, you wont have to do it over and over
    • Think of all the diets you have tried, all the weight you have lost and then gained and then lost over and over
    • If you could have made it sustainable from the beginning imagine all the time and grief you could have saved.