I have always thought that if I could solve that deep inner mystery of how people can find the strength and mental attitude to go on a diet, be inspired to stay on it and then stick to it, I would solve a great mystery of humankind. True, we all follow MM and Diane has taught us how MM works for us Met B’s, physically; however, our feelings, emotions and thinking need to be on board as well. Our feelings, emotions and thinking is our mindset.
So, while following the MM plan, how do we tend to our emotional needs and develop a great mindset to be inspired to stay the course on MM? My thoughts on this is that one of the most important steps to stick to a plan like MM is to make the Metabolism Miracle your lifestyle. I have always thought that a diet becomes your lifestyle when the diet becomes a natural way of life as you go about your daily routine. I had a light bulb moment recently as I thought, yes, the thing to do is to make your diet your lifestyle, but how does one go about doing that?
Give yourself a big pat on the back as you work toward making a lifestyle change. Changing so many things about your life, what you have always known, how you eat, prepare food, exercise is huge. With the right thinking and planning it out; however, you can do it.
How can we mentally and emotionally change if we need to do so? In the world of psycho-therapeutic interventions, there is a type of therapy called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. A type of “talk therapy” that is based on the theory that our ways of doing things are related to the interaction of thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, the therapist and patient will work on identifying and directly changing thoughts and behaviors that may be maintaining undesirable habits.
Basically, this means that if we change our thinking about something, we can change our ways, specifically, our not so good habits. So, my thinking here is that if we change the way we think and feel about being on a diet, we can change our habits and that can become a long term lifestyle change for better health and well-being.
Here are some pointers on how to change the way we think about dieting so that we are inspired to stay on plan.
MM removes carb cravings
By following MM correctly, physically, we lose our cravings. That puts us so far ahead of the game in the world of dieting. Just knowing this fact puts us on a super solid foundation for success. When we see and feel this success, it motivates us to stay on plan. How many of us have said MM is a diet we can live with? To me, emotionally, that feels good.
Let go of fears
Convince yourself that you can be successful with weight loss. Remove fears of failure and replace that emotion with the thoughts of how great you will feel when you start to see and feel real results. Change any feelings of failure about starting the diet or recommitting to MM again.
Align with healthy food choices
Switch from thinking about resistance and deprivation, the things we cannot have, to all the good things we can have on MM. I have heard so many people say “I could never do this diet. I could never give up my pasta” I say, I always feel as if I am not giving something up, but I embrace new ideas and new choices.
What are we “rooted in”?
Change old food associations, habits, customs and what I call what we have been “rooted” in. For example, here in America, we are so used to going to the diner and having eggs, toast and potatoes for breakfast, or a burger and fries for lunch or dinner. I have changed old food associations to include an omelet without the potatoes and burger and salad for lunch or dinner. I have no problem in asking for substitutions in a restaurant. This is my thinking that has changed, which have changed my habits, which has made MM my lifestyle. I could not even fathom going back to my old ways of eating and my old, ingrained food associations.
Know the plan
Educate yourself about everything MM. Don’t just sort of know it; really know it. What is the MM plan? What are the steps involved? What is the right approach? For many of us, myself included, thinking out, organizing and planning out a weight loss and exercise regime is essential. This keeps us in a positive emotional mindset because we have a good plan to follow that truly works.
Support systems
Look for support. This can include talking to the people here in Miracleville. We all have common underlying issues in relation to weight loss, health and chronic Metabolism B. We are so fortunate to have access to Diane’s advice and expertise. Tell people (family, friends or others) you are dieting and you follow a certain plan for your health and ask for their support.
When staying on MM is not going easy, reach deeper inside yourself and make it happen to stay on plan or recommit. It is so easy to just get back on track. As you work toward your goals, expect greatness from yourself. From little to big victories, both on and off the scale, shoot toward maintaining your level of excellence to do well with MM.
I believe when we put emotions behind our weight loss and health goals, we develop a mindset that cannot be beat. This winning combination inspires us to continue to step up to the challenge and take the prize of a better life!
Let’s talk about it
What changes have you made, emotionally, to stay on plan with MM? How did you change your mindset?
OMG Lynn you have me crying! What an inspirational post.. it makes me so happy to read all of this and to know that you’re right MM is a lifestyle, I think that’s something I need to communicate to my husband, he says when you get better, when you can eat normal again, and I’ve told him its a lifestyle, but I think as my progress continues and I have it inside ME to say no, not be tempted, not have cravings then he will see. I know this sounds HORRIBLE but prior to MM
1) I would always tell him to take me out when I had a bad day and ate horribly to what I thought would ease my emotions
2) I knew that if I mentioned I was gonna cook something he hated he would automatically offer to go the convenience store and I would sneak snacks in, instead of eating a healthy meal
3) There were times he would leave me money so that I could buy me something to eat from this place here in town and I often would not only spend that money but my own and order more food than what I truly needed
I look back and when I think about changing my mindset OMG I have come a long long way! : )
You are doing so well Valentina!! So on the right track girlfriend!!!
When I was growing up, I was the youngest with only older brothers. At school, some teacher started saying “if you want to get a Duckett to do their best, get them angry”. It stuck with us all through school, and as the last, I probably got more of it than my brothers.
That said, having several doctors first tell me to gain weight/stop running to get pregnant (I couldn’t) then tell me I was too overweight to get pregnant, I got angry. I stayed quietly angry for 15 years. But when my blood sugar started to creep towards diabetes, I finally had all I could take of bad advice. It was “damn the torpedos, full speed ahead”. I have always had a very positive (my Dad called it determined) attitude towards challenges, meeting & overcoming them is a plus in my life. But the weight loss was a total frustration until MM. Now with the obviously correct method/information and wonderful support, I’m never going back to unhealthy. 23 months of MM has convinced me I have all the control I need. And it just gets better every day with this web site and getting the truth from Diane!
Yes, with the right knowledge and tools (MM) The challenges & frustrations actually become your victories!! WTG Lynn
The way I deal with resistance/deprivation issues is simple: No, I can’t have pasta now, but when I get to Step 2/3, I can have a little if I want it. Fruit, which I was really missing early in Step 1, I figured out how much I COULD have as a counter and do that now when I want it.
What makes this a lifestyle to me is that there is NOTHING I can’t have, I just need to do the math and figure out how much I CAN have. Some things will be a LOT easier when I can bid Step 1 goodbye for awhile. But because I don’t have cravings anymore, I can be satisfied with 1/3 of a small apple or peach, or small square of dark chocolate, or 3 of my favorite sort of sweet pickles, or just a taste of real honest-to-god ICE CREAM. Never before understood how some folks could have just a taste of something divinely decadent and walk away. Now I do, and it’s one of the greatest gifts MM has given me.
Love it!!! I’m with ya AKchick!! I always like to think it’s not what I cannot have…but all the good things I CAN have!!! Feels so good to be in control, right?
I was very committed to MM for over a year until I had to spend almost two months away from home last summer to be with my mom on hospice. I was there with my two sisters and two brothers. Three sibs lived in the same area as mom, and two of us were at a distance and staying there. When I first got there I stuck to Step 2 as I always did, but as time went on and mom worsened there were days I did not even want to eat, could not make myself eat, or days we just ate fast food or good old southern comfort food because it was easiest rather than food shopping. And of course whatever mom wanted, that was on the menu for sure. After mom passed it took me a good while to even care about eating properly or eating at all, and mostly at first it wasn’t the best choices for sure, probably what I would call “careless eating.” This past spring I began talking to myself because I realized I had to get back on plan. It isn’t that I was terribly off plan because I always kind stuck to the five-hour thing and snacks … but my food choices weren’t always the best for sure. So actually returning to Step 1 was like returning to an old comfortable “friend.” I embraced it and looked forward to it. I think when you lose someone close like a parent you just have to go through the stages of things and sometimes we don’t have the control we would like to have over our self-discipline and our emotional and physical feelings. I think I just reached the point where it was time to “feel good again” and that meant eating the right way and taking care of myself. I know mom would want me to do that!
I think end-of-life elder care is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. With my granddad, I had my mom & sister, and it’s not like he was demanding, but I don’t think I’ve ever been so exhausted. More recently with my mother-in-law, we cared for her in our home for 2 1/2 years before we were left with little option but to move her into a long term care facility, but even then we were there for some part of every day. I’m grateful that I didn’t find MM until after she passed in April, because I would simply not have had the mental energy to do anything about it, and would have forgotten entirely.
Bless you for doing what needed to be done for your mom. It’s never easy to lose someone you love, but in my case I’m sure it would have been worse if we didn’t know, absolutely, that she’d had the best and most loving care possible, right up to the end.
Thanks for your very kind comments, AK. It was very hard, but it also was a treasured time as well. Mom was always there for us kids, raising us mostly as a single parent, so there was no doubt we would all be there for her. She was the best friend I’ve ever had! She had never been sick in her 81 years, so this was a a shocker to us all. It was a wonderful reconnection for all of us as brothers and sisters as well, being under the same roof again. There were plenty of laughs, too, to help us through the hard days, and mom loved us all being there. When Diane posted her article about stress and being in Step 1, I understood it completely, but I wonder if I could have done it.
I started MM in 2009 and did well. My mother had been in Assisted Living for four years and progressed to Nursing Home care due to Alzheimer’s Disease. I decided to care for her in my home and my focus shifted to her daily needs. I work fulltime as a research RN so my stress level was very high with the addition of round the clock care for my mother.
At the beginning of this year, I finally was able to restart MM Step 1 and am so glad that I did. I have to make time to prevent my prediabetes from becoming full fledged Type 2 diabetes. I do have support from Hospice Nurse visits and the priceless assistance of my husband. We all need to make our own health our number one priority in order to be there for all of our loved ones.
Terry
It’s a wonderful thing you are doing, Terry, for your mom. And you are right, we need to make our own health the number one priority. I am pre-D as well, and I knew I had to get back on this plan. Way back in the late seventies I took a wonderful Stress Management class at the local college, and one of the things the professor constantly drummed into us was that we cannot care for others if we do not care for ourselves first. If we don’t take care of ourselves first, then there is nothing left for others. Period. Very sage advice, and something I’ve tried to live by ever since.
Sometimes, in life, we just have to do what we have to do. Agreed, with the loss of someone near and dear to us, we do go through so much emotionally. So happy you got back on plan, when you were ready.
Terry, You said it!!! We have to be there for ourselves and then that makes us so much better for those who need us… Glad you got back on track!!
Thank you Lynn, for putting into words what I have come to believe as well. I’m just getting to the end of Step 1 and haven’t felt this good in years. I REALLY believe I can live this way – and I want to! I bought my first 85% dark chocolate bar this week and figured out how many little squares I could have for a 5×5 counter. I NEVER could have done this in the past – I would have eaten the entire chocolate bar on the way home from the store. But I was satisfied with what I had ,and to me, that is truly a Miracle 🙂
Kim I believe you can live the MM way too… Almost to the end of Step 1 is proof you can do this thing!!! MM really puts us in balance!!
What a wonderful article, Lynn. I had written a lengthy comment earlier this afternoon and unfortunately it did not publish as I was not logged in properly.
In short, you have really very eloquently put a lot of the belief and inspiration many feel into words. What appeals to me the most about this program is what the others are stating – there really isn’t anything forbidden on this program as it is a lifestyle committment – it just teaches you moderation – and after you cleanse your body and make sure things are processing correctly. That really is the most appealing part to me – not to say that if I lose some weight along the way I won’t be happy as well :).
My best to all and have a great night!
Alicia, you are so right… MM is such a livable lifestyle program!!
Lynn, i believe you have found a way to touch so many of us with your words. It is not about what is forbidden or “not on step 1 or step 2” that throws me off course, but my own fear of failure. Having been down this road several times I often choose self-sabotage rather than prolong the agony of fear.
I also fear success — what will it mean? what will be different? will the success last? When I’m not so caught up in the fear, I find myself enjoying the food, enjoying the clean, fresh and wholesome food that I choose to fuel my body. The less processed, pre-packed I choose, the better I feel. I love to cook and finding new ways to enjoy the right fuel for my Met B engine the better my body runs, the clearer my mind works and the more I yearn to exercise, move and play. Thanks for the inspiration and reframing.
Fear is big thing for many of us. How many of us as Met B’s can relate to what you are saying? Just the fact that we all probably tried so many diets and they just didn’t work. I think with MM, we don’t have to fear success nor failure. It’s a plan that is so right for us, we see & feel results and that makes us want to take our victories even farther!! Thanks for being so honest about your fears… you give me inspiration to write about this subject in the future!!
I am hoping that as time goes on…I will trust the MM plan more and more to keep me looking and feeling my best. Notice I didn’t call it a “diet.” I’m trying to stay away from the D word because making it my lifestyle is the goal… I keep my MM books handy, as if they were holy books. I need to have it available for reference and to answer an infrequent question, “Now, why am I eating like this again?” LOL People notice when you eat differently, especially those closest to you and sometimes they may unconsciously sabotage you mentally with comments like “when you’re better” or “when you’re done with this diet”. I think I will start to say…I’m not on a diet. I eat as much as I want to eat. I don’t eat very many carbs. I try to remember that I’m an adult and can advocate for myself at restaurants and such. Plus I’m not eating out as much because it’s getting more and more expensive. It’s pretty satisfying for me to stand at the grocery line beside all those chocolate bars and not even touch one… Woo-hoo, Kathy! LOL
Kathy you are on the right track here. Your mindset is amazing… love it!!
Wow, such great responses here!! I’m always so impressed with the people here in MV. You all are always so honest, open and candid with your feelings and ideas!!
Here at Lynn’s Place I am thrilled to see what I would call a wonderful cycle of inspiration. I see it as this: Diane encouraged and inspired me to write about feelings and emotions with regard to weight loss, dieting, Met B, etc. With that, my goal is to inspire you. You all definitely inspire me so much with your discussions, kind words and responses, and hopefully, we all inspire our MM Rockstar, Diane to be inspired to continually bring on MM to us in bigger and better ways imaginable!!!
I love it… we have a big inspiration fest going on!!!!! It is amazing……and we are all so amazing!!
Lynn
What changes have I made emotionally ? When I read about MM in First magazine in Oct 2009, I was just going to do the ‘diet’ to lose some weight for the next year’s class reunion. When I got the book & learned how it could improve & keep me in good health, my emotions faded & I grew into the mental awareness this new knowledge afforded me.
Is there any other lifestyle that can do as much as MM ? I want to never be on the number of medications I saw my residents in my Senior Care home have to take thru-out the day & night…..mostly because their bodies were worn out by fighting so hard against the excess carbs & processed foods of the modern world….
Definitely an excellent mindset change…from just going to do the diet for an event to a complete lifestyle change for good heath!! Doesn’t get better than that Lotus!!!!