Choosing to work through faith
30 May 2007 by livingrainbowcolor
Every system fails humans. Systems cannot account for the immeasurable diversity between people, so people have to adapt the system to meet their needs.
Diets don’t work, because we can’t stay perfectly on the diet for life. Without a safety valve to get us through the hard times, we will fail. If we learn to get through a craving, occasionally eating the craved food without binging, we can make the diet succeed.
Non-diets don’t work, because eating exactly what our body needs means we don’t lose weight. If we choose to tolerate a little more hunger, we can lose weight, which is often a desire of a non-diet dieter.
DH was coaching me on how to get up off the sofa, explaining to me how he just “doesn’t mind” doing chores all the time. Nice system, always being willing to so whatever you want to achieve. Except when he visits Mama, he’s just like me - the simplest things are too hard to do. I do like the idea of improving my skills in this area by choosing to “not mind” more often, though.
Most systems have an element of “you just have to trust the system.” You might be asked to put faith in the eating plan, or an energy field, or a higher power. Sooner or later, you are faced with an apparent contradiction, and you will have to choose your response. The three most common responses are feeling like a failure, giving up on the system, or adapting it to your needs.
After decades of choosing the first two and failing, I’m going with the third option.
- “I don’t mind” worked to get me off the sofa tonight.
- Tonight I dove deeply into a formerly forbidden emotion, going through it and coming out ok.
- When I needed rest tonight, I rested.
- I would like to have a mantra to coach me into eating less at meals. So far, I like ELEM: Eat Less, Exercise More.
- Checking in with my goals several times a day keeps me better on track.
