Unsweet Advice: Help! I Feel Great Anxiety!

September 07, 2008 ↓ 3 Comments

Hey, we have emailed a few times and I’ve found it really helpful. I’m undertaking seriously cutting my sugar again in an effort to go on a diet and lose 20 lbs by xmas (15 would be success too). I eat a lot of sugar…a lot so I’m not cutting to none, I like light sugar juice and I find thats okay to do me as a treat. Help! I feel great anxiety trying this again. :(

I’m sorry to tell you that you are setting yourself up. You always put great pressure on yourself to lose a bunch of weight in a short period of time. No wonder you’re feeling anxious!

My suggestion is to stop worrying about the goal of losing X number of pounds by Xmas. Instead, make your “goal” to be active and exercise three times a week from now until December 31st. Try biking, attending a group fitness class, going to yoga, taking a long walk with a friend, or try something else you’ve always wanted to do.

My point is that you need to create an ongoing and sustainable level of activity to achieve permanent weight loss. It should be an activity you enjoy and look forward to doing. You needn’t start with a marathon. By going on a hard-core diet until Xmas you’ll be stressed and miserable which will push you to drink more and more sugary juice. Even if you manage to lose weight you’re bound to put it right back on when those Christmas cookies come out during the holidays.

So forget the holidays! Forget the weight! Think of your activity levels and avoid sugar altogether. It sounds like the sugar juice is one of your trigger foods. See if you can last without it for two months. Can you not drink it for two whole months? That’s how you can tell if you’re medicating yourself with it.

Write about the whole process by keeping a personal journal so that the next time (if there is a next time) you want to drop weight from dieting you can read about (and remember) how you already tried that and how it made you feel.

Remember, get off the sugar completely!

(3) Comments: Unsweet Advice: Help! I Feel Great Anxiety!

Pierson Matthews
Sep 07, 2008

Read ‘French Women Don’t Get Fat.’ This book is about variety in food and life, finding things other than food that make you happy, eating fresh, delicious food in season and paying attention to the pleasure. No scale but look at your body and how your clothes feel to keep you on track. It’s a slow steady weight loss, and staying in balance to keep the weight off. No more mindless eating. The recommended sweet is a little top quality dark chocolate, savored. Small amounts, variety and great pleasure. The French don’t talk about diets either, they talk about interesting things like world events etc.

sweet enough already
Sep 08, 2008

Hey David,

The website looks great. Since the MFA residency I’ve cut back sugar eating to a small bit of dark chocolate ( a few squares from a choco bar) twice a week. I feel great! I did EMDR on not eating sugar a few months ago and as usual, it took a few months to integrate, but here I am, not craving sugar and feeling confident as the sugar weight (o so slowly) melts away. Your talk on your journey around sugar was the extra inpetus i needed.

Island
Sep 09, 2008

David, your site is a great design and flows easily. I had ceased coffee for 3 weeks and sugar for one…when you posted your invitation. It was a not-so-subtle confirmation for a better direction…..away from emotional eating (feeding worry and lonliness).