I don't wake in a good mood every morning.
Some days, it takes a lot of work to develop a positive attitude.
I'm successful at weight-loss and maintenance of that weight-loss,
and overall, I'm a fairly positive person,
but there are times when I feel sad and low.

Turning my mind toward the positives in my life,
doesn't cause me to escape negative feelings,
it just keeps them from hanging around as long.

I"ve found that sometimes the fear of a feeling,
with a frantic attempt to immediately escape from it,  
is actually worse than the underlying feeling that I'm afraid of.

Feelings happen...no matter what...and it's okay to feel every one.
I've learned that one feeling will soon be replaced by a different one.
Just experience the wave of feeling...good or bad...
let it surface in yourself, ride it out, and then let it go.

 I like this quote by a member of a forum I frequent:

"Weight loss is not your sole achievement in life.
You are not just your weight loss.

You have worth as a person,
because of your mind & your feelings
& your relationships & activities.

The weight loss is not like a lucky winning streak
that you have to strain to keep up
& you are a complete failure if you eat.

Also, it's okay to feel black despair & sorrow & loneliness.
What you don't want to do is to eat when you feel like this.
You can shove all the food you want into the black hole
& that will still not fill it up.

Sometimes you just have to ride out the wave, white-knuckled,
when there is no hope in the world.
You just have to sit it out.

I swear, after the wave closes over your head, you will surface again."

*****
start: 247
Now: 139
Height 5’3”

Regarding our food intake and eating pattern:

It is ultimately in our own hands.....

What we choose to live with.                 
                   and
What we choose to live without.
 

The ability that our bodies have to adapt to our behavior is remarkable.
One thing about counting calories is that no matter how careful we are,
the number we deal with is still an estimate.

As most of you know,
PERSONALLY, I choose to log all of my food into a computer journal every day,
which forces me to continually face my own food intake and my own food issues

I do my best to keep my calorie averages around a specific number,
because I am personally unable to keep my calorie-intake consistently similar, day-after-day.

Remember, our bodies are organic adapting devices,
not mechanical devices...
...although almost every "expert" uses the mechanical model
as an example of the way our bodies work.

A mechanical device in good working order, operates the same way every time.
A specific behavior - like pulling a lever- always causes the same result.
This is NOT true of our bodies, because we are organic adaptive creatures.
Although basics general laws of nature apply, there are great variations between
individual bodies, and even between the results of the same body at different times.

It is very hard to sustain consistent and patient eating behavior
when we do not see the hoped-for-weight-results,
but that is actually the requirement for successful weight-loss
and for long-term weight maintenance.

Sometimes we get tired of the struggle.
Sometimes we just want to "do what comes naturally"
...unfortunately this results in eating the way we did when we became fat....,
and actually, that Behavior is the only one with Guaranteed Results.
We will become fat again, only this time it will happen a little faster,
and we will become a little fatter.

For many years, I've also found a Focus on Behavior,
rather than on Results, to be essential for my own success.

One of the things I like about Reinhard of the No S Diet
is that he agrees with me in this.
On page 130 of Reinhard's book,  'The No S Diet"
regarding a "focus on behavior" he states :

"When you focus on behavior,
you get results thrown into the bargain
because behavior causes results.

When you focus on results,
you get neither because results cannot exist without behavior.
And behavior, besides being a better thing to measure,
is also an easier thing to measure.