Buy Walking VideosLose Weight with Humility: Accepting Your Limitations
According to wikiHow, the first way to learn how to be humble is to accept your limitations.
Here is the list in detail:
You Can’t Do Everything
This belief overcame me not too long ago and I talked about it on Starling Fitness here:
I realized that my hunger response is BROKEN. I can’t control it, no matter how much I eat. I am hungry all the time and it has NOTHING to do with how I have fed myself. Knowing that I have no control over my digestive system was a revelation to me. I can’t do everything. I can’t even control my hunger.
You Don’t Know Everything
EVERY time I think I have figured out what is best for weight loss, I have a problem. EVERY time. It has taken me TEN freakin’ years to learn that I know NOTHING about physiology. Not even all the doctors and nutritionists know everything.
Whenever I have just given up all hope of knowing and just mindlessly followed a plan, I have lost weight. It didn’t matter what plan: Weight Watchers, Atkins, anything. As long as I didn’t try to tweak anything, I lost weight. The instant I tried to change the plan, I would start gaining again.
I don’t know anything. I’m just going to choose a food plan and freakin’ stick to it without trying to inject any of my “wisdom.”
You Have Faults. Find Them. Fix Them.
Every time I overeat, it’s because of one of my faults. It’s NEVER about the food. It’s ALWAYS about my emotions and my inability to face up to the fact that I’m fearful, conceited, and stubborn.
Be Grateful for What You Have.
I don’t spend enough time acknowledging all the things that truly WORK in my life. My body, that I have maligned and starved and stuffed over the years, is a marvel. Despite my being almost one hundred pounds overweight, I can exercise every day. It’s an instant access to a touch of happiness when I can run without pain, and I get that feeling every day I get my butt off the couch.
Make Mistakes And Learn from Them.
I have made hundreds of mistakes over these last ten years. I like to think that I have learned from them, but have I really? I honestly feel like I should do full entry retractions from entries I’ve written over the years to fully understand how my faults played a part in my failures.
At the same time, I can’t let all those mistakes over the years keep me from trying again. Here I am, despite all my lack of success, to do my best and make more mistakes if I have to.
STOP Bragging!
The biggest backslides I’ve made have been after every bragging session I’ve made here. I’m not successful. When I am, my path may not be the path for anyone else but me. I am happy to document what has worked, but it is SO important that I learn not to brag about my success here. Right now, even the smallest downward movement on the scale is a great accomplishment in my mind, but the moment I brag about it here, I am lost again.
Give Credit Where It’s Due.
Weight Watchers has been a victim of much complaining on my part, but honestly, those weekly meetings and my leader have been incredibly helpful. Low carb has been hailed and vilified both on this very blog, but honestly, my hunger abated when I ate a higher percentage of protein and fat, keeping my carbs low.
I have done my best to link to any video or article that has helped me on this journey, so I feel as if I have done my best on this concept, but at the same time, I worry that any ideas I’ve had are never fully my own and I’ve mistakenly not given credit.
Accepting My Limitations
I’m not perfect. I’m not even close. I have NO idea how to curb this unyielding hunger, but that isn’t going to stop me from trying. I will humbly keep searching and faithfully follow the food plan I’ve chosen for myself.
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