My Thoughts On Weight Loss, Dieting, and Exercise

Before

Recently I joined a Biggest Loser weight loss competition. I have always maintained an attitude that I do not like diets, nor do I like exercise. To me those words are temporary words, words that lead to epic failure. As I  prepared for this contest I knew that I would have to make some fundamental changes in my thought process.
First I would have to change the way I thought of food. And second I would have to change the way I thought of exercise.
As for food, I used to eat whatever I could and I ate until I was full. I like food and I thought the natural thing to do with food you liked was eat more of it. Whenever the pangs of hunger hit it meant that I needed food and I needed it now. It really wasn't that I ate huge, monster amounts of food. It just was that I ate more than I needed to. I did not live an active lifestyle and I ate like I did.
As I look back I have had several things that have influenced my mental change. One most recently was a radio show that I just caught maybe about five minutes of. A gentleman named Gabriel claimed that he had weighed over 400 lbs and lost all of his excess weight without dieting. He claimed that we have emotional switches that control our weight gain and weight loss. That some emotional stressor causes a part of our brain to think we are going through a famine and it causes our body to store fat. He claimed that if we could get rid of that stressor that our body would naturally lose the weight. I am not sure why, but something rang true and I know that most of the battle is in your mind. Something clicked inside of me and I realized that I could eat less and still enjoy eating.
I promised that I would not go on a diet, but I would eat less of what I do eat and I would introduce some new foods into my menu. After I started this process the next step came when I started fixing breakfast one morning and I found myself asking if I had fixed too much. At that point I realized that mentally I had changed the way I thought about food. If I like what I am eating I now eat it slower and keep it in my mouth longer. It is not a race to eat as much as I can, but a challenge to keep the flavor lasting longer. Lately I have been enjoying my food more and when I am done I don't feel that stuffed feeling that I am sure caused my body more stress.
I have always felt that the stress of worrying about our weight was more dangerous than the weight itself. Which I still believe, but I also realize that the weight causes its own stress on our body and carries with it its own dangers. So, my philosophy has been if your weight bothers you get rid of it, but don't worry about it, just do it.
As for exercise, again another mental hurdle had to be overcome. That one came about a couple of years ago while taking a class one the mind body connection. We were given an assignment to increase our movement. We did not call it exercise because we did not want to get in a routine. Instead we were to try different types of exercises, from aerobics, Thai-chi, dancing, walking, or whatever increased our movement. This eased my mind on exercise which again I knew I could not maintain a routine for the rest of my life. I like variety and I know that a routine would not feel natural to me. Instead I just had to move more. Now exercise is just a tool to help me move more.
These hurdles have helped me start the process of becoming physically what I already am mentally. My Moto has become Eat Less and Move More and Become Physically what you already are Mentally.

Ouch!!! Watch it fall.

Week #1 I dropped 12 lbs.