My meltdown... crying, binging...

So I had a meltdown - a crying, binge eating, knock out meltdown before Christmas. And I gave up, temporarily, for two weeks. I was in such a stressed out, exhausted and emotional state that I just gave up. But somewhere in the back of my mind was a little, tiny voice that kept saying "you still want to accomplish this". Dec 27th - I reassessed and had a good hard look at why I haven't been able to accomplish this goal of weight loss for a straight 10 years. And Drew's blog post arrived at the same moment I made a discovery. I have been actively studying this "natural horsemanship" method of trainig my horse for 2 years now (my passion and my sanity).

As I reassessed my lack of success in losing weight this quote slapped me in the face: "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten. ~ Pat Parelli, Parelli Natural Horsemanship" and Drew's blog post arrived echoing this concept: "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. ~ Albert Einstein" Ta da!!!

The reason I have been in the same place for 10 years is (ready for it?) because I have been doing the SAME THING FOR 10 YEARS!! So for 2010 to get a different result, I need to do things different. During the last days of Dec and the first 2 of Jan, I got busy reading and studying Tosca's "Eat Clean Diet". This cookbook has fueled my growing interest in whole foods eating and I aim to try a new recipe each week. In addition, I purchased a new Diet Journal to start fresh and am determined to make writing it down a habit - the good, the bad and 'fess up to the ugly. I set a realistic goal of 5 lb per month for 12 months (that's 60 lb in a year!!!).

And last but not least - to be physically active daily, but to love what I do and not to drive myself into an exhaustive state. My eating & exercise plan should help me combat stress, not add to it. What do I need from my favourite healthy weights coach? I need to see you more often - I need to get on the scale once a month in front of someone.

I need a forum to debate and question the many "diet" information out there that infuses every TV show and magazine article. I need more helpful tips and hints from other HWers on things like what to eat at certain restaurants or creative ways to exercise when it is -17 out!!! There it is 2010 in a nutshell - 5 days in, so far so good - only 360 more to go!