What Went Wrong?

Excuse, excuse... blah, blah... excuse.

I think that pretty much sums it up. It's hard to differentiate between reasons and excuses, but the crux of the matter is that I didn't have the will power or the mindset. I know this because I have done the fat-smash diet in the past and have been wildly successful. I am taking full responsibility for not succeeding this time, but I think there are two main factors that contributed to my demise: 1. My results weren't good enough. 2. "Events" kept popping up.

I think at the peak of my weight loss I was down 6 pounds. Which is great, but I didn't stay there. My plateau was interminable. Which was actually really deflating. I have been reading another book (wait for it) that has talked about the importance of your self-image and how it affects your behavior. When you are doing well, you want to keep going. If you feel good, you want to stay that way. You eat better, you dress better, you exercise more. If you're feeling crappy, you act accordingly. Sort of a "what's the pooint?" mentality. This is particularly true for me personally. As soon as I get off track and the scale shows me numbers I don't like, I start thinking, "Oh well," "Whatever," "What's the point?" I go off the deep end. I start eating worse (much worse.) Completely avoid the gym. Stop getting on the scale altogether. And then it's a downward spiral into a pit of despair (right now.)

See, the fact that I was trying so hard and not being wildly successful made me want to stop trying. And then I had vacations, and birthdays, and friends visiting... all giving me totally legit excuses to eat and drink my face off, which would've been hard to resist even in the full swing of my diet, but in my current "whatever, I suck anyway" state of mind was less roadblock than invitation.

As I said, excuse, excuse... blah, blah... excuse.

The end result is I am now heavier than I was when I was sufficiently horrified enough to start the Fat Smash Diet in the first place. Awesome.

So what do I do?

I've deliberated over this for awhile (aka bought myself some more time of eating whatever I wanted.) I've thought about going back to the Fat Smash, but I have done it so many times now, I ultimately decided it was time for something new. Something different to try and spruce this whole diet thing up. I was inexorably drawn to the health section of the library the other day, and randomly pulled out a book called the, "Flat Belly Diet!" exclamation point! On impulse I checked it out along with my romance novel and the book, "Wicked." Since then I've been doing some reading and I am intrigued. Their base research revolves around monounsaturated fatty acids (they call them MUFAs), which are clinally proven to help get rid of belly fat. MUFAs are found in things like nuts, oils, avocados, dark chocolate... they give you a complete list in their book. The basic premise is to eat four 400 calorie meals a day, with a MUFA included in every meal (ie 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips or 2 TBSPs almonds.) They give you a ton of recipes that are very specific, including brands where necessary, and also give you meal replacement options for if you are short on time (like which LUNA bars you can eat and which MUFA to pair it with). Of course there is a 4-day jumpstart "anti-bloat" plan to start the whole thing off, but it really doesn't seem that bad. Oh, and exercise isn't necessary, but they give you an exercise plan if you'd like to speed up your results. So yeah, that is the Flat Belly Diet. I'm thinking of giving it a go. I mean, what do I have to lose except weight?