PWLP: Week Eleven - Lesson Five

Personal Evaluation

1. Did you ever consider how your metabolism affected your past weight loss efforts? If so, how?    Sometimes I wondered if I was just born with a crappy metabolism, and then other times, I figured my crappy metabolism was a function of my PCOS. I never figured that severely restricting caloric intake, as well as skipping breakfast, really mattered in the grand scheme of things.

2. Have you ever thought of exercise as a "peacemaker" between you and food? How do you feel about this concept?    No, I have never considered exercises as a "peacemaker" between me and my food. I think this is a really interesting concept. Before today, I always considered exercise as essential to weight loss. I wanted to think of it as something that my body needed daily, but I never really clung to that mentality. On that note, this "peacemaker" mentality allows me to see exercise as essential to my overall well-being and functioning.

3. Do you feel you could ever become compulsive or abusive with exercise? If so, how can you guard yourself against it?    I'm not sure if I could become compulsive or abusive with exercise. It really hasn't become something I 'love' or 'yearn' to do on a regular basis, I guess I would have to cross that bridge if I ever get there.

4. What kind of balance would you like to achieve between your eating behavior and body size?    I would like to have controlled eating habits in general. I'd like to go to someone's house and have a respectable portion of snacks - I would like to have one serving instead of fifty. I would like the controlled way I consume food, to be a reflection of my body size - both being small.

5. What fears do you have today about your ability to maintain that balance?    I fear that a lot. I fear that I'm just destined to have an abusive relationship with food and that as soon as I finish PRISM, I'll go back to my horrible ways and lose all self-control and gain the weight back.

6. How can exercise help ease those fears? How does that make you feel?    I suppose exercise allows me to make up for bad decisions or not as ideal decisions as I would like to make. It keeps my body processing those things that my body isn't really 'gung ho' to be consuming. I think that exercise makes me feel better about myself in general, and allows me to be more confident in my success...