I have struggled for YEARS on how to lose weight and more importantly how to do it in a healthy manner. I've starved myself and lost a lot. I have restricted. I have over-exercised. This time around I'm seven weeks in and I'm doing it by not beating myself up over it.
If I eat too many calories, instead of thinking what a pig I am. I realize that I will just make better choices after and then try to figure out WHY I splurged. Was it to an emotional thing? Was I bored? Have I not been eating enough through the day and felt deprived? If I don't exercise that day, I remind myself that my body needs a break instead of telling myself how horrible of a failure I am. We negative self-talk ourselves all the time. That is the real problem in my book.
Look at this conversation for example. @Thenomain is already putting himself and his choices in a negative light by saying he should and doesn't, etc. Or by saying he's spent X hours doing X thing and should be doing... we really need to eliminate 'should'. He enjoys gaming, there is nothing wrong with that. We need to work on changing our self talk. Like we say things to ourselves we would never say to a friend or a stranger.
Find a thing you like to do and then focus on the activity and not on it as a weight loss tool. If you like to bike, go bike. Enjoy the beauty around. If you like photography, go bike ride to a place and walk around and take pictures. You need to enjoy how your time is spent. I mean I'm just giving an arm chair opinion here, so it could all be bunk.
I walk 2-6 miles a night with my sister. We have been out of touch almost my entire adult life. We are now living together. We walk slow (18-20 minute miles) and we just sort of catch up on our day. What was funny? What was crazy? What made us mad? It's something we both enjoy and gives us time to get back to the relationship we had. That's my only exercise. I'm more mindful of what I am eating, but hey, I just ate a bowl of chips if I'm honest here. I don't feel bad about it. It was totally worth the calories to me.
As a positive -- I am officially down 20 pounds since May 8th. Woot. I still have a ways to go, but I find my thoughts are shifting and that's the real ability to do it. Also, accountability. I know my sister is waiting to go walk with me and she gives me crap (nicely) if I bail out or try to bail out on her. So @thenomain - find someone to check in with. You want to text me (I don't mean that in a creepy way), I'll set up a time to check in with you if you want.
TL;DR - It's more about shifting your self-talk and your mindset. Also, woot this is working, albeit slowly.