Hi All,

After struggling with a regain for a while, I need to remind myself why I'm doing this.

One thing I've discovered as I go along is that I got obese because I eat due to stress. It's a horrible coping mechanism, and for almost two years, I kept the whole habit at bay, but for the last couple of months, the stress got the better of me, and I just cracked, and the old behaviors started creeping up before they blasted through full force.

So, I've discovered some of the mental tricks I use to "trick myself" into overeating and binging. But the main one is that whenever I feel "out-of-control" I'm actually making a conscious choice.

1. I can restart tomorrow.
2. I'm still pretty thin, my pants still fit...etc.
3. I'm hopelessly fat, what difference does it make?
4. I am miserable right now and this is the only thing that will help.

When I was on track, I trained myself to say NO to those four things.

I read somewhere that relapse is normal, and that as long as you keep trying you will ultimately succeed.

What I am TRYING to do is to forget all of the bad eating, put it in the past, and just carry on. I've been at this since June 2009, so almost two years, and I'm STILL down 100 lbs.

This is my mother's day present to myself. I'm reminding myself how far I have come, and patting myself on the back for still being here.

You look fantastic! Keep on keeping on, you've come so far!

Thank you for your post. I always determined that I was "in control" because I always made a CHOICE to go off plan. My husband would say "I am going to the store, is there anything you want?" and I'd DECIDE that I wanted pastries and chips. I always felt that because I made a conscious choice, that I was in complete control.

I need to be more cautious, I need to say "no" more, I need to ask for FRUIT more often....I will strive harder to keep this in mind when he asks "is there anything you need?".

Don't get me wrong, he's not sabotaging me, we live about 20 minutes from the store. If I ask for something bad he always asks "Are you SURE?". But ultimately the decision is mine, and mine need to be smarter.

I'm right there with you. It helps to remember why we did this to begin with, after a few years of it coming easily I think hitting a hump is (unfortunate but) normal.

You can do it (and so can I)!

Excellent post, we all need reminders now again. I'm struck mostly by how ingrained our 'old' behaviours are, and that no matter how strong we think we are, no matter how long we keep the monsters at bay, if we don't DEAL with them and figure out NEW ways to do things, them monsters will always win in the end. They'll crash thru no matter our resolve, unless we have tools to deal with them, how to deal with stress how to deal with boredom, heck, how to deal with happiness! it's all a mixed bag and different for every person, but so vital to our ultimate success.

You look soooo gooood I hope you have those 3 pix on your fridge at all times !!! I have one of myself shoving some cake with icing and ice cream in my face it's a very good motivator LOL

You look amazing. You can keep this up!

Trazey, this is me, me, ME in a nutshell. I was "fine" for close to two years, but then all of a sudden, it's as though my resolve just got exhausted or stretched too thin, or something, and I started to dabble in stress eating--not eating bad stuff, but just eating something... and then, somehow, it just spiraled out of control.

That's when I realized that while I DID learn some excellent strategies for coping, the old behaviors were lurking just under the surface.

I LOVE this quote from you! I felt so free when I finally realized (admitted?) that I was choosing to be fat. I was choosing to eat every little bite I placed in my mouth. I was NOT infact a victim of happenstance...this was the life I chose to live. From then on, I realized how simple it would be to simply choose not to live that way anymore. The road can be difficult from time to time but the choice is always a simple one...and I always know what kind of choice I'm making now.

FREEDOM...it's an amazing feeling.

Thank You. I am having this same trouble, only not with regain, with first time loss. Reading this has helped me realize I am not the only one with these problems. it seems silly and I should know I am not but reading it made it better for me. I am going to work on saying no.

Wow! Those pictures are amazing!!

It's funny, when I talk to the people close to me and I say random things like I'd never eat at a Cici's pizza, They say things like, "well, not for a while anyway". No, not ever! It's like the world doesn't realize that the changes we make to lose the weight are the same changes we need to continue our whole lives to keep the weight off!!

Thanks for posting this. Weight regain is one of my biggest fears. I am far too familiar with the phenomenon of being in complete control one day and not even caring the next. It's like, uh, what? My one girlfriend walked every day for 2 years and then 1 day she didn't and she never walked again. What is that? I worry what will happen when a major stress-or happens, like if my mom dies or something like that. I had large weight gains when both of my dad's died.

I think coming here and posting is the best move. Acknowledgment and action, that's what you need and that's what you did!! And you are so right. You are still down 100 lbs! That's freaking awesome!!!!

Uber, I can always relate to your posts! I swear, we are sisters who were separated at birth! My biggest fear with beginning a weight loss program has always been the loss of my security blanket....food! When I get stressed, depressed or bored, I eat. What will I do from now on? It's scary. Really scary. After being on-plan for 7 weeks this time, I hit a stressful time on my job last week. I turned to food again. It frustrates me that I did this, but I refuse to give up again. I have to hope that I can re-learn healthy behaviors. I quit smoking over 5 years ago. Cold turkey! So, I know that I have the capability within me to break old habits.

Thanks for posting this, Uber. I have been struggling the past few months and this thread is good for me. I started to include some quotes from it but realized that I would be cutting and pasting every single post!

You are such an inspiration and reading these posts will help me stay on plan today!

Thanks, all of you!

Things are still going well for me, and even though I'm still very stressed, for other reasons, I'm back on track.

What I'm trying to learn is that I will probably NEVER get over my food problem, but the goal is to win more days than I lose.

Yes, I've said all those 'sabatoging thoughts' many times too. The most important thing to to shout back at them. Not giving them all the power.

Thanks for this post.