[bigpinkbowz]

Back in July of last year, I began my journey when I saw a picture from my partner's and my summer vacation where we both had finally reached our heaviest weights. I wanted to cry. I couldn't believe how much I had let my health go.

We started our lifestyle change and it was going great! We made it to Sept. and both felt wonderful. I was down to 218 from 240 and was really feeling motivated by the visible results I was seeing. Then the real test came in when I began going back to school and my life got busy. I started going back to my old habits. Soon enough I was comfort feeding again and blaming it on stress or life changes.
Back in January of this year, Jason and I began round 2. We found a gym that was very close to home, decided it was enough of the excuses. We were going 3 times a week, having fun with it until a convention both of us work on came around, and life got another dose of busy. Once again, we got stuck in horrible habits again.

Now, Im sitting here, trying to figure out how I can deal with this. Im looking for tips on how to manage this when life gets rough. I do great when I have time to make sure i eat healthy and time to make sure I go work out. But when the stress starts rolling in, my brain seeps back into it's old familiar patterns and I begin to make excuses for myself. Any and all help is totally appreciated!

[AwShucks]

Stuff happens. If you have trouble holding things in the right lane while it's all going on, tell yourself that the moment the hard stuff is over, you'll go right back to what you were doing before. You will probably have done only minimal damage, and can get right back to your healthy habits. Don't let stress derail you for good. Just look at it as a temporary departure from your normal schedule. That might help -- Think of the healthy things you do as your normal routine, and the stressed parts as occasional. They're going to come up, inevitably, but they're not your norm. Just get back to doing the next right thing as soon as you can.

And, practice makes perfect. Looks like you've had two instances where you got off track and you realize what happened. That's progress! Next time, you'll be more prepared to react because you don't want to follow the same pattern again. I always hated it when my mother said to me,"You live and you learn." But, she was right!

You can do it!

[Koshka]

This is a pattern that I've seen in myself. When we moved to our current house and had the stress of finding a new house and moving, I got derailed.

I think the thing that has helped me most since I got back on track is to be aware of this tendency. Also, I track my food and activities on a daily basis so I can see quickly if I start going off track. Also, daily weighing helps me. I need to nip it in the bud if I go off track.

[Dollydimple]

I'm like this too. The thing is though, that you haven't fallen off the diet wagon completely have you? Things happen in life, we learn from them and move on. The very best of luck to you both.

[MarieDK]

I think it happens to a lot of us. The way I have started to cope with business and it sabotaging my diet is to pre prepare my food.

So, the evening before I will chop up fruit, veg, prepare snacks and lunches and put them in containers in the fridge.

I also tend to do lots of things that would ordinarily need chopping up for cooking in the evening and store those in containers too, our fridge is full of boxes! haha.

I know it's a bit of a pain to have to do stuff in your evening when you would rather relax etc, but it makes such a difference on the day you are busy to just be able to grab and go.

Best of luck, you can do it

[yoyoma]

Maybe you could design a "fallback plan" for hectic times? In other words, design a fallback exercise plan that takes less time and a super simple eating plan that doesn't require much attention and swap those in when life gets busy. That way, you are still "on plan," it's just that the plan adapts to your life.

[Palestrina]

There are times when my days get so hectic with work that I only barely have time to nibble something here and there. Those days become very difficult to track my hunger and needs. I always have good things handy like fruit, nuts, and crackers.

[Locke]

Have you tried journaling your thoughts when you start to get busy? I find that I'm quite irrational when I actually write my thoughts down. Yesterday I found myself upset and irritated. I began having self loathing thoughts. I took a few minutes to write down what I was feeling: it turns out that I was upset because I had eaten half a sandwich for lunch at 11:30am when I was truly hungry. I felt "fat" because I had eaten to relieve myself of hunger. Once I realized how stupid that was the feelings went away.