After 7 months of LOVING exercise & losing weight, I hate it now.
Has this happened to you? You thought you've adapted to your new lifestyle for the rest of your life but all of the sudden you've slipped back into old habits?
I dread working out now, and almost every day I'll sit in my workout clothes but go binge instead. It's like I'm acting like how I was when I was 30+ lbs heavier. I used to love working out, and now I just want food food food.
We all get burnt out from time to time. Take a weight loss break for a few weeks or a month or two. Try to eat at maintenance if you can, and do the minimum for exercise--think 30 minute walks. When you're ready to start again, you'll be refreshed. Best wishes!
My first thought is: if you're dreading working out, then change things up somehow. If you've been going nuts with cardio or weight training, then try something different. Maybe you could take a compete break from exercise. Maybe you could just do some walks around your neighborhood or go dancing or biking or whatever sounds pleasant to you. Even if you used to LOVE the kind of exercise you've been doing, if you hate it now (at least for the moment), then it's not helping you.
And if you're craving food so badly, maybe you haven't been eating enough?? Or maybe you've just slipped out of the 'weight loss' mindset. Why that has happened might be difficult to determine. But please don't feel that you've 'lost' something. Dieting motivation fluctuates. We've all experienced that. Don't beat yourself up over it. Just commit yourself to small steps. Pick an exercise that doesn't sound dreadful to you and give it a try tomorrow!
Well done on your weightloss!!! I know it took lots of hard work and courage to accomplish weightloss. Congrats!
I have also lost weight, and last week I posted in the forum about how I too feel that I might begin or have already slide back to old habits. So I totally know how you feel!
Food aspect, mmm..you already have your workout clothes on so instead of binging try to do a small workout. I think it's time we spice up your workouts a bit, what do you say? What type of excercises have you done up till now?
I workout at home to DVD's and I always did Zumba, but that bores me now so I have currently been doing, kickboxing, TaeBo, Yoga and I love all of the Jillian Michaels workouts. It's short but delivers top results!!!
Just keep strong, you have come a too long way to go back now
I think Mac overhead had some good advice...find something you love and do it rather than workout for a while...gardening, housekeeping, volunteering at a local charity all burn calories...what about dancing, or indoor rock climbing or whatever.
Try to find things you can binge on without having a total train wreck. You may also want to try journaling what you are feeling. It helps me get a better grasp on my feelings.
Binging is usually emotional, and your trigger is going to the gym. Maybe you should ask yourself, why going to the gym has become so scary?
I can relate to your behavior because I did that when I first started. I was able to, after much introspection, realize that I was simply so ashamed of how fat I had become, that I didn't want people looking at me and thinking the things I think about myself. I realized, eventually, that when I see a fat person exercising, I don't think that way about them, and these strangers probably aren't thinking about me, what I think about me.
I think there are a lot of things that can stop a heavy person from going to the gym. For me, it can be enough to know that I'm the fattest person at the gym to prevent me from going. Or the way my body fat flops around when I run on the treadmill, or those friggin' mirrors everywhere! Nowadays, I might skip a few days after having had a bad workout, and it takes considerable effort to get back to it.
It takes a lot of energy to block out your own negative thoughts and go there in spite of how you feel. If there's nobody else at home to kick your butt, then you'll just have to do it yourself! Do for yourself, what you would want a good friend to do for you in this situation.
Try to remember why you started going in the first place. And try to focus on all the positives you get from the going there. Keep saying positive things, even if your heart isn't totally into it. I call it self-brainwashing, and it actually works.
Seems you need to change things up. AND... you need to get rid of the sugar - eating sugar makes you want more sugar which leads to more binges. I would bet a $100 you aren't binging on broccoli and hummus? Not even steak? But sugar!!!!
You might even need to overeat a couple days of NON-SUGARY foods to get over the sugar cravings, but you can do it. Then stay away from sugars... find that balance of where it leads to binging tendencies.
Then.... if you hate your workout routine. Find something new! If you are a gym rat, start walking or running. or choose a different routine at the gym. Or get some home videos. Or starting digging up your yard or raking up the winter fallen leaves. Whatever.... just find a way to move that you can tolerate. It's natural to need change every once in awhile.
I think you're in a rut too. Back when I got bored with my routine, I added a dance class that I loved to my week. Sure, I didn't burn a lot of calories doing it (it wasn't zumba!). But it was good for my mind/body/soul in the sense that it was fun, it wasn't about how many calories I'm burning right now, it was better than sitting in my couch watching TV.
I agree that you need to change whatever it is that you're doing. You shouldn't be afraid of that change either, especially if you think you love your routine and this is just a vacation that you're taking. But I wouldn't just stop and do nothing for the next month or so. I would just do something else. The way I see it is training your body and your mind to accept that there will always be some kind of movement in your life whether it's a spinning class, a weight training session, a dance class, or taking a walk/run (or rock climbing or whatever).
It's good for your head, because this is a change for life and we know there are a million studies showing that activity/movement/exercise needs to be part of our daily life in order to keep our health and our weight down.
Stop torturing yourself, put down the binge foods, and get yourself to do something fun.
From reading your posts in the past it seems you have a very all or nothing attitude. I did at one time too.
This is EXACTLY what can happen with the all-or-nothing approach. The "I gotta do 100% or why bother". It doesn't set yourself up well for maintenance. Yes, there are girls here who feel they are sugar addicts and must abstain 100%, and that's fine, but YOUR PLAN MUST BE SUSTAINABLE.
I found this a very rocky road when I got pregnant. You know how some say it takes 21 days to form a habit? Try 21 months, at LEAST. If you set yourself up to burn out, you probably will.
I think going back and revising your plan to be more realistic will help you greatly.
Such as, I WILL exercise 2x this week. And stick to it. And then if you want, go to 3x. But choose something you can do for life, through thick and thin (pardon the pun), that you can sustain. I've maintained for 8 years and if I still thought at 30 pregnant with another toddler, that I could do the same as a single 21 year old, I would be completely burned out. *Sustainability* and *realistic* goals are ones that can be kept.
What might also help you is using the search function and viewing your threads posted (not posts, threads). What you may see (and at least what I see), is trying to do a complete 180, from a somewhat overweight girl who doesn't work out, to a slim athlete that is always on the ball. Do you see, how in such a short time frame, this might be causing you problems? With binges, being upset with working out, etc.
Give yourself permission to take time to form your new habits.
From reading your posts in the past it seems you have a very all or nothing attitude. I did at one time too.
This is EXACTLY what can happen with the all-or-nothing approach. The "I gotta do 100% or why bother". It doesn't set yourself up well for maintenance. Yes, there are girls here who feel they are sugar addicts and must abstain 100%, and that's fine, but YOUR PLAN MUST BE SUSTAINABLE.
I found this a very rocky road when I got pregnant. You know how some say it takes 21 days to form a habit? Try 21 months, at LEAST. If you set yourself up to burn out, you probably will.
I think going back and revising your plan to be more realistic will help you greatly.
Such as, I WILL exercise 2x this week. And stick to it. And then if you want, go to 3x. But choose something you can do for life, through thick and thin (pardon the pun), that you can sustain. I've maintained for 8 years and if I still thought at 30 pregnant with another toddler, that I could do the same as a single 21 year old, I would be completely burned out. *Sustainability* and *realistic* goals are ones that can be kept.
This is very, very sound advice. It doesn't need to be all or nothing.
I 'personally' need to set myself some goals as I haven't gotten into the habit of exercising yet. I feel good when I do it, but man, a week off could turn into a month, could turn into a year just like "that" (snap of my finger). So, I set a goal of exercising 250 hours a year. That averages out to 5 days a week for 50 weeks of the year. Or, 20/21 hours a month. That is not that much.
AND... I give myself permission to call yoga an exercise class (counting the 75 minutes as 1 hour). I give myself permission to count gardening and raking leaves as exercise hours and even heavy duty cleaning of the house as exercise hours (like mopping, big time cleaning). Because guess what? It IS exercise!
I did the same thing last year. I am fit. I have a resting heart rate of 55. My cholesterol is great. My BP is great. My blood sugars are great and I'm dropping weight steadily - all without killing myself or torturing myself at the gym. I DO have the mentality that this is for LIFE... so I have to make a plan that I can do FOR LIFE. Saying I'm going to go to the gym every single day just isn't going to work. I have two kids, a household and a part-time job. AND.... I get bored doing the same thing all the time. I know me. I've had 42 years to learn about me through lots of soul searching.
I always have to talk myself in to working out!! It's kind of annoying b/c i was definitely more gung ho before when I started out - I feel really guilty now if I don't work out but even that isn't enough motivation sometimes.
I do wanna say, my trainer friend said it's PERFECTLY fine to take a "vacation" from working out of up to 7 days if you have been consistently working out for 6 months or more - your body is already attuned to working out so you wont cause much damage if you take a mini vaca/break from exercising. Maybe try that - treat yourself to a week/weekend off and instead of eating maybe get a masasge or something to put your self in vacation mode so you can be better when you start again. Just an idea.
Also, keep changing your routine - maybe try a zumba class or get a low cardio/fun/dance style dvd that you can turn on when you REALLY don't want to work out so you're at least doing something, but you are having fun doing it - every workout doesn't have to be 110% or you'll burn out.
... I give myself permission to call yoga an exercise class (counting the 75 minutes as 1 hour). I give myself permission to count gardening and raking leaves as exercise hours and even heavy duty cleaning of the house as exercise hours (like mopping, big time cleaning). Because guess what? It IS exercise!
I did the same thing last year. I am fit. I have a resting heart rate of 55. My cholesterol is great. My BP is great. My blood sugars are great and I'm dropping weight steadily - all without killing myself or torturing myself at the gym. I DO have the mentality that this is for LIFE... so I have to make a plan that I can do FOR LIFE. Saying I'm going to go to the gym every single day just isn't going to work.
words to learn and live by...I am trying to learn this...I've gone back and forth because I haven't learned this.
When I got to this point (and I'm speaking solely for myself) it was a sabotage issue. I get kinda freaked about goals etc (I'd made it as far as 200.2 and not crossed the line) and kinda shut down.
To get back on track, I emailed a friend my workout schedule for the week... I checked in at the gym or wherever I was and had my road program email progress. I only needed this for one week (but he still likes to check in to razz me ) but it got me right back on target with workouts. I also did add a new activity (yoga) back into my routine... that was the icing on the cake!
You've done great and received some awesome advice here! You'll get this thing
After 7 months of LOVING exercise & losing weight, I hate it now.
Congrats!
