[shush]

Hi eveyone,

I'm looking for some inspiration or tips to help me stay on the straight and narrow.I've put back on the 2 stone (for the third time) that it took me 6 months to lose.I can't seem to get past the 2 stone barrier, I'm all enthusiatic and positive every time I start on a weight loss program and think this time I'm going to do it but I just end up piling it all back on again and feeling totally disgusted with myself. I've got so much weight to lose I just don't know how to keep going..
How do you guys do it?
What made the difference when you finally stuck with it?
I need all the help I can get!!!
Thanks,

[2frustrated]

For starters, I'm not "dieting". I think a lot of it is in the mindset. I eat chocolate, and flapjacks and lots of lovely stuff like that. But only occasionally! And if I have an off week or month... (like recently) I just get back on the wagon, and start watching what I eat and get back down the gym. It's more of a "lifestyle change" - lots of people say this. It's not just healthy eating or dieting or doing a programme till you loose the weight, it's got to be for life, it's your old habits that got you here, and if you to revert to them after you "diet" then you're going to be back where you started.

Okay, so that sounds like PULL IT TOGETHER MAGGOT! but I didn't mean it to sound quite so harsh!

What I do at the moment, and I might end up changing it in a few months... Is to watch what I eat during the week, be really healthy and on the straight and narrow and gym and training and weights and all that stuff. Then I allow myself Saturday off to eat whatever I want. I mean ANYTHING! Yesterday I had cereal, fig rolls, lots of bread, mozzarella, bread, bread, turkey chow mein, chocolate cake, pringles, flapjack, chocolate brownie, coke, chocolates and probably anything else I thought I could cram into my mouth! But, I paid for it! Massive stomach cramps and feeling yuck and bloated at night! I'm still feeling full from yesterday! But today I am back on the straight and narrow. And what I'm hoping is while I'm going bonkers on Saturdays, the food I eat isn't actually worth feeling sicky and bloated for... It will take my mind a long time to catch up to what my body already knows!

So far it's not going too bad! But I think if you binge one day and think, "Oh what the heck - I've blown it now..." Just finish with the day and start on with the healthy eating the next day. It'll happen, and hey, we're all human and we're allowed to eat chocolate and drink beer! Just not lots every day!

Hope that helps, sorry it's a bit of a ramble! Feel free to post with us anytime you feel the munchies attacking!

[PhatPhoenix]

Hello there

I've only been on this diet for 6 weeks, and before that have only dieted twice before. The first was successful and I kept the weight off for years til I had 2 more babies in 2 years. The second diet was a disaster and after a few weeks of being very strict with myself, but still seeing weight go on, I gave up entirely. This time, I'm dieting and exercising and losing only slowly but steadily and enjoying it.

So what's the difference between the diet that works (for me) and the one that didn't? If I'm honest, my failed diet (a low carb one), just wasn't me. I was very good and stuck to it, but when I plateued very early on - then, horror of horrors, put weight on! I gave up within a few weeks and a few weeks later was even heavier than when I started. My first diet (the successful one) is the one I've returned to - a low fat one. Because with that, I can eat foods I like, be flexible, not have to eat loads of stuff I don't really like anyway - and make it work for me.

That's a longwinded way of saying - find a diet you can enjoy. Easier said than done, but worth it.

Same for the exercise, find several things you truly, genuinely can enjoy. Swap them so you don't get bored. Do what you really want to do rather than hold yourself back by thinking negative thoughts... If the gym bores you - do a dance DVD! Don't do what you think you should do - do what you want to do.

My diet has flexibility - I can have a treat every day upto 150 cal - or save a couple of days worth up. I can have 1 - 2 glasses of wine a day. So I do!

Lastly, think positive. I think the biggest diet killer can be being put off too fast when you plateau, or feel a bit down, or have a really stressful time. With low carbing, I'd have felt a failure with just 1lb weight loss in a week. With this diet, I think *Great - I lost a whole pound of fat!*

Turn everything round to your advantage.

I've also found Paul McKenna's book brilliant for this - learning to like what you see when you look in the mirror now, somehow makes it easier to hang in there on bad days. As he says - the chocolate will still be there tomorrow. In fact, it'll always be there! What's the rush? The bottom line is, ask yourself which you'd prefer - to be able to eat whatever you like and not bother exercising - or to be slimmer, and feel great and energised.

He also says willpower is just no good for most of us. Your really do have to change your whole mind-set as even the best of us can't have an iron will every day of our lives. You need to find something more powerful than that, from within yourself, to help yourself do this.

So find a diet you like - not a faddy one that promises fast weight loss in a way you won't be able to sustain. And think of each pound gone as gone forever - if you plateau (and I did for 5 weeks in the middle of my succesful diet), don't give in - just keep your eyes on the prize.

Lots of mini goals are motivating - lose half a stone and treat yourself to something you really want. Put yourself first. And recognise your own achievements. (As you lose each pound, put something weighing that into a bag - then when it gets tough, you can pick it up and see how far you've come).

If you can find a diet you actually can bring yourself to enjoy - ditto exercise - you will stop pressurizing yourself to lose weight fast which I think also kills diets. Because you'll enjoy what you're doing, there's less of a rush to get there. And that's probably what makes weight loss permanent, in the long run - if you change your underlying attitude to food and exercise and eat for health, rather than for quick weight loss.

I think of it like this. It took me the best part of four years to get obese. So if it took the best part of one year to get rid of it - that's still a bargain. And the truth is, if you're enjoying it and sticking to it - it could happen sooner.

Lots of love, PhatPhoenix x

[veggie]

Shush, I thought I'd cracked it last year only to end up on another yo yo. So I have no answers for you sorry but I'm going to keep on until I get there finally.

[cat90]

Well, Frus has summed it up perfectly..the only way to win the battle of the bulge is to change our eating habits forever i've dieted successfully only to put it all on again just like you shush and all we need to do is make little changes to make a difference fat free milk instead of full fat etc. I don't know why I can't stick to it I think its just more convenient to do the other stuff I used to bake fries/chips but got sick of waiting 45 mins for them and i'd be frying hubbies anyway so why waste time stupid things like that ruin everything...so I guess like Frus says us maggots will have to "PULL IT TOGETHER"

[shush]

Thanks guys for the advice, needless to say i pretty much know about "lifestyle change" etc and i'm really into it for 4/5 months then something happens i get stressed out (or bored maybe) then all **** let's loose and I'm off on a massive binge which can last 6/8 weeks and all the weight is back on and i'm feeling crap again. I don't consider myself stupid but when it comes to food ..... I just need to find some way to put the brakes on when i fall off the wagon again.
Phatphoenix you gave me some food for thought,many thanks.

[cat90]

You can always tell us we like giving a good to "bad girls" Veggie and I are black and blue you never know shush it might help the next time you feel yourself slipping just let us know and we'll sort you out

[annie175]

I am doing Weight Watchers and just love it. I do the points system. My 4th week weigh in was at 15.5 lbs lost. It is a great program.

[cat90]

Wow Annie WELL DONE!

[PhatPhoenix]

You know thinking about it some more, shush, I think you're also talking about that thing that happens to all of us - losing focus. You know what you're doing but that inevitable point comes when it does get boring, and then it's not just one biccy but the whole packet, what the ****.... We've all been there! The key to it might be to catch yourself when it starts, the first day of that 6 - 8 weeks when you backslide.

The more fun you can make the whole thing - diet and exercise as varied as possible - the longer you'll stay in control? I also read something that caught my imagination, I forget where... But someone said that when we fancy a binge we just go to the cupboard and it's straight to the biccies, or the kids' sweets, or cakes - and then that starts the downward spiral of thinking *I've blown it anyway*. She said (I think it was a she!) why not just wait an extra half hour and make that plate of egg and chips - if that's what you really want? Have it, enjoy it - and move on! Work it off tomorrow with a bit of extra exercise. Don't beat yourself up about it. But at least if you're going to binge, go for a full out meal, rather than eating sweet stuff as you'll feel fuller sooner and have down yourself a lot less damage, calorie-wise. Easier to jump right back on that wagon the following day! I thought that was good advice!

But as I said before, sounds like you've picked diets that bore you - maybe time to find something that allows you a bit of leeway.

Cheers, PhatPhoenix x

[LovesBassets]

Hi ladies,

I'm the ex-Derbyshire Yank who keeps crashing your thread...sorry

PhatPhoenix, can you give me more info on this book?

Originally Posted by PhatPhoenix

I've also found Paul McKenna's book brilliant for this - learning to like what you see when you look in the mirror now, somehow makes it easier to hang in there on bad days.

Sounds interesting!

Thanks,
Kate

[veggie]

Crash away! Everyone welcome I Can Make You Thin (Book and CD) by
Paul McKenna it's only £4.79 from amazon.co.uk at the moment probably same again with p&p to the USA.

[shush]

Great idea about going for what you really want,there is loads of times i've done the exact opposite eating what i think i should not what i really really want. By the time i've eaten my way through the fridge,biscuit tin and crisp box i would have been better off just having the pizza that i craved and things might have stopped there.
Next time the munchies hit I'll be ready for them

[veggie]

I'm trying this week not to 'diet' as such, so hopefully I won't binge either. I've yo yo dieted for 15 years and I'm back the same weight.

[shush]

How often do you weigh yourself? Are you an everyday,every week or once a month person ? What works best for you? Personally I HATE THEM!!!!! but i find it hard to stay away from them