I feel so depressed I quit my diet, and I was doing so well and I was working out (tae bo) six times a week for over a hour. Everything I was working for went down the drain...I feel soooo bad I need help how do I motivate my self again? I just have had so much stress and all this personal things effecting me. How do you ladies get back on track and motivated please I need advice, prayers all of that please help! God bless...

The nice thing about weight loss is that it isn't a one-time test that you can only try once. You can get up today and start again.

Sometimes, when I have a lot of stress at work, I like to think "well, at least food is one thing that's going right for me."

If you want to start again, Friday is actually a great time to start because you can make it through the first weekend (weekends are tough for a lot of people) and get some good habits for the next weekend. Plan out what you want to eat, go to the store and buy what you need. Stick to your plan. At the end of one week, reward yourself shamelessly (if you have a lot of stress in your life, get a massage).

Repeat the next week. If you eat something off plan, don't beat yourself up. Take a moment to think why it happened and what strategies you could use to overcome the same temptation and keep going.

Remind yourself that you are in control of everything you put in your mouth. No one will ever strap you down and force feed you. That is your hand putting food in your mouth.

I am not a successful dieter lending advice. But I am a recent restarter, and it is sometimes the most difficult to get through that first day. That first week. Something I am trying to learn is how to let a mistake be just that. Just a little mistake. My problem is I say "oh well might as well start again tomorrow, or monday, or whatever other excuse I can come up with. The truth is that this kind of thinking NEVER gets the weight loss going. You can start now. And if you dont have a totally on plan day, start again right away. I'm working hard at learning this myself. Letting the free for all mentality sneak in will just hold back weightloss that many calories more. I have decided to believe in myself and believe I am capable of doing this. And I dont know if I believe it yet. But I am telling myself everyday. Every morning I wake up. "I can do this. I can do it now. I can do it healthy. And I can be successful and everytime I win a little battle I'm strengthing my ability to lose weight muscles And evertime I slip up, I'm chhoosing to use it as practice to strengthen the get right back on track muscles. YOU can do this! And it will be so worth it when you do!

I like you in the past will give up on loosing the weight because something came up and stress me or put me on sad mood. But I read in Fitness magazine something that is very true and that is that Life is not always going to be all happy and sweet and you cannot give up because bad things that happen to you.

Get back on track and you will see just knowing that you doing something to better your life is going to give strength to keep going..

Sometimes, the only thing I can control is what I put in my own mouth.

I read a quote somewhere the other day that really stuck with me for some reason: "You can only start from where you are." It's simple and might sound kind of obvious, but I think it really rings true for me. I'm terrible about letting one slip roll over into another and then another...a day off plan turns into a week...and then two...and before you know it, I've gained ten pounds and I'm wallowing in guilt. But, the fact is, I won't lose those 10 pounds by continuing to do what I did to gain them back...I have to start back over somewhere.

Don't feel bad or guilty, don't beat yourself up, just let go and get back on track. I think it's important to forgive yourself and just jump back in. I know it's hard, but after that first week or so back on track, you will feel SO much better!

i find.... looking at pictures of myself really helps to get me going!! i feel bad for a minute then i think to my self "jamie you can change this!"

As a chronic yo-yo exerciser... I can tell you that, in my experience, the work done in the past (as far as exercising goes) never totally goes away. I signed up for my first gym membership in December of 2001. I have belonged to Planet Fitness, Work Out World, Bally's, and now the one at work. EVERYTIME I start again, it is not as hard as it was when I first started. That first day at the gym in Dec. 2001, I could barely do 10 mins. on the elliptical (my heart rate shot up over 200). I have given up exercising for as much as a year, and have never gone back to being that bad.

All that hard work you did doing Tae Bo is not lost. Your body and muscles still remember it. Start again and in no time, it will be like you never quit.

I also see that you say you would do over an hour a day. You may have burnt yourself out. On the days you really don't feel like exercising - just do 1/2 an hour. or even 20 mins. Or go outside for a walk. Dig in a garden. Go for a swim. Dance to the radio. Any physical activity counts.

What got me motivated again was pictures of myself, looking at myself in the mirror realizing that i was heading down the road where I didn't care what I looked like because i was gaining some of my weight back. Everyone on this board motivated me.

I just kept telling myself that I deserve to take care of myself and I know I can do this. Just like I know you can do this. Just take it one day at a time. I know i choose not to look at the amount i have to lose, i just look at it from the stand point one pound at a time. That piece of pizza or whatever food is not going to make me happy.
You can do this!

This has happened to many of us at one time or the other. I have learned as much from my weight loss disappointments as I have from any successes I have had.

Ask yourself some important questions, like, was the plan you were following something that you can do for the long haul? If your food plan is not something you can follow, ditch it and find something else that will work for you. Are you willing to put the time, energy and effort into weight loss that it requires? In my opinion, you have to be willing to dedicate yourself to weight loss, which is a significant commitment. For most of us, losing weight is not easy, but the results are so worth it. Are you ready to make the lifestyle changes you need to make in order to lose the weight and to keep it off? This is key.

You don't have to be perfect. Slip ups will happen. But, you have to be so committed that when disappointments occur (and they will), you keep on going. It is not a question of IF you can lose the weight you want to lose; it is a question of WILL you decide to do it. You have complete control here. What do you want to do?

J