I say I want to lose Weight but can't stay on my plan? I joined about 5 challenges, I have a gym membership, lots of workout tapes and exercise equipment, but having problem with overeating. Does anyone have a reason why I do this? It's like I want to overeat and lose weight but can't do that.
How do you get back on track?

It sounds like you have the right tools to be successful... now you just need to do it. Start small... track your calories... once you do that for a while, see where you can improve and incorporate more healthy food choices... then maybe throw in some exercise.

I think you need to be really strict with yourself for a set amount of time depending on what plan you're striving for. For South Beach, a week indoctrinated me pretty well. With calorie counting it took three weeks. But after that time period, for me, it's smooth sailing. Have you kicked sugar to the curb? Quitting sugar cold turkey takes away cravings for me and relatively quickly. Try eating more frequent, scheduled meals so you know that yes, you're hungry, but your next meal is never more than 2.5 hours away. Pre plan what you are going to eat the day before.

I know you know all this. Now it's time to recommit and put it into action. I've been where you are with one toe hanging in. It's time to start over and start over for real with the same zealous attitude newbies have. You need to be a newbie again.

I totally understand you. I have been saying I want to loose weight for almost 10 years and yet it is still and on again off again, up again down again situation.
I don't yo-yo diet, but I loose motivation to journal and exercise and then I just fall off. Remembering to post here helps, but isn't enough for me as I have been languishing since last spring.
Hopefully others will have good suggestions.

VickieLou, I can relate. The past two months during the holidays were really tough for me. Lax dieting and too many days off from exercise placed me firmly on a plateau. It wasn't until I recently recommitted and focused on my dieting and exercise that I started to lose again. Hang in there. Take it one meal at a time, one day at a time, and one pound at a time. Slow and steady wins the race.

What about trying to give up one specific food that you know you eat too much of? You don't need to change EVERYTHING all at once, but just stopping chocolate or ice cream or something would be a good first step and help you realize you do have more control over what you eat than you can see right now.

I had this problem at first too. One thing that really helps me is that every night I write an eating plan for the next day. I set out the food or ingredients or recipe in a special place in the kitchen to make it as easy as possible to stick with the plan.

I also switched to a high protein, low fat, low carb diet with no refined sugar. I am not nearly as hungry on this diet. Everyone's body is different so this may not work as well for you.

At dinner I make a recipe that is good for the whole family and then I make side dishes that are higher in calories for my kids. This way the diet feels more natural.

Good luck. Keep trying and keep posting. You will get there.

Wanting to lose weight and WILLING to do what is necessary are two different things. Your title says that you WANT to lose weight, but that is sadly not enough. You MUST be WILLING to make a change. You must be WILLING to what is necessary, what is required. You've got to be WILLING to say no to this and yes to that. Be willing to plan ahead. To stay within a calorie allotment. To have the right foods on hand and get rid of the *wrong* ones. You've got to be willing to change - once and for all and permanently.

Your desire to be thin, slim, trim, fit and healthy MUST outweigh, overtake and overpower your desire for the high calorie/high quantity foods. It can't occur any other way. You have to want this, really, really badly.

People ask me all the time how I lost so much weight when they can't even lose 10 lbs. I tell them that I DECIDED to. I had always *wanted* to, but then one day I just DECIDED to. Upon deciding to to lose the weight, I therefore had to COMMIT to lose the weight. It's that commitment, that ironclad commitment that gives you that stick-to-it-ness.

Decide what it is you want the MOST in life and then resolve to pay *the price* to get it done. We ALL have the ABILITY to lose weight. It's all a choice that we make. We choose to be heavy and we can then choose to not be and to remain that way. Losing weight and lots of it is doable for anyone and everyone - yourself included, if that's what you TRULY want and you are willing to make and keep the changes that are necessary to make it happen.

ho boy, do I get you. the exercise for me is easy, and I'm good at staying on plan most of the time, but I still reach for food when I'm stressed, or as a treat. even after all I've lost. I've gotten much better, turning to other things to deal with stress, and taking care of myself in other ways than eating. I lose more through my tenacity than my (non) iron will.

I figure while I work on the iron will, I'll take what I can get from the tenacity.

so, what I do is identify and work on my weak spots, and keep plugging away at it. my will, my habits, my mindset, they've all changed as I've worked on this. I have no intention of stopping until I reach my goal.

Well, yes. This was me for almost 30 years.

I had the knowledge, the tools and the desire, but I could not stay on a plan for more than a few days....

I always thought I had some kind of psychological quirk that made it impossible for me to control myself.

Sadly, I FINALLY had to realize that though I though I wanted it, I did not want it badly enough to give up food.

That's what I had to do. I had to decide that it was more important to me to lose weight than it was to keep eating whatever I wanted whenever I wanted.

I was a compulsive overeater/binge eater/stress eater/emotional eater what-have-you.

That's kind of the good news and the bad news at the same time. If it's a compulsion, it's like a super bad habit... and I truly believe that those habits are completely fixable. If you suck it up and ride out the beginning white-knuckle you will find to your shock and surprise that it becomes MUCH easier.

I remember once, long ago, when I was attending sessions with drug addicts as part of my education, and in group therapy the addicts used to sit around and talk about how there was a part of them that mourned giving up the drug and that part of why they used was because they ENJOYED it.

I, not being a druggie, could not relate to that at all. I thought drugs were disgusting and why would anyone make themselves suffer like that???

Well, I suffered plenty from being morbidly obese. But, food was the crutch that go me through my day.

Now, I have to stand on my own two feet and suck it up, boredom, stress, frustration, celebration. It's all just me.

You CAN stay on your plan if you really decide that that's how you want to live your life.

We will all encourage you here.

How do you get back on track? The perennial question. I sounds like you are trying to motivate yourself through committing yourself to challenges and gym membership and sometime that works very well. But it is not doing it for you right now. You have been given advice on two different approaches: get on your eating plan and hang on until the cravings diminish or move into it slowly. Depending on your personality and circumstances either will work. My own preference is to change one habit at a time and accept that my weight loss will be slooooooooow. When I feel myself slipping (as I have over the last 3 weeks), I just change one thing and keep that up until it's a habit and then concentrate on something else.

Good luck, coming here is always a good first step.

sign my name to RockinRobins post... I just DECIDED that I was not going to be fat any more and I would do WHATEVER it took to make that happen.

When my calories were really low I found it hard to stay on track but once I upped my calaories its so easy to stay in the calorie range, Im eating enough food to where I don't feel deprived or anything. Try upping your calories and see if it gets easier to stay on plan. Good Luck

Do you truly believe that permanent weight loss is possible and that you deserve it? I ask because I think I forgot this at points in my life. I wanted to lose weight, but I wanted the junk food more because I forgot that there was a real reward for skipping it. You don't just go without the junk, you go with a new you. That new you will absolutely happen. It's not just about denying something, it's about getting something back that's HUGE - YOU!