What does you in?
 

When you're plugging along, eating healthy and excercising, what does you in and knocks you off the weagon for a week, a month or more? and how do you stop it in the future?

For me, it's the scale.

Once it hasn't budged for 2 months I start eating poorly again.

Right now we don't have a working scale and the battery charger thing for the wii fit is broken.

I think I'm not going to buy a new scale. I think I'm just going to focus on eating healthy, exercising and taking it one day at a time. I think I'm beyond needing that scale reinforcement (that usually is a discouragement anyhow!) I know people say it's important to keep track but....it tears me down. My mom has a scale, and I visit her every few months. I will probably just use her scale when I see her sometime this summer.

I actually feel pretty liberated! I can just focus on the important parts and let the weight loss be a 'side effect' as someone else on here mentioned recently.

What is it for you guys, and how can you change it?

Yea, for me it is probably weighing too. I get frustrated when I don't see progress and I am working hard... or when I workout and just keep gaining weight. I, however, do need to weigh in daily. If I am not weighing it is because I am eatng poorly. I guess I just need to try to focus more on how I feel and measuring and such... and not so much the number.

The scale. ;) And I have analyzed myself into a solution that works great for me. I can now say with confidence that this is THE last time I will do this because I have finally saved me from myself.

1.) First and most importantly, I committed to this for one year. That way, no matter what the scale says, it doesn't matter. I want to see where I'll be one year later. My first day here I read in a signature, "A year from now you'll be glad you started today" and it really resonated with me. So here I am, 5.5 months in, on plan day after day after day, and stall after stall because I committed to it. And my weight DOES eventually drop. I just have a lot of stalls.

2) I started weighing daily. I know that sounds counter intuitive. It took me quite by surprise! I thought I should go to monthly weighing, not daily weighing! But by allowing myself to weigh whenever I want, but always in the morning, I have seen normal fluctuations and I have a really good sense of what my body does. Little one pound or even two pound gains really don't bother me. I find them amusing, actually. It's the stalls that still bug me! :tantrum: ;)

The scale sucks. Sometimes I break up with it for a while if it doesn't treat me right. Other times I'm able to treat it with a distant objectivity, however.

But I don't let the scale throw me off. There are bigger things in my life that I am worried might throw me off--for example, my mom's advanced pancreatic cancer. But we have been living with that for a year now, and I have been OK. I think that I will probably remain able to cope throughout the progress of her illness and eventual, inevitable death. I'm not sure why that is, except that I know very strongly, deep in my soul, that putting junk food in my body doesn't make anything better.

These days nothing really "does me in" because my plan is to write everything down no matter what, so if I overeat, it doesn't send me off plan, it just makes me have a very high calorie day.

But what makes me have a high calorie day? A large container of nuts (any kind). For some reason, if I grab chips, I will weigh a portion, but nuts for some reason I just can't keep my hand out of them.

That's been my problem, too. And yet, I hear it over and over again, all over this board and in other boards and throughout the Web world... "How do I get over this stall?"

I am slowly coming to believe that we don't "have a lot of stalls". It's pretty obvious to me that that's just how our bodies lose weight. It adjusts. It shifts. It settles in for a bit to see if this level of food/exercise is going to continue. It's doing this to PROTECT me. And when the time is right, so long as I stay on plan, it will give up the next pound. And the next. And the next.

I think your idea of going for time, rather than pounds, is a very good one. I'm thinking of backing off the scale, and doing a monthly weighing/measuring/picture/journaling thing, rather than worrying about the scale on a weekly basis. Now that I'm more focused on keeping my blood glucose level and counting calories, the weight-loss results are not as prominent in my mind (what a change!).

Now, what throws me completely off plan, I've found, is overdrinking. I can have one or two glasses of wine or bourbon and soda. But if I have more than that, even if I have the "calorie budget" for it, I find myself mindlessly shoving food into my mouth without even realizing it.

What does me in? When I don't PLAN. When I don't think ahead. When I "just wing it"!

Stress. I used to think I handled stress great. Part of my job in the summers was very busy and stressful but that changed about 6 years ago when they reshuffled the departments. My job is pretty laid back. My life has always just coasted along and I thought things were great, I got stress a lot about my son and now with marriage stuff and my family stuff, it's been horrible. I've lost sleep and my memory and put on weight the last 6 or so months.

I'm not sure what to do. Being upbeat and positive takes a lot of energy and I didn't realize that. Being strong only lasted so many months and then I was plain wore out. It's been almost 9 months since my world was turned upside down but things are getting better, I'm building my trust for my husband again, I go to a counselor, we have visits with his daughter in our home, the boy really love her and I've taken to her but there are moments when I wish she were my daughter or more that I had a daughter.

I have lot's of expectations right now from my parents and brother and financial and work obligations and dealing with the issues of 3 of my sons and lot's of juggling. I don't think I could do this on my own.

I've made no plans though and I know that I should because I need to learn how to deal with the stress. Walking and yoga seem to be the best thing but I have to learn other ways to deal with it. But I have started exercising and taking the mona vie acai berry juice and I'm more regular and sleeping good.

Not having a plan for the week will do me in.
Lack of planning a tentative dinner and lunch menu for the week and then letting myself get too hungry before making a meal. I can't think of making something healthy if my blood sugar has me looking to eat my own face off. McDonald's is less than 1/2 mile from my house and right on my way home from work.

I have stocked my fridge and pantry with easy, healthy, whole foods. I make a plan in my head for the week of lunches and dinners. I also do a lot of pre-cooking (chicken breast, boiling eggs) and prepping baggies of vegetables for an easy to grab lunch.

Surprise food and social events are my two biggest issues.

I am great on a day to day basis, I have my healthy breakfast, I pack a lunch, snack, I make healthy dinners every night. It's the "suprise - here's some birthday cake!" or trying to stay out of the bread basket in a restaurant that get to me. Luckily, my weight is pretty steady (maintenance) because I eat so well 95% of the time.

Stress and the scale, neither make me want to eat but i get so frustrated that i want to sit down and have a big cry.

Bingo lol

physical pain

I haven't found anything for me yet - I have been staying straight and strong mostly! Hope that I dont either!

Ugh, failing to plan!!!! I totally messed up just a bit ago here. I failed ot bring food with me to class, and I ended up buying, and consuming almost an entire bag of tortilla chips. Feel pretty disgusted and disgusting at the moment. But I am not giving into failure. I will drink lots of ater. Eat light tonight, (no "oh well, today's shot might as well make the whole day a bad day" mentality) and pick myself up NOW and keep going. I don't know why it is so difficult for me to make healthy decisions when I stop at the store hungry. Plan plan plan plan plan. This I think is paramount to me. (I threw the remaining tortilla chips away)

I seem to be doing great now, BUT the thing that threw me off in the past was stress. When I felt like something was happening that was out of my control, and very upsetting, I'd binge.

Ditto to the whole post. Although I'm pretty decent with the bread basket - usually ;).

Oh my goodness - I'd be NO WHERE without planning. Which is why I never, eve, ever, ever, do not plan. I just can't take that chance. Eating healthy won't happen on it's own - it got to be thought out and prepared for in advance, at least for me. One of my fav quotes - "failing to plan is planning to fail". Never a truer statement, at least for me.

Oh and when I do any kind of home baking... which is why I don't do it very often! And even if I'm at a friends house, if they've got regular old cake or cookies - I'm good, no problem - but if it's HOME baked - oy.

Fatigue is bad for me. When I'm really over-tired, I tend to get confused and think I need food when what I really need is rest.

That being said, nothing completely derails me.... after ten months of tracking my weight every day, I have a good sense of my pattern and I the stuck scale doesn't faze me at all.

Ha, ditto this :)

And ditto this!! Mostly, because I have put most packaged baked goods on my "forever no" list, but home made stuff is still okay, as special treats. I don't want to live my life without them, but I can go overboard on occasion.

But hey, 5 years later, the occasional overboard home baked treat hasn't hurt my maintenance. Maybe having those special treats has helped it?

Family and friends
 

It doesn't normally derail me, but it does anger me when friends or family try to get me to eat fattening foods knowing full well I'm on a specific diet plan. Sometimes it feels like they don't want me to succeed with my weight loss, but that can't be true. Occasionally I've given in and eaten whatever "forbidden" food it was and felt tons of guilt afterwards. I've made a commitment to myself to not allow one mistake become a day or week of mistakes.

I must add to my previous post... along with feeling physical pain (as I said before) ... Like many others, not planning, is always bad. Also - the scale play with my head too.

Busyness does me in on occasion, but only insomuch as it throws me off for a meal before I recover. Nothing can make me give up that I have yet found, I plan on keeping it that way ;)

But when I am busy and running errands it becomes a lot easier to justify junk food. And yes, it never tastes as good to my mouth as it did in my head ;)

Complacency.

Things go so smoothly, I start thinking it's all under control, it's easy, and I can just live on a kind of auto-pilot.

That's when the scale creep starts.

The scale. When it doesn't move, I don't want to move. LOL. Its hard not to lose week after week. That's why I'm doing measurements AND weight AND pics this time. I hope nothing derails me this time though.

Stress. And anger. (I shove food into my mouth when I get ticked off, crazy isn't it?!)

And cravings for pizza or something sweet!

Fail 2 Plan / Plan 2 Fail
 

I used to HATE that expression about failing to plan but it sure describes my downfalls, exactly. I've been checking restaurants websites for nutritional information (if possible), carry bags of "on plan" snax with me, gave my husband a basic once-over of my plan so he won't bring home any of my binge foods. Better I plan the easier my life is and the better I stay on plan.

Agreeing with the scale. OMG I was almost 20 pounds lighter and I hit the wall. I needed to reduce my calories and I did but instead of losing the 3 or 4 pounds a week I was only losing 1 or maybe 2 and I flipped! I just went crazy and some months later I put back on the weight. I now know what I did wrong. Too bad I didn't know then. (big sigh) but now I am back determined to do it and now what to do when I get to that point. ;) Social events are bad too. I went to an aerobics class where there were cupcakes afterwards! WTF!!! Talk about counterproductive. LOL! I ate only one small one and that's it but I have actually avoided social situations in order to not go crazy and screw up. I am not anti social but I need to do right by me and that's what I am doing now. :)

Not planning and social events. This month is going to be a doozy with a baby shower tomorrow, my husband's graduation in two weeks, and my sister-in-law's wedding in 4 weeks. I've vowed to eat at each of these as if I was eating at home. I may need my husband help me stick to that resolve.

Stress and pain. I've always used food to make me feel better and when I'm really stressed or my back is out, I hear chocolate calling my name.
Also, boredom. When I'm bored, I munch and munch...usually on chips.

Kat, that's me! Chocolate and chips! I gave up the chips. I've chips twice in five and half months. I can't eat just one. But the chocolate...I still have that. I like to eat dark chocolate chips. I can give myself a serving and incorporate them into my daily calories.

I used to be a bad boredom eater, especially when I was studying for school. Snacks and homework or studying simply went hand in hand. :( TV's another one. Now I treat myself to popcorn only when I'm watching TV, or sometimes a portioned serving of walnuts and chocolate chips.

Ugh, yes, it's so easy to sit in front of the tv and eat a half a bag of chips! I don't trust myself with chocolate in the house...too tempting for me right now. I'm ashamed to say that I've eaten whole bags of chocolate in a days time. My major weakness.

Haha! Funny; me too. Trail mix? So healthy, but in huge portions like I can gobble up in a second? ...not so healthy. I suppose I just justify it as, "well, at least I'm not eating potato chips!"

And dried fruit of anykind. I can't bring this stuff into my house. I'll eat it without remorse. Now, on my "high calorie days"? This is my go-to food. Anytime else I need to stay away from it.

Weekends, holidays and boredom.
I need to keep myself busy (and out of house) to stay away from the fridge.
Sounds so easy!

Plan, plan and than plan some more. Treat those weekends like any other day of the week. Know IN ADVANCE what you will be eating and when and what activities you will be doing. Boredom? - if hunger isn't the problem, food isn't the solution, if hunger isn't the problem, food isn't the solution, if hunger isn't the problem, food isn't the solution - say it over and over again until it gets through. Self talk is very important to me. And if you're bored,have some go to things to go to - computer, reading, writing, knitting, sewing, talking, cleaning, running in circles, whatever you've got to do. Plan it out. Have a strategy for it. Think it through so that you'll know what to do when it strikes.

Okay, so we've all identified what does us in - and that is huge. Now we've got to find some strategies to overcome those challenges. And make no mistake about it, there is a solution, a way around each and every obstacle thrown our way. Plan ahead for it, have strategies for it and even have a plan in place for when it just pops up unexpectedly.

What does me in? Allowing myself to go off-plan for a "special event" then not managing to find my way back on-plan. Lesson for me? There are no events that are special enough for me to go off plan!

Being out of my zip code kills me.
I'm fine when I'm here at school, 90% of the time. I can plan, bring my own lunches to places, wait until I get home, find a known healthy option.

Send me on a trip, give me a week back at my parent's house...and I'm off-plan big time. However, I am working really hard on changing this, since I know I'm spending the summer away. three months is too long to be off-plan.

great q! definitely stress for me, and fatigue. I feel like eating/food is a treat for having to deal with life stuff (and a comfort).

I try to deal with it by relying on patterns I get going with eating and exercise, and comforting myself in other ways. the gym is actually a good stress reliever for me (thank buddha).

starting to slip eating wise (usually because of eating out more) can lead to long periods of non-loss for me. I have to keep check on the scale, otherwise I would end up zoning out and really losing track. that said, I totally get what you mean by having a scale obsession being an obstacle as well.