[looosingit]

Hello all,

I am looking for ideas.

I have been loosing weight over the last 2 years. Progress has been slow...but that's OK - so long as it is moving in the right direction and I feel like I am making the right food & lifestyle choices.

I am now 70 pounds down (yahoo!), but still have approximately 35 left to loose. Based on my previous rate of loss this should take just over a year to loose...

My problem is that I seem to have lost my focus. I seem able to allow myself to stress eat, more prone to treat myself with the wrong foods. I have grown more critical of my body, although probably not as self-conscious as I was.

Does anybody have any suggestions for ways that they regained their focus??? I know that weight loss is very much a mental process...I know that there are times where I am focused and loose more quickly than other times...

Fortunately, I haven't really put on any weight (fluctuated around the same 3 pounds)....so no real damage has been done. I feel a bit like I am at a turning-point, though. I need to find some way to gain my focus and get back on track!

Any suggestions?? Has anybody else had periods where they were less focused, and managed to get back to healthy eating and exercising??

Aaah...venting a bit...

Kris
261-191-155

[Lucky13]

i've been thinking about your post for a few days now - here's what i've come up with:

discipline is the best motivator for me - i feel so awesome when i don't eat something that i normally would - this helps my motivation for next time to keep up my diet

another thing is something my fiance told me when i was *****ing and moaning about my diet. he stopped drinking almost a year ago by pure choice (he's growing out of the partying phase) and just did it - didn't think twice about it. he doesn't understand why women obsess so much about stuff like this and in a sense, he's right. so, he told me ---whatever decision you make about what you won't eat, what you will eat - just make the decision and be done with it. if you can't have chocolate chip cookies in the house, never ever bring them in there!! just do it and don't turn back. this has been my philosophy for the past 2 weeks and seems to be working pretty well. now, i'm not saying i don't eat "bad" foods - i just have to travel to get them if i really want them. i still try to cheat at the grocery store - i'll pick up a package of brownie mix and tell myself that i can restrain myself, but i know the first instant i am bored, that plan will backfire.

now, i don't know if this helps or not - i have never lost as much weight as you have (by the way, that is completely awesome!!), but i have never been thin, so i know the pressure of trying so hard for a while and then not knowing what to do when results are really slow-going.

group support helps so much - i love this website and i love going to my WW meetings - they keep me in check.

hope this helps a little

emily

[looosingit]

Thank you for your thoughtful answers...they are much appreciated.

I have been thinking about this issue of re-focusing quite a bit over the last few days! Here is how I have started to attack the problem...

I took Monique's advice and tried to shake things up a bit. I have also done this in the past...but seem to forget that you can go back to the good changes that you have dropped! I treated myself to a diabetic cookbook. I made sure that I left the office over lunch time and went outside! This may not sound so dramatic, but it has been raining & SNOWING in Ottawa! I think the grey weather may have been part of the problem! At any rate these small changes seem to have started a turn-around for me!

I have also decided that something is not working on the exercise front...I think that I was beating myself up about not going to the gym enough. I have decided that I am going to set that aside for a week or so and not use it as an excuse to go completely off-plan. The weather is getting nicer, so I will incorporate more walks. I have also started to investigate either renting some roller-blades to try, or perhaps I will see if I can find a WATP video to try at home. Obviously excercise is where I need to shake things up a bit....but most importantly - I must NOT use a day of missed excercise as an excuse to let everything else go! How crazy is that??!

I also agree with Emily...discipline can be it's own reward and motivation. I am meeting a girlfriend for dinner tonight...I was contemplating allowing myself a few extra points, as the dinner was unplanned, but I think that I will force myself to stay on-plan. I am trying to think about the felling of accomplishment and satisfaction that I will have afterwards! I just had some 0 point veggies to fill myself up a bit, so I won't make the wrong menu selections because I am starving! I have 12 points left, so that should be plenty.

Thanks again to both of you....your advice has been helpful!

Kris

[Lucky13]

Monique - I totally agree with you that if there are emotional problems, etc...when it comes to food or whatever you have difficulty controlling, you definitely should seek the help you need and not "just do it" and then feel even worse when it doesn't work.

If a person is truly an alcoholic, their body needs the drug - it will try to shut down without it.

but, food is different - if you don't eat a cookie, your body will not shut down (as long as you have the other healthy foods, etc...). Food is a mental drug, which at times can be even worse than a phyical dependency, in my opinion. the mind is a powerful thing.

Whenever i just write about how hard it is (either on this forum or somewhere else), i have it "in stone" for me to always look back on - that is one of the main places i get my strength for my motivation.

Kris, writing may help you in more ways than you think it will.

so, yes - the "just do it" principle does not apply to all, but people tend to know themselves pretty well about these types of things (in my opinion) to know if this will work for them or not (or at least try it out)