A couple of years ago I started a weight loss journey. I was dedicated and no one was going to stop me from achieving my goals!!! I did an amazing job (lost 80 lbs). I ate healthy, worked out nearly everyday, and I felt pretty darn awesome Then I tore my ACL. My activity has been very limited since last October. At first I was slowly gaining weight here and there. Then it began to PILE back on (gained back 50). The more weight I gain the more depressed I get and the more I eat. I am not able to work right now due to my slow recovery. I continue to make excuses as to why I can't lose weight, but the truth is I am not loosing weight because I am not eating right. Whether or not I can move is not the determining factor for losing weight. I am addicted to food, and I just can't seem to escape the hold it has over me. HELP please. I need an intervention. BTW my ticker is way off...
Well, weight loss is 80% diet, so even if you're unable to exercise you can still lose weight. What sort of things are trigger foods for you? What food plans have you tried in the past?
I love carbs and sweets. They are my weakness. I have done the weight watcher plan with great success. It's just that I let myself have a treat and then another and then another and so on.... I am out of control! I love healthy food, but I love crappy food as well.
You're taking the first step up the ladder to get back on the wagon, being aware that you want to change.
You know you can succeed because you were successful in the past.
I'm a regainer, never thought at 50 I would be able to lose it again, but I have, and am really determined to live a healthy lifestyle, I exercise but pretty gently, mostly walking, some recumbent bike and light (6 lb) weights. I do all those little things like making myself get up from the desk, park where I have to walk up stairs to come into work, walk down for the mail. I've read that even fidgeting burns calories, you don't have to be extreme, just try to develop some active habits.
Start keeping track of what you eat, I find that naturally starts me eating less, just paying attention to what's going in, again, be gentle, you can fast if that's what you love, but you don't need to, you need to swap some fruit and veggies for sweets and carbs, allow yourself a treat when you need one so you don't feel deprived, that can lead to unhealthy behaviors.
Most of all, just get started, I find the less of a big deal I make of it, the more successful I am, I don't have to have all the measuring cups and scales in place to get on track, I just need to pay attention.
Most of all, just get started, I find the less of a big deal I make of it, the more successful I am, I don't have to have all the measuring cups and scales in place to get on track, I just need to pay attention.
^^^ wise words above ^^^ I couldn't agree more. Sometimes I feel like I get so wrapped up in the whole affair that I either undo myself or make it seem insurmountable to reconvene when necessary.
OK Lucky216! You have named and identified your addiction. You are an addict. Like me. I am a sugar addict who was well on her way to becoming an alcohol addict too. I have tricked myself into thinking I could eat whole wheat pasta and whole wheat sugar free bread and beat this addiction. NO I COULD NOT!
I have thrown off the shackles of addiction by naming the enemy... I can not eat any wheat, corn, anything with sugar ever. EVER. I am done lying to myslef. I reject low calorie pretend food. I eat everything that is a vegetable . I have gained control by juicing, by eating salads without oil dressings and I am no longer eating a whole can of beans by myslef.
You can kick your sugar addiction.
All of you are so awesome. Thank you for you wise words and support. It helps to share my struggles. Not only do I get great advise, but now someone other than me knows. As silly as it may sound I feel more accountable now that it's out there. I will conquer my addiction (with a lot of help).
I get in a really bad habit of just starting down the wrong track, and then continuing. I'm terrible with moderation, so for me it's easiest to just quit unhealthy foods cold turkey instead of trying to eat a small amount because I totally over do it. I have had ups and downs. I find that jumpstarting your weight loss is really helpful because it keeps you so motivated when you see the numbers go down. To jumpstart my weight loss this time (because I haven't been having much success counting calories) I am going to do a 15 day challenge that is essentially a grape fast. After that I am going to join weight watchers because I think they will be able to teach me portion control, which is one of my biggest issues!
Everybody has fallen off the wagon some way or another. We all get those cravings that just won't go away until we give in! So don't feel too bad and don't be too hard on yourself. Try indulging in your favorite treat twice a week, and make your hands into fists for 20 seconds. It's called muscling your way to more willpower, it works! I you do those two things, you'll think twice next time you want a piece of pie or a cookie. I swear! Just keep moving forward!
I find that for certain foods that I have trouble controlling how much I eat (I also do WW), it is better for me to just not have those foods in the house. For some of them, I may be able to eat a single portion while somewhere else (a cookie at Subway) but I can't buy packages of them for the house. Since I started doing it that way, things have been much, much easier.
Koshka is right, if you can't handle it, don't bring it home! I know that if I bring home things that trigger me I WILL eat them. And not reasonably. I have, in the past, made a sheet cake and by the next morning I am scrubbing the empty baking dish. I will not bring failure in to my house anymore. Recently my friend's kids were all selling GSCs. I bought a few from each and upon receipt they promptly got delivered to other people, not me. I'd eat the whole box.
So don't bring failure home.
Sometimes it's hard because my DH loves junk. While he could lose a few pounds, for him, it's literally just a few pounds. So no big deal if he wants junk, he can afford it. But I just tell him "I cannot have that in the house and stay on track." And he understands and wants to help me, so he refrains. If he wants junk he'll go out and get a single serving from DQ or whatnot rather than bringing it home. Enlist your family to help you!
Update your ticker. Update the number in your sidebar. Look at them. Then make a plan for tomorrow. Like an addict, take it one day at a time. One meal at a time. one choice at a time.
I love carbs and sweets. They are my weakness. I have done the weight watcher plan with great success. It's just that I let myself have a treat and then another and then another and so on.... I am out of control! I love healthy food, but I love crappy food as well.
Well except for the WW plan, this is my past. I also once was doing really well with a weight loss program some years ago. That was in about 2000 and i had taken up triathlon. Got all lovely and skinny and super fit and then guess what, i injured the ligaments in my knee, got a job or vice versa and then things rapidly went downhill. I don't remember sweets being a huge for me at that time. They became a bigger issue for as the years have gone on.
Three years ago i did my first diet when i thought thats it, no more sweets and i thought a fair bit about quitting sweets forever. That diet that started out with three months at home and turned into another two months of a cycle journey when i got really skinny. Then i came home and i can't remember the details now but it all came undone. I think it was 2011.
My weight has gone up and down since then until January this year and i decided ok i'm doing a diet this time with exercise not being a formal part of it, though later on in the year i want to train up for a 10km race (which could bugger everything up again if not careful).
So i am on the quit sweets method again. I just eat good nutritious foods and sweets of all kinds except fruit is NOT verboten. Fruit is not as sweet as everything else so it doesn't cause me to binge or over eat. I find sweets make me less interested in healthy food. So they are gone gone gone. And i don't miss them at all. that's the beauty of quitting sweets.
I am also getting more and more comfortable about not eating them in my diet, except on really rare occasions when i feel it might be safe to do so. But i don't want to push my luck so the sweets on offer have to be pretty darn good before i will indulge and it has to be a situation with other people around where i can't keep on eating them. But i am scared it could be the thin end of the wedge. So anyway no sweets and i really like it like that.
No special exercise though i do things like take the dog for a walk sometimes (its not my dog so its not my responsibility to take it daily. But it is this week so i enjoy doing it then. ) and i work in the garden when i can motivate myself.
I take antidepressants and my diet feels like its at risk when i get stressed about things so i am trying very hard to get stress under control asap. I try to deal with problems sooner in some way. Often just finding someone (a counsellor) to talk through them with helps a great deal to alleviate stress and pressure.
But i self talk a lot about my commitment to my diet. I find that really helps me keep on track.
To get started i found self disgust with my weight was a motivator but i was already in a fairly good mood. YOu may not be and might need to sort out your mood first. Though of course deciding to start a diet can fairly quickly lift a mood sometimes.
But i know it can be difficult. When i am fat, just like you i think about it all a lot before i am actually able to switch into action mode and start a diet properly.
to help you switch into that mode, you can try doing things that will lift your mood and set your motivation more effectively like say going to see a dietician, or starting a yoga class or some other positive helpful thing. See a counsellor. Or start a volunteer job an afternoon a week. Anything that might lift your mood and make you feel more optimistic and positive. Just keep looking for possibilities.
Who knows even reading some of the goal achieved threads on here might help you. Just keep trying to find some way to lift your mood and kick start your motivation and stay right away from sweets.
Be kind to yourself but don't indulge in food things as a reward. Get plenty of sleep.
Oh someone mentioned jump starting. It reminded me that i did a one day fast very near the beginning of my diet. It was hard. I wouldn't do it for any longer than that i wouldn't do anything like a 15 day fad diet thingy. Such a diet would take a lot of resolve.
My idea about one day fasts was that i would do them from time to time but i haven't actually felt the need to do any more since. A second part about doing one was that i thought it might help me practice restraint. But i would be tempting fate by having a treat twice a week. To my mind that is like cutting down cigarettes. That approach works for very few people. I"mi a cold turkey kind of person. I did ith with cigarettes 17 years ago and am doing sweets like that now.
I don't have a problem with other carbs though. Just eat more vegies with your carbs and less fat cause mostly i think why people eat so much of things like bread and pasta is because of all the goo that goes on top of it. Its not actually the pasta itself that's the problem. But that's my view and i know a lot of people here don't agree with me.
I mean truly, i've never been able to eat more than one bowl of 125grams of dry spaghetti. I never have a feeling of wanting more. Of course if the serve size was half that i would have to go back for more. Now mostly though i try to eat 100grams only of spaghetti and i do find spaghetti better than other pastas for some reason. I don't know if they are different.
Tell me try this and let me know if you feel you need to make another serving:
125grams spaghetti (usually 1/4 packet of 500g so not necessary to weigh.
1/2 metric cup of tomato pasta sauce from a jar - better quality the better
some chopped mushrooms sautéed separately in a 1tsp olive oil first up and if you like some zucchinis also or red pepper or some other veggie.
When the vegies are done, add in the sauce, heat through then add in the cooked spaghetti to get it hot again.
top off with 1 tbsp of finely grated fresh parmesan cheese and ground black pepper.
Let me know if you feel the need of a second serve after that.
I find nothing unhealthy or wrong with this meal. And it keeps me going a long time.
I have fallen off the wagon
Then I tore my ACL. My activity has been very limited since last October. At first I was slowly gaining weight here and there. Then it began to PILE back on (gained back 50). The more weight I gain the more depressed I get and the more I eat. I am not able to work right now due to my slow recovery. I continue to make excuses as to why I can't lose weight, but the truth is I am not loosing weight because I am not eating right. Whether or not I can move is not the determining factor for losing weight. I am addicted to food, and I just can't seem to escape the hold it has over me. HELP please. I need an intervention. BTW my ticker is way off...
