URGGGG

I don't know what happened to me. I was on a roll, I was doing okay. I finally was sticking to the calories, I was using MyFitnessPal and now….

NOW!

Now I'm eating cookies and typing this message.

Now I've gained back my weight and I know I'm at 200+

Now I'm in a size 16.

Now I'm back to being unhappy.

And I need to help myself but I don't know how.

Welcome back.

Describe what happened when you fell off the wagon? But don't worry.

consider restarting by eating well at maintenance calories for a while. Maybe a week or until you feel ready to start reducing again.

But don't reduce too much. Lose slowly at least/especially while you are still shaky.

Avoid getting hungry. I do this by eating more low calorie foods and avoiding high calorie foods and eating my meals fairly close together.

STay away from problem foods completely. Commit to it. No treats. They just make you want to eat more. Even if you go over your maintenance calories, stay away from the high sugar and fat foods and refined carbs of any kind. Fill up on of fruit and vegies, protein, legumes, dairy and if you are eating break, make it wholegrain and try to restrict it to no more than 4 pieces per day.

When I fell of the wagon I fell off of it because I stopped caring about the "small stuff". I thought that weight shouldn't be such a big deal or control my life….but now I'm worrying about my health (always tired) and my weight (unhappy with my body) that I think my weight all of the time.

I need to get it together.

I love your idea about taking small steps into restricting my calorie intake first. That makes a lot of sense.

Thank you.

Great suggestions by Pattience. I'm learning that starting out small is really helpful and less overwhelming, it's easier to stick with. I can't really add more other than to say welcome back and good luck with your restart! Let's do this!

That is such a useful reply. Its exactly what happens when most of us fall off the wagon i think, unless we have major problems. Some time ago i remember realising that we eat bad because we stop caring. Someone piped in and said it wasn't that we didn't care but that we didn't care enough.

Anyway the point is, we do have to maintain vigilance even after we reach goal. I think it takes rather a long time ingrain new eating habits so for myself this time, i plan to stay on my diet even when i reach goal. That means i that i will continue food diarising. Its when i stop doing things like that that i start to take liberties and get careless and pretty soon i'm doing something really stupid and the slide down begins again.

I am glad you've responded to the idea i gave you. If you can do that, it might be enough to lift your mood and make you feel like you are doing something which will all motivate you.

On my current diet i have a plan to not lose too quickly. Its more important down at the bottom end i think but that might vary from person to person. So i will stabilise my weight from time to time and just not be in a big hurry. Though the first 20 pounds came off very easily with just eating well at a modest 1650 calories or thereabouts. I don't actually count calories everyday because i have a reasonable idea of what my food is but if i change it i do a count to check.

As you weigh more than me when i started, when you start you should not even need to restrict that much. Into fitness pal, i put in that i wanted to lose half a pound a week. I'm sure i lost at a faster rate than that but that and no formal exercise is how i worked out the right calories for me. So i said i led a sedentary life and occasionally did some gardening and the odd walk.

I was going to do some deliberate exercise for the first time today but my stomach is sore so i'm going to the doc instead.