I started my life style changes in the beginning of this year and so far everything was going good. I lost considerable number of pounds and even my friends and relatives made comments about that. Now I have to prepare for examination which is very important for my career and I need to pay my full attention towards that. I completely avoid going to gym for the past one week..I was doing about 30 minutes walk in the treadmill before..I eat whatever is available..Dont want spend more time in cooking..I am sure i am going to put on all the weight back..I am always a all or nothin person..Does weight loss and maintenance needs that much attention..How do you all balance you other parts of life and weight loss as well..Any suggestions or ideas

I found pretty quickly that "all or nothing" was not a good approach for me. There's too much else in life to do!

So maybe it's time to look at what you CAN do, that may require less time than what you WERE doing. Can you work with frozen healthier meals, pre-made ingredients, etc. for a while to still eat healthy foods without spending a lot of time? Could you take three 10-minute study breaks to refresh and go for a walk (It improves your ability to retain information...really!)

You don't have to be PERFECT to lose weight...you just have to be consistent and do the best you can. For right now, that might be less than you were doing before, but hey, it's more than you might be doing if you chose to just eat whatever you wanted.

Amanda is right - some times you have to work your plan into your schedule.
Try adding exercise wherever you can - do lunges while you brush your teeth, leg raises while studying, squats while making the bed, etc. Exercise breaks while studying actually help stimulate the brain and taking frequent breaks will improve the quality of your studying.

Keep lots of healthy but "prepared" snacks around so that you can grab something healthy AND convenient when the snack monster attacks. Eating small amounts more frequently will help keep your blood sugar level and help you study as well.

You CAN do both - let us know how the exam goes!

Only you can choose to change that.

You cannot live your entire life and always be "all or nothing". Life just doesn't allow for that. And plenty of people balance really important priorities - including, careers, school, children, even caring for ill family members - and still manage to eat healthily and exercise.

Sure if you have something really important coming up, then make adjustments where you need to. But even so ... just because you don't have time to cook doesn't mean you have to go eat like crazy and eat junk. You can still eat quick meals or frozen dinners, eat healthy portions, and not go overboard. You might not be able to fit in 30 mins at the gym (with the associated travel time) but you can still do crunches and pushups and stretches at home, or work a 15 minute cardio DVD routine into your study breaks.

Bottom line is that you can use "I"m an all or nothing person" as an excuse to just quit .. or you can figure out a way to make it work.

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There's nothing wrong with choosing a different priority right now, and just maintaining your weight loss. It doesn't have to be only losing or gaining. If you go back to eating junk and not being active, it will negatively impact your studying, both physically and mentally and emotionally.

When I'm in a situation like yours, I like to think about how my decisions are going to affect how I'll feel later on.

If I don't exercise, yes it'll give me more time to study... but how much of that study time will be consumed with thinking about negative things about myself?

Or, I could take half an hour, exercise, feel good about that, then spend the rest of my time studying.

I could eat convienence food and feel icky afterwards, or I could eat easy, but still healthy foods... and feel good about my choices, and feel good about nourishing my body and making it easier for me to study.

I agree with other posters--adjust your plan, don't give it up! Give yourself the benefit of half an hour of physical activity in a day. It will help you concentrate better and reduce stress.

Find foods that are easy to prepare--Lean Cuisines can really help out here--bagged salad--frozen microwavable vegetables--prepared foods from a salad bar or deli counter. But choose foods that will help you control your weight.

Life has to be lived, but you don't have to choose one or the other. Have both and fit them together.

And be sure to get enough sleep!

Jay

Thanks a lot Friends!!! These words are really important for me now..That why I love 3FC..I am sure to spend 20 minutes on exercise

I don't think all or nothing is a good idea..i've been there several times...I'd give it a go and then i'd stop and gain the weight back. you know you don't need the gym to get fit...take some walks to enjoy the sunset, ride a bike, do home exercise....do something you enjoy, what about gardening, that's exercise..you lose about 300-500 calories per hour gardening :P

I know that sometimes we feel like we just can't do it or we can't balance it out. believe me I know. I'm a single mom and currently in the middle of a big move with big changes ahead in my life...my son is 4 and he keeps me busy from the time he wakes up till he goes to bed...But enough about me, find something you like to do...something that refreshes you, refreshes your mind...think about how many mins or hours per day you can get to yourself and make the most of it. ****, window shopping can help you lose weight too

The all-or-nothing thinking is often part of the culture of dieting. It's a message we've learned somewhere. I would bet money (lots of it) that you aren't an all-or-nothing person in every aspect of your life.

If you trip on the top step of a staircase, do you throw yourself to the bottom? If you forget to brush your teeth in the morning, do you wait until Monday to start brushing your teeth again, or do you throw away your toothbrush because it's just not worth the hassle.

You can change how important weight loss/maintenance is in the scheme of things, in your life. There's nothing wrong with that, but you've got to decide how much of a priority it is, and put that much effort into it. If it is relegated to the bottom of the list, you may end up regaining it all plus some extra to boot (that's the universal "diet" pattern, that you'd probably want to avoid if you can). Unless that's an outcome, you're ok with, you probably want to find a way to avoid the all-or-nothing approach, and look at it more like brushing your teeth.

You give a lot of hope kaplod..I was beating myself for being a all-or-nothin person so many times.I can forgive myself now.I try to remind myself that I could balance everything..I remember your words whenever i brush now..LoL

So glad to be of help, but I'll ask you not to forgive yourself, but rather to realize there's nothing to forgive (Oh, no I didn't brush my teeth this morning, I'm a horrible person).

My perspective is a bit unusual, or at least it seems so sometimes by the reaction it provokes, but I don't believe that weight gain or failure to lose is something that deserves shame or needs forgiving. Many of us have gained weight because we put other people and things (often very important people and things) ahead of our physical health and fitness. That's not necessarily a terrible thing - we were doing good things instead (or maybe just more interesting things), regardless I don't think we have to feel guilty in order for our priorities to change.

I think the shame and guilt culture of dieting, does more to perpetuate the cycle than break it. Because if we're "bad" when we make mistakes, then after a mistake, it often feels like we might as well be "really bad," and start fresh the next day or next week or whatever. But, if we treat it just like any skill we want to learn, we get back on the horse when we fall off, and we don't feel guilty for having fallen on our butt. In fact, we sort of expect it as the price you pay for learning something difficult.

And weight loss is difficult. I think we tend to treat it like it was easy, as if we must be the biggest moron on the planet when we make a mistake, forgetting how hard it is. We wouldn't expect to pick up the saxaphone for the first time, and play like a pro, yet we expect to be "perfect" and define perfection very rigidly when we're trying to lose weight.

Your behavior doesn't have to be perfect, it has to be just enough to reach your goals, whether that's losing weight or maintaining it. Your goals don't have to be sufficient for anyone but yourself, and if you're not meeting your goals, you don't have to feel guilty or bad about it, you just have to either change your goal or change your efforts.

What kaplods said.

I *hate* seeing a post where someone says "I was bad" and then goes on to elaborate how they ate something off plan or unhealthy. I feel the same way about using the word "cheat" to describe an intentional meal or item that isn't on your plan.

What you eat or don't eat doesn't make you a bad person. It isn't even a bad action. And if you cheat - you're cheating on what? Your life?

We all eat off plan now and then. We all give in to temptation now and then (not just with regard to food, but with regard to other things as well). That doesn't make us *bad*. It makes us human.

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i think first, make a plan of food.
When you have a plan, i think you'll be able to stay control and not eating junk food. That's one step.
Take 15 minutes of everyday to exercise. You can always study and exercise at the same time. Like, I like to do hula hoop and studying together. Or you can do leg squat while studying too. Fit it with something you can do together with your study I'm sure you'll find something.
Altho, all of this might just help you maintenance, it's better than gaining, isnt it

Thanks Kaplod,PhotoChick ..Yes Annita..I have a stationary bike which i can use for exercise while studying