Help!

I have a tremendous amount of stress in my life and am afraid of backsliding (I've lost 35 pounds, but know that I have gained a few back in the last two weeks).

Does anyone have suggestions or advice for skills to get me through the next little bit while not gaining. I'll be fine if I can just maintain but even that has been a lifelong challenge.

oh geez.. you sure don't ask simple questions do you????

hmmm. not quite sure what to say, except BE PREPARED!!! figure out where your trigger points are: what sets you off, how long it takes before you start eating, what you eat [salt, crunch, carbs, whatever], and then

MAKE A PLAN to get you through those times. if it's substituting something OP, or taking a break, or talking to someone, or whatever... and remember: sometimes all it takes is something no-cal to drink. for some, it's a warm drink, for others, an icy cold one.

i'm sure others will have some fabulous ideas... good luck,. and KEEP POSTING!!! it's great to see you back

Fighting that one myself-- control!! that is a keypoint. do not let the stress take over your entire life. know that there is something you DO have control over ahd grasp that. watch what you do when stress it the biggest.. have legal treats on hand.

and most important control

then celebrate what you have lost go to the (my favorite part) butter isle and look at 35 lbs of butter. 35 lbs of fat greasy uucckky stuff do you want that back on your body??? go to the flour isle and grab a 20 lb of flower and carry it down the isle to the cart you left there. OMG how heavy is that even better yet go to the dog food and grab a 40 lb bag. that is closer to what you have lost how do your knees feel carrying around this weight?? can you move fast?? reaslize that if you do not get control over this NOW you will have to carry around that weght again and you will have lost all the hard work you have done this far. I have been struggling with about 15 lbs gained from my lowest and I could kick myself. I do not want you to do that. it will take me atleast 2 months to get that off if not more. do you want to lose that mcuh of your struggle??? if nothing then try to maintain your loss. so you donot go backwards. weight atleast every few days. at this time do not stay off the scale as you will gain and not realize it. that ismy problem i stay away from the scale and it creeps up and i do not realise it till my once loos pants are snug to tight. hang in there and keep tight focus on the food. that is the only way to keep control!!!

OI, I could use some help myself right now...lol, I'm having a monster craving for.... STEAK.... well, I'm trying to get back to my vegetarian, mostly vegan life, so I have to REALLY resist...lol so, if it gets much worse, I'll go work out...need to anyway....lol, and I just got my cookbook I've been wanting forever, so I'll plug my recipes into my recipe manager/menu planner, and work on my shoppping list for next week so, I'll do something healthy, and distract myself... it works, sometimes... here's hoping it works today... (and that hubby doesn't read my mind and bring me home a steak...LOL)

The best advice I can give here is set some realistic goals during this stressfull time.

Real are some examples:

1/ Drink min 64 oz of water a day
2/ exercise 3 times a week, min - excerise does help with stress
3/ MAINTAIN your weight during this time. Set a time limit - ie. I will maintain my current weight for one month.


With accomplishing REALISTIC goals this will help you control your stress - thus, controlling the weight.

I am not sure what is causing the stress in your life at this time... but sometimes talking about it hear can help too

I hope I helped,

Dana

Boy,
I can relate! I am always fearful of going into "release" and have
done just that more times than I can count. Usually around
Thanksgiving I go on a binge that lasts till the new year and I
hate myself for it. Control is key. Whenever I feel myself start
to slip I reach for my motivational tapes. Often that puts the
fire back into my drive to succeed.

Okay... I'm now checking in from the other side.

Let me say that I started this thread back in July knowing what the coming months had in store for me. I did indeed backslide from 298 back to 305.

Depressing yes... but I can live with it. You see... I was in the 320's last November so even if I only measure from that, I'm still 15+ pounds off in less than a year. Not setting speed record for sure, but still a significant loss.

Moreso, I can lose those 7 pounds back. Yes... I struggled to lose them but I can just do it again and keep going. The stress in my life hasn't been removed, but for the time being... it has been contained.

In the past, a "backslide" normally meant that I regained back to my highest weight and then reset the bar for the highest weight soooo I'll also consider it a success that I only gained 7 pounds and am now back on the program again.

Weight loss is a hard road to travel and even moreso if you have a significant amount of weight to lose. I salute each of you who struggle forward in the journey as someone who struggles as well.

So... here I go again.