Ahhhh! Where to begin?

Hi.

I am a 24 year old SAHM. Been dieting my WHOLE life. I've done e v e r y t h i n g.. I have every diet book under the sun!
I swear I've gained and lost the same 50 pounds every year since I was like 13!
But now that I am getting older I am slowly getting heavier even though I swear I am not eating anymore than usual!
It's so depressing. This time last year I was having great progress on Atkins and some where over the summer it all went out the window.

I just don't know what to try. I am the type of person that needs a strict plan of what I can and can't have or stick to a calorie plan.

But I just don't care anymore.. I DO.. but I can't muster up the willpower anymore to start something that I am going to fail anyway.

It gets so depressing after while.. What do you do when you think you don't have the strength to even try to lose the weight?

I am on South Beach Diet. The reason for this is no calorie counting, eat until satisfied and foods I enjoy. When I went on the diet this time I didn't think about will power I just followed the plan and let my body do the rest. The weight is coming off slowly, but this is a plan I can live with the rest of my life. It is integrated in my life like brushing teeth and combing hair. I just do it.

Hope you find a meal plan that will change into a lifestyle for you. You deserve to be the weight you want and healthy.

Sharon

FunSize, you remind me of myself. When I was your age, I was a SAHM and trying every diet that came around, so I know how you're feeling. I'm on the South Beach Diet, too, and finding it easy to stick with. Focus on veggies and lean protein and it's very satisfying. If you blow it one day, just get back on track the next day.

But now that I am getting older I am slowly getting heavier even though I swear I am not eating anymore than usual!

Suppsedly somewhere in th 30's people start to lose about 1/2 lb muscle per year if they aren't excercising to keep it or build more of it. Since muscle is living tissue, losing it affects your metabolism. It slows down.

So even if you ate the same as before, you can gain.

http://exercise.about.com/cs/exsenio...gandweight.htm

Also, you don't fail the diet. The diet fails YOU because it was not something you could realistically stick to. How about writing what you tried and where it was that you felt it was out the window?

Where you too low in calories? How about a cut back but not as much as that?

Have your circumstances changed? I know what I did Before Child does NOT work After Child. I have to change my whole strategy because being a mom takes up time.


A.

I've done one major thing differently this time around and it's worked well for me. The realization that I would always fail on somebody else's plan and that I had to build one for myself.

So one of the first things I did was sit down and write a list of all the things that I had in my favor in terms of losing weight and all the things that were major barriers. Then I developed specific behaviours for my "plan" to take advantage of or mitigate these issues. For example, obviously my full lists were much longer...

Things in my Favor
1. When at home have a flexible work schedule
-Therefore I plan work calls/meetings around my ideal time to go to the gym which is at around 1030 in the morning.

2. I have a pretty easy time avoiding sweets all together, and a very hard time controlling portions once I start.
-Eat a full calorie sweet dessert no more than once a week, no reason to waste calories on something I don't miss much.

Key Barriers
1. I travel extremely frequently, which involves eating out 3x a day on expense account.
-Now I try to book hotels with fridges, and do dinners from the grocery store instead of a restaurant.
-Avoid meals with a carb as the base, always substitute veggies for starches as sides

2. I (at this point) seem to not possess the ability to leave food on my plate.
-Appropriately portion (or have my wife do it) my dinners in the kitchen and then put away all the leftovers before dinner starts.



And so on, you get the idea. But it's worked so much better to have a plan that takes advantage of my strengths and limits my weaknesses. And if you've tried and failed alot before as many of us have, you have a lot of information about what is easier for you and what is harder.

I empathize with you so much! I've been struggling with losing weight and keeping it off for 20 years.

Just from what you posted you have some GREAT things going for you:
-You are young and if you can get control of your weight then you will avoid a lot of health problems in the future.
-You have successfully lost weight in the past all you need to figure out is how to maintain that loss.
-Being a mother, you have even more motivation to get healthy and teach your children healthy eating habits that will start a great foundation for their future.

Instead of looking at "diets", it might be time to look at healthy eating habits. That way after you have lost the weight all you have to do is continue with the good habits with a bit more flexibility to maintain the weight. With good nutrition in your family you will lose weight and give your children a great start for the future! There is a lot of info on good nutrition but some basics are eating plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit, switching to whole grain everything and brown rice, using unsaturated fats vs. saturated (but limiting the amount of high calorie fat for weight loss), nearly eliminating "junk food", and controiling portion sizes.

This is just a suggestion the wonderful people on this site are a testament to the fact that there are many ways to lose weight! Find what works for YOU and you will be happy with long term.

Also make sure you are setting realistic goals for yourself and not try to live up to others ideals. We all have different bodies and different genetics. What does a healthy, strong you look like?

It is possible for you to lose weight and you can keep it off! I know you can do this, you just haven't found your right groove yet. You don't have a lot of "failures" you have a lot of good research on what works and doesn't work for you.

Ok, so I woke up this morning and I immediately said to myself.. that I am going to count calories.. I have counted calories before, when I was 16 and I went from 185 pounds to 129 pounds BUT.. I actually didn't care what I ate, as long as I stayed within 1200 calories a day.
I also did the same thing when I was 20. I went from 170 to 153 pounds in 2 months.

And I am sure I've done it more times than that but those are the two times I've had success!
I stayed at 153 until I got pregnant, and now I am a whopping 207.. 3 years after giving birth!!!!! NO EXCUSES!!

So, I am calorie counting with an emphasis on eating healthy this time. Limiting refined sugars, avoiding "bad" fats & oils, etc.

Here we go..

OMG, I've been stuck in that same rut, too!

It's like everything you try lasts for a little while and then you revert back to what you were doing before.

I recently started the simplest thing ever, just controlling calories. I calculated how much I have to eat to lose two pounds per week, and I'm starting there. I'm not eating very differently besides just eating less. It's a start!

The cool thing is for once I feel like I'm not going to be able to revert back. Because I'm not doing anything extreme, I don't feel like its something I can't keep up!