Ok. I hear all the time that stress can prevent weight loss and can even cause weight gain. Anytime I am changing my eating habbits, I stress over it all day long. Food and dieting is literally on my mind 24/7 when I try to change my habbits. I am UP 1.8 pounds today and I dont gain weight easily. Although this gain could be for many reasons, I am afraid the stress I have every day from "dieting" is going to prevent my weight loss. Also, since I am planning and thinking about food all the time, it makes me want to eat all the time! I just feel like its lose lose!

Does anyone else do this to themselves?

When I started my plan, I was lucky that I had something else to occupy me as it was my finals.

But I had never successfully dieted before so I was preparing myself for being undisciplined.

So, I planned out a week of meals. I actually subscribed to a meal plan service. There were two options to choose from. Convenience based or recipe based. The first one basically is pre packaged healthy options from your local supermarker and the second one is the raw ingredients needed to make the meals.

I opted for the 2nd option, recipe, for two reasons. 1. I really wanted to gain more knowledge about healthier options and ingredients 2. a lot of the time that I eat is due to boredom/procrastinating. So if I took more time to cook it would eliminate a lot of the reasons why I was eating.

That was a large part of my success.

Here are a few other rules that I put in place, which I think would really help.

WATER. It sounds so obvious. I made sure I had loads, and when I would usually graze for food I would get a glass of water. Oh and whenever I thought I was hungry I would have a glass of water and wait 15 minutes, as people can't distinguish between hunger and thirst a lot of the time.

I hate the phrase 'negative calories' as I think it is a bit misleading. But for the purpose of this I'll use it. I always kept some 'negative calories' snacks around, in case I couldn't stave off eating. A personal fave is watermelon because it has basically nothing calorie wise in it and it's so sweeeeeet. But there are plenty of other options.

I lost my first 10 pounds in 3 weeks. Because I stuck to this. My last 5 pounds have taken 3 months!

But everyone is different but I really respond well to plans and schedules.

Also if you can fit it in I found a couple of weeks with no drinking really helpful.

Best of luck xxxx

EDIT: after I planned the meals I did an online grocery order so I couldn't just make excuses and not stick to it.

Thank you for your response Dora. My issues are more mental than anything else. I eat often not becuase I feel starved or hungry but becuase I am constantly thinking of food, which naturally will trigger a craving. I drink SO much water. I always have. I guess I get on average 80-100 oz of water a day. I cant believe you lost 10 pds in the first 3 weeks! Congratulations! The only time I lost 10 pds in 3 weeks was when I was doing low carb. That backfired. I couldnt stick with it.

Did you not drink for those 3 weeks? Were you doing low carb? Or low calorie? I have never gone more tha a week doing low calorie (1200ish cals) and not drinking. Maybe I could try this for 3 weeks. Oh gosh I have no idea. I stress so much over this that its making me so angry. I dont have time to cook and prepare all my meals. I work full time and am going back to school for another degree. So when I do get downtime, I need to just relax.

So what exactly did you do for the first 3 weeks that allowed you to lose 10 pds?

I did do low calorie (1400) but most importantly high fibre. I always had about 25g of fibre a day. Making sure I always had at least 5g at breakfast. Much easier said than done. At first I used to have a huge bowl of bran flakes/all-bran. But now I have a breakfast bar which has 5g of fiber in as well as another cereal of my choice, or perhaps toast.

I never cut anything else out really. Just had a wild passionate affair with fibre.

I think I maybe had two glasses of wine in the three weeks but this was no big surprise as everyone was swotting up for exams. I put on most of my weight (I was 112 when I started uni) due to drinking alcohol. You can drink from 16 in the UK, so we drank a LOT.

I think with all detoxes cutting out drink for a couple of weeks is beneficial.

That sounds good! I am going to try this "3 week challenge" and see what it does for my body. I too try to get in fiber. I usually get it from popcorn, fruit, and whole grain bread. Mine is usually around 20g. The not drinking part will be hard for me though.

One last question, if you go 3 weeks without drinking and eating low calorie, and lose 10 pds, once you start drinking again, wont the weight come back?

I've started drinking again and haven't found that. When I meant that I put on weight because of drinking. It was fresher's year, 5 bottles of wine a week and a really really bad diet to boot.

I've been going out a few times a week this summer and I haven't found that it has massively impeded my weight loss. But I think for the first kick a bit of abstaining is good.

Best of luck and stay positive.

Also... always weigh in the morning before breakfast. I'm usually about 4 pounds heavier in the afternoon.

OK great! Thank you for the tips Dora!!

I'm always stressed about dieting and I constantly think about food. It's horrible!!

I stress about a lot of things, and exercise has really helped me calm down. I would stress if I ate one "bad" thing that really wasn't bad for me. I would stress if I was up .4 lbs one day. I would stress if there wasn't a food option for me.

I plan my breakfast and lunch in advanced. Dinner is always a mystery so I don't plan unless I'm at school. Although I think about food, because it's planned already, I can just eat what I already made when I'm hungry. I drink water and chew gum in between when I'm feeling nibbly.

With the alcohol, it does help if you cut it out. Not only are some drinks high cal, but if you drink more than one drink, it inhibits your fat burning cells which prevents you from losing weight. There are healthy drink options if you really want a drink. Like a Diet coke and rum. It's only about 80 calories instead of about 180. Or google the skinny girl margarita. Or a light beer. But only stick to one, and definitely don't have a drink every night.

Definitely try the low calorie "challenge". I've been eating 1200 calories a day for more than a month and I'm never hungry. I went on 1300-1350 for a while, but when I switched to 1200, my body was "shocked" (for lack of a better word) and I lost 5 lbs in about 3 weeks.

Wow! Thats awesome. I think my problem lies within the alcohol consumption I have every week and the days I fall off wagon. I dont just fall off, I tumble off. My off days are around 3500 calories and when I go out and drink, I have multiple drinks. I would guess on average about 1,000 worth of alcohol. And this is when dieting. I really need to work on just going out one night a week. I am just so stressed that I look forward to those nights when I can stop stressing. My sister thinks I am like her in that the more I obsess, the less chances I have of staying "on track". We will see. One thing for sure, I am NOT giving up

Hope everyone is having a great Monday!

I cut out alcohol for a long time, but I am back to drinking two or three glasses of wine once a week. I go out to my favorite restaurant with my boyfriend on the weekend, and we eat whatever we want, drink, and them share a piece of cheesecake. I love it. It was hard for me to start having a day off of healthy eating again after so long being super careful, but it has been really good for my peace of mind. That said, I only go out to eat on days when I have put in a really hard and long workout at the gym. I still can't free myself from the need to burn off the calories I intend to eat before I actually indulge in them.

I did not drink while I was actually losing weight, though. I only do it now, once a week, at maintenance.

I cant believe the amount of exercise you do! That is amazing. I can't imagine spending 5 hours in a gym. More power to you!!