The past two weeks have been insane. I took on a project for a friend that I didn't fully comprehend the time-consumingness of. There have been meetings every day at my job about possible lay offs due to budget cuts. The one-year anniversary of my brother's death came and went with my family being as "stiff upper lip" as you can be. And last night I took my elderly neighbor to the hospital and waited with him because his wife had a stroke and they wouldn't let him ride in the ambulance.

I haven't been on plan, really, but I haven't been eating too terribly unhealthy. I weighed in this morning and I'm up only a half pound, which is a lot less than I expected. My biggest issue is that I haven't made the time to exercise.

So what do you do when you face a period of time where it feels like the world is falling down around you? How do you remind yourself what you're fighting for and how do you keep yourself motivated when it seems like it's not even worth it?

For me, it's like getting bucked off a horse, (I was raised on a big farm/ranch) you get back on! Don't let the demon win!

First, I would take a minute to think of a few things you can do to "take care of you" during this stressful time: a bath? a pedicure? making sure you're drinking enough water? getting to bed early?

For me, the best way to get back on track is to plan my food for at least one day -- but three is better. If you can sit down and plan your food for the next three days and get everything you need, then you can go on autopilot and have enough time and mental/emotional energy for all the other stuff you have going on.

As far as getting back to exercise -- can you squeeze in even 20 minutes somewhere? Or, when I can't do my regular workout, I just try to do pushups, crunches and planks before bed some I know I'm working on something.

This too will pass.

Another thing, when life gets out of control, instead of giving in, we need to keep on trucking with the food and exercise, because it is something we CAN control. Hanging on to that can save your sanity.

Hello everyone ...

I need help with this one too. I'm REALLY bad when I start overeating because I figure hey I already blew it, why not keep going. Then I overdo it even worse than before. Lost quite a bit since joining WW but have my bad days.

Good luck.

I sympathize--I had a couple of "off plan" weekends recently, one of them when I found out that my estranged father had died. Many complicated emotions.

What I tend to do is keep counting calories--even if I know I'm going over by a thousand or more (which has happened). My personal mind game is to do my best to "pay it back"--even a thousand calories isn't that hard to pay back over the course of a week or two.

I think the fact that I continue to monitor and count helps me avoid a full-on binge. YMMV.

Hang in there!

When I fall off, I acknowledge it, forgive it, dust myself off and get back on. Good luck

When it is really hard for me to get back on the wagon, I go back to my "basic rules" I have for myself: 1. I eat my veggies everyday 2. try to do SOME sort of exercise, even if it is just a stroll around the block with a friend 3. take a deep breath and tell myself it is ok and that I can do this.

must agree with michelle. You can't change the past, but you can change the future. No use crying over spilled milk, I just get back on the wagon, and keep on moving.

If you have the mentality that being healthy (working out, eating well, feeding for fuel, etc) is how you live your life...forever not for a week or a month or until you reach a certain goal, then mistakes can be seen as just that - a mistake, a misstep.

Forgive yourself, we all make mistakes because we are human!

Figure out if there is anything to learn, such as how to cope better with stress and being busy than eating poorly. Find portable snacks, figure out on the go options in your work area, find time to workout as it reduces stress, whatever works for you.

Then move on, and resume your healthy focus.

You wont be on the plan you are today 10 years from today, it will morph and change and you will adapt to changing needs. It isnt about absolute adherence, it is about this being permanent.

I'm not sure if it's been said in this thread yet, but somebody on here said "If you trip going down the stairs, you don't stand up and throw yourself down the whole flight." I think that's very profound advice, and it really applies to what a lot of us experience in situations like this. I know I've been guilty of going sliiiightly off plan, and then thinking "screw it, I already blew it for today, might as well go all out." That's such backward thinking.

But when life throws us for a loop and we have a lot to deal with, well, we quite simply have to learn to deal. There should be no excuses for going way off plan. Our weight loss/maintenance plan might have to change, or it may have to sit on the back burner for awhile, but it shouldn't be abandoned. I lost the weight, and I want to keep it off for life. Life is going to throw me some curve balls, and my weight maintenance plan is going to have to change and evolve with my new situations. It's going to be part of my journey to learn how to deal with stress and pain and also joy and celebrations and changing schedules, moving, etc etc etc while still maintaining my weight. That's just part of it.

To the OP, your .5lb gain (which could VERY easily just be a normal fluctuation) sounds like a huge success to me. Due to everything going on in your life currently, it sounds like you had to put your weight loss journey on the back burner for awhile. BUT, you successfully managed to maintain your weight even with all that stress. That is something to be very proud of. I don't think you ever fell off the wagon at all

mkendrick - I adore the comment about the stairs. So apropos!

I love the stairs analogy as well! I've never heard that! It made me smile. So true!

I think I handle stress quite differently than most people. I've never had a stressful moment which caused me to fall off the wagon. My off-the-wagon moments have all been self imposed and were directly related to impatience.

And when I do fall off, I fall off BIG. Like three years kind of big.

This time I've safe guarded myself against that kind of mentality by sticking with this for one full year no matter what. At the end of that year, I'll take a look at another year.

I think it is very important for us to understand how our own minds work. With me, it is not stress, or life problems which give me the hardest times. I deal with those pretty well, and I am lucky in that, stress and sadness, etc, do not make me want to eat. My mind is a lot more devious than that. My issue is the "well, you are looking pretty good", or "hey, you are no longer obese, so anything after this is just gravy", or "you have been great for 7 months, you can do with a break".
Oh, this little voice is VERY persuasive. I sometimes think there is another person living in my mind who just simply does not like me very much. Every now and then I actually listen to this sabotaging wench. I usually realise what I have done about 1/2 the way through whatever she conned me into eating. So, I push it away, throw the wench into her pit, lock the door, and hope that this time, she doesnt manage to make her way out again. I think she carries lock picks.
Yes, I do actually think of this voice in this way. It helps me to give those cravings, those desires, and those urges a face and a voice I can actually argue with. You can try the same thing with the stressful factors I suppose, if you think something like that might help you. By the way..my wench..she is still morbidly obese..I think she is just jealous.