I'm ten days into my restart, and I feel that I'm starting to struggle a little bit.

When I decided to face up to my regain and do something about it, I felt very energized, and through a combination of doing my first weigh in at night, being bloated, etc. I immediately dropped ten pounds.

But now, my weight is bouncing around and not going down.

I've done this before and I KNOW it's normal, but somehow, there's this part of me that thinks I'm going to effortlessly get back down to where I was a few months ago...

Trying to keep the focus...

I KNOW how to do this, but somehow it's not getting any easier.

PUT THE SCALE AWAY!

Now....how have you been feeling lately eating healthier foods? Are you noticing a change in your energy at all?

Look at all the good things you are doing and how your feeling. Look at how determined you are to be healthy! And how honest you have been with yourself. You have strength, courage and guts girl so don't you dare cave! Forget the scale, let it bounce, your doing everything else right!

I need a kick your butt smiley

ETA: I just read a quote you might like:

"Never give up, even when the obstacles seem sky high. There is something extraordinary in all of us."-- The Eighty-Dollar Champion.

Take your own advice you extraordinary woman!

Hi Uber!
Your doing good! You know how this weight loss works...sometimes it creeps slowly and then we have 2-3 Lb. losses quickly for a few day's. Then it goes back to creeping or slows to a stop for a few day's. I think that is our brain catching up with what is going on with our body and the diet we eat.
I agree withINSIDEME you need to put the scale away for now. It is giving you grief and causing you to doubt yourself. The scale is just a tool to help us with our weight loss goals and not to be a stumbling block.
I weigh everyday. But that is just me. I have learned that each day is different. Normal weight loss bounces back and forth all week long. That's what it looks like. But if you keep it wrote down and once a week write that number down on your calendar you will notice that number in one week is smaller than it was. Now some weeks the number may be the same or 1-2 Lbs. higher. That is normal weight loss. It is such a slow process. But gradually you will notice you are losing weight. And your clothes are getting loose.
Hang in there girl this is going to happen for you.

You have already achieved something unbelievable to me, so it is hard for me to even say anything other than, you've done it before, you can totally do it again.

But I know (from a lifetime of battling weight) that the single MOST important thing for me in the whole process is the right frame of mind and the will to keep it going.

The wrong frame of mind and I don't even start (I just sit on the couch, eating comfort foods and gaining). The wrong frame of mind and I stall, quit and lose the battle.

Everything is all about keeping up the energy and will for me.

The initial biggest hurdle is to start the passion to *truly* start on losing weight for me. I think for me its like starting a fire with caveman methods. Once its going, I just have to make sure it doesn't burn out. That happens too sometimes. There's the feeling "fat" days, the lazy days, the unmotivated days, the I'm bored of this days, the defeatist attitude days and everything in between. I think, its probably all about looking for inspiration. When you are inspired by anything, you feel motivated to do something and to keep that something going, instead of undoing all your hard work.

Psh... Try restarting, facing your scale, and then a week later replace the batteries in your scale and you end up worse off than when you started! I have no idea how much or even IF I've lost anything. I just know I'm a pound heavier than my ticker.

I've fallen into my old mantra of just keep going no matter what. No matter what! Every day you are on plan regardless of what the scale says and regardless of how your clothes fit. You are on plan. Why? Because the ultimate plan is to be on plan for life anyway.

You know I'm going through the same thing right now. I have been getting on the scale twice a day, which is something I NEVER used to do. I know better than to weigh myself at night! But for some reason my weight keeps going *down* in the evening, then by morning I'm back up again.

It has to be my body hanging on to water while it adjusts to my increased workouts. You're probably going through something similar.

WE CAN DO THIS. I'm still only down one pound, but I ate a salad for lunch instead of the wrap I wanted anyway. If I can stick to it, so can you.

Why does the second weightloss seem so much harder than the first? We've done this before we can do it again!!!

But we all know what will happen if we don't keep trying

Easier? It's supposed to get easier? I guess I never got that memo. If it had ever gotten easier we wouldn't have regained the weight we did.

What are your options? Keep on working (and it is WORK!) on losing weight or give up and in a year you'll have added another 50 pounds. Keeping on is hard, but carrying around all that extra weight is also really hard and a lot of work. I KNOW which hard you prefer!

I wonder if it's because we know what we're missing? I know I was in denial for a long time about how much I'd regained, pretending I still looked/felt the same. Facing that number on the scale just seems unfair when I remember all too well looking down and seeing a much lower number just a year ago!

I spent a rather long time just MAD {livid, furious, etc} at myself for regaining in the first place {after I finally admitted that I had regained}! I felt all the time and energy I had put into the weightloss was wasted, that I was never going to learn to have a 'normal' relationship with food, and was always going to end up yo-yo-ing up and down, so what was the point in trying to lose again???!!! In the end, I took some time to regroup and just focus on my relationship with food before I started to try to lose again. I think that time was important to me to focus on my eating, and learn some new habits and attitudes about food and why I eat.

There seems to be quite a few of us re-starters, is anyone interested in a support group for 're-starters' or is there already one and I just missed it???

I was mad at myself for a long time, too. Every time I buttoned my jeans, pretty much. What finally kicked me into gear was my third illness of the season, and remembering how healthy I used to be. I was fit and my immune system was unstoppable when I was really focused on my weight loss. Then I regained and stopped taking care of myself and got so run down I ran through all my sick days picking up germs at work.

So this time it's all about health for me. I am frustrated by the scale, certainly, but I *feel* better, so that's what I care about.

I don't know of a re-starter support group, but I would definitely be in. We can use all the help we can get; we all know that!

Well, I could give you a few of these ... ... but I think that you also need a few of these ...

So many of us have been where you are now. I had to take a rest for a while, do some research, and come to terms with why I was over-eating in the first place. I was and am an EMOTIONAL-RESPONSE EATER, so I had to find ways to deal with that as well. The road back was as slower one, with lots of bumps, and trips, and falls along the way ... but with perserverance, things got better. I didn't say easier; I said better.

It's OK if you're struggling; that's normal. Take a closer look at where & why; and see what strategies you can use to work around that. You may just have to wait it out -- meaning just keep on diggin and keep on pressing on, even if you don't think that you are making any headway, becuz you likely are.

I agree about the "scale" issue; don't let obsessing over numbers ruin your short-term and long-term progress. THAT'S ALL OR NOTHING THINKING. This is more than about #'s on a scale. Try to look for other NSV's (non-scale victories) like inches, sizes, exercise minutes, and other successes along the way. Every snack or meal you get right is an accomplishment; start charting them instead.

FOCUS ON THE POSITIVE, take one step-at-a-time, one-day-at-a-time. You are gonna come across obstacles along the way; you will have some good days, some off days, some maintenance days, and some more good days.

That's just the nature of the beast ...

Now, hop to it ...

BTW, this is a good one from Caroline.

Fall seven times, stand up eight.

uber, hang your favourite piece of clothing on your closet door so you see it every day. You deserve to be back in that clothing or buying a replacement because it it TOO BIG!

- this is your new normal. Same way you brush your teeth, you eat a healthy diet and you exercise regularly. Not because you enjoy it but because it is what you do every day like brushing your teeth.

- chart the weight so that you can see the pattern in the data over a month. you want to see that downward progress.

- change your kitchen around (i sometimes put a chair to block the entrance) to physically remind yourself you are not there to eat if you accidentally wander in.

you are ubergirl and you will do it

Sometimes the mental game comes after the physical one. You'll get in the right mindset to whip this weight thing again. You did it once, so you know how.

One question - did you keep your bigger sized clothing? If you did, I'd say to get rid of it all this time as you go down. I was out with a large group of people and several had questions about my weight loss. One thing I mentioned was that I had given away every stitch of plus size clothing. One person said, "Big mistake. Everyone gains all the weight back and you'll be sorry." I take that as a challenge to NOT gain the weight back, and in a year or two, I hope I can say to that person, "Not everyone. Ha Ha." Maybe you can get that mindset - stubborn, vindictive, and ornery! It works for me!

You'll do this, though, because you CAN. Just keep going and stay on the plan that you know works. Hang in there. We all have your back.

Lin

I find that I need to "restart" every single day. It's the old cliche of taking things one day at a time, but for me, that really helps. I have come to terms with the fact (I think I have anyway) that the scale is not a good indication of what is truly going on....especially in the short term. There are many times when we drop weight fast and it's just not real but we accept them as real when really, it's a lot of water fluctuation. Then, we are doing everything in our power to stay on track and we do and the scale doesn't go down or goes up even. We are still losing weight, burning fat, but it takes a long time for the scale to actually reflect that. Finally, it's crucial to think of all the health benefits of staying on track, working out, eating healthy....those are life altering benefits that have a huge amount of value. Yet, we place so much value on that darned scale. If you find that it's not motivating, I highly recommend taking a few weeks off from the scale and just focusing on doing what you know works.