I started my weight loss path in october and since there I had only lost 5-6 pounds at the most. I'm graduating college (finally) in about 2 weeks and I had desperatly hoped to be down at lest a good 10 pounds before grad. While it was a lovely goal i was working towards, I completely killed it by jumping off the wagon. I was back to not paying attention to what i was eatting and thinking i could have that buger, fries, cake and so on. Man was i wrong. Yesterday i was feel pretty crappy about my poor decisions and decided to email a buddy. It kindd helped and she mentioned that sometimes life is too hectic to focus on one goal when you have many. I then decided to read the goal posting on here and let me say i almost cried! I' was very excited for all these people! I want to be one of them! To make this long story come to an end, I feel motivated to get back up. I may not be able to meet that goal of 10 pds but i can surely try.

How do you focus again when you've fallen down?

I feel for you, its not easy sometimes. All I can say is that for me sometimes cleaning the slate and starting anew is a good way to focus on what I want to do now, not on what mistakes I might have made earlier. Figure out a plan for what changes you want to make in your diet and/or your exercise and set about to following it. I found it helped me to take things slowly, rather than trying to go from a burger and fries couch potato to a spinach and soy exercise freak in one day! You are definitely not alone, I think most of us at some time have lost our mojo and had to start over again.

Begin anew.

Start with the little changes again. Remember the lessons from before & apply them.

One step at a time, build up to being healthier.

You can do this!

We've all been there. Its always "well I was hoping I would've done this by this certain date/time." Here are a few things I remind myself....

1) The great part about waking up in the morning is that today is a new day. Whatever happened yesterday is in the past and cannot be changed. Whatever is going to happen tomorrow is tomorrow. I am in the now and I have to take it in.

2) You are NOT going to lose 50 lbs in a day. As much as we would all like to wake up and magically be at our goal weight in the morning... its just not going to happen.

3) We all get motived and like to think "oh man I'm going to start a completely different life style, everything is going to change tomorrow." That's not REALITY. It doesn't work like that (for most people). Some smokers stop cold turkey, some have to gradually quit, but at the end of the day, they all reached their goal, one way or another.

Its not always about becoming a gym rat/health nut like Caroline said. Sometimes its just a matter of making SMALL changes that always add up eventually. Take the stairs instead of the escalator, park in the back of the parking lot instead of right at the door, drink 2 glasses of water instead of the ONE you usually drink. Only eat a SMALL fry instead of a large, or drink a diet coke instead of a regular coke.

They don't seem like much but they are MUCH easier to maintain. I find that when I tell myself "NO YOU CAN'T HAVE THIS" it makes me want it THAT much more. [I'm the stubborn, hard headed 'you can't tell me what I can or CAN'T do' type]Then I obsess over it and eventually, I'm going to cave in.

So dust yourself off, pick yourself back up, and just look at the schedule for when the next wagon is going to be coming through. That way you're at least on the road to getting back on it.

Thank you ladies for the responses! I have deff have started over today and will focus more so on the days to come. I know it took me a good 13 years to get to this point and im not going to lose it in a few weeks or even a few months. Thanks ladies

i know the feeling i have been just hanging on to the wagon the for the last year. i have confidence that you will get back on and keep chugging away at it.

Congrats on graduation.

In addition to the great advice already posted, I would just like to say don't beat yourself up over falling off the wagon. If you can, try to really look at what happened, and learn why it happened.

If you can pull some lessons out of it, it will only make you more aware of what works and doesn't work for you. Weight loss seems to be a journey of fine-tuning things, finding out what will work for you, and then applying that knowledge to get the best results.

So, just think of it this way: you have one less "failure" to get out of the way now.

I agree...just focus on whats ahead. Not what happened. I know you can do it!

What part of California? Our stats are pretty similar! I am also 24.

Hi. Yes I recognized that the main trigger for my jump was more than school stress it also had a lot to do with family stress. I never considered my an emotional eatter but after all that has been going on , i suppose it was my comfort. Things have slowly calmed down and I've been able to focus a bit more. Thanks again for the advice.
ps. xGurlyGrlx, i am located in the north bay near SF.

I jumped off the wagon! That is okay though because I RAN back on!!!

Not too far from me. I am in the East Bay! Glad you are able to focus more now!

I think the best way to start again after falling off the wagon is to have a good think about what happened and why, and how you can set yourself up to avoid or minimize that problem. It's not about having more willpower, it's about figuring out what the key problem areas are and then setting yourself up to succeed! Make your routine do the work, not your willpower :-)