i dont know WHAT happened.

i have been completely off plan for the past week. COMPLETELY. my boyfriend had family in town and there was tons of delicious food (including dinner at a 4 star restaurant) and i just lost my will power.

usually i am able to keep my spirits up but im just so down right now. i feel like giving up. im afraid to weigh myself because ive probably gained back 5 lbs.

what is wrong with me?!?!

why would i do that? ive been doing SO well and i just threw it away.

ugh. im feeling like quitting right about now.

Who cares about last week? It's good to take a break from dieting.

You didn't fail - you just took an unplanned break.

The time to get back on plan is NOW. Not tomorrow, not after one more meal. NOW.

You got this!

That's life, it happens. If your response to (inevitable) moments of struggle is self disgust and quitting completely, you will NOT keep this weight off long term. That is the only real difference I have seen between yo-yo dieters and successful maintainers - one group throws in the towel and lets a slip up dictate their entire path of success, the other picks themselves up and gets back on track.

Which one will YOU be? Your choice right now, whether to give into your failure or get right back on plan, is what will determine your future. It is under YOUR control. Not perfection on plan, but a willingness to work hard even when things aren't perfect.

John is absolutely right about all of it!

Hope you had a great time with the boyfriend's family!

What a lovely time 'now' is to get back on plan. And step one of being back on plan is posting here. Congratulations! Now on to step 2. :-)

Even if you gained back 5, would you rather give up and go back to 205 or keep battling and get the 5 back off?

You had a bad week. Think about why, how you can do better the next time you're in similar circumstances, and keep moving. Or give up, and wave at 205 as you go by.

This is one of those moments where you get to make a choice. People who were obese are always going to battle moments like this and the successful ones are the ones who keep making the choice to keep going.

You can do this.

This has happened to many of us, put it behind you and get back on plan.

I agree with what everyone has said. It happens to ALL of us. It happened to me this past weekend: On Friday I had at least 3,000 calories at an all-you-can-eat Mongolian grill, then the next day had some unplanned wine, nuts and oil-soaked olives before going to the movies and ordering a large popcorn (and eating all of it). Yesterday I baked some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for my son's party and ended up eating several hundred calories of the dough. Today I''m back on plan.

I think we all have to expect these moments (or days) of weakness and plan how to deal with them, just as we plan our individual meals.

F.

Why do you feel like giving up? You've still kept off 15ish pounds; that's awesome!

This isn't all or nothing. We all have bad days, weeks, or even months. The ability to pick yourself back up will keep you moving forward.

As Robin41 said, it's difficult for those of us who are/were obese. All of us struggle. Right NOW I'm struggling because of this stupid hurricane. No setback is worth the slide all the way back though, just hold your head high and keep moving forward

You totally have this, forgive yourself and move on! No reason to quit! Things like this WILL happen! If you throw your hands up and walk away just because a little bump in the road happens, what will that accomplish!?

I understand the frustration that comes with gains! But it's definitely not worth throwing your hard work away. So what if it's 5 pounds!? You know it's not 5 pounds of fat! Chances are it'll take a week or so to get back to what you were at, and so what!? It's not like there's a deadline or time limit on this! 3 months from now this will seem like such a small thing and you will be so far along. If you give up what will happen?

I recently did this guided meditation where you are at a fork in a path to the right you look ahead 1, yr, 2yr, 10yrs ect to what your life will be like if you stay on your new healthy lifestyle. Then you start down the left path downhill, you start your bad eating and life style habits - if you stay this course what do you see 2 yrs, 5 yrs, 10 yrs ect. I'm 61 now and when I did this I didn't see myself alive in 10 yrs. Really get into this guided meditation and feel what you would on each path and choose- which path do you want to be on? You can turn back and take the healthier path.

Julia, don't you dare quit!!! Us Turkeys & our thread wouldn't be the same without you!!!

OH NOOOOOO YOU DON'T ! you are not the 1st one to do this & you won't be the last. You don't get off so easy pick yourself up dust yourself off & MOVE ON !

(I hold you accountable for when I need the same pep talk....LOL ! )

Whatever you do, don't get on the scale- it sounds like it would hurt you much more than help. You had a yummy and fun week last week. Now it is over... Move on! Get straigt back on plan and treat yourself to a good, hard workout today or tomorrow.

Yes it happens to everyone! thats how i feel sometimes but we know we can do this!

There is some phenomenal advice in this thread already.

But, here's how I see it (I guess this is the resident hippy perspective)

You had a good time. The food what good. WHATEVER. If you give up, and keep eating all the fat laden, 4**** foods, they simply won't taste as good, that's why it's okay to take a little time off and enjoy. Then you hop right back on to the bandwagon until the next time you get to eat something absolutely delightful. Why eat something mildly delightful just to eat it?