Hi Everyone,

I've been using this site off and on since October, and I was successful at getting myself to a healthy weight and size and was feeling good about myself. I still feel like I am beautiful, but I am losing control again. I have already lost control. I don't think I have to describe what I did outward, because for me so much about it is the feelings of powerlessness over food.

Partly it is because I don't have as much time as I have in the past, but now my motivation is seriously down after a wedding where I ate 5 cupcakes and 3.5 doughnuts, in addition to seconds... blah blah. I am really bummed out that I did that to myself again, especially after all my hard work.

I don't know. I guess I am just looking for a pick me up. How do people stay motivated?

As the saying goes around here, it's not about motivation, it's about commitment. Commitment is what makes you push through when motivation is nowhere to be found. And those times are many. What seems to work for me, after a relapse, is committing to just ONE on-plan day. After that I can usually commit to two more, and after that to the whole week. At that point some motivation usually kicks in.

And just to clarify: For me, on-plan is 1,500 cals per day to lose, 2,000 cals per day to maintain. Overrestriction never works for me, no matter how badly I want to "make up for" a relapse. It's almost a law of physics: push the restriction pendulum too far to one side and it WILL swing over to the other side.

F.

That is a really good point, Freelance.

It really made me think over the last few days about the difference between motivation and commitment. I feel that I can make choices to inspire motivation, but, ultimately, it is something out of my control. Motivation seems like more of a feeling for me.

On the other hand, I commitment is something I can make a choice to do or not do. It seems to depend more on my thoughts and on logic.