Where did you go wrong in the past?
 

Hello, chicks! Do you know what you might have done in the past that made your diet unsuccessful? Where did you go wrong - did you learn from your mistakes? For instance, I know now that one of my longstanding problems was not counting calories. I really miscalculated what I ate on a daily basis.


We're doing this research for our book, and we'd love your input! You may be quoted, and we'll let you know if we submit your response to our editor.
If you aren't comfortable with posting here, please feel free to email us at 3fcbook@ gmail.com (remove the space) or PM me.

Even if it isn't in the book, there are a lot of people here that would benefit greatly by reading what you have already learned.

Thank you!!

I tried to starve myself in the past, or live on salads alone, and drank diet sodas instead of regular sodas. All the wrong things, because I couldn't live life like that permanently. It's having a soda as a treat instead of daily (diet or not) that I had to learn, and eating enough food and more than just salad, but eating the right foods all along. And I never stuck with exercise before, or tried mixing up the exercise. I did one thing and got bored with it and ended up quitting.

all my mates are either really athletic or slim looking but the drink heavily and smoke like 40 a day. i don't smoke but i do have the odd 7-8pints on a night out with kebab and pizza and well anything really as soon as i start drinking i get the munchies really bad. so i'm now going t total (ish) :lol:

I never counted calories until a few days ago, when I started using Fitday.com. Man, no wonder I was always so slow to lose weight! I didn't realize how much I was eating. Also, I forget sometimes to check the serving size on packaged foods. There were times I thought I was eating one serving, and it was actually two or three. And lastly, I've often fallen prey to the "well, I blew it for the week, so I may as well enjoy myself" thinking, and piled on the calories out of disgust with myself.

Since joining WW I've realised that in the past I may not have been eating ENOUGH when dieting. WW always say that if you don't eat your daily points then your body will go into starvation mode and cling onto the fat so you won't lose weight.

Another half a stone and I'll be at my lowest point in years so that'll be the test to see if WW can take me beyond that!

Good luck, Angel! :)

I tried dieting while in high school and I always ended up restricting myself too much. I thought if i starved myself then i would lose the weight faster. I have found out that starving yourself only makes your body hold on to the fat. This time around I am slowly learning to stay at the calories i have alotted myself. I try to stay between 1200-1400 a a day. Unfortunately old habits die hard, and i am usually barely meeting my 1200, it is an obsession with me. Lately I have started incorporating more snacks like a piece of fruit or some fat free yogurt, anything healthy to add a few more cals. I think a lot of people are the same way, they starve themselves to be thin and only hurt themsleves in the long run.

Like most of the responses before mine- I didn't eat. Now I'm eating 6 meals a day and the weight is falling off!

also I had the belief that I'm exercising- so I can eat whatever I wanted to- never saw results and slacked off from exercising because it wasn't doing anything for me... I've learned it's Diet AND exercise that makes the difference. I love seeing the changes every day!

I think my mistake has been thinking that I had all the time in the world to work on losing weight. I should have done it when I was younger and in better health. Now every time I get serious and get my act together, some health problem crops up and messes everything up (the exercise part of it ~ and for me dieting with out exercise is frustrating because I don't make much progress). In the last couple years, foot problems, then arthritis, now I have injured my knee and have not been able to do my walking. Back in 2000, I was almost half way to my goal, and I fell off the wagon, and have not done as well since then ~ oh how I wish I had not been so stupid, and not messed up, and put off until tomorrow.......

I think the worst mistake I've made is in deciding I'm already fat so I might as well eat like a pig!

No prizes for guessing what happened then!

You have to realise that you CAN get slim. That's where 3fc helps so much.

My biggest mistake is letting life get in the way. A family dinner here, a dinner and movie while I was dating, you know--the little events. I stopped putting my healthy eating and exercise first. The last time I tried losing weight I don't even remember there being a shift from my healthy habits back to the old every day fast food meals. I think it was just allowing one day to turn into the next and they all blended together and I was back up to 292 without so much as realizing it. So now, I don't let a day go by without at least thinking about my health—even if I eat 5,000 calories in one day, I'm still aware that if I don't start eating less the next day or two, I will gain that weight back.

Good question... I looked at losing weight as something short term, so I'd work out for an hour everyday or something as long as I was trying to lose and then stop completely once I'd reached goal because there was no way that I could intergrate it into my life. The whole maintenance thing never really happened. Hopefully, I'll do better this time:).

My biggest mistake was not doing enough research and initially trying to eat low fat. For the past year i have seen huge improvemets from weight training and combinding that with calorie counting. On days where i eat out at a restraunt, in the past i would normally weigh more the next day, these days if i have a bad day or even a bad week i still weigh the same, and i have noticed my portion sizes are also much smaller now that i have more energy, compared to my bigger portions i had when my metabolism was sluggish. And i never thought i would actually really enjoy exercising and if i havent exercised for a few days i feel a big urge to rush off to the gym. And everything i have learnt has not only helped me, but others around me are also now living healthier lifestyles and come to me for advice which feels just great! Realising that i can eat the foods i always use to enjoy, as long as i eat smaller amounts for the rest of the day, and as long as my calorie range is around 1500-1600 then i will be fine.

In the past, I would totally avoid foods that were normally thought of as a no-no and get downright testy about it, too. This time, I have eaten any foods I want, but in small portions. In my case, portion control has really been a main factor in staying OP. I keep trigger foods out of the house, except in single servings. Period. If I want Doritos, I buy the 25 cent bag at the Walmart checkout area. One serving at a time - maybe once every two months. Same thing for other trigger foods. If it isn't readily available, I can't overindulge. But as I said, no food is off limits, though, so I haven't felt deprived this time.

The ironic thing is, once I got used to eating healthily, I found that I craved that type of foods more and more, and didn't want to waste my WW points on junk food. Go figure!

Importance of Sleep
 

My biggest mistake was not realizing what sleep deprivation can do to your weight loss efforts. Not only did I get up in the middle of the night and have a snack to try to fall back to sleep (deadly all by itself) but I did not know that lack of sleep (menopausal related) can mess up your metabolism and make you crave carbs and sweets.

If I had it to do all over again, I would have taken Ambien or asked my doctor for a sleep aid. I am now on bioidentical hormone replacement therapy which has helped me to sleep better.

Perfectionism vs. betterment. I had a "do or die" type of attitude. I couldn't just make a mistake (have a cupcake or skip a workout) without letting it ruin the rest of my day. This would downward spiral into a bad week, bad month, etc.

Now I realize if I indulge, it counts, but it will not make me fat. I count calories and work any type of off program food into my day. I also no longer look at any mistake as a failure, but a catalyst for change. I live moment to moment and renew with each one!

When I first lost the weight, I got too cocky about it. I ate what I wanted and didn't seem to be gaining, so I ate some more. All of a sudden, I gained eight pounds and that sent me panicking. I am at my WW goal ,but would like to lose those eight, plus some more a personal goal. I think it's all in the mindset. It's really a lifestyle change and binging, although tasty, is NOT what's best in the long run. Thank goodness I caught it at eight pounds and not 20, or worse the whole 65 being back.

The problem for me is that i didn't do anything right. :( I did all the research and not enough production. When I started school in August I starting working out a couple days a week but was never consistant. So that is my first thing that i need to correct if I want to lose any weight. The second thing that i did wrong is that I never counted calories, the third is that i never planned my meals. So as you can see I did nothing right in 2004, But I am going to try my dardess to get it right this time.

I have never acheived real weight loss. I would lose a pound here and there but never followed through and gained the pound back with interest. I hope that by next year this time I can offer advise to others struggling with losing weight.

God Bless All Of You Going Into The New Year!!! ;)

BEST of luck to you, Miss McCoy!!

I finally realized and had to admit that depression was a part of my problem. I don't suffer from it usually, but an emotional thing in my life did trigger something....
I had lost a lot of weight when I had joined a fitness challenge at the company I worked for (got down to 130lbs and was still losing) I kept a journal, watch my food intake, drank my water, and never deprived myself of something I wanted to eat and exercised regularly......

Then...our company closed it's doors and all of us (400 employees) lost our jobs. Without realizing it, I went into a depression (and managed to gain some, but not all, the weight I had lost) and did not know how things were going to work out for us. (both my husband & I worked there)

Well now, after going to school for a year and then this year getting a new job, I feel like I'm finally coming out of this feeling of not knowing what I'm going to do, to "I'm going to get back on track and continue what I achieved before".......it's getting the motivation back after a year and a half of hopelessness that's the hard part. But I'm determined to get my mind set back into the mode that my body is still important.

And with the love and support that I have found in the friends I have made since joining this site, I know I will make my goal.

Thanks
 

Thanks to my new 3fc fam...its so good to hear that Im not the only one who has made some bad mistakes in the past. You all give me encouragement!!


http://www.3fatchicks.com/weight-tra...b/268/168/268/

My mistakes....... Well.... There have been many.....

1. Allowing myself to become distracted by EVERYTHING other than what I *NEED*!

2. Getting cockey with the weight that I HAD lost and forgetting to look forward instead of (at my "new") behind!

3. NOT planning! (I know that Not planning is basically...planning to fail!)

4. Cheating without counting it. Duh! I know that I can eat anything that I want...I JUST need to count it! But....duh!

5. Eating my stress and emotions.... only makes me MORE stressed and emotional. Another DUHHH!

6. Allowing myself to become distracted by EVERYTHING other than what I *NEED*!
Yes, I know I have that on my list twice..... it is MY biggest and most difficult thing to overcome. THIS one is my DAILY / HOURLY battle! I am everything to everyone BUT me! I'm working to do better on this!

I am important! I *AM* important!
My health and fitness and happiness ARE important!
:)

Lessons learned? We'll see in time...
 

I used to be able to lose weight easily. All through school - up until college - I was a dancer. I'd starve myself regularly to drop weight before a performance. So even after I stopped dancing, I just dropped my calories down to almost nothing, started an obsessive exercise routine and lose 10 pounds or more in my first week.

But then, undoubtedly something would go wrong in my life. I'd get in a fight with my mom or my husband (now ex), or I'd get a cold... and I'd mentally blame it on my diet.

And since that was the only way that I knew to diet, I'd just quit dieting.

Somehow over the course of years of being skinny, and then finally becoming normal .. and now fat, I had subconsciously convinced myself that having a little bit of extra weight would "protect" me. That I could literally hide myself inside my body.

Of course, all along I thought it was an easy thing to change... if I wanted to be thin, I'd just starve and dance.. and I'd be thin. Now after a zillion (ok, slight exageration there) diets, I am finding that in order to lose weight I have to really make a life change.

I have to love myself enough that I don't feel a need to hide, and I have to make a life style change in how I think about... and deal with... food and exercise in my life.

Have I learned anything from past experiences ... well, we'll see. I am here now. :)

It doesn't seem to be food I have trouble with
 

I will lose 4-5 pounds then instead of congratulating myself and keep going I will freak out and eat and eat for 2 weeks and gain it all back. It's like I use being chubby for an excuse for not doing things or wearing things.

And sometimes I think I just like to complain and it gives me something to gripe about.

I know. I'm weird.

:shrug:

Mistakes
 

1. Counting calories-I would feel like I was starving.

2. All or nothing attitude. -1 mistake and the whole diet would be off.

3. Having forbidin foods/low fat diet-I would obsseve on what I couldn't have.

4. Doing only healthy food OR exercise not both.

5. Doing some extreme and unrealistic diet.

My biggest problem is the all or nothing attitude.
I'm learning to get back on track though.

Keeping track of my food was a surprise too. I didn't even realize how much I was eating!

My biggest mistake would be letting other people make choices for me. From a co-worker that told me I was dieting all wrong to my own fiance talking me into fast-food, I stopped and realized that I'm the one that needs to put my life into my own two hands. I'm the one in this body, and I'm the one that decides if I want to make the most of it.

My biggest mistake was not adjusting my attitude towards food. Enjoy all things in moderation but not ALL THE TIME> I would diet and do well, but never learned how to eat when away from HOME. On vacation or out of town. I would BINGE cause it was the only time I would allow myself to be guilt free. Now I have learned to have a treat once in a while and only small portions.:)

There were so many places I went wrong. For a start, I've always thought of myself as being overweight, even when I was younger. I have a build that isn't popular in this age - hips and boobs. As a result, I ended up comparing my (healthy) hourglass figure to that of friends who had to gain weight to weigh 100 pounds in high school. When I look back at pictures of myself, I can't believe I ever considered myself to be fat or was too embarassed to wear a bikini.

I grew up in a family where food = love. My dad shows everyone he loves them by feeding them, and we show how much we love him back by eating everything he puts in front of us. Of course, we couldn't even consider actually leaving food on our plates; it would hurt his feelings. So even 10 years after moving away from home, I still had a hard time leaving food on my plate, even after I was full.

Taking too much comfort in comfort foods has always been another problem. Hey, I wasn't eating ice cream or chocolate. My comfort foods were pasta and rice so that couldn't be a problem, right? Oddly enough, pasta and rice coated in butter just don't seem to have much more of a health benefit :lol:

Mindless eating is another problem. I crave foods and instead of putting a reasonable portion in a bowl, I bring the whole bag to the couch while I read my book. Hmmm... someone else must have eaten some of those chips, right? :?:

I also noticed that once I had lost some weight, I stopped paying attention to portion sizes or what ingredients I was putting into the food when I made it. Suddenly I was going from a cup of food with light sour cream to 2-3 cups with heavy sour cream, cheese, etc. It was still called the same thing, so it shouldn't actually make me gain weight, don't you agree? :dizzy:

I recently moved to a new state, so whenever I visit my family, I am back to eating my dad's cooking and being surrounded by a sea of junk food. Of course, there is a grocery sotre down the street, but if i went there, I'd be admitting I have no willpower to ignore the chips and cheese curls and pretzels and popcorn and... what was I saying? Oh yeah, pass the warehouse club size tub of cashews. ;)

Probably my biggest problem of all is how easily I allow myself to become discouraged. If I work out two hours a day and don't lose any weight, then what's the point? If I eat a salad instead of the pasta with alfredo sauce and still don't see a decrease, why bother? I might as well eat what I want and ignore the scale.

So now I am starting over again. I need to remember that I didn't gain all of this weight in a day or a week or a month so I can't expect to lose it that quickly either.

My biggest problem has been self pity. The times I have gained the most weight have been times of crisis, like many people. I always felt that I had things worse than most people, and made excuses for my eating patterns. And exercise, I have always had a million excuses not to move my ever-fattening butt. Everyone has chapters in their lives they would like to rip out and tear up, it's the response to those times that matters.

This time things are different. Firstly I am taking it slow, one pound at a time. Secondly EVERYONE knows I am on a healthy eating plan, my workmates, my manager, my partner, my friends, the landlady at the pub (who has my diet coke ready the minute I walk in the door) the lady at the fruit and veg shop.....I have so much support this time. (Not forgetting you good people either)

I am being positive and concentrating on the foods I can eat, and am enjoying my meals and all the good things in life, fruit, vegetables etc. And I am concentrating on what I can do exercise wize, I am walking, swimming, and doing gentle resistance work.

Keeping a positive attitude, and loving myself at all times, regardless of whether I am doing well, or not so well, is my new approach.

Hi All,

I think I have to agree with kykaree, In the past year I've lost 55 pounds and when I look back at it now, plateauing currently, it seems like it was so easy. My biggest problem is and has always been a negative attitude. Im learning to look at weight loss as an incentive, to look better, feel better physically and emotionally about myself. Up til this point, if I had stepped on a scale after working hard all week and seen no loss, I would have gone to taco bell or mcdonalds and ate like a pig, just not cared!! NOW, I look at the scale, and say maybe next week!!! Because if I go pig out, it'll be twice as worse next time!!! Its hard, but that positive attitude is the only thing that will keep you going!!!!
Jewels

I have made so many mistakes in 35 years of dieting that I could write the 3FC book myself. But I'll concentrate on the one that I regret most: Several years ago I joined Diet Center, a program that cost a great deal of $$$ (I don't think they are in business anymore??) with the recommendation of my doctor who thought it would work well for me. She was right. I lost about 40 pounds in about two months, and was feeling good, with maybe 60 more to go. At this point in the process I started listening to other people (dare I mention Dean Ornish, Susan Powter, some others?) who were preaching against animal products and fat. Perhaps I was mentally ill, I don't quite remember, but for some reason I listened to them despite the fact of my success. So I jumped on the low fat/no fat bandwagon and promptly gained back all I had lost, plus 120 more. (I still can't believe it, and it's in the mirror every day.) The lesson in a nutshell is for everyone to do what is right for their own body, and not follow the crowd or some guru who doesn't know you from the fat lady in the circus.
-Ruby

My biggest problem was that I never stuck with any sort of lifestyle change past 2 weeks. Now I've been eating healthy (more or less) for about 2 months, and even though I had a plateau for about 3 weeks, I'm starting to lose more! I just have to keep going and not stop.

I just let go
 

Many people have the problem that happened to me. I had always been overweight, I had breast reduction surgery and a new confidence took over me. I went from a size 36DDD to a 36C, I was a 36c in the 8th grade. So with my new boobs I needed a new body. I was 5'3 180 lbs. I worked out, counted my calories, ate salads. I lost around 30 pounds. I thought I was the best thing since baked bread. :D I began to where more provocative clothing, eat whatever, thinking that I'd never be stupid enough to gain the weight back. Meanwhile, I ate mcdonalds every single day. Salads? Gone. Fruits? Gone. Once I actually saw myself in the mirror, it was who I wanted to be in high school and all of the healthy eating went out the window. It took a whole year to gain the weight back which is insane because I thought I'd notice somewhere during that year that I was gaining consistently. :(

Now with that knowledge, i can successfully get on another diet as well as go to the gym knowing this is a lifestyle change, not just a change until I look good again.