I've been having great success with my eating and exercise program for 10 months now, and although I've had "learning experience" days (i.e., made bad food choices), I've never had a "run" of them.

This past week, Ive been having some terrible days - starting out really great with breakfast & lunch, and getting in my exercise, but ending up with binging starting in the late afternoon and continuing into the evening.

My head tells me that I've come too far in my weight loss journey to want to go back - I've experienced so many benefits - and I'm deathly afraid of reverting to my old ways of eating.

For those of you who have been through this - what have you done to get yourself back on track? I need your wisdom and perspective!

Hey bethel! Congratulations! You've been doing a super job!

Ten months is a long time. You didn't give many details about what program you are following or how many cals a day, average, etc.--but even without that information, I'd say that you may just be doggone tired of the effort of losing weight. And it takes a huge amount of effort! We literally wear ourselves down.

If you're feeling hungry before you start going off the rails, it could be that you're lacking something in your nutrition--like red meat, or enough vitamins. Woman cannot live by soybeans and chicken alone! Well, OK, yes, she can--but some of us really seem to need some red meat now and then to feel healthy (I'm one of them). So, I'd say, try to get some foods that normally you're not eating on your plan (but stay within your calories or points, of course!) and take a good multivitamin and also calcium/magnesium if you're not doing so already...

As you can see, I'm close to my goal, and when I get there I'm going to be doing maintenance for awhile, just to give my body a rest from this effort. I'm no spring chickie here! And then I'll return to weight loss and try for another ten pounds. Just an idea--you could try maintenance for awhile as well if all else failed. What do you think?

Cheers!

Jay

Congratulations on your excellent work so far! Since you are a late afternoon snacker (so am I), you need to figure out what's making you binge. Are you not eating enough for breakfast/lunch? Are you bored? What triggers you, what is your access to binge foods?

When I really looked at my eating habits, I found out I was definitely an afternoon snacker (I had a pack of M&Ms and a venti latte and a scone almost every afternoon for 3 years!) I bought a ton of really good tasting herbal teas and I keep the psychological need to eat happy by keeping my hand moving to my mouth in the afternoons. I also plan snacks about every 2 hours (fruit and cut up vegetables) that keep me feeling full until dinner. I also plan to have a healthy dinner - I do all my menu planning/grocery shopping on Sunday and I hate to have food go to waste. That helps motivate me to go home cook/eat what's waiting rather than wasting money on something else.

Good luck!

I know the feeling Bethel - I do great and then stall for a while - making pretty good choices, but then adding some things in that I know I should not. To get ramped back up what I have done is give myself a free day, and then increase my good eating one meal a day until I am back at 3 meals plus 2 snacks at the correct calorie count for me (1500) then I am back in the groove - it gives me a chance to get back to it mentally and not have those miserable days that I had at the beginning when I went from 3000 a day to 1500 with no prep time.
HTH!
KM

Hi Bethel -

I wish I had some really inspiring words for you, but the only thing I can say is, please don't give up! You just hang in there. Here are some ideas that might help you find the "magic" again:

1) Go to a great store you love and try on some clothes. Even if you don't buy them, it might help to remind you of how far you've come.
2) Treat yourself to a pedicure, massage, or a yoga class.
3) Pull out some of those before pictures.
4) Make a list of all the reasons you started on this journey in the first place.
5) Try and shake up your food choices a bit. We're getting into the time of year where there's all kinds of delicious fruit available. I sometimes just have a nice big fruit salad for dinner. It seems like such a treat.

I know you can do it.

Thanks for all of your suggestions. Today was a much better day - I enjoyed everything I ate - delicious and healthy. I went for an invigorating 4 mile run/jog and got together with some friends after dinner. I feel energized and positive. I typed up a list of inspirational quotes that I'm going to print out on index cards for handy reference.

I'm going to take it one day at a time and keep on going. No turning back!

I find that a lot of times my off-plan eating is because I'm bored with my diet! I find it helpful to go online and find some new, interesting low cal meals to try. Also, I find a few interesting new foods that I've never eaten and give them a whirl! It bring a little more interest and variety to my diet.

what helps me when I go for a snack or meal I "shouldn't" is taking a few minutes to think hard and honest about eating that food. When I want to eat something "bad" I usually don't think about it much, nothing more than "I deserve it" or "it's okay this once," and then I just push it to the back of my mind and eat. When I take a few minutes to really think hard about wanting to eat that and why and what it will get me usually I realize that it;'s really not worth it and I'll choose something healthier. I think it's because I tend to not want to think about any of my problems in life, I've always been one to just ignore them or push them to the back of my mind and I've learned that I do that with my food choices too. So be honest with yourself, be brutally honest and ask yourself if it's worth it, ask yourself what you want and if that snack or meal will get you what you want or not.

Is success making you want to eat?

Youve come a long way- how are you feeling about your new body? The difference in it? Do you feel comfortable with your success or do you feel on some level discomforted by it and may subconsciously sabotage yourself?

emily
xxx

I'm going to be doing some serious analysis of what has changed in my life. I believe it's related to the amount of compliments I've been getting. Many people have been telling me that I look fantastic. This is the lowest weight I've been in ages. I'm still making the mental adjustment. Perhaps I'm having anxiety about thinking of myself as a "thin" person - I've been overweight most of my life (from age 16 to my early 50's).

...and your whole identity is changing, scary as, huh?

analyse away, it helps to know whats going on inside ones head

emily
xxx

I think that some of the reasons for my losing focus are:

1. The initial honeymoon phase of the journey is now over - I realize that this is not just a short-term novelty. I'min it for the "long haul." I need to make a re-adjustment to my way of thinking. As they say, "You can't go home again."

2. Even though my head KNOWS that these lifestyle changes are good for me, it takes a while for that knowledge to reach my heart. Part of me needs to "let go" of the old habits - almost like losing an old (but destructive) friend.

3. Fear of the unknown. I've been overweight most of my life - I've never been at goal weight for more than a couple of months. My self-image never caught up with reality. It can be intimidating to think of myself in different terms. Losing the weight might just be only the first step in peeling back my defensive layers in discovering who I really am.

As you can tell, I've been doing a lot of thinking about this lately. I'll leave you with a quote from Thomas Edison that's been helping me as I'm approaching the final laps in this weight loss journey:

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."

Very good insights, bethel. Lots to think about.

1. Yes, once the initial enthusiasm wears off, it does become a different type of process, one that takes stamina. As one member said, It's not a sprint, it's a marathon.

2. For this one, I think it's a matter of realizing and accepting the fact that the old ways don't work--and never will. "If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always gotten."

3. I wasn't overweight all my life--for me the shock was realizing I really was obese. But still, the weight I'm at now is not a weight I've seen for many, many years--and so I don't know what it's like at this age. New discoveries every day.

Hang in there--and stay on your program!

Jay