[rrjs]

I had been doing really well since august...about eight pounds lost and feeling great and healthy! Then school-related stress kicked in and instead of having this great natural motivation, I'm battling with myself, slipping, and feeling lousy. I binged early last week and ever since I've been fighting with myself so much. Last night I popped three cookies and a muffin in my mouth at work and I wasn't even hungry! I just impulsively ate without thinking, and what I did didn't even hit me until ten minutes afterward. I was like 'Whoa wait a minute...WHY did I just do that?!"

I have no time to work out anymore either - MAYBE 20 minutes a day tops but I haven't been making the time when I really need to. Working out really helps keep me motivated, and before my homework got to be too time consuming I used to go to the gym every day for at least an hour and it felt great! But these past few weeks I just don't have that kind of time!

WHERE IS THE MOTIVATION I HAD TWO WEEKS AGO?!

A couple quotes I've seen often in the 3fc forums are:
"Nothing tastes as good as thin feels."
and
"If you trip down the stairs, you don't get up and throw yourself down the whole flight."
They've both been really helpful for me.
also
"There is nothing you can't have tomorrow so there is no reason to eat it all today."

But I need an extra 'oomph!' to get myself back on track!

I'm scared to weigh myself because I know I've put on at least two or three pounds, but I feel like getting on the scale would probably be a good place to 'assess the damage' so to speak...despite how miserable it'll make me feel to see the number go back up.

Things I'm doing already:
-Keeping track of my calories, even on bad days when the last thing I want to do is see how much I've eaten haha.

Things I probably should do:
-Get on the scale and see what I'm working with.
-Go back to forcing myself to have a cup of tea when I'm craving something - lately I've been giving into impulses. ):
-TRY to make time to exercise, even if it's just doing some stretches and running a mile.

How do you get yourself back on the wagon? Where do you start?

[sacha]

I like "nothing tastes as good as being healthy feels" The other motto is actually a common slogan used on pro-anorexia sites.

The difference being that whenever I feel like falling off the wagon, I remember that my health is SO important, and that without it, nothing is enjoyable. I remember that feeling healthy and fit is a much better feeling than the taste of any junky food.

[rrjs]

Haha yeah I like your version better, sacha. I don't intend it to sound like that, you all know what I mean!

You make such a good point! But personally it's harder for me to use being healthy as my main goal because I'm lucky enough to have caught myself gaining weight before it got to be too much of a problem - at my worst my BMI crossed into the 'overweight' range, but not by much. Since these are really mainly vanity pounds and I'm already in decent shape, it's easy for me to say to myself "go ahead and eat this, it's not like you HAVE to lose weight."

That's something I get hung up on the most and causes a lot of issues when it comes to sticking to my plans to get fit. I can't tell you how many times I've fallen off the wagon and never followed through - I've had the same goal weight for nearly two years and have yet to reach it!

But I can definitely feel the difference between the way eating healthy and eating junky makes me feel. After a week of staying in my calorie limits and choosing healthy food, I feel energized and great about myself. After a week of treats and cheating, I feel all bloated and sluggish. So something I - and anyone else who might be facing the same problem - need to keep in mind is a treat might be tasty and comforting in the short run but the energized, healthy feeling you get from sticking to your plan is so much more worth it than a bowl of ice cream!