Going back to balancing work and being on a diet...
I struggle with this all the time. I travel a lot for work, so my issues are not because I'm working 14 hours at home, because I can even find my frozen foods and eat "healthfully" at home. I just need to find the time to cook the food in the first place in order to freeze. I had more time before, but now I have some deadlines that I simply can't move, so I just haven't had the time at home to do this.
But for work? It is almost impossible to eat healthy in some of these business trips that I attend. No, the issue isn't the fast food -- I wish! I don't like the taste of it and I would easily handle a trip to McD's if that's all I had to face. The issue I struggle with is the fancy restaurants and the entertaining of clients! It's the bottle of wine (even though I do decline more often than not because it simply doesn't sit well with me anymore), it's the three or four course meals that I can't possibly turn down because it's rude in a client environment. Yes, I pick the healthiest options when I can, but it doesn't take away the fact that I am eating more calories than I normally consume AND I am not going to my exercise classes because I'm in a hotel.
I do try to find hotels with gyms, to go walk on the treadmill, but walking is not the same as a spinning class.
Top that off that during the day, when I'm in meetings, I can't pop out my apple and cashew butter snack, because it's rude. So, I hold my hunger, then when dinner or lunch comes around, I'm starving and when I'm super-hungry, I don't make the best choices.
I get super hungry because my blood sugar starts crashing and I have a hard time balancing it with the food I eat out in restaurants because even the healthiest options can have hidden sugars (which make my IR go crazy) that I didn't account for. Or I just make bad choices because I'm starving because I didn't eat anything all afternoon.
These are not excuses not to lose weight. But what I am try to convey is that isn't always so black and white. Some people do lose better when they are traveling or working long hours because their food options are restricted -- they can't graze all day. Others suffer because, like me, they need to eat regularly in order to maintain their blood sugars stable in order to make good decisions later. And vice versa -- the grazer suffer when work is in a lull or their back home because they can graze all day, and I don't suffer because I can manage my food intake better.
I think it's better to understand what drives us to eat or not eat in these scenarios and to make decisions accordingly.
Yes, it will be at some level that the calories you take in have to be offset by the ones that you burn in order to maintain weight and a deficit in order to lose weight.
But it's also about what you're willing to do or not do in order to reach that.
I'm in maintenance because I decided that meeting my deadlines was more valuable than finishing the rest of the weight I have to lose. And that's okay. That's a valid choice if the OP wants to make it. Many people here and elsewhere have taken "maintenance breaks" for this and other reasons and it's okay. Even if you've only lost 15 lbs.
I've taken plenty of maintenance breaks because my body doesn't like losing in a straight line. As long as you don't gain it back, it's good practice to learn how to maintain your current weight.
We can do tough love support, but let's do it when we know it's needed, rather than automatically because you think the OP is being weak or a wimp about weight loss. We don't know that yet (or do we...?).
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