I think whenever your life out of balance it eventually blows up!
So if you are so gun ho and dieting is your main focus instead of a integral part of you life this is not sustainable way to live.
Just like an alcoholic falling of the wagon....so can a diet obsessed person fall off scale.
Food is a normal part of life it is not evil or should it be feared.
I am constantly surrounded by a variety of different foods in my home life ,social and work. I bake ,cook, watch people eat food that I can not eat at this time.
Eventually I will be incorporating more food into my diet ....this is a normal part of life. The challenge is always to take personal control of eating choices.
What made me fat was Gluttony!!!! Pure in simple!

I will not live in fear of a special treat ,I will learn how to adjust my intake to make allowances.


To deny yourself of one of life's greatest pleasures eating is setting yourself up for failure in my opinion.
Self control and dietary monitoring have helped me me successful.
I believe in keeping a practical way of managing my food choices ,so dieting is not the driving force in my life.
If I gain a few pounds it is up to me to make corrections right away.
Staying positive and having a sense of humor will help me to keep caloric intake into prospective.
I have realized through dieting the reason I gained weight I ATE MORE CALORIES THAN I BURNED!







I don't have any food issues unless you count stuffing myself with high caloric crap and being a slug and not getting enough exercise ...food issues.

I feel if you have a plan that works and you can live the rest of your life with you will be successful in dieting and reach all the goals you desire.
I no longer do the mindless eating ,I pay attention to what I throw down my gullet.
My relationship with food is great I enjoy eating and I always will.
I have accepted the reality that I have dietary restrictions that need to be adhered to not for weight loss purposes but to keep myself healthy.
I don't need to be the skinniest,the most muscular or athletic or the cleanest eater....

YES! I think you can try to hard to lose weight and it doesnt work out!!
I remember when I first started I would get so stressed out and was on the scale everyday...
going .... crazy....
I was eating EXACTLY 1200 calories a day, and I had like 1 full blown cheat day a week (which i later on discovered doesnt work out for me or my weight loss to well) I actually hit a 3 week plateau extremely quick (which made me even crazier lol)

anywho

Now a days, I am more relaxed, I go workout 3-4 times a week (used to it was 5) I do run at least 1x a week (it used to be 3x a week)
Im on 1400 calories I DONT HAVE A CHEAT DAY
but im not going to lie,
my 1400 theres a lot of great choices in those calories i get to eat daily...but I have thrown in cookies, a few really bad carbohydrates, etc...not everyday but i will say at least 2x a week...
and sometimes, i even go over into 1500 calories (lol)

but I dont regret being crazy dieter when i very first started..what is different now than what it was then is I feel like when I very first started I DID have to be obsessed with my eating...I did have to back away from social situations that involved having drinks, sweets, snacks, going out to eat etc to get myself on track, I felt like i had to eat, drink, breath, sleep HEALTHY HABITS because before this I was a mess...

Now that I KNOW what i need to eat, or what the healthier choices are, Im more relaxed, it feels really good because I really love to eat, I dont feel like im hungry, or sad or anything just regular...

and I feel like im losing weight now even better than I was before when I started...

and it makes me happy

So being too crazy about it can cause problems, but for me i felt like thats what had to happen!

All I know is that before, counting calories worked great for me. I used the lose it app and was losing a steady 2-3 lbs a week. After a 4 month hiatus of not watching what I was eating, I only gained back about 5 lbs. Now that I am back on the wagon again and counting calories religiously, Nothing is happening.....NOTHING. I have bounced the same 4lbs around for a solid 2 months and I'm sick of it.

I will admit that I have started to eat lower than before because I took a job where I literally sit on my but for 8 hours a day, so I figured I would scale it back some. Still nothing. I stay between 1200-1500 everyday for the most part, but lose allows me just over 1700. It's beyond aggravating!!!

If trying too hard affects anything, then I have a full dose of that! I haven't cheated or overeaten in a month and what I do eat is healthy. GRRRR

While a certain amount of effort is required for virtually every endeavour, when you feel you're working "too hard", it probably means you're doing something you don't really enjoy. If you're doing an intense exercise that you enjoy or you're eating a healthy meal that you find delicious, are you exerting much effort in maintaining a healthy lifestyle?

That said, going through these stages of hardship is not uncommon. It's this trial and error process that enables you to figure out the best lifestyle for you. I'm sure there are people who lost all the weight they wanted and maintained it, all at once. Good on them. I was not one of those people.

Question for the OP: What is the longest amount of time you've consistently eaten on plan?

I ask because it took me about 3 weeks of eating within my calorie range for my body to adjust to the reduced amount of food. After that initial 3 week (give or take) mark I no longer felt as though I was in deprivation mode.

Also, I never cut out sweets or treats completely, I just work them into my calorie budget. So I've never felt that I can't have pizza or chocolate or whatever.

Sometimes you just have to white knuckle it through a hard day/night, and it sucks - but that's what 3FC is for!

Good luck and {{hugs}}