Hi Guys

I haven't been on here in a while because I've kind of fallen off the wagon for the past few weeks :/. It has been a nonstop food a thon and now I'm paying for it-- I weighed myself this morning and was up from 168 to 173 (after eating breakfast and with clothes on, which probably added a pound or two). I'm so disappointed in myself... could I have really gained that much weight in 2-3 weeks? The worst part is that i know it's going to take like four times that amount of time to lose it. I just feel really defeated. Every time I try at this I fail. I guess I need to start counting points again but every day is such a struggle. This is going to take forever...

Words of advice?

Stick with it! Celebrate every losss, or every maintain! I've always told myself "that's 1 tenth of a pound that I don't have to carry around anymore!" and eventually they add up! And if you stay the same...."At least I didn't gain any!" You CAN do it!

I feel like the amount you gained could have been worse. At least you stopped yourself at 5 pounds. Imagine if you didn't and gained all your weight back. My advice is go back to the basics, read all your material and start tracking again. I have fallen off several times but this last time was the worst and I almost gained everything back. No more excuses change your mind and your body will follow that is what I keep telling myself everyday now. Im doing great.

this WAS me gaining everything back! plus some

But you said it yourself- you had clothes on and just ate breakfast, so it's not the full 5. It could also just be water weight and not "fat". Be kind and easy on yourself. I just got off a big-time wagon fall (from August to October) having gained back 13 lbs.. I told myself enough is enough of the out-of-control eating, went back on WW, started working out again, and have lost 11 of those 13 lbs in the last month. You can do this.

Weighing yourself in the morning after eating doesn't give you much useful information. It is probably more like a gain of 3 pounds which is really not a big deal.

The big thing about weight loss and maintaining it is to handle setbacks and quickly deal with them. Back when I became a lifetime member (20 years ago) when I went out of town for 2 weeks and gained 5 pounds I didn't want to go back to my meeting until I was back at goal weight. Well ....I'm still not there yet. The point is that had I simply buckled down for a few weeks I would have quickly been back to it.

How many times have I gained a few pounds and then given up? That has been my greatest weight failure. If we can learn to gain a few pounds and then get back to where we were then we will be successful.

It is inevitable that on maintenance there will be time for whatever reason you gain a few pounds. It will be critically important then to be able to stop gaining, get back on track and lose what you gained. You can practice that now by getting back to where you were a few weeks ago (and then continuing on to lose).

Take a deep breath.

Make a few small goals for yourself to focus on this week. Maybe just tracking every Point you eat no matter what it is. Maybe making time for a few minutes a day for a short exercise burst. Maybe promising yourself that any snacks you eat will be fruits or vegetables.

Focus on the small, healthy steps you need to take in order to get back into the groove.

You caught yourself now. In this moment. Look back over the past couple weeks and ask yourself what happened to trigger it. Perhaps it's something glaring, perhaps you need to think about it for a few while practicing healthy habits... but something caused you to go off plan for a few weeks. If you can pinpoint it, you might be able to plan your way around it next time.

Take this time to appreciate how to move past mistakes. And that's a lesson you'll need for the rest of your weight loss journey and beyond It's a hard lesson, but one well-needed.

You can do this.

As far as the losing taking long, lets say it takes you a month to lose those 5lbs....you are going to go through that month and have food and live your life. You can either have a bit of stress about choosing your healthy foods, or stress about gaining from eating poorly. Either way, you're going to go through that month and have some stress. But the place you are in a month is up to you