Trickery, finding what works and re-committing. AGAIN

Ruedora

Does anyone else ever discover that they have tricked themselves? Thought you were eating healthy, exercising lots and doing all of the right things with little results to show for "all of the hard work?" I have.

Just over 2 years ago I started my transformation to a healthier me. I joined weight watchers in July of 2012 and it was one of the best things i'd ever done. Immediately I felt good and the weight started to come off. I started at 270.8lbs and barely able to make it up 2 flights of stairs in a row without panting. Exercise of any kind did not happen and my weight had taken away almost all of the things I enjoyed, except eating of course! I was still REALLY good at that and it was one of the few things that made me happy. So I did it a lot.

When I joined weight watchers I had months of success. I started out by walking a few days a week and sticking with the points + plan and it felt almost easy! I kept at it and slowly took off 40lbs in my first year. After year one I left weight watchers. I kept the momentum going into my second year and lost another 16 on my own by counting calories and introducing exercise.

In July of 2013 I started the couch to 5k program. I got down to my lowest weight in years 214lbs! I had never been a runner before and getting through the couch to 5k was HUGE for me. Being able to run for 45 minutes straight was so exciting and I was hooked. I did my first 5k race in October 2013 and then my first 10k race in January of 2014. From October to July of this year I did multiple 5 and 10k races and put in 100's of training km's with my longest runs being around 15km. Along the way I added in weekly circuit training classes, hiking, backpacking and swimming. It led to one of the best and easily one of the most active years of my life. The only thing I didn't realize was that along the way I had stopped losing weight and had even gained! I had fallen back into old eating patterns that I thought were long gone. Before I knew it my 214 was a 230. It took 10 months to gain 16 lbs and I didn't even notice it really. My body composition had changed from all of the exercise and the first few lbs I blamed on "muscle weight" as my inches had continued to go down. I was still telling myself that I was losing weight and being healthy. In some ways I was but in others (nutrition wise) I was back to over eating. I hate to think of how much I would have gained if I hadn't stayed so active. At the end of last month, I started my fitness pal and am down 6 lbs. Its not "easy" like it as the first time and I feel like I am constantly re-committing to my weight loss. Slip ups, binges and I've even stopped working out for the last few weeks. While I am happy to be down the 6 lbs I wish I could find the motivation to keep going strong. The thought of doing it all together (nutrition, working out, running, maintaining my house and my work life) gets overwhelming fast. For now I am going to continue to work on my nutrition and keep going to my circuit class a couple of days a week.

My question to everyone out there is how do you do it? Do you have periods of time in your weight loss that feel impossible? What do you do to stay motivated? I'm desperate to avoid my old life and awful habits but it still seems so easy to slip back into it. I'm trying very hard to focus on the successes and appreciate the things my body can do now that it couldn't before. On dark days though, Its so easy to focus on the backslide and all of the work its going to take to get to my goal and then to maintain after that.

More than anything I just wanted to get my story out into a place that will help keep me accountable. I feel like if I hide it will just make things worse.

Thanks for reading and any (kind) motivational advice is welcome.

Height 5' 10" SW:270.8 CW 223.3 GW 170.8

knitapeace

Hi there! I'm a smidge over 5'10" myself and I also took up running in order to lose weight. I didn't, not until I started tracking my food, but eventually the weight started going down and I'm almost to goal now. I wanted to say though that I've had a period of about 5 months waffling back and forth over the same four pounds, over and over, but what kept me going was seeing changes in my body and muscle shape. Adding some strength training to my routine has really motivated me to keep going even when that scale hasn't told the entire story. I personally have found good success with progressive bodyweight training but lifting heavy things is generally recommended around here.

It was hard sometimes, and I got discouraged, but my friends list was always there to lift my spirits and really my best advice is to be patient and consistent. Oh, and get back on track with the eating part. You're going to get there!

StaciMarie1974

Don't do it all at once. Focus on whatever is your hardest area, and then gradually work in other things.

For me the nutrition/portion control was easy but being more active, exercise was not. I'm doing well with the more active part, still lack in strength training. Its a work in progress.

Ruedora

Thanks ladies. I appreciate the kind words and advice. I will definitely be continuing to work on my nutrition and am going to take your advice of not trying to do it all at once. Its hard to backtrack but in this case its totally necessary to move forward.

Cheers