I am not sure if I believe in myself anymore

juicybravo

I know the feeling, but........

The good news is you don't have to deprive yourself from food at all to lose weight!

Try MAKING real food in your kitchen only using fruits and vegetabes. Great thing about this is YOU CAN EAT AS MUCH AS YOU WANT! For example: Make vegetable stir-fry, add a little stirfri souce or soy souce or oyster souce, eat with 1 or 1/2 a cup of white or brown rice and there you go! you can eat as much as you want and and feel good about it.

Remove all processed food and white food from your diet and youll retrain your taist buds to accept real healthy food. Like vegetables.

Trust me, this works.

Add me if you want

AlliBarlik

There is so much good advice in your thread. There are some really smart people here.
I am in the 300 club. I know how you feel. Though I have never had kids, I have struggled with my weight my whole life. Recently (in January), I was diagnosed as living with diabetes and high blood pressure. I had no clue. I knew other issues, but I changed doctors (really needed to) and she did very extensive physical. Thank God she did! I was killing myself so slowly.
My recommendation is that if you haven't already done so, go to the doctor. Not to look at surgery or into diet pills (I've done both!!!) but to just get everything checked out.
Once I got started on meds for my diabetes and BP, I have watched EVERYTHING that has gone into my mouth. I check my blood sugars 2X/day; weigh 1X a week--same time, same place, same situation; and I log my food. Another thing I did was up my exercise. I was doing the bare minimum. I totally look forward to going to the gym now. I look forward to sweating. It took me several months, but I'm doing this thing! YOU CAN TOO!!
Add me, I would love to support you!!

WarriorCupcakeBlydnsr

OP: Sounds like you're beating yourself up over a lot of different things you can fix, but you're not giving yourself time to fix it. Don't say that you screwed up your diet when you binge or eat too much or over treat yourself. Just acknowledge that you over did it FOR THAT MEAL, pull yourself back up and get back on your plan for the next meal and set yourself a mini goal: tomorrow you're going to plan better and you have two goals: 1) stick to your plan for your mini goal 2) if you MUST do the binge food, this time you're going to think about it and how you can a) fit it into your plan for the day and/or b) is there something better for you that you can have (ie rather than full fat strawberry ice cream, is there low fat available or low fat frozen yogurt that you can have instead) just get back on track, use whatever mini goal works for you.
You set a big goal for a short period of time, give yourself smaller goals and more reasonable time frames (we're at baby steps here not giant leaps). Decide something like this: This week I'm going to cut out regular soda (or even, I'm going to cut down to having it only three times this week). Remember it takes AT LEAST 30 days to change a habit. If you don't make it the week before drinking regular soda, don't beat yourself up, just reset your goal from that day and TRY AGAIN. You don't have to set another goal until you accomplish this one, or if you think you're up to more then go for it, it's up to you. I haven't given up regular soda, but I have rules for myself to have it: I can't have it at home (don't even keep it in the house) I can only have it when I go out to a sit down restaurant and I can only have it when they have root beer (happens to be my favorite kind, and not many places have it, so needless to say, I drink a lot of water when I go out) That works for me, it may or may not work for you, but I found that when I deny myself I tend to crave things more, making them accessible, even if they happen not to be available removes that problem.

Have you had your general health checked by your doctor to see if there are any health problems? Get a check up, have him/her get labs done to make sure. Some depressive states can be due to simple imbalances in the general chemistries or hormones, could be why you're feeling blue (actually discovered that I have slightly low Vitamin D levels which can affect mood and how tired you are, by simply taking a supplement every day I'm back on track.) Check with your County or State Health Dept they may have free or low cost appointments available and may have counseling available too.


I spent YEARS doing the fad diets, spending a lot of money to lose weight, then gain it back when I lost interest in the program because it wasn't "working" anymore or I couldn't afford to continue. I quit MFP a few years ago because it "wasn't working." In 2011 I lost 40 lbs the wrong way, once again. I had to quit the program I was in because it was starving me and I couldn't stand not being able to enjoy the things I liked. Well, of course I started gaining weight back, tried Weight Watchers, didn't work, so joined a gym and returned to MFP.

I've gained back almost 30 of the 40 I lost in just over the past year since I came back to MFP. I tried the calorie numbers MFP suggested, I tried TDEE-20%, I tried Eat More to Weigh Less, if someone on MFP suggested something other than an extreme diet I tried it. The entire time I was being asked if I had a thyroid problem (I don't) said I must be doing the calculations wrong (suggested they do them for me... and they got the same number I did and had been trying for a few months). I tracked everything I could. I kept my exercise up to 5-6 days a week (one of them being working out with a personal trainer) except during two times: when I broke one of my toes in 2 places (I had to drop my walk/jog days during this time, but kept up with training, combat, and dance classes... all of which I did barefoot) and over the past two months when I had a mystery problem with one of my ankles (doctor never did figure it out, but it seems to be healing itself and I'm getting back into the walking/jogging I dropped and my trainer is going to start increasing my cardio at my training sessions.)

I kept saying that it's got to be something with the food... and we think I am right (we're still in testing phase on this, my food has been irratic over the past month because of travel for work.) All of the extreme dieting screwed up my metabolism, doctor sent me for one of those tests for metabolism (those pod thingy ones) and then to a registered dietician (insurance covered the dietician) turns out I do have a high metabolism, BUT the problem is that my metabolism is in preparation for winter mode, ie it's preparing for times when food is going to be sparse (the next fad diet that will cut my calories beyond reason) it does't know/care/understand that I am not planning to do that to it again, all it knows/cares/understands is that it happend at irregular intervals and it needs to make sure that the body survives. The RD gave me an eating plan that works better for me, I am horrible at tracking but I now know that I can have X number of proteins per day (she even gave me the amounts she wants me to eat for each meal), X number of fruits, X number of veggies (although I have permission to eat more if I am so inclined), X number of servings of grains (she even adapted the information on this because I am gluten free), X number of servings of dairy, and X number of servings of fats. She gave me a sheet with a list of all the foods for each section and I shared it with my trainer who now keeps track of me (I get asked three times a week when I see her for either training or combat class how the food is going.) Is it working? I don't know yet, it's only been about two months I'm still working out some of the bugs and I refuse to get on a scale at the moment (next time on a scale is at next doctor's appt in July, that's the only time you'll get me on one right now, I tend to get too obscessed with the scale numbers and this can send me over the edge.

So you need to find what works for you and it make take more time than you think. Just stick to the baby steps, make some supportive friends here, check out some of the groups to see if you find one that is a fit for you and join. Just don't give up, there is a light at the end of your tunnel, with each step you get one step closer

MelsAuntie

Self-control is a muscle, if you don't use it you lose it.

I've read conflicting theories. Some people suggest that self-control, or will power, can be strengthened to a degree. But far more these days argue that will power is a limited resource so you have to choose carefully the targets to which you apply it. For example, don't bring home foods that are inconsistent with your diet. You'll be wasting will power trying to resist them.

Limited amount of will power? Nonsense. I've still got two or three dozen Cadbury eggs left from Easter, and three bags of chocolate covered freeze dried strawberries . I don't have any trouble at all resisting temptation. I know that some people have a problem with that sort of thing, but I can only speak for myself.

jimlambrt2

It's a journey. Ups, downs, sideways, backwards and forwards. You have to make peace with your past or it will really screw up the present. You can't wait to lose 10lbs before you'll be happy... that's the future, and all you have is this moment. What are you waiting for? Permission? Forgiveness? Time is marching on. It never stops. Breath in, breath out, feel the joyous moment you've been given. You're alive, what a blessing!

All the successes and failures you've experienced are "yesterday". Today, right now is all you have. It doesn't really matter what you plan to do tomorrow. Right now, what you do is all that's important. It doesn't matter if 1 min ago, you ate an entire pumpkin pie or you just ran a marathon. That's the past. Time doesn't care if you plan to be happy once you find that perfect job. That's the future. What are you going to do right now.... that's all you have... right now. What do you want from life? What needs doing to get what you want? Then do it, right now.

Be mindful of the moments... that's the magic stuff life is made up of. Be grateful for your body, the way it is right now! It's perfect because it's you. It's the body that lets you experience LIFE. It's not too short, too tall, too skinny, too fat. It's perfect. Can it perform better? Of course it can. The journey, the goal is to be better today than yesterday, and worse than tomorrow - but all the while loving our body every damn moment we're blessed.

diana031394

I really appreciate this thread. I am back on the wagon again after having gained back 8 of the 9 pounds I lost. (We were travelling.) I, too, keep losing and gaining the same 10 pounds but I have to remind myself that I am still a size smaller than I was two years ago. And, if I didn't keep losing the same 10 pounds, I'd probably be about 50 pounds heavier than I am right now.

I'm not okay with the weight I am at now. And, I know I can do better! I will do better. And, so will you!

Never give up!

jennifershoo

Self-control is a muscle, if you don't use it you lose it.

I've read conflicting theories. Some people suggest that self-control, or will power, can be strengthened to a degree. But far more these days argue that will power is a limited resource so you have to choose carefully the targets to which you apply it. For example, don't bring home foods that are inconsistent with your diet. You'll be wasting will power trying to resist them.

Limited amount of will power? Nonsense. I've still got two or three dozen Cadbury eggs left from Easter, and three bags of chocolate covered freeze dried strawberries . I don't have any trouble at all resisting temptation. I know that some people have a problem with that sort of thing, but I can only speak for myself.

If you can only speak for yourself, why do you disagree with the previous poster? Obviously, you can control your urges, good for you, but other people can't. It's not always a matter of self-control. Food affects our hormones and neurotransmitters like alcohol and drugs. Some people don't have any problem with that, but some are addicts. And it's not "just" a lack of self-control.

littlecrystal

I have just sat down after my daily routine (work, kids, supper, bedtime) and I cannot thank you all enough for your support. Lots of great words are said... lots of it I already know.. I only call it a diet because it is "a way of eating"... I am not too restrictive with what I eat because I know otherwise I will not last.... I am now leaning towards low carb / high fat approach as I tend to be always hungry with carbs. I do drink lots of water, I don't log it because it is never a problem, it can range even 4-5 litters a day (again I am not thirsty that much but I try to fill up my stomach with something).

Food is an addiction, the way of harming myself, I either love it or hate it. I feel sad and low without it. My eyes always want more than I am supposed to eat. If I could eat as much as I like and remain thin, I would probably bathe in food, so much I feel addicted. I do not normally eat junk. All sorts of healthy foods, enormous quantities of it, would do. That is why I chose low carb / high fat diet, hoping I will be fuller with small amounts and my stomach will eventually shrink. Not sure if this is happening, but it is slightly easier with cravings. At least I don't crave bread, biscuits, cruasants anymore.

I guess the reason I am losing the battle is because I can eat 1000s of calories within 30 mins and be far over my calorie limit and increase my weight. Again, these are not excuses. I pick up myself and start every day. MFP gave me an impression that all of you are successful, and it is only me who goes back and forth. I was wrong - and I have got many new MFP friends because of this thread. Thank you for all of this.

73Laine

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