I'm not sure who else to turn to

jenlaura

I followed EM2WL religiously around Nov-January. I had great results, lost inches, felt good and felt strong. I cycled my calories depending on rest days and work out days and I felt very body positive, I enjoyed seeing my muscles get bigger and noticing all the small noob gains I was making. I had to stop going to the gym for financial reasons, we were literally so poor I had to quit gym and tighten our food budget. I was mostly getting meals from work as I work in a cafe which were pretty calorie dense and not the best for any kind of fat loss really. I found myself when I had spare money binge eating on food in the back of the supermarket (heavily discounted junky items) and throwing some IF in there, resulting in some pretty horrible binge cycles over and over. It's been really hard on my heart and I miss how I felt in January. I enjoyed IF, I liked the idea of it but I don't think the time I was doing it was right. I never restricted my calories horrifically although thoughts went by through the guilt of my binges.

I'm trying to heal now that I'm in a better place financially but I'm still struggling with the binge eating cycles. I've not gone below 1750-1800 calories on a day to day basis and I've not managed to gain weight so far (I have no idea how but ok) but I've not really lost any either. My measurements have stayed roughly the same.

I don't know where to start, I have so many goals in my head and ideas on what I want to achieve but I have no idea how to go back to my previous pattern. I feel like I can't take on too much at once but I'm very much an all or nothing kind of gal.

I would like to ideally get down to 155lbs.
I would like to limit my coffee to 2 cups a day (I have been reducing this slowly over time, as I work in a cafe we can sip on the stuff all day pretty much)
I would like to limit sugar somewhat as I feel it triggers my binges
I would like to feel healthy and well again, strong too.
I want to eat balanced meals and feel satiated again.
I would like to lose around 1lb a week. (~20lbs currently to lose)
I want to love myself and not feel guilty about food any longer.

heybales

One thing stands out - keep in mind the pretty calorie dense food isn't the reason for no fat loss - eating too much is. Obviously may not fill you up, or could make you feel hungry, so those may be good personal reasons to skip some of them, but sometimes eating at higher levels requires those.

Good job on coming back and eating more. If you have accurate eating log, you may just know your TDEE for this activity level.
Of course, if activity level is changing, not really that useful but you know where you are starting at and going up from at least.

1 lb weekly really isn't reasonable with only 20 lbs to go, unless you are going to have a really high TDEE.

And skip as much added sugar/fat in that coffee as possible, otherwise not really anything that bad about it, unless great quantities being drunk.

You can accomplish most those things though, good start.

kickassbarbie

Congrats on getting back on track!
I'm still waiting to start reducing cals again so I don't have any advice I'd trust myself to give on that but I'm also slowly cutting down the coffee!My goal is also 2 cups a day.

Best thing I've found is to find another easy to make hot drink you enjoy and replace. If your drinking it at work in a cafe does the cafe sell green tea or herbal tea? Tastes very different bit it really grows on you! Or perhaps tea as it has about a quarter of the caffine of coffee. Hot honey and lemon really gives you a good energy boost as well as tasting yummy.