Lost 60lbs and started self sabotaging - wth?

nettam3re3

I realized this morning I must have issues my weight loss success to date. I started in late Jan and lost almost 60 lbs by mid june. I was eating great and exercising and really killing it. But then as I gained confidence in myself I started letting myself have food "rewards" and slacking because I'd done so good.

It's been 40 days since I've worked out. I've been badly keeping track of my food. While I've not gained more than 5 lbs back I feel almost exhausted from the first part of the year and have talked myself into taking it easy for a while and maintaining. I still have 30 of so lbs I'd like to lose and bounce back and forth between satisfaction of my success and disgust that I fell of the wagon, so to speak.

What the heck is wrong with me? It's the same feelings I would inflict on my self 60 lbs ago. Uggg. If I could get my head out of my way!

oh_happy_day

That's really tough. I went through this too. I was 10kg from my goal weight and just lost it. Life stress, stopped tracking, got lazy, feel into old habits. For about 2 years! I didn't get back up to my highest weight but regained about 10kgs and while I kept up with my exercising, the food went off track - the portions, the 'extras' (wine, chocolate...). I was/am SO mad at myself. The time passed anyway, why did I get self-destructive?! I like being thinner and fitter.

Don't wait as long as I did to get back on track. I wish I'd switched to maintenance for a bit instead of diving back into bad habits. I do think last time I hadn't quite lost the 'diet' mentality which lead to guilt, yo-yo-ing weight, all or nothing behaviours. This time I'm playing the long game.

Sorry I don't have any answers, just commiseration.

nettam3re3

Thank you oh_happy_day for confirming I'm not the only one. ((Hugs)) I wonder what the mental process behind this is and how to overcome it once and for all.

ejdp254

Did exactly this, got comfortable, enjoyed the compliments, got lazy, lost 6 months before i saw sense and got going again. I think it's quite common, keeping motivated is hard, try to get back, but give yourself a break we're all human xx

KeepGood

I totally know what you mean. I started to let the exercise part slip and I started to get really disappointed with my myself. I always felt better when I was doing the exercise, I had a load more energy than if I wasn't. It was a bit too easy to let it go, I seemed to forget quickly that I was enjoying the workouts. When thinking about it later I would always question myself, why did I not want to do it...I like it. After having many debates in my own head I eventually went 'screw it, just go to the gym'. I've been getting back to my regular pattern again and I'm trying to keep in mind why I'm there and how it will be so worth it.

I did a bit of reading on habits as I wanted to make eating and exercising regularly a habit. From what I read it takes about 30 odd days to make or break a habit but for the next 30 odd days after that you can be likely to fall off the wagon. After 60 odd days habits apparently start to really cement themselves. I have no idea how true that is but it's what I'm shooting for.

The only thing I can say to you is, take one of those moments where you are questioning why you are letting things slide and try your best to use it to motivate yourself to get back to your healthier ways. You can shift that 30lbs and you will feel even more achievement at that point.

Good luck