When it gets tough.....

chocochip13

Hi everyone. We all have those good days where sticking to our plan feels effortless and things are going good...
Im curious to know what everyones game plan is when the going gets tough and you feel like giving up. Is there something you do to not let yourself fall back and just continue staying focused when you don't want to anymore.

wrabbit007

I'd like to see people's ideas here too. I have been really unmotivated the last two weeks. I've been able to maintain but definitely haven't lost any more weight.

zorahgail

@chocochip13 and @wrabbit007 so glad to hear I'm not the only one that struggles sometimes.

Here are some things that have helped me when the struggle is oh-so-real. Let me know what you think! PS - At the end of the day you just gotta experiment and find out what works for you.

1. Remembering that consistency is built over time, and that the upward trend is more important than a bad day or two (or week/month/year LOL).

2. Look for all-or-nothing thinking, and challenge it. Am I being a perfectionist or unrealistic with my expectations?

3. Pick ONE battle to fight. It's so easy to want to make ALL.THE.CHANGES. at once, and to have them be done overnight. When I'm highly motivated, I might be able to hit it really hard for a short time, but eventually I burn myself out. So when things get tough, I pick one thing (usually a back-to-basics thing) and devote my energy to that.

4. Ignore my feelings. When my inner 2-year old is throwing a tantrum and crying things like “I can’t do this”, “I don’t wanna”, “Why?!?!”, or "I don't feel like it", I ignore it and stick to the plan.

5. Throw myself a pity party. I'll set a timer for 10-60 minutes and go full-on feeling sorry for myself. Once the time's up, I move on.

6. Remind myself of my "why." What's your honest-to-goodness, deep-in-your-soul reason for doing this fitness/health/weight loss thing?

7. Answer "What do I want for myself?" Get very specific. Get detailed with your senses – what will you see/hear/touch/smell/taste when you get what you want? What thoughts will you have, what emotions will you experience?

8. Take a teeny tiny, smaller-than-a-baby-step action. When you want to quit and give up, I take a miniscule action that's worth doing to keep moving forward. I'm talking so small that it's IMPOSSIBLE to fail, and that sets you up for inevitable success.

asteriskthat

@zorahgail thanks for those tips. I've been questioning whether or not I want to keep going and these really help. I think I might just focus on fitness goals for awhile until I feel ready to continue losing. And fingers crossed, I might lose some weight anyway, haha.

BurnWithBarn2015

For me it is Eating 3 meals a day and 2 snack times
Knowing i wont die in the meantime when i would get hungry lol

Seriously 99% of us are not hungry we have an appetite which is normal For me i set for myself meal times. So a schedule
When i get up Breakfast, at noon lunch and around 6 dinner

And after 8 or 9 in the evening snacking up to i go to bed lol

I pre-plan my days the day before ...always! And in the rare occasion i forget/had no time etc i start the day with a simple breakfast which i know the calories and weight from. Like 40 gram of oats with almond milk. And plan the rest of the day when i sit down.

Another thing...eat enough! When you can not do 1200 or 1300 do more....being hungry only makes it harder and it dont have to be hard at all.
You better lose less and stick to it, than fall off the wagon and want or have to start over next year when you regret it that you stopped before.

Make it simple for your self.

that is how i did it.

i weighed all my food in grams ( no cups and spoons) and i logged it.
After some months started exercising
I had patience and believed in myself.
Didn't cut out any food groups or followed any woo and derps, just simple counting.

And here i am after a full year

arditarose

I picture my fat self and get back on the train. Because I'm not going back there.

last_jennifer

What works for me is a support team. They walk with me at work during breaks and they are constantly cheering me on.

BurnWithBarn2015

last_jennifer wrote: »

What works for me is a support team. They walk with me at work during breaks and they are constantly cheering me on.

Now THAT!!!!! is totally awesome of them!

JennieMaeK

zorahgail wrote: »

@chocochip13 and @wrabbit007 so glad to hear I'm not the only one that struggles sometimes.

Here are some things that have helped me when the struggle is oh-so-real. Let me know what you think! PS - At the end of the day you just gotta experiment and find out what works for you.

1. Remembering that consistency is built over time, and that the upward trend is more important than a bad day or two (or week/month/year LOL).

2. Look for all-or-nothing thinking, and challenge it. Am I being a perfectionist or unrealistic with my expectations?

3. Pick ONE battle to fight. It's so easy to want to make ALL.THE.CHANGES. at once, and to have them be done overnight. When I'm highly motivated, I might be able to hit it really hard for a short time, but eventually I burn myself out. So when things get tough, I pick one thing (usually a back-to-basics thing) and devote my energy to that.

4. Ignore my feelings. When my inner 2-year old is throwing a tantrum and crying things like “I can’t do this”, “I don’t wanna”, “Why?!?!”, or "I don't feel like it", I ignore it and stick to the plan.

5. Throw myself a pity party. I'll set a timer for 10-60 minutes and go full-on feeling sorry for myself. Once the time's up, I move on.

6. Remind myself of my "why." What's your honest-to-goodness, deep-in-your-soul reason for doing this fitness/health/weight loss thing?

7. Answer "What do I want for myself?" Get very specific. Get detailed with your senses – what will you see/hear/touch/smell/taste when you get what you want? What thoughts will you have, what emotions will you experience?

8. Take a teeny tiny, smaller-than-a-baby-step action. When you want to quit and give up, I take a miniscule action that's worth doing to keep moving forward. I'm talking so small that it's IMPOSSIBLE to fail, and that sets you up for inevitable success.

Some great tips here. I used to be an all or nothing dieter. One bad decision and off the wagon I'd be for days, weeks, months.

Now I realize one bad meal isn't going to derail my weight loss. I will be doing this for a long time and some days I'll go over. I started in January and since then I've only had 6 weeks that when I've gained (each time I knew why) and haven't had two gains in a row.

Also, I find focusing on small goals helps. I started at almost 240 lbs, needing to lose almost 95 lbs. That seemed overwhelming. I currently just focus on losing 10% of my weight. Once I reach that, on to the next 10% goal. I'm down 50 lbs and over half way to my goal now.

fiddletime

I am much happier maintaining than gaining. So when I think I'm doing everything right but the scale isn't budging for a few weeks I do my weekly measurements and remain grateful that I weigh less than I did at this time last year. I'm learning patience, which isn't one of my strong points.

diyadiamonds

Audio stimuli. If you go to 'Mateusz M' YouTube he has some really great motivational videos. When the going gets tough I listen to them to remind myself of the bigger picture and my goal. Gets me so pumped not going to lie

Machka9

I've only felt like giving up (as in not logging, and returning to the way I used to eat which wasn't "junk" ... just a bit more than I needed) for maybe a day here or there, but I know that if I just hold on for that day, I'll be fine.

Whitezombiegirl

Im not sure what you mean by 'giving up'. Do you mean stopping eating at a defecit or logging or do you mean eating tonnes of junk. If you mean that you feel like stoppinh looking after yourself with nutritious food in favour of junk, then im not sure why anyone would do that, particularly if they are having a stressful time. I would spend some time batch cooking meals like stew or curry to put in the freezer or have some goto meals.

Maybr you are talking about self medication with food or drink ? This is where stress management techniques come in. A nice hot bath, a moan to a friend or a good old sob - that type of thing. If hunger is not the issue, food is not the solution. :-)

joshuajdouce

zorahgail wrote: »

@chocochip13 and @wrabbit007 so glad to hear I'm not the only one that struggles sometimes.

Here are some things that have helped me when the struggle is oh-so-real. Let me know what you think! PS - At the end of the day you just gotta experiment and find out what works for you.

1. Remembering that consistency is built over time, and that the upward trend is more important than a bad day or two (or week/month/year LOL).

2. Look for all-or-nothing thinking, and challenge it. Am I being a perfectionist or unrealistic with my expectations?

3. Pick ONE battle to fight. It's so easy to want to make ALL.THE.CHANGES. at once, and to have them be done overnight. When I'm highly motivated, I might be able to hit it really hard for a short time, but eventually I burn myself out. So when things get tough, I pick one thing (usually a back-to-basics thing) and devote my energy to that.

4. Ignore my feelings. When my inner 2-year old is throwing a tantrum and crying things like “I can’t do this”, “I don’t wanna”, “Why?!?!”, or "I don't feel like it", I ignore it and stick to the plan.

5. Throw myself a pity party. I'll set a timer for 10-60 minutes and go full-on feeling sorry for myself. Once the time's up, I move on.

6. Remind myself of my "why." What's your honest-to-goodness, deep-in-your-soul reason for doing this fitness/health/weight loss thing?

7. Answer "What do I want for myself?" Get very specific. Get detailed with your senses – what will you see/hear/touch/smell/taste when you get what you want? What thoughts will you have, what emotions will you experience?

8. Take a teeny tiny, smaller-than-a-baby-step action. When you want to quit and give up, I take a miniscule action that's worth doing to keep moving forward. I'm talking so small that it's IMPOSSIBLE to fail, and that sets you up for inevitable success.

Excellent just what I needed to read today !

zorahgail

diyadiamonds wrote: »

Audio stimuli. If you go to 'Mateusz M' YouTube he has some really great motivational videos. When the going gets tough I listen to them to remind myself of the bigger picture and my goal. Gets me so pumped not going to lie

Mateusz M is one of my favorite channels!

zorahgail

joshuajdouce wrote: »

Excellent just what I needed to read today !

So glad this helped!

zorahgail

last_jennifer wrote: »

What works for me is a support team. They walk with me at work during breaks and they are constantly cheering me on.

So so true! Finding supportive, like-minded people can make a huge difference.

zorahgail

asteriskthat wrote: »

@zorahgail thanks for those tips. I've been questioning whether or not I want to keep going and these really help. I think I might just focus on fitness goals for awhile until I feel ready to continue losing. And fingers crossed, I might lose some weight anyway, haha.

@asteriskthat that's great! Run with that clarity of focusing on fitness for now. You'll know when it's time to switch gears again. Please let me know how I can help!

jrevis001

Machka9 wrote: »

I've only felt like giving up (as in not logging, and returning to the way I used to eat which wasn't "junk" ... just a bit more than I needed) for maybe a day here or there, but I know that if I just hold on for that day, I'll be fine.

This and I often need to be reminded. Thanks for posting this. I've been wanting to return to the way I was eating but I don't want to return to the weight I was.bi constantly remind myself of how my body felt when I want working out. I think about how much that overly stuffed feeling hurts and makes you feel gross. And I try to take it one day at a time. Like @Machka9 said I know this feeling will pass and before long I'll be back to going going strong. Just listening to what my body needs. Right now I thinki need sleep to feel OK again.

zorahgail

@jrevis001 and @Machka9 great job remembering the feeling will pass! Sometimes I tell myself "I can quit tomorrow but I have to get through today" on those tough days. Tomorrow I never feel like quitting LOL.

wrabbit007

Awesome tips, and coming at a great time as I make macaroni for my picky toddler and it is looking really tasty. I will make myself a kale salad instead...