OK. So I finally found you.

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Replies

  • jvezzsb01
    jvezzsb01 Posts: 115 Member
    You are doing so well!!!
  • AnitraSoto
    AnitraSoto Posts: 725 Member
    Have you signed up for our Crushing The Diet Mentality Workshop yet? It sounds like it might be just what you need right now! You can sign up at www.crushthediet.com

    Anitra
    Team EM2WL
  • Raynn1
    Raynn1 Posts: 1,164 Member
    those are some pretty big accomplishments in your mentality! Thats a Big deal! The next step is learning to love yourself. Sometimes we have to fake it til you make it. When you look in the mirror, find at least two things daily that you like about yourself. Focus on the changes you have made and the things you have changed in your life all because you are feeding your body right. You are fitting into the same clothes and lifting heavier. Those are big big changes! Focus on those and not where you might be in a few months. Concentrate on the NOW. You are more than two months smoke free. You are not feeling guilty eating cookies! You make progress at the gym and you broke records!! Celebrate those!!
    Keep doing what you are doing,. Hone in on those macros and get the eats in. You are doing awesome!

    Kelly
    EM2WL Ambassador and Moderator
  • empressichel
    empressichel Posts: 730 Member
    This is so good to read.
    LOVE how you are still seeing lifting increases in the gym and no increase in your clothes !
    The right amount of food does a body good.
    I think you are doing absolutely the best thing for you right now - taking time to heal your relationship with food and develop self love.
    Fantastic on being smoke free as well.
    Such big accomplishments to celebrate already!
    Ichel
    EM2WL Ambassador and Moderator
  • Kerryatoon
    Kerryatoon Posts: 374 Member
    UGH feeling like quitting this reset! I'm feeling like I need a CUT REALLY BAD!

    6 weeks into my metabo-reset and I'm getting really frustrated. I've gained 8-10 lbs already and I'm starting to feel like chickening out. I AM seeing gains at the gym.. lifting heavier & heavier but my clothes are getting tighter too. Still not smoking (71 days now) and I'm sure that quitting has changed my metabolism too. SO I"m feeling like saying screw this and going on a deficit, but I also don't want to rush my reset and mess it up again. It's just hard since I'm seeing and feeling soooo FLUFFY. :( I need encouragement or some kind of hope that this will be worth it. Is it normal to gain this much during a reset? Do I need to be doing something different? More cardio or something? AGH!
  • jerilynconn
    jerilynconn Posts: 524 Member
    Hi!

    I gained 17 pounds during my reset. I thought I could get away with 8 weeks, nope!!!

    After a cut I determined (with help from these ladies) I wasn't ready. I am back at maintenance and I have been eating here for almost 2 months since ending my cut and working back up to tdee. I haven't gained any additional weight since slowly going back to tdee and staying there.

    Stay the course. It will be OK! When you do go to cut you will be successful. But only if you are patient now!
  • TerezaToledo
    TerezaToledo Posts: 613 Member
    I know this part of the process sucks and I know the feeling of looking in the mirror and feeling fluffy (I just got back from 35 days vacay with no logging and lower TDEE). But keep moving. Time will pass anyway. Jumping into a cut now will only set you up for not losing. Don't rush, take a deep breath, you can do this. Specially because you are doing two hard things at the same time, when we usually recommend one change at a time. Focus on the gains. Look in the mirror, find thing about yourself that you like, no matter what.

    Tereza
    Team EM2WL
  • Raynn1
    Raynn1 Posts: 1,164 Member
    Well If im honest with my gains, I gained about 35 pounds. Granted not all of that was "reset".. a lot was me saying "FU" to my reset..

    So let me tell you about mine...
    I did a reset a long while back. Reset to what I thought was TDEE... did 8 weeks, gained maybe 5 pounds.. was feeling pretty good.. Then anxiously and impatiently Cut.
    Nothing happened. I couldnt lose a pound no matter what I did... I tried cutting a little more.. and started gaining back a few pounds... then I pretty much jumped around a little because I was CERTAIN I was at TDEE and SHOULD see something happening.
    I tried cutting once more and this time I was almost 600 cals below "TDEE"... which was way too much... which meant I was restricting... Dieting if you will...Thankfully I realized that before I really slashed cals.

    I went back to up my "tdee"... and tried again.. Spent a few months once again trying to cut and see results, and got nowhere. Only then did I finally admit I was NOT at TDEE...(not even paying attention that I didnt stay at tdee for any great length of time) Then i eventually said "FK it" and decided to just stop tracking and ate whatever the hell I wanted...
    Thats where I gained most of my weight.

    And then when i finally decided enough was enough.. I was 35+lbs heavier, STILL not at TDEE and still trying to figure out it. It took me another year to finally GET to my real TDEE, and I am currently still sitting on my TDEE for the past 5ish months.
    What I can tell you, is the 3+ YEARS it took me to stop fighting it, to stop getting anxious to cut... to stop WISHING I could cut, is 3+ YEARS longer my journey has taken. All because I rushed the process. What I can tell you, is when I stopped worry about WHEN I would cut, I began to truly let myself enjoy the reset phase, get my macros perfectly lined up, get my MINDSET straightened out, is when the magic truly happens. I have been happily at TDEE for the last 5ish months.. I have zero idea if I have gained any weight since truly hitting tdee, but I can tell you I havent increased in size in the past 5 months. But what I have gained is a whole new approach on my life.. a new look on how I view things, and a realization that i HAD to do my journey the way I did it, so I might be able to STOP others from repeating it.


    I know its hard. I know you think 8 weeks is a long time. I know you want to cut and see results. Trust me. The longer you can spend AT TDEE, the way more successful your journey will be. Thinking in an 8 week chunk is diet mentality. "I want quick results and I want them NOW!!!" If you truly want to change your lifestyle and make this work, you have to let go of that thinking. Use this time as a way to get your body burning to it full max.. Get your lifts in the gym busting through all kinds of PRs... If your clothes are making you feel fluffy, then go buy something that fits you NOW and that you can feel good about yourself in. I truly wished I had done that a lot earlier when I started busting seams in my pants..
    You are truly doing an amazing job. I know it feels completely backwards to everything you have ever been taught about dieting.. but trust me, the end result is so much better than the wheel spinning you will set yourself on if you try cutting now. Give yourself the time at TDEE. Give your mindset the time.. Breathe, relax and remember your reasons why you are here and why your past dieting life never worked.


    We are here for you.
    Kelly
    EM2WL Ambassador and Moderator
  • empressichel
    empressichel Posts: 730 Member
    This is the toughest part. We all hit this wall and it sucks. Big time.
    We just want it finished and to be where we want to be now. But this process takes time and patience and like the ladies above have said, the longer you can hold out at your TDEE the better the cut process in the future will work.
    We have to try and get away from those quick fix thoughts, like add in more cardio, cut calories.
    This is your body, your metabolism it needs time to heal from your restricting past. We can't just get it to snap out of it. It has to learn to trust you again.
    And the most important bit of advice from all of us who have been there, is don't rush your reset. You will just end up having to go through it all again, maybe twice, maybe three times more, whereas if we'd just stuck it out, believed we could do it we wouldn't of wasted so much time.
    This is when all the mental strength you have must be drawn on. Your body is doing what it needs to do, but getting our thinking in line at this time is harder. (insert all the cliches like trust the process, patience is key etc etc)
    You can do this. Focus on all the positives. Not smoking. Strength gains.
    If the scale is really freaking you out, put it to one side during reset. Like Kelly says, buy clothes that you feel comfortable in now. You must love yourself through every step of this process.
    Hope today is a better day for you. You have all the support from us here.
    Ichel
    EM2WL Ambassador and Moderator
  • Kerryatoon
    Kerryatoon Posts: 374 Member
    Hey Ladies.. thank you so much for the input.. I have a confession to make: I've been just kinda letting it all hang out and indulging pretty much however I want to.. lol. EEEEK! I went through about 2 weeks where I ate a whole tub of ben&Jerry's.. seriously that's like 1000 cals right there! Wasn't sweating my macros.. loving carbs.. etc. I was letting myself have whatever partly because of the metabolism reset thing and mostly (honestly) because I just said screw it.. I'm quitting smoking.. I'm gonna worry about one thing at a time.

    I have still been lifting weights and having consistent increases in lifts so I was also affectionately calling it a "Dirty Bulk".. hahahaaa. SOOOOOO now I've reached that point.. I've officially gained 10 pounds and I'm done with this "dirty bulk" lol.

    Back to tracking and logging ALL FOOD for me..I'm still going to stay at the metabolism reset level of about 2000-2200 cals but I HAVE GOT TO get back to tracking religiously.

    THE GOOD NEWS is that I am able to deal with these things today.. I don't have to go completely off the rails either direction.. I can cut myself some slack but also know when its time to get a little more consistent and attentive. AND here's the best part.. I DON'T HATE MYSELF for letting up a bit. I love myself enough to know that I needed a break from calorie counting while I went through the first few months of quitting smoking. I'm back on track as of today and while I don't expect to lose any weight for the next 6-8 or so weeks of my reset.. I'm going to be consistent about tracking and hope to not gain too much more.

    Thanks for your support!

    77 DAYS QUIT!
  • jvezzsb01
    jvezzsb01 Posts: 115 Member
    Well done on quitting smoking! You sound like you have a great can-do attitude. I'm here with you trying to get up to TDEE, one day at a time and one habit at a time.
  • jerilynconn
    jerilynconn Posts: 524 Member
    Kerryatoon wrote: »

    THE GOOD NEWS is that I am able to deal with these things today.. I don't have to go completely off the rails either direction.. I can cut myself some slack but also know when its time to get a little more consistent and attentive. AND here's the best part.. I DON'T HATE MYSELF for letting up a bit. I love myself enough to know that I needed a break from calorie counting while I went through the first few months of quitting smoking. I'm back on track as of today and while I don't expect to lose any weight for the next 6-8 or so weeks of my reset.. I'm going to be consistent about tracking and hope to not gain too much more.

    Thanks for your support!

    77 DAYS QUIT!

    This is awesome!!!!

    I call those days and weeks off my mental health breaks. :)
  • Raynn1
    Raynn1 Posts: 1,164 Member
    @Kerryatoon you did exactly what I did a few years ago.. I threw out all numbers and just went on a tirade eating all the junk i could. Figured if I had to get my cals up, I might as well blow it all on crap. Lol.. and just like you, I gained some weight back and wasnt happy.
    And yes, eventually I stopped and focused on proper eating again and proper cal levels. I sometimes think some of us have to do that in order to really understand the difference between eating right and eating crap:)

    Good for you for making it short lived!!

    Kelly
    EM2WL Ambassador and Moderator
  • TerezaToledo
    TerezaToledo Posts: 613 Member
    You went through a major breakthrough here! Woohoo! As much as the weight gain is not what you are looking for, you got it out of your system and achieved some major milestones! You are many steps ahead by changing your mindset and lifting consistently. Kudos for sticking to it and staying smoke free!

    Indulgences will happen and it's ok to chose to have them sometimes. I have mine and I just try to make sure to indulge in foods that are actually worth it, that I cannot pass, not stuff that is just meh and i'm eating it mindlessly just because.

    Tereza
    Team EM2WL
  • Kerryatoon
    Kerryatoon Posts: 374 Member
    HI ladies! Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words! Yes I absolutely feel like I know the difference between eating junk and eating a lot of quality foods while meeting my macros. I met my goal of logging all food since my last post here! Ate around my calorie goal of 2000-2200, really close on my macros, met water goals and killed my gym night! I attribute my gym success with eating enough, getting plenty of sleep and two day rest periods. Woohoo!

    80 days smoke free!

    Here's my workout for tonight:
    Walk/sprint incline treadmill 0.6 miles warmup
    Squats-5x5 90lbs (warmup) 5x5 120 lbs (still down from 145, working on form, form was on point :)
    Overhead Press - 5x5 55lbs (warmup) 5x5 65 lbs!!! First time I nailed all reps at this weight!!! Gah been plateaued at 60 for several weeks! Rawr!!
    Deadlift - 1x5 115lbs (warmup) 1x5 155lbs! Felt amazeballs!
    Face pulls 3x12 60lbs
    Upright Barbell Row 3x12 35lbs

    Feeling better now that I'm logging again.
  • TerezaToledo
    TerezaToledo Posts: 613 Member
    You are nailing it, @kerryatoon! All your PR's are great, but those overhead presses, wow, huge numbers!!!

    Tereza
    Team EM2WL
  • empressichel
    empressichel Posts: 730 Member
    @Kerryatoon Love your numbers!
    I broke back down my squat to get my form better and don't regret it at all. Much better and stronger of it now.
    Keep killing it!
    Ichel
    EM2WL Ambassador and Moderator
This discussion has been closed.