I love how I looked but hated the work

cheeri0z

I've regained 6lbs in the last 2 months and before that I lost over 30lbs through mfp. I looked and felt greattt

I'm fed up counting calories, I'm stressed ( single mom to a 1 year old and living at home again ) and I'm surrounded by tempting foods and snacks.

once I eat a donut or a croissant I give up for the rest of the day and binge eat.

help

RecognitionT

Don't buy it and you won't have it around to tempt you.

kommodevaran

The same thing happened to me (except the baby). A better life is possible - I have maintained a healthy weight for over three years, after more than twenty years of struggling. You'll have to find your own ways to eat that feels good, without making you gain weight. I believe it's crucial that you don't demonize any foods, but limit treats, maybe to special occasions, or once per week, and don't buy so much that it stresses you.

MonkeyMel21

I’m sorry hun, it’s hard having all those things going on at once! I know it’s hard to continue counting calories in maintenance but maybe that’s the thing you need to keep your mind straight with regards to all those goodies your family buys.

Do you work out as well? That’s the main thing that keeps me going in maintenance and allows me to enjoy those sweet snacks on occasion.

snowflake954

It's a shame that you're going to lose all your hard work. After all that time you didn't learn portion control? Many don't count calories in maintainance,but again, many gain the weight back. I'd encourage you to look up the maintaining threads. There are different ways to do it and you might find some help there. Do it before you have to start from scratch.

takemetosingapore19

You’ve got to learn to love the process. I will be 20 soon so my stresses are probably different than yours, but I have found to manage stress with exercise and being active to help. If counting calories is a burden and unwanted task to you, then you could just eat healthier foods in reasonable quantities or use the barcode feature on here? I find mfp to make it very easy to track calories without much effort! Most of all, don’t give up!!!

elisa123gal

i hate counting calories too. i don't any longer. Thinking about every bite of food forever is stressful for me, It takes the fun out of the beauty of food and meals. i switched to a whole foods eating plan, where i weigh my protiens ..but i eat six times a day...vegs...carbs..frut...lean meats. Bottom line, i've lost almost all my weight and weigh less than i ever have counting calories for 8 years. Now i get to think of what i CAN eat..lnstead of what i can't.

Research other healthy eating plans and make a switch that works for you. You can do this! Dont erase all your hard work by binging... you don't have to count calories forever. There are other paths to fitness. Good luck.

luce_de_luce

A few things I see posted on here that help me when I feel like throwing in the towel:

If I had a flat tire, would I slash the other three? (One unplanned treat/snack/bite/day over my calorie goal is not a reason to sabotage my goal entirely.)

If I quit now I’ll soon be back where I started. When I started, I desperately wanted to be where I am now. (So true, this is hard work but it’s harder feeling miserable about my body and the way I take care of myself or actively hurt my physical and emotional health.)

What you eat in private, you wear in public. (It’ll show up eventually...)

And finally, remember the example you’re setting for your child. He or she WILL adopt the lifestyle/habits of the adults who raise them. Don’t set them up for a lifelong struggle with their health and body image.

Be strong, I know you can!

SCoil123

When my son was little it was really hard. I had “kid” food around and was usually in a hurry so that was the food that was convenient and easiest to reach for. One trick was I started buying myself convenience foods that were “mommy” foods and kept ours separate. He had his chocolate cliff bars and goldfish crackers and I had my protein bars and 1oz bags of almonds. Also planning my meals out for the next day at night when he went to bed was a huge help towards my goals

1BlueAurora

We could be twins! I lost 30 pounds and reached my goal weight. Stopped counting calories and gained back 8 pounds. Sorry, but I found only the discipline I developed before and counting calories again is the only thing that works for me. If you must have some donut, cut it in half and throw the rest away. Truly. Log it. It's not a sin to eat a treat as long as you don't go over your calorie count for the day. And you will not know whether you have unless you start logging again. Good luck!

meowmixforfood

I can’t relate to having a kid, I’m sure that it’s crazy stressful though. Maybe if you made healthier versions of the snacks you craved and munched on those that would help. If you have family in the area or anyone to help you out, you should try to take a day to yourself once a month to destress and that might help keep the binges at bay.

lucerorojo

How long did it take you to lose the 30 lbs.?

cebreisch

THere are still things you can do to set yourself up for success. I have a husband and 2 girls (11 and 14). They want things all the time that aren’t “food journal friendly”. It’s easy to say “don’t buy it”, but when you have others in the house who can buy that stuff (the husband), and often does buy other stuff that isn’t “food journal friendly”.

I have a “snack box” and a dorm fridge where I keep 100-ish calorie snacks...snack bags of pretzels, hard boiled eggs, greek yogurt, string cheese, protein bars, fiber bars. That way when I get an urge for a snack, I go tot he box/fridge.

It’s hard to get past the “Oh, I just had a donut, the rest of the day is shot.” Idea, but the thing is, whatever you have ends up not being as costly as you might think....unless you have a box of custard filled frosted donuts. One donut is not likely to break the bank. Log it and move on. Stay on track, and don’t let it bring you down.

seltzermint555

I love so much of the advice & comments above. But I think you just have to want it. And I think it really helps to focus on the "goal" by realizing if you are on track with this 1 area of life (eating healthy and within calories) it can kind of help other areas fall into place, too. It sounds like you have a lot of things on your plate right now especially with a young child and living situation that is beyond your control. If you master the healthy eating and see progress I really think it will help you emotionally and be a strength for you as a mom, friend, etc.

Black/white thinking "I ate perfectly or I binged" is never great. I have dealt with that myself in many areas of life. With food, I have finally come to see that it's fine to eat that donut or croissant. Just balance it out with a day of other foods that are less indulgent and you're still in great shape (no pun intended).

cleback

Just wanted to give you a bit of hope. Having a one year old is stressful! They're into everything and so tempermental and need you for everything. Love my lil guy but definitely needed breaks. Anyway, I ended up gaining some weight during that time too (which is why I'm here). Now that my child is almost two the stress is much more manageable and I feel like I can refocus on my health. Anyway, try to make it through the best you can these next few months... it does it get better!

Lesscookies12

I live at home and I'm around tempting snacks at home and also at work. What I do is only eat a little bit of it and have it fit into my calorie goal. I like to practice self control if it won't fit I just don't eat it. You're binging that's a problem seek a specialist to get help with it.

PAV8888

First of all I want to recognise that you have a lot of stress.

Our situations in terms of stress (and in terms of how we get where we are) are definitely *contributing* factors to whether we succeed or not.

But I do want to address the title of your post.

Most people don't end up on MFP because they are able to "intuitively" moderate their eating and activity.

I mean, I know there will be multiple people who will pop up and say I was never over-weight but a single incident had me gain 30 lbs, I lost the weight in 6 months eating Special Unicorns, and then I went right back to maintaining intuitively.

But they are not the majority of people on MFP!

So I don't see how you get out of putting in "work" to succeed. BUT, you can modify things so that "work" is... LESS work! And easier!

You don't have to be "perfect". You don't have to exclude a ton of stuff. You don't have to "cave" every time something goes wrong. You don't have to aim for a huge deficit making making it more likely you will break down, cave, and fail to adhere to your plan. You don't have to exercise like a maniac till it hurts to move (fun as that may be from time to time)!

But you DO have to be mindful. You DO have to pick and chose when you can afford a treat and when you can't afford a tread multiple times a day, or multiple days in a row.

There is another thread around where a person writes that she doesn't count calories because that was too much work. So she eats "healthy" and moderates and has been more successful that when she was counting.

Personally that would drive me nuts. Because you would obviously fail to maximize your eating if you adopted such a strategy. And if the only cost to maximize my eating is to jot down some figures in an app... who wouldn't want THAT!?!?!?!

But of course what I am perfectly willing to do drove HER nuts, which is why she does things her way!

But there is one thing that we are BOTH doing. We are both consciously making (some) decisions as to what we are eating and finding (some sort of long term sustainable) balance.

Either you will care enough to put in the work or you won't. And your reality will reflect what you chose to prioritise in terms of the work you are willing and able to put in.

But you may also find it easier to put in the work if you try to figure out ways to do this without being "perfect" and "strict" and by aiming for many small changes over time. Because that means you will have to put in LESS work!

DomesticKat

Try to think long term about this. If you put forth the effort to lose the weight, and you give up now and stop being mindful, you're going to eventually find yourself back at square one. There's no way around that. Losing weight and keeping it off takes mindful effort one way or another. So you can either figure out a way to maintain your loss because you don't want to have to lose the weight again sometime down the road, or you can give up. It's a lot easier in the long run to change your habits now and develop self control rather than doing this weight loss thing over and over again. Trust me on that one.

psychod787

PAV8888 wrote: »

First of all I want to recognise that you have a lot of stress.

Our situations in terms of stress (and in terms of how we get where we are) are definitely *contributing* factors to whether we succeed or not.

But I do want to address the title of your post.

Most people don't end up on MFP because they are able to "intuitively" moderate their eating and activity.

I mean, I know there will be multiple people who will pop up and say I was never over-weight but a single incident had me gain 30 lbs, I lost the weight in 6 months eating Special Unicorns, and then I went right back to maintaining intuitively.

But they are not the majority of people on MFP!

So I don't see how you get out of putting in "work" to succeed. BUT, you can modify things so that "work" is... LESS work! And easier!

You don't have to be "perfect". You don't have to exclude a ton of stuff. You don't have to "cave" every time something goes wrong. You don't have to aim for a huge deficit making making it more likely you will break down, cave, and fail to adhere to your plan. You don't have to exercise like a maniac till it hurts to move (fun as that may be from time to time)!

But you DO have to be mindful. You DO have to pick and chose when you can afford a treat and when you can't afford a tread multiple times a day, or multiple days in a row.

There is another thread around where a person writes that she doesn't count calories because that was too much work. So she eats "healthy" and moderates and has been more successful that when she was counting.

Personally that would drive me nuts. Because you would obviously fail to maximize your eating if you adopted such a strategy. And if the only cost to maximize my eating is to jot down some figures in an app... who wouldn't want THAT!?!?!?!

But of course what I am perfectly willing to do drove HER nuts, which is why she does things her way!

But there is one thing that we are BOTH doing. We are both consciously making (some) decisions as to what we are eating and finding (some sort of long term sustainable) balance.

Either you will care enough to put in the work or you won't. And your reality will reflect what you chose to prioritise in terms of the work you are willing and able to put in.

But you may also find it easier to put in the work if you try to figure out ways to do this without being "perfect" and "strict" and by aiming for many small changes over time. Because that means you will have to put in LESS work!

Love ya PAV!

psychod787

cheeri0z wrote: »

I've regained 6lbs in the last 2 months and before that I lost over 30lbs through mfp. I looked and felt greattt

I'm fed up counting calories, I'm stressed ( single mom to a 1 year old and living at home again ) and I'm surrounded by tempting foods and snacks.

once I eat a donut or a croissant I give up for the rest of the day and binge eat.

help

I can't help you, but I can tell you this. I read a study that states that for every pound we lose, our body pushes us to eat 25 cals a day more. 30lbs is amazing, but people like PAV have lost over a hundred. His body now wants him to eat over 2500 cals a day more! It was a Kevin Hall Study BTW. One of the ones he used to make the Body weight planner. I hope you figure out what works for you! HELL, I still am. Good luck!

nickiwalsh5

I totally feel this. I lost more than 10 kg in 2015 (a huge amount considering my 5 foot 1 frame. I worked hard, counted calories, exercised and made losing weight my life for 6-9 months. Since then I have put it all on again. I reached my goal weight and basically decided that I couldn’t live like that for the rest of my life, unfortunately the scales showed me that if I don’t, they weight just comes back without even trying! 3 years down the track I need to start losing again, because as much as I hate calorie counting and exercising, I hate the way I look and feel at this weight as well! I wish I enjoyed healthy foods or exercise but I just don’t......