Hit the road block

sandyy0605

Hi everyone,
So I've officially hit the roadblock. I had so much drive since starting in October and managed to lose 30 pounds. To my surprise I will actually continued to lose weight, only 2 pounds in a month, but I want to get back on track. I do have a hetic life, full time school, work overnight and have a toddler. Maybe I'm getting bored? What did you do?

Panini911

2 pounds in a month is good. are you near your goal? the last 15 or so it's best to go down to 0.5lbs/week so 2lbs a month sounds good! i say just keep doing what you are doing.

i don't rely on drive, or motivation. i rely on preparing food ahead of time (or meals). I keep foods I like and normally eat in my diet. luckily i don't mind lots of repetition either so it's simpler.

I keep foods that fit in my way of eating handy at all times.

SCoil123

How much weight do you have left to lose? Are you already in a healthy weight range? More info is needed.

apullum

Depending on how much you have left to lose, half a pound per week may be a reasonable pace for you. As others have said, we would need more information to be able to help.

1BlueAurora

I don't know what you're doing exercise-wise, but there's no reason to keep doing the same old thing if you're bored. If you've taken up jogging, find another park to run in. Or ask a friend to join you. If you can afford gym membership, take a yoga class one day and a Zumba class another. I find that some solitary time outside is fabulous, but mixing it up with a group class was helpful, too. In yoga, I listened to the leader and tried not to judge how well I did the poses as a beginner. In Zumba, I just lost myself in the music and the next thing I knew, the hour was over and I felt pretty proud I'd made it all the way through. My gym membership is $20 a month, and well worth the investment in myself. Here is the key for me: if I don't want to go, I put on my shoes anyway and force myself out the door. About 15 minutes into the activity I wasn't motivated to do, I'm glad I'm there. Put a gold star on your calendar for that day!

sandyy0605

@1BlueAurora @apullum @Panini911 @SCoil123 I'm currently at 239 last weigh in, I was hoping to make my goal to 200 by June but maybe I won't make it buts it ok. Overall I would be happy at 190 -170. I still have a long weigh to Go but the goal is not to stop and make excuses. I currently just do Zumba because other cardio is boring to me. My meals are slowly get lazy and eating More calories

apullum

Tighten up your logging. Do you weigh all solid food using a food scale? How do you calculate your exercise calories?

SCoil123

sandyy0605 wrote: »

@1BlueAurora @apullum @Panini911 @SCoil123 I'm currently at 239 last weigh in, I was hoping to make my goal to 200 by June but maybe I won't make it buts it ok. Overall I would be happy at 190 -170. I still have a long weigh to Go but the goal is not to stop and make excuses. I currently just do Zumba because other cardio is boring to me. My meals are slowly get lazy and eating More calories

While 0.5lb of weight lost per week is s steady and acceptable rate you should be able to lose 1lb a week. I’d suggest using a good scale and tightening up your intake if you are unhappy with your current rate of loss. You say you’re eating more calories so I think you already know what the problem is and what to do.

On the other hand you are still losing weight so if you’re ok losing it slowly just keep going. Slower rate of loss can be more sustainable for a lot of people and you will still reach your goals. I lost very slowly but I hit goal and transitioned to maintenance 1-2 weeks ago and all of the changes I made to get here are ones I know I can stick with for life.

Cassandraw3

Sounds like you may still have enough to lose to keep at 1-1.5 lbs/week for a rate of loss. If you have been going at it since October, have you taken a diet break at all? It may not be a bad idea to eat a maintenance for a bit before going back at a deficit. The below thread has some good information regarding why diet breaks are important.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1

emmamcgarity

Have you taken any planned diet breaks?

AnnPT77

I'd suggest thinking of this process not as "losing weight" but as "learning how to eat (and move) permanently in a way that results in reaching and staying at a healthy weight". There is no "on" or "off" part of learning. Unless your doctor has diagnosed an urgent health crisis requiring weight loss (and nothing in your post suggests that s/he has), then there is no timeline or time limit for this. Health is something we work on learning more about all through life, and we keep working on putting that knowledge into practice.

So, just a couple of thoughts:

1. Make it more about habits than motivation. When you have the mental bandwith in your hectic life, spend a bit of time thinking about practical, do-able ways you can remodel your habits in a healthier direction. Could be taking the stairs instead of the elevator whenever possible, could be taking a few minutes at a standard time to prep some healthy snacks to be ready to eat (carrot sticks and celery in the fridge in water, or string cheese, or individually portioned nuts, say - something you like). Whatever that change is, just make that one, practical change, and go on with grooving it in as a habit. Later, repeat with a different habit.

2. Worry more about continuing positive progress, not how fast you're going to reach goal. Half a pound a week is fine, as long as you keep it up. You'll lose weight, and you'll do it faster overall than people who lose 10 pounds fast, then crash and burn repeatedly. If you lose weight in ways that are manageable for you, you'll be more consistent (which means progress instead of stalls and recommitments, which are often unproductive and unhappy) and you'll be more likely to stay at a healthy weight long term.

One motivation - if you need one - that I've seen others use, is thinking about that toddler. Your opportunity is to create a model of continuous learning, self-improvement, healthy eating, setting/achieving goals, and making positive choices. Sometimes, people here say that the habits that made them obese were formed from childhood: They eat, and think about food & exercise, in the ways that were normal in their families, and in their case, the families' habits were not as healthy as they could've been.

On the other hand, over in the "non scale victory (NSV)" threads in the Success Stories area of the forum, we sometimes hear really inspiring stories about parents whose kids started asking for healthy snacks because they saw their parents enjoying them, or started being more active in kid-appropriate ways when they saw parents working on fitness goals. Some of those parents are breaking a generational cycle, creating a new and healthier future for their kids (and quite possibly their kids' kids, and beyond). Pretty good stuff, IMO.

Best wishes!