Coming back after a long break

justanotherjenn

I am trying to end a 6-month long yo-yo dieting spiral by reaching out for support. Some of you might remember me when I was whatalazyidiot (a name everyone hated, but I just chose because I thought it was funny and sarcastic).

During a brief phase where I thought I would "ditch diet culture and do intuitive eating", I went crazy, deleted all weight loss apps and accounts, and basically just ate my weight in donuts and ice cream for a month.

It was great fun. I'm sure that works for some people, but I have never been good at moderation. It has taken a lot of shifting mindset to realize if I want to lose this excess weight, I HAVE to track. Because for me, it's either I track and eat healthy (or within my calories), or I don't track and I binge. There's really no gray area there.

And it's not JUST about weight loss anymore. It's more about feeling better and healthier, which in turn usually causes weight loss purely by changing my habits.

When I had my last account, I did amazingly well for about 3 months near the end of last year/beginning of this year. Like super well. I had a bunch of energy, I was in a good mood, I was eating at the right calories every day. Consistently losing 1-2 lbs a week, every week.

Then something happened. I think it was gradual. I started having more cheat meals, then cheat days, cheat weekends. Then I completely went off the rails. And once you do that, it's hard to get out of that spiral. At least it is for me.

I have since yo-yo'd like a man woman. Counting calories, then WW, then counting calories, then Keto, back to counting calories, intuitive eating, Keto again, WW, over and over again. I'm talking every few days, not even a week of being consistent. I have basically spent 5-6 months gaining and losing the same 5 lbs. Luckily I didn't gain a bunch of weight, but my body is going through hell because of it.

I'm sick, have brain fog, no energy, no motivation, just super gross and blah feeling.

I am fully aware all you need is CICO to lose weight, but apparently I like to make things more complicated than they need to be.

I kept trying to come back and just keep to myself and do this privately, but I think what I'm missing is the support from people who understand. So, I decided to post here again and hopefully it will help.

I have managed to keep off about 40 lbs over the last couple years, but I have 80-ish to go. Hopefully I can be more consistent this time.

LyndaBSS

You can do this. It just depends on how much you want it. 😉

88olds

OK. Congrats on the loss.

To lose 100 lbs and maintain I’ve had to reinvent my program about 5 times. Don’t kick yourself for struggling. The entire project is a struggle.

The more complicated our programs, the more red lines and rules we come up with, the harder it is to stick with it. Try to look on your plan as a set of things to do. I agree that thing #1 is to track. And I think that means track no matter what.

If you track no matter what, you can ditch the cheat mentality. Lots of ways to make mistakes in calorie counting. Misread menus and NI, even bad math. No one hits their number every single day for long. Even talking ourselves into that donut at work because we’re sick of not having the donut at work and sick of the whole weight loss thing. That bad decision made while dog tired or under pressure- that's a mistake. But it needs to be tracked. Be brutally honest. If you eat that donut it’s going in your food diary. Maybe knowing that going in will get you past the donuts. The only way to cheat is a conscious decision not to do it.

justanotherjenn

LyndaBSS wrote: »

You can do this. It just depends on how much you want it. 😉

Thank you!

justanotherjenn

88olds wrote: »

OK. Congrats on the loss.

To lose 100 lbs and maintain I’ve had to reinvent my program about 5 times. Don’t kick yourself for struggling. The entire project is a struggle.

The more complicated our programs, the more red lines and rules we come up with, the harder it is to stick with it. Try to look on your plan as a set of things to do. I agree that thing #1 is to track. And I think that means track no matter what.

If you track no matter what, you can ditch the cheat mentality. Lots of ways to make mistakes in calorie counting. Misread menus and NI, even bad math. No one hits their number every single day for long. Even talking ourselves into that donut at work because we’re sick of not having the donut at work and sick of the whole weight loss thing. That bad decision made while dog tired or under pressure- that's a mistake. But it needs to be tracked. Be brutally honest. If you eat that donut it’s going in your food diary. Maybe knowing that going in will get you past the donuts. The only way to cheat is a conscious decision not to do it.

Thank you! I definitely need to track even the bad days. I do that whole "don't track and it didn't happen" thing. Counterproductive obviously.

kimny72

You can do this. Lots of us had to try several times to get it right. Keep it simple, eat foods you like, and most importantly acknowledge your mistakes, learn something from them, log them, and then just keep moving forward.

You've probably seen this here a million times, but read the Most Helpful Posts threads pinned to the top of each sub-forum. I've been here 4 years and I still reread them occasionally. Sometimes you need to remind yourself of even the obvious stuff

Welcome back :drinker:

justanotherjenn

kimny72 wrote: »

You can do this. Lots of us had to try several times to get it right. Keep it simple, eat foods you like, and most importantly acknowledge your mistakes, learn something from them, log them, and then just keep moving forward.

You've probably seen this here a million times, but read the Most Helpful Posts threads pinned to the top of each sub-forum. I've been here 4 years and I still reread them occasionally. Sometimes you need to remind yourself of even the obvious stuff

Welcome back :drinker:

Thank you!