September 10
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Mrs_Hoffer
Posts: 5,194 Member
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes?
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day?
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank?
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day?
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank?
0
Replies
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Happy 1/3 of the way through the month! How’s it going?
Today’s Topic: Sharing strategies we use when our weight begins to go in the wrong direction…or our exercise begjns to fall off or our tracking becomes less timely or exact.
We’re human. Vacations happen, stress happens…a birth, an illness, simply being so busy we can’t do one more thing, etc.
We see the scale go in the wrong direction…
Let’s share with each other what we do to stop the gain AND turn things around again.
➡️I feel this might be the most important skill for longterm maintenance.⬅️Summary of what I do (and am currently doing)…
1. ❤️ Using Kindness and Self-Honesty, I take stock of my calories, exercise, tracking.
2. ⚖️ Focus on MAINTAINING at my current, higher weight. And get the problem food(s) out of the house!
3. 🕵️♀️ Once I’ve done that, I assess my macros/micros (like a detective.) I choose the one that is most out of whack & fix that. Sodium? 🧂 Sugars? Protein 🍗 Water 💦 Etc. I work on that one for a week or until it’s fixed.
Repeat for next macro/micro the next week, etc.
4. Once I’m Maintaining the higher weight with healthy macros/micros, my appetite decreases. Healthier food tastes better.
I then decrease my daily calories gradually each week until scale begins to shift downwards. 📉
Repeat until I get back to the weight I want to be.
NOTE: it takes a very small calorie deficit over the rest of 2021 to lose pounds I do the math & I realize it’s been 70 cals extra a day. So I can cut 35 & lose, etc. SMALL changes over time WORK!
What methods have **YOU** found useful when you fall off track?
Best,
🌸Maddie
Great video on this topic from HalfSizeMe lady!…
https://m.facebook.com/HalfSizeMe/videos/3185880048195296/8 -
I can't wait to read these. I have been unsuccessful with maintaining over many decades, but I am determined that this is the last time I will ever let my weight spiral unchecked. I have found from this group that I respond very well to accountability, challenges, and support and MFP might be the missing puzzle piece for me for the long haul.9
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Hi friends,
Sorry I’ve been MIA. Things be weird here. That MRI I got that the blew out my veins in my arms is still an issue. Doc ordered an ultrasound to check for blood clots, waiting for that now and realized I hadn’t checked in in a few days. I can’t seem to find my motivation, just feels like one thing after another likes to derail my efforts. I’ve been told to stop lifting/strength stuff until the arm clears up. I asked about running/cardio and was told we’d discuss it after the ultrasound results. So. Lol. I think it’s safe to say I’m failing today’s topic of staying inspired when things are hard 😂.
Trying my best to keep my brain in it. Maybe October will be friendlier.21 -
3xyes
Epic Day 14 full body workout 😊10 -
Excellent topic. So many times we view our setbacks as total failures. We make ourselves feel so bad that we give up. Some words of wisdom:
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." ~ Winston Churchill11 -
Excellent topic. So many times we view our setbacks as total failures. We make ourselves feel so bad that we give up. Some words of wisdom:
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." ~ Winston Churchill
Thank you @LeeH31 ! I found that quote sometime in the past two years, and it’s one of my favorites!! Perfect for Maintenance (among many other things in life!) 🌸3 -
The last couple of days have been difficult. My husband is away and my 2 year old has a mild cold but it’s enough to keep us both awake at night. Last night I also had indigestion that kept me up and then I woke up ravenous and craved a pastry for breakfast. I had it and felt worse so I chased it with a protein shake and then took a nap for a reset. I got up 2 hours later and managed to do some work before going for a 25 minute run and picking up my son. I still don’t feel great as indigestion and nausea kicked in again this evening but it’s not tempting me to comfort eat which is new to me! I guess my approach now is trying to focus in on what will really help my situation instead of just trying to feed the discomfort. It’s still a learning process.
Forgot to add my daily stats:
✅ exercise
✅ tracking
✅ calories15 -
10 Sept 21
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? yes
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? yes
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? yes
Pass days used: 0
Let’s share with each other what we do to stop the gain AND turn things around again.
What methods have **YOU** found useful when you fall off track?
I guess where I see failure and regain most among all of us is "weight creep and procrastination. I see also denial and recalibration. "
#1 weight creep. So the first time you go off the rails - the scale jumps up 2 pounds. You go back to normal and within a week or less you are back to ground zero. For some reason this does not continue to work. Our bodies probably adjust in ways we don't understand. So perhaps the second time it takes 2 weeks. Then maybe you jump up 5 pounds and decide to drastically cut but the scale sticks up 5 pounds...
#2 procrastination. I will start tomorrow. I will start Monday. I will start the 1st of the month. In the meantime you do more and more additional damage because hey - I am already in the doodoo so let's make it count because come next month I will have to cut.
#3 Denial and recalibration. I just can't shift this 5 pounds. I hit my scream weight but maybe I have a set point and so I readjust my goal up. Then a few months later weight creep and oh well. I am still feeling ok so let's reset the goal again. The 3rd time you probably just quit weighing and worrying about it altogether because ok #2
So all those are negatives.
What is useful when you fall off track?
#1 it IS going to happen. That's why we are all here. so accept that you are not perfect. Move on. Don't start a restriction cycle. DOn't try to over exercise the calories away. If you can recover and make it JUST about that one episode and not an ENTIRE day or week or month, you probably have not done much damage.
#2 losing is different from maintenance but we all have different methods of success. And what succeeded before or 5 times before might not succeed the next time. So keep a lot of tools in your bucket and don't be afraid to try new ones!
#3 and this was a difficult lesson for me. Choose a WOE while losing that you can continue forever. Where you don't feel punished or deprived. I always lost weight in the past thinking when I was done. That was it. Surprise. I ended up having to lose again and again and again. This past time I decided to focus on maintaining and what was THAT going to look like. Yeah when you are losing it seems like the MOST important thing, but trust me. It was only 14 weeks compared to almost 4 YEARS of maintaining so far. What do you think is more important?
9 -
Ashleymullo6195
Excersize - no
Logged food - yes
Under calories - yes
Drink more water - yes did this7 -
I've been considering questions similar to these a lot over the last couple months. Similarly the question posed by @SummerSkier yesterday about one reason many stop weighing themselves. The reasons I am digging into such questions is a combination of trying to understand my plan to transition into maintenance, and simply having a better understanding how I got "here" from all of the "there's" where I have been before in order to help guide me in the future.
The one thing that has ALWAYS got me back on track has simply been honestly acknowledging where I was, deciding that I was not OK with letting myself backtrack that far, and starting to work on it again. The big problem has been that a lot of those times were after a long period of being off track. Once back on track I have had some setbacks which I have worked through. Obviously some setbacks I haven't. I guess it might be simplest to go through each one (literally working through this as I type).
I'll start from when I started on MFP in 2014 (spoilered for being one of my stupidly long posts, read only as bedtime material):First setback would have been after my first half marathon in November 2014. This was when I reached my lowest ever recorded adult weight of 220 pounds (still 40 pounds overweight). I had developed some hip pain, later learned to be iliotibial syndrome. I stopped running for the rest of 2014 to rest it. I continued tracking my diet though, kept up with MFP socially, and even maintained my weight. I started running again in January 2015. I simply never lost track of my goals during this setback and continued.
Second setback would have been in the spring of 2015 when I took two weeks off of running due to a very mild tenderness in my right achilles. I continued tracking my diet, kept up with MFP socially, and made it through with no issues to continue running my brains out for the rest of the year. Again, I did not lose sight of my goals during this setback and continued. Little did I know then that this achilles pain would be my first ever possible sign of future plantar fasciiitis (only now realized this year).
Third setback was in Summer 2016 after a series of falls on a trail run in some new shoes. I had some pain in the outer edge of my right foot. It was either a small hairline fracture or some sort of fascia tissue injury, both of which had required the same treatment; Rest. (It's also the second possible sign of future plantar fasciitis). The first difference between this setback and the prior ones was how HUNGRY I was. This was due to the mileage I had been running, and for how long I had been doing it. Just because I had stopped running, that hunger did not go away. I stopped tracking because my daily MFP diary looked like a bloody freaking massacre, which ultimately led me to stop being social on MFP. I gained weight and stopped weighing myself. I even picked up a new hobby (maker boards) to keep from beating myself up over it (or more accurately, to avoid holding myself to account for it and getting myself back under control). I let myself lose track of my goals during this period, replacing them with other distractions. I didn't get back into health/fitness again until March 2017.
Fourth setback was in the summer of 2017, after trying for 3 months to run long distances like I had previously, only I was 60 pound heavier. I was fatigued, dreaded the long runs, and challenging myself with hill training is what finally broke me. I had not been tracking my food intake at all during this time. But I had been weighing myself, and was not losing much weight at all (only 10 pounds over 3 months). Definitely not in accordance with the efforts I was putting in. The setback was that I gave up long distance running.
The results of that fourth setback are a little interesting though. I had not given up on weight or fitness, and instead switched to running sprint intervals (actually felt good) and doing strength training (also felt good). I also changed my diet to build muscle in order to assist with that strength development, which re-introduced tracking for the first time since 2016. However, the strength training was offsetting any weight loss, so I stopped weighing myself. Ultimately I traded weighing myself for tracking.
Fifth setback started in late 2018 after over a year of strength training. I was not weighing myself, just going by how I felt and making sure I wasn't looking "fatter" or unable to fit into my clothes. I felt strong, had established regular healthy eating habits and had even stopped tracking without feeling I was going awry. I had stopped being social on MFP because I wasn't tracking and only doing strength work, making MFP seem pretty useless really. But changes at work requiring very long hours (and lots of on-call), and further stresses with home life (simple result of the 2 youngest autistic kids being a bit older and more challenging). The setback was that I stopped strength training. Slowly I started more stress eating over a long period of time causing the healthy diet habits to slowly start coming undone. By 2020 things had pretty much fallen apart completely and the lockdown garbage simply threw the final gas on the dumpster fire which had started. While I was still eating a lot healthier than the old me would have while "completely off the rails", it was still not truly healthy. And I was drinking more than I ever thought I would or could...I think trying to drink myself to death, but being unsuccessful as I wasn't suicidal or anything. Just miserable. Eventually it felt like there was only one place left to go...UP, so I started going again.
One other thing in there that seems consistent, it's the setbacks where I stop being social on MFP that turn into the longer, more difficult setbacks. That is interesting.
Sorry about the mental dump there.
Carry on.10 -
September 10, 2021
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? Yes
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? Yes
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? Yes
Kitchen Closed? Yes
Did you go "nuts" with nuts today? No (10 days-free )
(I go "nuts" with nuts most times, trying to continue a good habit this month. Counting the number of "nuts" free days.) I am still learning a lot about myself in this area!
Pass day 0/3 (this is for accountability to myself and my records).7 -
Excellent opening topic @MadisonMolly2017
Failing is not the end. We are all humans and will fail. Weights are not a straight line . Therefore, forgiving myself is very important. This is a life journey I am learning to enjoy.
I have been on maintenance for the pass 11years and going back to that "before or starting weight" is not an option. Throwing caution to the wind is not an option. I was a weight watcher lifetimer until I was not longer within distance of WW office to do a monthly weigh in. That was when I joined MFP and later found this group. Therefore, I am like a detective whenever my weight creep ups. I evaluate everything that led me to that point and tackle them one by one. Most of the time, it happens when I am on vacations, stressed, and celebrations. But over the years, I have learned how to manage myself in each of these occasions. It has made it easier to come back.
For vacations, I have learned to enjoy the activities of the vacation. If I have to eat a special meal, then I will plan for it. Sometime, I work on losing some weight before the vacation if possible.
For stress, I have found that if I can anticipate the issues that will stress me then I can manage myself. For example, deadlines I tend to snack a lot. Therefore, I buy lots of veggies, fruits and nuts. But I have learned too much nuts can affect me. That is why nuts is part of my accountability item.
For celebrations, same attitude as vacations. Enjoy the purpose of the celebrations.
Tracking and being in a group like this has really help!
9 -
10/09/2021
Exercise – yes, cycling, cardio etc
Tracked – yes
Calories – yes.
Only a short bike ride – down to town – got soaked coming home.
I had a long period of maintenance from 2000 to 2014 where I found it really helped to keep in touch with a weightloss group (WW or some other group).* Even though we all know what we have to do, it can be hard to do it alone. I gained weight from 2014 to 2018 then got a shock at a medical and re-started MFP.
(* I was recommended to join MFP in about 2010 but I didn’t get on with it and preferred my pen and paper method.)
I agree with @victorious55 about vacations and celebrations – plan ahead, then enjoy the day(s)!9 -
@mshawski – so sorry to hear of your troubles, I do hope you get the problem identified and get back on the road to recovery. Hang on in there.5
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@taurie – well done getting your three yeses in such difficult circumstances.4
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3 x ✅
50 minute beach walk
10 minute meditation looking out to the sea 🙏🏼
1/3 pass days used
13 -
Exercise – yes
Tracked – yes
Calories – yes7 -
Did I exercise for at least 20 minutes? Yes. Housework, dog walk, Launchpad.
Did I stay within my calorie budget for the day? Yes, under, actually.
Did I keep track of everything I ate and drank? Yes. Yes I did!
"Every time I get something under control in my own life, the world provides more material." ~ Cathy Guisewite
9 -
✅ - Exercise 20+ Minutes
✅ - Calories within budget
✅ - Tracked everything
3️⃣ Pass Days Remaining8 -
Tracked logged exercised.
When I see the scale creep back up I often tend to let it go a day or so then if it’s still not moving down I readjust my calories for a period of time and that usually jump starts the process.8
