Support please

KissPig

Hello all, just reaching out for a little support if any of you have some words of wisdom to share.

In 2019 I was in the best shape of my life, following a meal plan and working out 5+ days per week but when the pandemic hit it all went to hell in a handbasket. I worked too much, ate too much and sat on my *kitten* for a couple of years. I gained 30lb and my fitness is probably the worst it's ever been. I changed job in Feb of this year and lost 10lb while I was transitioning out of my old job but I'm gaining it all back. This week I've been on a binge.

I'm worried about my blood sugar, cholesterol and getting old before my time but am in such a funk I don't know where to begin. I feel like I should know what to do but every time I try to get back to my old routine I get overwhelmed and fail after a couple of days. Help me break the cycle please 🙏

COGypsy

Take a deep breath and then do Just One Thing. It sounds like you go all in for as long as you can take it and if anything goes awry, just scrap the whole thing. I know I did that for a lot of years! It might be worth trying a different approach. Break things up into smaller habits and take them one a time.

Right now I’m working on eating more fruits and veggies and eventually get to at least the RDA and to eat them without a condiment of some sort. I’ve had a couple of good weeks consistently eating one vegetable every day and am going up to twice a day. Baby steps but easier and more sustainable. If I tried to go from maybe five veggies a week to five a day, I’d be dying. I wouldn’t last a week. But it takes just a little more consciousness to be sure and add a veggie to something during the day.

Make it as easy as possible. Misery burns no calories, after all.

Lietchi

You speak of getting overwhelmed, so I would suggest a gradual approach.

Are you trying to start with a full meal plan am at once? You might be less overwhelmed if you make changes slowly. As explained here:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10636388/free-customized-personal-weight-loss-eating-plan-not-spam-or-mlm/p1

Same with exercise, if you're trying to get active again. Don't jump in at 5+ times a week right away. Perhaps just aim for small goals first like taking a short walk every day. Whatever seems like a small, manageable step to get going for the first weeks. Once that becomes the new normal, you can build to longer walks or other types of exercise,...

The gist of it is: how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

When I look at my life now, having lost 75lbs, I didn't get there overnight. If I had tried to do, at the start, what I'm doing now, I would have surely given up and failed.

Purplestuff102

@Lietchi can u check my diary let me know on if I need to change things up I’m going to try my best to use food scale and measuring cups normally in the past I would just eyeball portions and thought it was not important to use a food scale and measuring cups. And then if I overate I would get upset but im thinking the key is just to keep weighing and measuring and not throw the app away if I’m overeating because I’m never going to be perfect with this thing

springlering62

Measuring with cups and spoons is a start and a carb good one, but they can be very deceiving.

Metric is much more accurate and manageable, and I was amazed how quickly I adjusted.

The classic example is peanut butter, which is calorie dense.

Measure a tablespoon. Now go out that tablespoon in a scale. I bet you your tablespoon is 40-50 calories, fat more than an actual serving size of z32 grams. At 190 calories per tablespoon, that’s a huge “hidden” calorie punch right there.

Using Imperial measurements, I found I was way over-serving myself things like butter, dry rice, shredded cheeses, condiments, pasta, couscous etc.

I also found that once I was aware that I was using more than a serving size, that I really didn’t need a whole tablespoon of butter or cream cheese. I got used to half, and often, a quarter of a serving. And my husband and I usually split a serving of bulged or couscous. We’d rather have less of that and supplement with a quick side salad or vegetable.

Sounds like I’m parsing, but it’s true. The more aware you become if the “cost” of some things, the less you value them and are perfectly fine with less.

Lietchi

Purplestuff102 wrote: »

@Lietchi can u check my diary let me know on if I need to change things up I’m going to try my best to use food scale and measuring cups normally in the past I would just eyeball portions and thought it was not important to use a food scale and measuring cups. And then if I overate I would get upset but im thinking the key is just to keep weighing and measuring and not throw the app away if I’m overeating because I’m never going to be perfect with this thing

I would switch to weighing, if you're not seeing the results your expect. For example that hummus you ate, I see you logged several, separate tablespoons. As an alternative: weigh the whole container beforehand and then again after you're done with it, the difference how much you ate.

Overeating doesn't need to be a 'fail'. If you choose a weight loss rate of 1lb per week, that gives you a 500 calorie margin per day to still be on a calorie deficit. And on top of that, you don't need to be spot on daily, if you're in a deficit on average for the week that's fine, even if you went over some days.
You don't need to be perfect, you just need to be 'good enough' overall work more good days than bad.

pootlermse

Echoing what everyone else is saying, just do it a small step at a time.

I lost a lot of weight 6 years ago and have put an awful lot of it back on. Permanent injury hugely impacted how and how much I could exercise, and then Covid saw me return to disordered eating. I had therapy for that, but it meant letting go and learning to eat what I wanted when I wanted, which led to even more weight gain.

I had promised myself I wouldn't diet again because I was scared of my full blown ED coming back. But I didn't want to carry on as I was either. So I made changes that would make me feel better and healthier without focusing on losing weight. Things that were positive changes that felt like wins.

I'd been drinking out of habit, so I tried to only pour a drink when I really wanted one instead, and I drank more spirits and diet mixers and less beer and wine.

I added healthier foods without taking 'unhealthy' foods away. For example, a big heap of strawberries added to a bowl of ice cream.

I can't run any more, but I can walk. So I focused on short walks just to get some fresh air that eventually turned into easily fitting in 10,000 steps a day.

None of this was ever with the intention of eventually dieting. I had kind of made an uneasy peace with being obese again. I just wanted to take better care of myself. I'd really not done that since the start of Covid.

Then, one day, I literally woke up and thought, yeah, I'm ready. And although it's only been three weeks, I'm increasingly confident that this feels different to the last time I lost did CICO, which, I can see now was just another version of disordered eating, a constant roller coaster of bingeing and restricting. I'm still doing it in small steps by not strictly sticking to my daily calorie goals if I don't feel like it. As long as I don't binge away my deficit, an extra 200 calories a couple of times a week won't make much difference. But I've also arranged my calories so that I have lots more at the weekend, so tbh, I don't need to go over when I have beer and pizza. I am no longer working with and all or nothing attitude. It's much easier!