Staying on track

mommabearbrandy4
mommabearbrandy4 Posts: 1 Member
in Motivation and Support

IIt Is so hard for me to just stay the course. I start out good, then stop. Too many temptations! Anyone else have this problem?

Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 36,075 Member

    Probably pretty much everyone, at least at one time or another. 😉😆

    I don't know whether this applies to you, but a common scenario is people cutting calories aggressively in pursuit of fast weight loss, adopting some set of restrictive eating rules (maybe one of the trending named diets), then stacking some new, punitively intense daily exercise on top of that. None of that is essential, and any of it makes the process harder.

    Personally, I'm a big advocate of making the easiest possible plan that leads gradually in a positive direction. Sometimes a slow weight loss rate gets us to goal weight in less calendar time than some extreme plan that causes bouts of deprivation-triggered over-eating, breaks in the action, or even giving up altogether.

    As a bonus, going slower and using more sustainable tactics can help us develop the new, positive long-term routine habits that help us stay at a healthy weight long term, ideally forever.

    This round, when I committed to lose weight, I decided I wasn't going to do anything to lose weight that I wasn't willing to continue forever to stay at a healthy weight, except for a sensibly moderate calorie deficit to cause weight loss. Along the way, I experimented and found new, practical, relatively easy, relatively happy habits I could continue almost on autopilot when other parts of life got challenging . . . because they always do, sooner or later, y'know? 😉 All I needed to do at goal weight was add back a few calories, and keep going with those same routine habits.

    I'm not saying that will work for everyone, but it's worked out OK for me, so far. The above, for me, was 2015-16, after around 30 previous years of overweight/obesity. I've stayed in a healthy weight range since, a few mild ups and downs, but all in the same jeans size, so IMO NBD.

    So, TL;DR: Can you think of an easier plan that would still gradually move toward your goal? It can even be a gradual series of small changes as you have time and energy for them: Those things add up surprisingly over time, and that time is going to pass regardless.

    Best wishes!

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