1 Step Forward, 2 Steps Back

cicichirinos

Hi MyFitnessPal community! I am a 20 year old student. Right now, I am 5'3" and 141.5 pounds.

At the beginning of this year, I weighed 125 lbs. My goal was to get to 115 lbs and more importantly, 15% body fat. This was for the purpose of contemporary dance which is my hobby. I exercise regularly, I started lifting weights, and I started measuring out my food. Everything was going good... until a colossal break-up, tons of stress and illness took over and I found myself overeating and overeating. And in the last 2 months, I have gained over 10 pounds!

This is causing a lot of stress to me because I am a self-proclaimed fitness freak and my dancing means a lot to me. I'm in the gym every day, I even commute by bicycle! So the fact that my emotional eating is wrecking havoc on what could be a great body and also making me feel sluggish and bloated 24/7 and affecting my art is really getting under my skin. I have been having really worrisome thoughts about fasting and purging and so, I need to take CONTROL of the situation in a HEALTHY way. I read that logging exercise and food can be much more effective than just "working out a lot and eating kind of healthy" which I thought I was doing but then I would binge on junk every other day...

I will appreciate any pointers as I go off on this food logging journey, and I would love to meet you guys and hear your stories. I'm feeling alone and down on myself right now but I'm calling it quits on that right now!

ziolkoem

Hey there! I am/was guilty of the emotional eating too, you just need to keep your goal in your head and be doing it solely for yourself and the motivation will come! Chuck out any available junk food, and find healthy recipes that will motivate you as well! If you feel like having a binge, treat yourself to a clean version of whatever it is you're craving, trust me it works! Here's a couple of sites with great recipe's, and delicious junk "alternatives"

The third one is a facebook page but i'm pretty sure you can access it without having a fb or being logged in or anything!
Hope this helps a little!

http://www.theearthdiet.org/recipes.html

http://withpeanutbutterontop.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Recipes

https://www.facebook.com/CleanSpooning

em

P.s. if you have a smartphone download the whole pantry app, its got awesome recipes and nutrition info too (-:

cicichirinos

thanks for the recipes!! those look so yummy & way better than cookies or ice cream... I have all this junk in my house that I feel extremely guilty throwing away because it's such a waste of food and money... what to do!!

Khoes

Emotional eating does suck! Sorry for your break up, it seems relationships always make people gain weight in some way or form.

Logging food is a great way to watch your eating because you have the visible proof of what you've eaten and the nutrition that was in those foods. If you ever feel like fasting and purging is the way just remember all the negative things that come with both of those. Going down that road is not a road you want to be on!

Log your food and just stick with it. If you're really health conscious then go cold turkey and just stick with it! Treat yourself here and there, but realize that what you eat will show through your body! Also, find recipes you'll enjoy! I like baked sweet potato fries and mashed cauliflower! Both vegetables I would never eat raw, but cooked up are delicious!

akathatoneguy

I am far from an expert but I have a similar story in that I lost a total of about 40 pounds only to put about twenty of it back on. Now I'm working on losing again. And yeah, it totally sucks that it's so easy to gain back what takes months of discipline to lose.

To be fair, putting on muscle has been my primary objective but I do want to lose weight, also. The only real advice I can give is not to have a "perfect game" mentality. In other words, if you *kitten* up a day or even a week, just go right back to it and move on instead of beating yourself up and letting it continue. Also, momentum is a big deal and for me, building momentum is about making tough choices. If you can resist bad food when it would be really easy or convenient, that gives you a specific success to look back on later when you're tempted again.

It works the same for me with working out. I used to tell myself I *HAD* to get to the gym, and a couple of times I lifted at like 2-3 am instead of missing a day. It was hard and a little crazy but I think it was a character builder and it got me into the mentality of meeting my goals on a daily basis instead of always looking at the big picture.

Of course, everybody's different so what motivates me might not work for you and vice versa. Except for the not beating yourself up part. That's important.