How to keep going past the half way point?

IrishgirlinSpain

OK, so am not sure if this has happened to others, but it def happened to me the last time I tried to lose weight and am determined not to fall into the same trap this time! I have a lot of weight to lose (7stone or 98lbs) and the last time I tried I got half way and then stalled...not because of any crisis, but because I guess I was feeling more comfortable with myself than ever before. I had lost a bit of weight, was feeling much healthier and happier, down a few sizes in clothes etc and got lax with my efforts.

So am trying again and am already 21lbs down, which is great, but I don't want the same thing to happen again! Anyone got any tips on how to keep going past the halfway point and stay motivated when there is a lot to lose?

SezxyStef

It is all in how much you want the ultimate goal...

No one can help you stay motivated that is on you...

_Zardoz_

To me there was no halfway point. There's just living this is not a short term thing with a beginning middle and an end it's my life. yes there have been and will be changes to my diet and exercise at points but my goal isn't to lose a set amount of weight it's to get healthier and stay healthy losing some weight is but a small part of that. Take a step back look at the whole picture and think of it as far more than reaching a number on the scale.

Congratulations on your losses so far and good luck.

Eleanorjanethinner

Yes! This has happened to me repeatedly (sometimes after only losing a few pounds). I start to look and feel better and I relax my logging/ exercise and then give up logging and slowly the pounds creep on again.

As for how to keep going - I'll watch the replies with interest to see how!

thundermum

I did exactly the same in 2012. Started back again in January & have lost about 16lb, wish I had the answer too but to my way of thinking you need to have a better understanding of the foods your eating (better relationship with it) keep up the exercise & ultimately want to reach your goal. Although I want to reach my goal I also want to eat the food I like & enjoy a decent social life....I'm working on it & upping the exercise until I find a calorie consumption I feel is liveable for me

weewdy

Dont think of the 98lb figure. I have about the same as you to lose and the way i have done it is small goals, i am at 46lb loss now and my next goal is 9lbs away. Also dont get annoyed if you dont see a loss one week. As long as your eating at a deficit you will lose. Keep going it will be worth it in the end.

IrishgirlinSpain

Thanks for all the replies and good advice...haha I guess sometimes I don't want to face up to the reality that it really is just down to me and my determination!

kitlynnJ

If you feel yourself starting to slip you could purposefully go into maintenance for a while. No one said you have to lose it all in one big go. Some people prefer to lose chunks at a time, others do well losing it all in one long marathon. You have to figure out what will work for you. Best of luck!

Brandolin11

I have a theory on this, but it's only a theory that applied to me, so toss it if it doesn't apply to you...

I believe that many, if not most of us overeaters eat to pacify pain, stress, and uncomfortable feelings. Deep down in our subconscious we are trying to "comfort" ourselves by eating too much rich, greasy, sweet, and salty food. And yet, we really end up making it much worse by gaining weight, feeling guilty, and feeling obsessed about eating more when we crave those foods. We live in a constant state of this back-and-forth tension, which piles more stress upon our original stress. Which causes us to eat more.

When we begin to diet and see some success, some of that emotional tension lifts from our shoulders. But not completely. We may feel a bit less guilty all the time, our bodies might feel somewhat healthier, and we might be getting some of our emotional needs met in other ways besides drowning them in food. But eating less junk and not overeating all the time means we're getting less of our traditional "comforts" that we feel we "need". We don't fix the real, deeper problem and habit of abusing food for emotional comfort, we just put a band-aid on it by dieting. So once again...the tension builds. But this time we don't have our comforts to, well, comfort us.

Thus, many of us spend the dieting process just "hanging on by our fingernails". It's mostly painful, and we want it to end. We're just looking at the calendar going, "how much longer do I have to do this??" We count down the days. I believe many of us are just trigger-ready to quit.

So when we start to feel better and lose some weight, get some compliments, our clothes fit better, etc. I think we say, "okay...that's good enough...I can't stand it anymore...I'm done." Even though we're really not done. In more ways than one, we're not really done.

We stop dieting and go back to our old ways of eating. And by old ways of eating I don't just mean the foods we used to eat. I mean the behaviors, too. The emotional satiation. The abuse of food to try to make ourselves feel "okay" with the world. And so we start to gain again...

If and when you are ready to tackle the emotional underpinnings of WHY you overeat, then and only then will you be able to go the long haul to the finish line. Dealing with your inner issues heals the wound, instead of covering it up with a band aid.

There are many wonderful books and even organizations out there which can help you figure out why you do what you do, how to stop doing it, and what to replace those behaviors with. One book I've recently read which really strikes a chord is called "Trigger Foods" by Rhona Epstein. There are many wonderful resources on the Overeaters Anonymous website as well. And of course you can do your own research and find what fits you, too.

Good luck... you can do this...it's just going to take some deeper exploration.

IrishgirlinSpain

There are many wonderful books and even organizations out there which can help you figure out why you do what you do, how to stop doing it, and what to replace those behaviors with. One book I've recently read which really strikes a chord is called "Trigger Foods" by Rhona Epstein. There are many wonderful resources on the Overeaters Anonymous website as well. And of course you can do your own research and find what fits you, too.

Good luck... you can do this...it's just going to take some deeper exploration.

Thanks for the reply and the pointers to the resources... I actually realised last week that I am a def an emotional eater, after a bad day my food for that evening was purely to make me feel better!

Brandolin11

There are many wonderful books and even organizations out there which can help you figure out why you do what you do, how to stop doing it, and what to replace those behaviors with. One book I've recently read which really strikes a chord is called "Trigger Foods" by Rhona Epstein. There are many wonderful resources on the Overeaters Anonymous website as well. And of course you can do your own research and find what fits you, too.

Good luck... you can do this...it's just going to take some deeper exploration.

Thanks for the reply and the pointers to the resources... I actually realised last week that I am a def an emotional eater, after a bad day my food for that evening was purely to make me feel better!

Well take a little comfort in knowing that you are SO not alone in that! And here's the thing: there's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to make yourself feel better!! It's one of the most basic functions of being a human to subconsciously find ways to keep our inner worlds at peace. It's the way we calibrate ourselves, help ourselves feel like life is "okay". Everyone wants that.

And there's absolutely nothing wrong with most junky foods, either, when eaten in moderation or at a deficit, and sometimes as an indulgent treat!

For some reason though, emotional eaters take that "need" and turn it into abuse. I'll say that again: we literally abuse ourselves by overeating. It puts weight on our frame, sometimes increases our blood pressure, sometimes gives us diabetes, sometimes causes addictions, makes us lethargic, makes us feel guilty ("why did I do that AGAIN?"), makes us feel hopeless ("I'll *never* reach my goal), makes us feel bad about our looks ("I'm so FAT in the photos, ugh!"), among many other negative things. And yet for some reason we're willing to endure ALL of that constant stress and tension......for 5 minutes of pleasure in eating a box of cookies, or half a cake, or a pint of ice cream.

5 minutes of pleasure traded in for a lifetime of stress. How much sense does this make?!

The cycle will NEVER end until you end it at the root. Going from the "top-down" by trying to eat carrots instead of cookies for a few months will never work, you know? You gotta start at the foundation of why you're turning to food, learn to change that thinking, learn to care for yourself, and learn to change the behavior.

And guess what happens when you do that? You find that moderating yourself isn't as hard as you once thought. Eating well becomes a joy - because you actually like yourself and want yourself to be healthy and happy. You finally understand that eating poorly and abusing food actually makes you incredibly sad and destroys your life. And you decide that's not okay. You want to be healthy, happy, and free, and you'll do whatever it takes to get that.

Thankfully, what it takes to get that...are all good things.

Lizzy622

One important saying "There is no finish line" at least not until I stop breathing.

fireytiger

I can relate to everything Brandolin has said here. I did all those things, I'm definitely an emotional eater. I would lose weight, be doing really well for about a month, and then go "oh heck with it, if I eat ONE horrible meal at burger king it won't hurt anything in the long haul". But then I wouldn't stop there. I'd end up going right back to my old ways. I can't tell you what it is about this time that's different, I don't know if i've really addressed those "emotional eating" issues. But I have, somehow, found a way to use moderation. A tip that I picked up from reading the blog RunsForCookies, If I want to binge on, say, chips for example. I will pour myself a serving or two of chips, and then tell myself if I eat those, and wait 15 mins, and I still want the rest of the bag, then I can have it. Usually, I find that i'm okay with the serving I gave myself. So far i've surpassed my usual failure point by almost double. Hopefully through sheer determination it will continue.

bennettinfinity

To me there was no halfway point. There's just living this is not a short term thing with a beginning middle and an end it's my life. yes there have been and will be changes to my diet and exercise at points but my goal isn't to lose a set amount of weight it's to get healthier and stay healthy losing some weight is but a small part of that. Take a step back look at the whole picture and think of it as far more than reaching a number on the scale.

Congratulations on your losses so far and good luck.

I'd have to second this... if you're coming into this with the right frame of mind, then there is no finish line and therefore, no halfway point.

But more to your question OP, you have to set a series of achievable goals and then work to achieve them. Speaking from personal experience, I lost between 40 and 45 pounds of my 55 pound goal and got stuck on a 4-month plateau.... except it wasn't really a plateau - I had become just complacent enough to stop my progress in its tracks. With the help of some MFP friends, I regained focus on my goals and the scale has begun to move again.

So set those goals, grit your teeth, and re-commit! We can encourage you, but YOU have to want it enough to work for it.

TheGymGypsy

There is no half way point! A healthy lifestyle is FOREVER!