HELP! Fell off the Wagon

BrandiLoveLife

I am one of those emotional eaters. I always have been. It is what I was taught as a child.....that and lack of education about proper food choices and portion control have all led to my current weight. Over the last few years I have been re-educating myself on those subjects.

Here lately, I have gone from going to the gym almost everyday to sitting at home thinking about going to the gym. My reason: I feel horrible becuase I did a bit of comfort eating to drown my feelings.

I have friends that can help, I am just usually relunctant to reach out to them. Well, now I am putting it out there. I need some help to get back on that proverbial horse and take care of myself again.

Nutrition tips/tricks to help make me stay the course, workouts to help improve cardio function and stamina any and everything you can think of to help would be wonderful. Anything to help me feel a little better about myself during the day to get me to move my feet back to the car and to the gym in the evening would be a wonder.

leslisa

I do abs in the am. It's gets my system revved and I don't need to be anywhere. Even 10 minutes helps. My philosophy is to find whatever exercise makes you happy. I run, walk, jump in waves, hike. I even power shop and count it (not many cals but hey, trying on clothes and finding that perfect $5 shirt is important!).

Don't worry how you look or what you've done. Each day is new and different. You are new and different each day.

Best of luck!:flowerforyou:

PJPrimrose

You fell off the wagon. Who doesn't? Get back on the wagon!

I would make some modifications to the schedule on that wagon, however.

I believe your body needs "down time" to recover. If you're not training for the freaking Olympics, why beat yourself up? They live, eat and breathe their chosen sport and have a world class coach to steer them in the right direction. I don't think working out every single day is optimal! I am in good shape. I work out 5 days a week. I do my sport (Martial Arts/kick boxing) 3 days a week. I lift weights to enhance my sport performance 2 days a week. Sometimes I'll take a tiny walk with my DH on my off days but nothing big deal. I am more energetic with down time.

Watch your calories. Do not starve yourself! Maybe you should up your calories and lose more slowly. Most people with long term success go slowly believe it or not. Maybe falling off the wagon is an emotional response to not eating enough calories. I cannot see what you are eating but I have found this to be the case with people who crash and burn the most often.

If you get hungry between meals fit snacks into your calorie count.

Watch funny cat videos if you're feeling emotional instead of snacking. Seriously, funny videos will tell your brain you are happy.

lawkat

I find that an all or nothing approach to weight loss will end with the person throwing in the towel. You have to look at each set back as a learning experience. For example, why did you emotionally eat? Next time, try to stop yourself before eating and think about how food is going to help the situation. I guarantee, food is not the answer.

What you need to do is dust yourself off and get to the gym. It really is that simple. Sounds like you are using this binge as a reason to not workout. That if you can't be perfect 100% of the time, then forget it. No one is going to give it their all, all the time. There will be times you overeat or have a bad day or don't workout. That is no reason to give up completely.

Life is full of setbacks. Learn from them and move forward. Realize that if you take a day off from working out, it is okay. Eating that extra brownie, is okay. It is when you see those as failures that you will fail.

You can do it.

Ferrous_Female_Dog

What you really need to do is learn effective coping strategies so that you don't feed your feelings. Get some self help books or see a therapist. You can learn all about health and nutrition until you have a PhD but unless you learn something else to do to positively process your emotions, you will continue to over eat.

crohnsfighter

Become curious about cooking.

Learn each ingredient of a recipe, see how different tweaks can have effects on your macro-nutrients. See how adding simple ingredients can make things taste better / different, and experiment. Cooking is a natural hands-on exercise that can stabilize mood, as well as contribute positively to your health

The more curious you allow yourself to be, the more information you'll dig through (this applies to life too )

BrandiLoveLife

Thanks guys. This is all very helpful information that I will start to ponder and impliment in my daily life.