Drowning in a sea of failure! Help please!!!

Ellastrong

Reading these posts is perfect timing for me too! We can have the life and body we want, but don't wait for tomorrow, do it NOW!!

RMinVA

Uhm, not to sound mean if I do, but if you can't stop eating then chances are maybe your not ready to lose weight yet?

You can't just want to diet, you need to do it. And I don't think anyone but yourself can decide when your ready, but it doesn't sound like you want it bad enough if you can't stop eating

I was going to say this as well. As someone already said, something has to "click."

I thought I was doing everything right, but my weight wouldn't budge. I was exercising and eating healthy, but the scale wasn't budging. I went to a doctor's appointment and even though I knew "calories in <calories out = weight loss" for whatever reason, it hit me on the head like a ton of bricks when he said it. Both of my parents were type 2 diabetics and I knew I was a ticking timebomb. I was healthy, and I wanted to stay that way.

While I said I was eating healthy, I was eating too much. I started weighing food, measuring portions and counting cals. Boom.....lost 30#. I also stepped up the exercise from just walking to running and biking and I added in weight training. It happened over time, but I am now ready to do my first sprint triathlon in a few weeks...@ the age of 49. I have maintained a 50# loss for over 3 years now. I didn't go on a diet, I changed my life.

Ask yourself, how badly do you want this?

robin52077

Look at the quote on your signature and change it to this:

When Thomas Edison was interviewed by a young reporter who boldly asked Mr. Edison if he felt like a failure and if he thought he should just give up by now. Perplexed, Edison replied, "Young man, why would I feel like a failure? And why would I ever give up? I now know definitively over 9,000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work. Success is almost in my grasp." And shortly after that, and over 10,000 attempts, Edison invented the light bulb.

You cannot succeed if you don't try and if you try you will fail and sometimes fail again. Keep pushing.

I post below a little blog entry I wrote about 6 months ago. I have changed my life in the last year and if I can so can you. Hope this helps:

March 2011

I have to date lost around 40 pounds. Have another 25 or so to go. This is no longer about vanity; we’re talking life and death now. My ticker is ticked off and will brook no more nonsense from the rest of the body politic.

Live fit or die, that’s my motto.

Some lessons learned long the way:

None dare call it diet. Diets are like most of my relationships before I met my bride: Short, usually painful and always destined to end badly. Need a label? Call it md-life crisis, a change of life (but don’t say style, people that use the term life-style usually have neither), a message from God or Gaia or your own brave and lonely stand against the International food conspiracy.-Brothers and Sisters, put down your forks- you have nothing to lose but your chins!

But call it a diet and you have already lost the battle. Now you’re just waiting for the proper authorities to accept your surrender.

Exercise. Like your life depended on it, cause it will eventually and already does in my case. The SEALS say the only easy day is yesterday. Words to live by. Mix weights and cardio and anything else you can think of to get your lazy butt off the couch. If you run out of everything else dig holes in the backyard then fill them up again. It will drive your dog nuts and give your neighbors something to think about.

Plateaus. Sooner or later, you will hit one. Count on it. Here’s my advice: GET FROSTY. Counting calories? Count em twice to make sure. Working out? Work out harder and differenter.

Weigh yourself weekly if you must or monthly if you can but not every day. Scales are wonderful for maintenance but the moral equivalent of thumb screws when you’re trying to shed weight. It will torture you with quarter pound losses followed immediately by two pound gains. Don’t give the damn thing the satisfaction. Just put down your progress chart and step away from the scale, nice and slow ,nobody needs to get hurt here...

Habit or Hunger? The great physicist Richard Feynman once said that the first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you're the easiest person to fool. If it goes into your mouth it's going to end up somewhere, probably just exactly where you are trying desperately to get those jeans to button. So ask yourself: Am I eating from habit or hunger? If you are really hungry, rate it from 1 to 10 with say 1 being five minutes from now I won't remember why I am in the kitchen and 10 being lost at sea for a month and a half. Putting things into perspective instead of your stomach is calorie free.

If you are a heavy drinker, stop and don't start again unless and until you think you can handle it. I went from Dean Martin to mostly teetotaler and do not miss the hangovers or liquor bills. Also I can now afford better cognac and scotch because it lasts damn near forever. A million reasons to avoid the stuff but mostly I shun the empty calories.

To all of you out there, remember the road may be long and strewn with obstacles and wrong turns, but you are not alone so if you feel yourself faltering or getting lost in the fog just grab ahold of the virtual arm of that person next to you. Then, when you can, pass it forward.

I LOVE this!



(and FractalFaery, reply sent to inbox, I have a few questions...)

Keira424

You need to get your head right first, then get organised and then get started.

work out all the reasons you sabotage yourself, all your excuses for not eating right and exercise, write them down, think about them and find solutions, work out your goals and what you want and then plan your attack to reach your goals. Once you have your head in the right mindset, only then you can truly get started and complete what you want.

remeber its only you who can achieve this, no one else and in the end you are only cheating yourself, why not just do it, once and for all and then get on and enjoy your life, be healthy and active forever, then you can focus on other things that are so much more interesting and rewarding.

As far as I know, you only live once, so why waste anymore precious time and start your journey to the new improved you, put that food down, step away from the fridge, you dont realy need it!

All the very best!

Keira424

Great post! so motivating, thankyou.

＊Nikki＊

I too had/have this trouble but i think i finally have it uner control. I found what worked for me was reducing carbs slightly as i find they make me want to binge more if i have too many, I also have cut out sugary products except for diet fizzy drinks (these are my lifesaver atm.) I know they are not good for you so i will eventually cut them out however atm if i am hungry and have had my meals i have a fizzy it tend to take the edge off and stops me going to the cupboard. I also plan my meals i plan for the whole week and have the same meals every day for that week (boring i know but it seems to work as i know what i can have and it doesnt change so its asthough i dont think of other foods. I also chew alot of gum as i find that helps as it gives your mouth something to do
Although i do all the above i also had to find the motivation and i found mine by looking at old pictures of myself and thinking if id have just started when i first joined on mfp i would have lost more weight by now, i dont want to look back in a week/month and regret not trying i want to look back in a month and see how much weight Ive lost.

good luck hun x

IsMollyReallyHungry

bump!

melvac

No not sick of hearing you we all have challenges we must overcome if you want to make this happen for you. You are totally in control. I am kinda the same way. This is what I did I just could'nt stop eating, I had a gastric bypass in 2006 and even though I can't eat large amounts I have learned I can graze all day and what I was doing was grazing on the wrong foods. Example I would open Graham Crackers, Eat 1 or 2 and before I knew it the entire box was gone..
What I am doing now is taking it a day at a time, I am now calling it a Health and Fitness Challenge. I am eating small amounts every 2 to 3 hours drinking a lot of water, taking my nutritional supplement and getting up moving. I don't do a lot of exercise but I faithfully walk every morning with out fail, that also curbs my appetite, I have been doing this for almost a month and have lost 14 pounds. What I was told if you try not to eat skipping meals then you body goes into what we call a famine mode and starts to store fat for energy, and guess what you start to gain weight. By eating small balanced meals through out the day it keeps your matabolism up and helps the appetite.