Losing motivation and it's only been a week !

jskaggs1971

Everytime I start to diet I seem to gain weight (according to my scale at least). I told myself I WILL not and CAN NOT give up this time. I think I'm just simply not going to weigh for a while. Does anyone else have a love hate relationship with their scale? I think I better take my measurements and just hide the scale.

Good on you for taking the first step.

HOWEVER

For as long as you think of it as "going on a diet", you are doomed to fail. See, going ON a diet means you will go OFF it later on. If you want lasting health and long-term improvement, you have to change the way you live, and how you relate to food and exercise on a personal level.

So, congratulations on taking the first step. Keep taking the next one, and then the next, and so on. Pretty soon, you'll look behind and not be able to see where you started from.

Raelene427

Make sure you understand this isn't a "diet". Its a life change. Also, dont weigh yourself everyday. My weight can change 4 lbs from in the morning to night. It just all depends.

Also, its okay to eat something you crave every once in a while just eat a small portion. Say you love M&M's. Pull out 5 and out away the bag (out of reach or away from you where you cant see it) then eat your 5 M&M's slowly and enjoy them. Its okay to even do this everyday, the key is moderation and sticking to it no matter what.

When you are eating, focus on whats going on in your mouth, take your time and enjoy every bite and all the flavors. After half your plate, stop for about 3-5 minutes and evaluate how full you are. Feeling like you are wasting food is hard, but just package it up and put it in the fridge. Even if its not very much, you may get hungry a little later and often times a few bites are enough to satisfy your hunger.

Stay motivated, summer is coming soon. Know in your heart that you can and will accomplish your goals and you will!

apotter347

I know what you mean I have been working out, watching my calories and in the first week you hear people that say "oh I lost 15 pounds my first week!!" well I havent!! I refuse to weigh myself until at lease a month in but I feel no different except im starving, sore and tired adn ready to eat a pack of brownies and do nothing because that seems to be the only time I see any results!! ansd not good ones!! im a mother of 3, 220 pounds and im only 26 I deserve to look good! HELP!! any tips! ive been doing jillian michaels 3o0 day shred and eating 1200 calories a day. Most times I dont eat dinner!

PaulEverton

You need to look at it as a Life change not a diet. I know how that sounds but its true. I had a very unhealthy life style for so long. So now I and my wife have changed things and work at it daily. MFP is a great tool to help you. good luck. Dont for get, if you do the same thing every day you will get the same results.

playdohpoet17

I will not weight myself any more frequently than once every two weeks, just because the pounds shouldn't be running off, even though you really want them to. I also try on old jeans once every two or three weeks just to have a better visual of the progress I'm making, and it's very inspiring! Good luck!!

Graciecny

BTDT, just a few weeks ago in fact. This is the first time in my life I have ever modified my diet or exercised. I started doing both and expected to see the scale start moving - and keep moving - that week. Turns out it didn't happen that way. I lost a pound and gained it right back. Overall, though, about 6 weeks in, I'm down about 7 pounds.

So...I get up this morning and gained 1/2 pound. This time it doesn't bother me. I now know my weight fluctuates significantly with TOM, salt intake, water intake, etc. So I didn't lose this week - or, more accurately, the scale didn't show a loss - but I know next week will be different. And if I hit the dreaded plateau, I'll deal with it. This isn't a phase, it isn't a lark - it is a lifestyle decision that I've made, and I HAVE to stick with it or I'll end up back in the same spot...the one where I couldn't climb a single flight of stairs without being out of breath. Unacceptable!

rileysowner

I've become a little bit of a zealot... Sorry in advance for all the long-windedness

I'm 50 and have struggle my whole life (I have 3 rail-thin sisters who I never measured up to)
I'm all about doing this for the long-term. Doesn't matter how long it takes as long as I can maintain.

Here's how I started:

1) tracking for a couple of weeks before I worried about losing.
(although seeing what I was eating I couldn't help but rein back a bit)

2) seeing where I could make small changes on things that weren't that important to me.
(Don't even think of taking chocolate out of my diet!!!)
--Reducing quantities where I won't notice it so much
--Swapping out things instead of eliminating them.

3) Look at my diary and started adding foods that had positive healthy effects specifically for the health issue in my family.
I found most of the things I "should" add were really yummy too! salmon, avocado, oatmeal, mango, red grapes....
(Sort of think of food as medicine to deal with family history of various health issue oatmeal is good for heart health, mango and red grapes lower cholesterol, tumeric and cinnamon good for arthritis)

4) every couple of weeks I see where I can make another couple of small changes.
If you completely revamp your diet, it's way easy to revert to old ways in times of stress. (and who doesn't have stress?)
If you make a series of small changes, food still offers you some sense of comfort.
sort of a comfort continuum, and after a while the first small changes will seem comforting in themselves.
You don't have to be perfect you just have to do better.

5) also rather than being uberstrict with the target MFP set for me I did the math to find out the calories needed to maintain my goal weight and my current weight and...
I gave myself a range with
ROCK BOTTOM: 1200 cal,
TARGET: lose 1 lb/wk as my target***
HIGH END: maintain my goal weight

As long as I keep within in this range I'll lose. I tend to naturally zig zag my calories 3-4 at very close to my target and then a higher calorie day closer to the top of my range.

SAFETY VALVE: As long as I stayed under maintain my current weight calories I won't gain. So no need to throw in the towel, just pick-up where I left off.

Once I found ways to lessen the stress, I found it way easier to focus on the process and let the results follow. (It's what worked for me some people need the stress to get them motivated. Me I get scared and overwhelmed and don't see the big goal as achievable. I only worry about it 1 lb at a time.)

***also once my lose 1 lb/week target was down to 1200 calories I switch to lose 1/2 lb/ week (1200 cal rock bottom, 1/2 lb/week as my target, maintain goal weight as the high end of my range.)

Food is not the enemy.
Oddly enough on my journey here I've reduced guilt over food.
I have the occasional treat and I fully enjoy it with no guilt involved.
The thing is since I'm not eating crap all the time the occasional treat is just that a TREAT it's special and I enjoy it so much more than when I was unconsciously shovel junk food into my face.

I figure if I've got a good plan that I can actually maintain I can keep this off for a long time to come, without feeling deprived.

Good Luck

Excellent approach.