Starting fresh - how to mentally arrive there?

stephabef

Hi, everyone!

I'm back on the site after a few weeks of awful eating and slacking on my running. Definitely didn't feel good doing it, and I'm anxious to get back on track. However, I seem to have some sort of mental block that I'm having difficulty overcoming. It almost feels like a self-sabotage sort of thing. For those of you who took a break and came back, how did you remotivate and get back into your routine? When I started, it was a snap decision that propelled me through. Now, I can't seem to start.

LorinaLynn

I took just about all of January off from logging and exercise thanks to a stress fracture. I eased back into it slowly. (Started C25K again from the beginning so I wouldn't hurt my leg by going back to running full force.) I started with just logging my exercise, and then about a week later, started logging my food again.

MJ7910

I"m at the same place as you. I know i haven't done well the last few weeks but i have some mental block around changing my eating. i know there are things i need to do differently. i need to eat more protien, less junk. i need to not go over my calories. but i keep doing it over and over the last few weeks. so how to mentally arrive there i think it would be "just do it" mentality. whenever you find yourself going off track try to remind yourself about what you want to look like, how you want to keep this up. it is a lifestyle, i have not been acting like it's one!

MJ7910

I know someone else has to have some advice on this?

MrsLeibas

Well, I find every day to be a struggle to keep up with logging my food and getting some exercise in, especially the days that I work 13 hours (I'm a nurse) but I tell myself I need to be accountable to myself for my actions, and by seeing in on the calorie counter it makes me be accountable to myself. Yes, I have days where I have gone way over my alloted calories for the day or days where I didn't get any exercise in except walking the halls in the hospital taking care of my patients (which most days is 10,000 steps or more) but I keep at it. I know that eventually the scale will show progress as well as when the scale didn't show progress I can usually look at myfitness pal and my food intake for the week and know why I didn't see any weight change this week. Also one of my friends (who has completed an Ironman Triathalon and ran a marathon this spring in full firefighting gear) gave all of her friends some advice via facebook last night, which is that be thankful that you did something each day, it may not have been what you had set out to do that day but you did something, and also to remember what the "old" you looked liked and that every day you are taking small steps torwards your new goal! I hope it helps!

funkycamper

In the past year or so, I've been recovering from about 8 years of tremendous stress caused by a multitude of things. I'm on a quest to ensure that the next 8+ years are full of fun so I'm making my choices based on whether or not something sounds fun. If not, I'm not doing it anymore. (OK, laundry isn't fun but I'm talking about the bigger picture, not the mundane tasks we all need to do.) So, I'm seeing the things I do to meet my MFP goals as being fun things to do that are good for me. I choose exercise that is fun, challenging, and makes me smile. Is every second of every workout fun? Well, there are times, like in Tuesday's spin class, where I literally wanted to cry my quads were aching so bad but it was fun to challenge myself, push through it, realize I can do more and more all the time, and I sure enjoyed the satisfaction and pride I felt in myself when class was done. And I get the same kind of thrill when I up my weights in the weight room. I'm basically competing against myself and loving it.

I'm taking the same approach with eating. The concept of flexible dieting is a great thing for me. I zig-zag my calories throughout the week aiming to hit a weekly target rather than a daily one so I can always find a way to budget calories for a nice dinner out or other social event so I can splurge a bit, not feel the least bit deprived, and eat the special things that my taste-buds love. I'm also having a bit of fun playing with new recipes.

I don't know how to advise you on how to make the mental shift to this being a fun thing to do. I'm not totally sure how I did it myself. But life is really just a big game and you can play it with gusto making it fun or you can make it a chore. I choose fun.