Does anyone else find this exhausting?

Alexstrasza

I know just how you feel. I went through the same thing about a month or two back. It was just driving me crazy. Making me feel like every waking thought was about food and counting calories and macros etc.

I'm not entirely sure what changed. But I don't find myself obsessing as much anymore. Then again I tend to eat mostly the same stuff everyday, so food has become less of a huge thing in my life and is now just a "normal" thing.

wewon

I know just how you feel. I went through the same thing about a month or two back. It was just driving me crazy. Making me feel like every waking thought was about food and counting calories and macros etc.

I'm not entirely sure what changed. But I don't find myself obsessing as much anymore. Then again I tend to eat mostly the same stuff everyday, so food has become less of a huge thing in my life and is now just a "normal" thing.

Your profile pic is awesome!!

sandrajune72

Someday it will be a lot easier but you are in the process of undoing bad habits and replacing them with good habits..this is an exhausting process. Every time you get sick and tired of doing this, just think about the good you are doing for yourself and also your family (healthier mom = good thing!)
God Bless and good luck you have a whole lot of MFP'rs rooting for you!

^this^! :flowerforyou: right behind you hunni!! xx

Yellabutterfly05

This

The only thing exhausting for me is carrying the extra weight. I want to feel light again.

Goal_Line

I've found comfort in the planning. I plan meals 2 or 3 days out, and work out 2 or 3 weeks out. I feel like it puts me in control.

JeaninePaige

I used to feel just like that when I was doing Weight Watchers. I hated it and that's why I always seemed to fail.

With MFP I don't feel like that because it's so much simpler. You don't have to figure out points values, you just literally look at the label, type in the food and press enter. Also, I have found that the friends I've made here keep me so motivated. I see them working out and it makes me want to go and work out, too. I have also learned so much by reading the message boards. Literally, it's great that if I have a question I can get right on here and have it answered. It takes the guesswork out of things.

Yeah, I have times where I say to myself, "Ugh I really don't want to work out..." But then I go and get it done and I feel FANTASTIC. I also have times where I reeeally want to eat junk. But I think about it. Is this garbage going to make me feel better than having the body of my dreams will? The thought of reshaping and taking control of my body is a rush for me and I love it. I have never felt so alive before.

Put the frustration aside. Do you want this? It's not easy. But if you want it badly enough YOU CAN DO IT and you will.

nxd10

I already do grocery lists and meal planning every 2 weeks usually. I find though, that if I plan out what I will eat every meal/snack, I don't feel like eating it on that day and I go off track. So I'm trying doing it every week so I can get a bit more change when I get tired of it.
I think what's most frustrating is that I am thinking about food seriously, 24/7. I lay in bed thinking about it as soon as my head hits the pillow (thinking about healthy food choices for my next grocery list, I usually change my mind and write 10 lists throughout the list by the time grocery shopping day comes) I am on my computer or writing in my notebook to look for new recipes, or on these message boards. That's what is exhausting. I just don't want to think about food anymore!

I buy lots of healthy food and that's all I have in the house. Then I cook whatever I want when I feel like it. Otherwise I can get obsessed with planning and micromanaging my future. If I have something in my fridge I'm not sure what to do with I'll browse through epicurious.com 'til I see something that sounds good.

All my obsessiveness goes into logging my food (and spending too much time on this forum). I could see getting tired of doing that over the long haul, but I'm still learning a lot and definitely need it.

Dr229

I FEEL THE SAME WAY.

smartmom0818

I'm not in the mood for all this "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" b.s. today. Yes, being thin is wonderful. Yes, that is the goal of almost everyone on here. But she asked does anyone else find this exhausting so I will answer that: Yes. It's exhausting because it is not the norm for me. Are you saying you're going to quit? I didn't get that from you... and I'm not going to quit either. But dammit, this isn't easy for all of us and I hate that it comes off that way on threads like this. So yes, OP, this is exhausting sometimes. Sometimes I even wonder why I am doing all of this. Sometimes I want to quit. But I figure I will be exhausted either way so I might as well man up and do the right thing. Being fat is exhausting in it's own way. I try not to EVER complain on here... I have a journal for that. And if my journal ever magically tells me "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" I will burn the hell out of it. It's okay to get frustrated, OP. We just have to keep going, whether we like it or not. Such is life.

dorothytd

When my friends see me, they assume I am a normal person eating what ever I like.

What they don't know is that I constantly track my food everyday and exercise vigorously 2 - 3 times a week. It's a lifetime commitment.

Children become a lifetime commitment as well. Your health is no different.

^^This, for sure. Well, not so much friends, but people who didn't know me all those pounds ago. They think I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want. Ha. Every day is work and planning and scheduling the exercise... On those occasions when it starts getting to me, I WILL take a day off from the minute tracking and relax a little. But I figure, too, that the healthy lifestyle is like bushing my teeth, putting on makeup, etc... If I dwell on the fact I have to do those things every day for the rest of my life, I go crazy. So I just do it. One healthy day at a time. YOU are doing great!!!

wewon

I'm not in the mood for all this "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" b.s. today. Yes, being thin is wonderful. Yes, that is the goal of almost everyone on here. But she asked does anyone else find this exhausting so I will answer that: Yes. It's exhausting because it is not the norm for me. Are you saying you're going to quit? I didn't get that from you... and I'm not going to quit either. But dammit, this isn't easy for all of us and I hate that it comes off that way on threads like this. So yes, OP, this is exhausting sometimes. Sometimes I even wonder why I am doing all of this. Sometimes I want to quit. But I figure I will be exhausted either way so I might as well man up and do the right thing. Being fat is exhausting in it's own way. I try not to EVER complain on here... I have a journal for that. And if my journal ever magically tells me "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" I will burn the hell out of it. It's okay to get frustrated, OP. We just have to keep going, whether we like it or not. Such is life.

LOL! I like this post.

I agree, trite expressions almost sound like they're minimizing the OPs concerns/frustrations.

I think that everyone should keep in mind that when breaking a (lifetime) of habits it will always start off being anal, obsessive and exhausting before it becomes second nature.

JeaninePaige

I think that everyone should keep in mind that when breaking a (lifetime) of habits it will always start off being anal, obsessive and exhausting before it becomes second nature.

Definitely. For the first month of watching what I ate and exercising it was frustrating as all hell. I've never done either before. But then it just became second nature and it's not up for debate anymore. I get up and do what I need to do because this is something I want. It absolutely sucks feeling stressed and frustrated, but the way to kill that is to keep doing well. The reward will be the number on the scale going down and all of the great things that come with that.

chevy88grl

I know how you feel. I went through something similar earlier this year. I was seriously obsessing over food, calories, exercise, etc. I was slowly driving myself insane with all the worrying and obsessing.

I finally stopped logging my food and just eating "normally". I still read labels and I still eyeball serving sizes, but I can't count out 12 chips anymore or measure out 1/2 cup of rice. I have to trust myself (which is one reason why I weigh myself EVERY day) and I have to learn to live normally.

I'm happy to say that I've settled into comfortable eating. I eat what I want, I don't obsess over food, etc. I simply live. I'm still maintaining my weight, so I know what I'm doing is working for me.

melodyg

YES! One reason I left MFP for a year (and unfortunately left menu planning and regained lots of weight) is that meal planning/managing food felt like it was taking over my life and I had other areas I needed to focus on. I feel like I spend way too much time planning out meals with a good mix of protein/carbs/fat/not too much sodium that still allow me to stay under my calorie limit (and that is also important because of medical issues). Just choosing from healthy food doesn't work for me -- I end up with too little calories or too little protein. I don't like eating the same thing all of the time, so that means a lot of putting time in calculating nutritional information of new recipes, and measuring out everything. And I have a limited budget, so trying to fit all of that into not much money makes for tough meal planning.

I did subscribe recently to emeals Clean Eating plan, and that has helped a little. I don't love all of their ideas, but it usually gives me ideas for a couple of days. I have also developed over the years a few default meals that I try to always keep items on hand for, and I usually spend the evenings planning the next day's breakfast/lunch around whatever I am going to make for dinner the next day.

hesn92

I guess I don't see anything wrong with being "obsessed" with food. Everyone has to eat to survive. Nothing wrong with being conscious of everything you put into your body.

mainelymama

Keep obsessing. Sucks but its part of the process. I obsessed my way up to 264 lbs and am obsessing my way back down.

KittyMarie13

I know how you feel. There are some days where there is just so much else going on that the thought of having to cook, weigh, portion, or even put forth the effort to make a good conscious food decision just seems like the straw to break the camels back. Some days it seems like no big deal, but others (especially towards the end of a hard week) seem like sitting at the bottom of a mountain you have to climb.

I found some really good ideas on this site: http://www.ringaroundtherosies.net/2012/02/freezer-cooking.html . Maybe it would help to just spend one day prepping and have a bunch of crockpot options ready to go in the freezer so you could make/eat whatever sounds the best at the time without having to do to much food work on that day. If you do a large grocery shopping trip and prep/freeze a bunch of these options, plus pick up some make-it-tonight standby favorites, you could have a pretty good supply of easy meals that only require a crockpot on days where it all seems like too much.

Just hang in there. Eventually you'll get to a point when it's maintenance you're worried about and not loss. Now that I'm more aware of healthier eating I can maintain a weight without much effort... it's the stricter habits needed for weight loss that wear me out from time to time.

peterdt

I like the idea of planning as much as you can for the week too - takes a little extra time on the weekends but then you dont have to think too much about it the rest of the week. Also, once I got a routine of certain meals/recipes that I know will fit nicely into my calories, I just kept rotating those every week or two. And if you get bored, go to skinngirl.com or myrecipes.com and you can find something new pretty easily.

Something I noticed a year or so ago is that the skinnier/healthier people I know don't eat clean 100% of the time. They do as well as they can most of the time then they don't have to worry when they go out to eat or go to happy hour (as long as it's not a daily occurrance). It was such an aha! moment for me! I used to think they were so lucky because when I saw them at functions they'd be trying a bit of everything and drinking and not worrying about a thing, meanwhile I'm wondering how many calories are in this mini eclair and how much will it make my hips expand?! LOL!

Just knowing it wasn't impossible took a lot of pressure off for me. I knew as long as I did well with eating and exercising 80-90% of the time, it might take longer but I'd get there and it wouldn't be so hard. And it hasn't been. I still eat the foods I love, just in slightly healthier versions and in healthy portions - or I work my *kitten* off in the gym so I can "afford" the extra calories. Sure I go over once in a while (like today) but I'm still losing so why stress about it?

I agree with you there. I'd say for me I'm good 3-5 days/week and don't stay on my "plan" 2-4 days/week. When I go off it is usually not really by a lot, but sometimes it is. But as you say, I don't stress about it and get back on the wagon again. It helps that I've had overall good weight loss, 14 pounds in a little over 2 months. This is what is recommended anyway.

Also I don't "feel" like I'm on a diet. I have made huge changes overall though by making a lot of small changes. And I continue to make small changes. I still have a lot to lose but day by day getting it done.

I notice the people that have very fast weight loss are really strict and seem to be really focused on it. That is great for them. They are losing at double the rate and I am happy for them.

One big mental change for me is through a book I recently read, "Younger Next Year". It talks about how as we get older we can greatly minimize the effects of aging mostly through exercise and strength training. He also wrote a similar book just for woman. So, this was very hopeful for me. One thing he said, working out should be seen as my job. Something that needs to be done every day for my body to be healthy. I liked that idea and the idea of greatly slowing the aging process and gave me a new vision and hope as I get older.

nanasusanna

This is hard! Some days are easier than others. Do the best you can to plan but if life gets in the way, it gets in the way. Restart yourself but never throw in the towel. Try filling your time with things you enjoy, at least one thing a day as a non-food reward. Give yourself an "at a girl"!! It sounds like you've made awesome progress. Good Job!