support and encouragement

Vinjol03

Hi all
HELP
I have been a member now for 6 weeks and have lost some weight thanks to the encouraging stories and brillaint information gained from you good people on MFP. For the last week i have had headaches and colds which has left me feeling demotivated and lack interest in exercising. I am still eating healthy but have struggled this past week.
I will like to read from anyone who has had the same experience and how they overcame it. I DON'T WANT TO BACKSLIDE
thanks

mandylanerocks

hi & welcome!

first of all, we ALL blackslide.
whether we admit or log it.
I think sometimes I would even LET myself because I wanted to learn from all the experiences of what I could & could not do to completely & KEEP my new lifestyle change. & I wanted to see if I was even able to maintain my weight for a few weeks instead of keep losing.
plus, in my reality, things happen. you go out with friends & you enjoy yourself!!! you don't want to think about calories or food. you just wanna & need to have fun.
or you have a bad day & make bad choices, hopefully you learn from them, but its LIFE.

it took me almost year to lose 50 pounds. I had times in my life when I couldn't really stay within my calorie goal because of stress or just LIFE in general. I could have lost it a lot faster & I did try, but it just wasn't happening. I think, in the end, I was (& still kinda am) afraid that I won't be able to maintain it. so I would just not count calories for a few days or weeks... its true. I always logged on & gave my support... & attempted to log what I put in my mouth.
but in the end, I've still LOST 50 pounds.
because I KEPT going. every day. I had no intentions of stopping fully, whether I backslidded or took a break for a minute, it didn't matter. because I was still eating way better than I was before I started this journey.

you can overcome this. as long as you are still eating healthy, skipping out on exercising isn't so bad.

they say that weight loss is 80% diet & 20% exercise.

I hope this helped you.

cebreisch

When I first decided I wanted to start this journey, I was sick with a cold. I had decided that I didn't want to start really trying to lose until I was better. Fortunately, I really haven't gotten sick since. BUT I'm sort of of the philosophy that when sick, all bets are off. You have to do whatever you have to do to get better. (They say that even during lent, if your sick or pregnant, you don't necessarily have to fast or to do the whole "meatless friday" thing.) Don't be too strict while your sick.

As far as the backslide thing, welcome to being human! We all backslide. It's the "2 steps forward, 1 step back". Just make sure you're making more steps forward than you are backwards. Make peace with imperfection and know that it's going to happen - just try not to stumble to dramatically in the process.

Vinjol03

Cebreisch & mandylanerocks thanks for your advice. I am very hard on myself and will try and take it easy. I still lost some weight though - so you are right eating healthy is the key