When did you realize you were doing it wrong?

I have noticed the longer I have been on my journey, the way my whole mindset of food has completely changed. When I started I did all the fad diets out there, followed crazy restricted diets, like no salt, no fat, super low cal, because all I cared about was losing weight, just as long as the scale went down I was happy. I would lose, couldn't handle the crazy restrictions, and would gain all over again. This repetitive cycle of gaining and losing I am sure is all to familiar to a lot of people out there. It was mostly about appearance, never really cared what the crap was doing to my body - and health? What was health, as long as I'm skinny that means I am healthy right?? WRONG! After having this mindset for so many years, succeeding in the short term, and never fully reaching my goal and going backwards, I obviously realized I was doing something wrong.

It is kinda crazy to say a documentary changed my life, but I owe the new me to them. They made me open my eyes and realize how wrong I was. Nutrition is key! Getting in vital vitamins, minerals, and nutrients from food is what matters for your body to function how it is supposed to and for you to be successful on a long term journey. These few documentaries made me take ownership of all the mistakes I have made and stop being ignorant and open my eyes to knowledge. I started researching all things about vitamins and nutrition and the importance of it in our bodies, how it can cure illnesses and bring you to optimum health. I have so much more knowledge on health and nutrition and proper diet that I never had before. I used to believe what everyone else said to be truth. No longer. What others say may peak my interest, but I actually take the time now to do the research to see if it is something that can benefit me.

I have finally learned how important it is to be good to my body. I am no longer just trying to lose weight to look good, I am now doing this to get healthy, and the weight loss is a wonderful benefit. Why not kill two birds with one stone? lol Can I lose weight eating junk? Yeah probably, but am I feeding my body the proper things it needs? not so much. Do I still mess up and eat things I shouldn't? Of course, no one is perfect, but I do it very seldom and seek to find better options to meet a craving. in the past I would eat a bad meal and say f**k it, just ruined my day and kept eating crap and sometimes kept it up for days. i no longer do that. I have learned the easy route is not the best option. Our bodies are very resilient and can do amazing things and they deserve to be treated well. You take care of them, you will start reaping the benefits, more then just weight loss. This whole change in my mind has changed my entire life. I no longer take the easy way out. I take the time to prepare my meals from scratch the majority of the time, making sure I get in the all important veggies and have come to love cooking now. No more easy convenience things that are probably three times smaller then my healthy homemade meal and no where near as tasty! I have come to find that once I cut those things out of my diet, I no longer craved them! I crave healthy things now, not processed junk, and a lot of the times when I do fall off and eat bad food, it doesn't taste how it used to. My body is used to having nutritious wholesome food now, definitely has changed my palate and has made resisting most not so good for you foods because they just don't taste so good anymore. I have learned that I can indulge every now and then and not feel like I have cheated, this is my lifestyle and those few higher cal days than normal can actually benefit, not harm.

I have realized the importance of exercise and why I need to incorporate it into my lifestyle. I wish we could all wake up one day and just love working out, but for a lot of people it is definitely a process and getting in the habit can be hard, and in my crazy yo yo dieting days, I never exercised. I would drop the weight still being the lazy girl I was, not really thinking, hmm, I'm probably losing muscle, not just fat. I now know it isn't just about the food, which definitely is the major component, but being active and moving your body is just as important. I can see myself over 10 years ago at the weight I am now, and I look completely different. I look slimmer and not puffy and I actually am starting to have a shape. All because I work out now. I can lose weight without working out, that was an excuse for me for a long time, but again, why not kill two birds with one stone? Why lose some fat and some muscle to have to work super hard once I lose the weight to build my muscle back up again. Come to realize it is a waste of time by not doing both at the same time. Again simple, but the mind likes to play tricks on you.

So when did you realize you were doing it wrong? How many of you out there are lifelong dieters like myself and have finally learned what they need to do to stay on the road to success? Have you found certain things that you have now changed so not to repeat the bad cycle of gaining and losing?

And for all you newbies out there, what made you come to the decision to take the leap and start working on getting healthy? Anything major that played a factor or just plain fed up with the way things have been? Are you finding things to be a bit easier having all this support on MFP?

I know this isn't guaranteed, it will always take hard work and dedication, but every time I have lost weight in the past, I never hit my goal, and always figured I would fail and I did. I no longer think that way. As much as I may get discouraged or frustrated, that thought of failure is no longer in my mind. I fall off the horse, I get right back up and keep going because if I don't, I will just go back to that lazy sad girl I was. But in my mind I know this is the last time and I will get to my goal this time.

Would love to hear your stories and thoughts, I am sure we have a lot of reformed yo-yoers on here

I think I am still doing it wrong. I have a lot of allergies and some of the healthy foods that I use to love I can no longer eat. I am having trouble creating recipes or cooking my veggies to make them different and good. I also hate peppers, and honestly it pisses me off because it would be so awesome to make stir fry, my boyfriend loves them so often I make myself some kind of veggies and then his, I am allergic to carrots, yep, use to carry them around and snack on those, a lot of fruits with the pit in the middle and even almonds. I just find that when I am trying to eat healthy I am more limited because of this. I have been preparing food for the last two weeks but seriously need to find some good ideas for supper. We have limited our carbs right now, not long term but just as a purge to try and get ride of cravings, but shortly I want to be able to enjoy some good healthy carbs.

Another good one is Sick, Fat, and Nearly Dead....also on Netflix right now. It's geared toward the morbidly obese, so doesn't apply to all of us, but it is very inspirational.