What Made You Quit the First Time and Start Again?

First time,I stopped because I reached my goal weight.
"Nice," I thought, "now I can start eating normally again". So I stopped counting, and started eating. And slowly more and more bad eating habits crept their way back into my diet again. And then I got lazy with exercising because I never was fond of it in the first place.

Slowly, the weight built up again and my clothes got tighter. "Fine," I told myself, "I'll start losing that weight again, I've done it before, right? But I'll do it tomorrow because I can't be bothered today"
And tomorrow became next monday, next week, once the weather clears up, after the summer holidays... while the weight piled up and up until I was bigger then where I started.

At that point I told myself "See, dieting doesn't work. Obviously I'm meant to be fat. Woe is me!" And I ate some more because I felt sorry for myself.
In the end I got fed up with being fat, lazy and feeling sorry for myself, and joined here. I know I can lose the weight again, I did it before. For me the hard thing is keeping it off.

What I'm planning to do different this time is to not stop logging once I reach my goal weight, but to log for at least a year at maintenance to get the hang of eating properly. I'm also planning on adding more exercise to my routine. The first time I lost weight I barely exercised, and with hindsight the last few pounds were really hard to lose because I could eat so little.
I love my food, so this time, rather then eating less I'll exercise more so I can keep having my treats and nice meals every now and again.
I'm also making it my goal to find exercise I like so I'll do it for fun rather then because I have to, and that way I'll keep doing it.

For me, it's always been about instant gratification. If there wasn't an instant success, then I would quit. I always forgot that this is a journey and not a destination. This time, I'm working on changing my mind set and doing it for me (instead of for everyone else).

Went from 16st 7 to 11st 13 about 8 years ago. Met a girl, settled down, had 2 kids and comfortable living ensued. Gym stopped, takeaways and eating out increased. Got back up to 16st 7lb late last year. Missus left me in Oct 2011 and within a week was seeing someone else. I moved back to Mum's and the situation gave me the kick up the backside to build a new healthy lifestyle and start my fitness routines again. Got down to 12st 5 in last 6 months, and no chance of going back (despite stress causing the odd blowout). On a mission to become a PT/Nutritional advisor and be fit/healthy for my two wonderful children.

I lost about 7 stone a decade ago and then found a breast lump (which proved to be benign) but for a few weeks the stress of that took over my life and I think I associated finding it with being slimmer and I went off the rails and gradually put it all back on but have just got under the weight I was when I started that original campaign of weight loss so feel enthused to do it all again. Doing a lot more exercise this time too!

Bump

I have tried losing a couple times, but not putting forth 100%. I did not use any sort of apps or sites to help me though, which I think is very critical in my journey now. I quit after about 2 weeks of seeing no results and returning to me usual ways. I know I did not give it enough time then, but even then, I still do not think I would have seen much results without the knowledge and tools that I have now.

I'm older than most of you so have had more time to make dumb mistakes with food and fitness. I have been successful in the past with extreme calorie restriction, but once I went back to regular eating I had no control. The things I prefer are all empty calories, fat & sodium-laden.

Emotions play a big role for me. An unhappy family life gave me little motivation to lose weight. However, around time for a birthday ending in 0 I went on some wacky diet of my own devising and lost more weight than ever. I decided to leave the unhappy situation. I did pretty good at maintaining for a few years.

Your well-meaning friends and co-workers will try to sabotage you (maybe they're not so well-meaning) They will constantly say stuff like "life's short - eat some" or "There's no reason you can't have one"(when you know that you will have to have more than "one" and may binge the whole weekend behind "one" of anything. My trigger may be potato chips, you know what your trigger is.

At any rate, I maintained ok for awhile then a little weight started creeping on, but folks assured me that I had lost too much to begin with. . . then I quit smoking in 2009. No matter that I thought I was prepared for appetite problems I gained some weight.

I joined MFP in 2011. I wasn't really losing, I was fudging on my diaries (still do sometimes) and I had a grandchild come & live with me. I quit logging into MFP. Battle lost at that point. I have gained 13 additional pounds since 2011 when I was so concerned about my weight!

If you allow anyone to control your eating, success will be difficult. I am angry with some family members. I have allowed myself to eat a lot of potato chips behind that anger. I am trying to learn to express it instead of eat it, but sometimes I think I need fatty food and/or liquor to make everything better.

Good luck to you. I believe that if you change your mind you can change your body. We'll see. I enjoyed being "skinny" much more than being "fat"! I am now coming up on the next birthday ending in "0". I hope to be at a healthy weight by then and better able to maintain.

School and now I'm trying to get back to MFP

I was close to my ultimate weight goal but was happy where I was - I did well but then I moved and got out of habit of logging. I was able to keep my weight down until I found out my daughter was in her last stages of ALS. That killed me inside and my focus went to her with no concerns to me. I gained and now since my sweet young one has passed away I decided she would be ticked if I didn't take care of myself - I'm re-finding myself, emotionally, spiritually, and physically.

one cheat meal turns into a day, turns into a week, turns into a month, etc.

definitely this!