Desperately seeking support !!

You can do it--start over what is 1 more time--that is what I tell myself--I have been doing this since May and have only lost 14 pounds and I have alot more to go--and I have my sons wedding in about 12 weeks so I will never get to where I want to be BUT i KEEP TELLING MYSELF NOT TO QUIT---even if I lose 20 pounds that will be better than nothing!!and when I have a bad weekend i get so upset but i start again and know even after the wedding I will keep doing this because I want it for me!!!SO want it for YOU!!and keep trying--I know how hard it is to lose 2 pounds go out to eat on the weekend and gain 3 punds but I start again and knowing other people are trying again and again gives me the courage to keep going---so you can do it ---you can do it!!!have faith and start again---GOOD LUCK!!!

Borgi, Thanks for sharing. I like those tips and I will use them as well. Good Luck Desperately and know you can always find support here.

Hi,
I feel like I can really relate, because I have been down that road. In fact my last and biggest "fail" took me a couple years to recover from and get things together to get back on track. I really hope it doesn't take you that long so I will share some things that have helped me.

First of all, I decided that one reason leaving the diet and staying off was more attractive than staying on it was that I always felt deprived while I was dieting. So once I finally realized that, I recognized that for a diet to work for me, no food or drink can be truly off limits. Working within the allotted calories does mean I have to limit how much and how often I have certain things, but they are still available. Plus I have given my self to cheat and once in a while, like two or three times a month, and go slightly over my calorie limit.
Maybe for you it is different, but maybe there is some other bad emotion or feeling you struggled with while on the diet that you are finding it hard to return to. If you can figure out what that was and how to get around that feeling, you will probably be able to enjoy your diet more! It sounds like cheating for a little while really messed up your whole diet, so you may need to allow yourself more grace this time!
Another thing is that you need to be real with yourself about how badly you want this and why. If it is something that you feel you absolutely must have, for the rest of your life, so you can really experience it, then get patient and learn to enjoy doing things with your body as it already is.

Several years ago on my diet when I lost a lot of weight, I was actually at what my goal weight is now. At the time I just couldn't see it though, or appreciate that I was already THERE! I still felt fat and ugly and frustrated with myself. So this time around I have been having talks with myself about appreciating all the things I currently can do, and feeling good about it even though it may be overweight. I have a confidence in my body at 230 pounds I never had at 140, and I really believe it is this confidence that my 230 pound body is going to be able to do what my 140 pound one couldn't - get stuck on a diet for the long haul.

I learned a lot of that from reading the testimonies of people who had lost half their body weight in People magazine. Most of them seemed to have this mental transformation prior to starting the diet in common. They decided that even if all they could do at first was walk to their mailbox and back everyday, they were going to do it until they could do it twice one day. They had a fire and desire to do it that came from themselves and not those around them.

Well, I hope this helps you, or someone else. I really do feel that a lot of the battle of a diet goes on in your mind, so if your mind is unhappy on the diet it won't last. Get happy to get fit! Not the other way around!

My husband has needed and tried to lose weight for years, and the only thing that has worked for him is training for a marathon. So I recommend setting an exercise goal like that. He's motivated to run, and the running somehow keeps him from eating the wrong foods. So if you like or at least don't mind running, try training for a 5K, then a quarter marathon, then half, etc.