Have you ever had to re-focus??

Check out my fooddiary! Yes, I do "snack" but within reason. I absolutly LOVE dannon low fat, plain yougurt. I sweeten it with sweetener - sucralose. I add a half a peach, or berries, what ever i have on hand. A cup is 100 calories. I also eat the baby bel light cheese ( 50 cal for one) I get sugar free jello pudding (60 cal). My BEST advice is drinking something you enjoy. Get a large plastic cup, make an ice coffee, replace cream with unsweetened almond milk (30 cal/cup) add sweetener, or a glass of iced tea. Love good earth original tea, because its naturally sweet. ( tea bags, so brew n ice it yourself) i usually make it in the coffee pot. Anyways drink something at night, then have a small snack. You may not be super full, but you will be satisfied. If you go out and hit up fast food for a snack. Mc donalds kids sized fries are 100 cal. Their snack wraps - no sauce is about 130 cal then just get a packet of sauce, like honey mustard. Go to the website n check out the calories for their sauces. If you go to taco bell, get their cinnabons! 50 cal per cinnabon, 200 cal for the bags of four. Just make smart snack choices. Also if you know you snack att night, try taking a walk in the morning or get in some exra exercise. If you eat extra, exercise off your cal! You can do it. We all "cheat" a bit sometimes but do not letit become a habit. Changing your habits is the most important thing. I play candy crush or go online lol. Esp at night. Plus I typically have to cook nost of the food in my house. . I figure if Im too lazy to cook, I dont rly want it.

I've had to refocus soooooo many dang times, it's pathetic! Lately, though, I HAVE been able to lose weight and stick with my eating, the best I've done in years, actually. Three things that help me stay on track are that I preplan all of my foods the day before, and I make sure to try to eat two meals and two 200 calorie max snacks before dinner time...that way, I don't end and wreck the entire day by going gung ho at dinner time. When I didn't preplan, I wouldn't have the proper foods available to me, so I would usually say, "Forget it, I'll just skip eating at this time." or "Oh, no, I can't have that.", but with no substitute, I find myself STARVING and would inhale dinner, without being able to curb myself. I don't know if you do this, but I usually get so busy, during the day, that I forget to eat my snacks, or lunch and then, come dinnertime, I am famished and find it impossible to stop myself from overeating. My fix for that is that I program my cell phone with 3 additional alarms (with snooze!), that go off daily. I know it 's either my first snack-time, lunch, or my 2nd snack-time. I then stop whatever I am doing and make time for MYSELF. That is the third thing, which is most important and helps to make the first 2 things work beautifully. Do not be too busy to take some time out of your days to do for YOU. Preplanning your meals the day before takes about 15 minutes max. Preplan a substitute or 2, in case you aren't feeling what you planned the day before, but take the time, it'll be so worth it. Set reminders/timers for yourself! If you make it to appointments and meetings, all day, every day, no problem, for everyone else, then do this for you. I hope this helps you, as it has helped me, to stay on track....GOOD LUCK TO YOU!

To stop the night eating, sometimes you just need sheer distraction. Change up your workout routine, take a class, go sit in a place that doesn't allow food, etc. Or even find a new hobby that doesn't involve MFP or food. Part of it for me is crappy summer tv. Boredom turns me into a hungry beast!

You are awesome. Just don't give up.

I hit a wall with stress/schedule a few weeks back. I am only 14 lbs down and a long way to go. They chanted and shouted to push through, I got this, don't lose my focus etc. It sounded hollow when my life was swallowing me whole right then. Then one small voice, one super intelligent voice in the crowd said to just hold my place awhile. Go on maintenance and relax. My stress dropped as I ate mcdonalds more (because I wasn't stressing about the food). I began eating fast food more but trying to keep under maintenance calories to "hold my place" until I was ready again.

This worked like a charm. I gained less than a pound back and have recently resumed my efforts. I'm choosing to leave the calories at maintenance for flexibility for now but eating under every day the best I can. No set goal of how much to lose per week. Don't care. The journey is too long for me and I'm just proud I'm still hanging around on here.

Maybe it's time to mark your place for a bit.