How do I fight through a mental collapse of will?

Picture yourself where you want to be. You will be fine! You are going to make it! This is temporary. You can do this! Just know that the future you is much better than a tootsie roll right now!

I was like you for the past week or so.....you can do it! I have had to ask my husband to hide all the Halloween candy. I also realize that I can have a piece or two - just not twenty or thirty. You can do this!!! You have had great will power so far! You can do this!!! Another thing I found helpful was reading the success stories ( you are also a success story)

Today, I went and did strength training with my husband.....(he is in awesome shape). It has helped that he was there with me encouraging me.....is there someone you can go to the gym with or do your exercise with?? Mix it up. You can do this!!

YOU CAN DO THIS!!!!

OK, I've been on here for over 3 months now and have been doing a really great job. I've lost 40 pounds! However, I find that I seem to be collapsing in on all of my hard work. I'm binging on tootsie rolls and not really wanting to follow my calorie or exercise guidelines any more. I still want to lose at least 30 more pounds. How do I find the will power I started with and continue on this journey? I really don't want to backslide but I feel my resolve slipping. Help!

I looked at your profile to see if you identified why you started this journey and what you wanted to accomplish and why.

Here is what you wrote, "# My 25th High School Reunion is in the summer of 2011.
# My 2 kids and my dog who wants me to take her on more walks" Are these still important to you? Are you satisfied with what you've accomplished so far - do you still want to meet these goals? If you are happy with where you are right now, then just begin maintenance. If however, these goals are still important to you, then let them be your motivation. I saw you indicated that you still want to reduce your weight by 30 more lbs. If that is honestly true - then what do you NEED to do to accomplish that? We can all support you, provide encouragement, and offer suggestions, but the bottom line is that you have control over this journey. Only you can identify what you need and how to proceed from here. Are you tired? Do you need to take a break? If so, then do it. Giving yourself the "permission" to vary from your routine may help. I can only guess at the obstacles and the solutions - you have to figure those out for yourself to make this work.

Blessings as you continue to work towards your goal to a healthier and happier you.

Vickie

I have a talk with myself quite often. Bottom line - if you want it bad enough you get on with the exercise and eating right. You have to constantly remind yourself that you REALLY want it and WHY you want it. Get rid of the tootsie rolls - and anything unhealthy. Find low cal and healthier alternatives. We lost the same amount - my weigh in is tomorrow and I have 20 to go (may take another 5-10 off depending on how I feel). If I can do it - so can you! Good luck!

So I am new here. I struggled a lot in the beggining and I am doing better now. The only promise I made was to be honest with myself about food from now on and to do that by just logging in what I ate.

You said you binged on tootsie rolls. I looked it up. If you are eating mini tootsie rolls and you got them from a big box retail place and ate the whole bag, that is 240 mini tootsies. This I imagine is your worse case scenario. If this happened, you ate 5,600 calories. This would make you gain about a pound and a half. You can get back on course and the pound and a half will be but a bump in the road, or you can quit.

Don't quit. 40 pounds off is hard work. If it is now 40 instead of 41, so what?

You can obviously do this. Just dust yourself off and go on a little walk with your dog or take your kids somewhere fun and active.

40 pounds in 3 months is quite a bit, that's an average of over 3 pounds per week. Maybe you were so into it that you dove almost too deep too quickly. I started two weeks ago, and the first week I lost 4 pounds, the second week 3. I'm VERY into it...but I also am asking myself if I'm going too fast...and that if, once into it for a few months, I'll burn out, eat an entire pizza or something, and drop out of the whole thing. Maybe what you could think about is re-adjusting your expectations for the next 30 pounds. Go slower, add a few "goodies" into your day, aim for losing 1 or 1.5 pounds a week instead of twice that amount. You'll still get there, probably enjoy yourself a bit more, and possibly stay more motivated. Switch up your exercise routine, do something different...start a new hobby...shake it up a bit. Maybe that will help? I'm already trying to strategize for when I slow down on weight loss, or hit a plateau, or burn out a bit, something I'm sure will happen. You've done a great job so far, let yourself celebrate a bit, then develop a new strategy that keeps you motivated! Good luck!

Does this look familiar? Focus on the reasons below and get yourself back in line with them.

Why I Want To Get In Shape
As I get older, the body starts to begin to complain about all the extra weight I'm carrying - especially my knees - they don't like me so much right now. I need to do this for myself and my health. I used to be athletic and I'd like to get that feeling back again.

My Inspirations
•My 25th High School Reunion is in the summer of 2011.
•My 2 kids and my dog who wants me to take her on more walks.

Perhaps the intensity of your first three months is not a level of intensity that your body can easily maintain? If this is the case, make every day sustainable. We are doing this every day for the rest of our lives so we need to be able to (and WANT to) repeat forever.

I used to work out WAY too hard and restrict my calories too much. The weight came off, but always came back on. Once I decided to be a little less intense, the weight came off steadily through easily maintainable changes.

YOU CAN DO IT!!!

Charmagne