Falling off every other day any advice

Hello all

I'm looking for someone to tell me how to stay on the wagon ! Late last year I quite happily started my first proper diet ( healthy eating and working out ) this worked fantastically dropping around 30 pounds in 90-100 days I was ecstatic but as Christmas came around and me being off of work over the whole period I stopped my healthy eating and thought I would restart in 2014 .

I have been on off dieting for 4 months since then and I have regained 6 kg since my lowest weight which is demotivating in itself but now I have a goal which is a holiday beginning June 26th. I've set a target to lose 1-2 pounds for every week left before the holiday I believe it to be around 8 weeks so at best 16 pounds ! I've also started insanity again 2 days ago but have very sore muscles so am waiting for them to recover before continuing .

I am a car mechanic so work quite physically at work but am easily agitated and tend to find if I get into the slightest of bad moods the first thing I do in my head is quit my diet ! Usually I'll have eaten great all day get home eat healthy dinner and then all hell breaks loose ! I may even have a second dinner usually some form of fast food and blow the calories way over even my high maintenance and convince my household I'm done with dieting .

I sleep I wake up I regret it and start over again . Now this has happened twice already this week I used to not log my weight after one of these binges but I've just done that today so I can see how these binges affect my goals ! I will still probably make my target this week but why can't I just be more strict or why can't I stop food being my turn too cure for a bad mood !

I'm not particularly overweight I'm just above healthy bmi but I really feel close to being really happy with my appearance I think 15-20 more pounds I'll be ready to start bulking up and gaining more muscle so please guys give me some help and motivation !

Thanks guys

Replies

  • Fattymagooo
    Fattymagooo Posts: 15 Member
    I wish I could give you an easier sounding answer but it's all about taking it one day at a time and making sure you do your best for that day, because you have no control over yesterday or tomorrow. Also when you think about throwing in the towel just think "if not now, when?" And about all the reasons you want to lose weight in the first place. Something else that might help is to just eat anything you want but in moderation. It makes it easier to keep your mind off of food. Also, remember that food is not supposed to be an emotional crutch and doesn't make you feel better in the long term. When I'm trying to watch what I eat I can only think about my restrictions and how I really just want to eat a bunch of food and how maybe I'll feel better, but then I cave and it doesn't feel good. It doesn't make me happy short term nor will it make me long term. I hope any part of this rant helps.
  • webbo20
    webbo20 Posts: 32 Member
    Thank u so much for ur reply and ur actually right almost immediately during eating the wrong sort of food I was thinking damn what a waste of a day the scales would most likely have gone down of I hadn't cheated so badly and I would feel a lot better in general ! The types of food I love to indulge in are so bad for me and have many side effects like stomach cramps bloated can give u spots and stuff too as very greasy ! There are no good effects of the food and the more time I spend not eating them that when I do eat them I actually start to realise how bad these things taste too !

    An observation is although I get a lot of sleep i do now have 2 very young children one of which wakes at night and also I have a physical job so I think tiredness also helps me get into a bad mood quickly and thus it seems easy to not care what I eat .

    Frustratingly last time around I didn't have any trouble staying committed I was just so happy I had discovered how to loose weight and had managed to achieve weight loss I was scared of reverting back , this time around as I know how relatively easy it is to loose weight I think I just always know in my mind that it won't matter now as I can loose in the future but that's the worse frame of mind to have !!
  • bfitgirl
    bfitgirl Posts: 138 Member
    Hi,

    By the sounds of it I think you underate a bit the first time you lost weight (I'm no expert here) but 30lbs in 100 days means that you lost on average 2lbs a week

    When I first when on a 'healthy' diet I lots tons very quickly and I was adhering strictly to it and thought it was great, "a lifestyle choice"...23% to 15.5% bodyfat in 3 months, however real life kicked in, I felt and looked great (dieters high perhaps?) and started to indulged in my 'not allowed food' then I'd restrict again to try and lose the weekend binge lds, it can be a cycle thats hard to get out of mentally. I never got around to eating at maintenance at all, just overeating then restricting. I took a diet break when eventually I felt so bad (4 years of this way of eating just left me exhausted) I just ate until I felt full, gaining 8kg and 5% bodyfat within a matter of weeks!

    Now after a year I am back to try and sort out the 8kg gain but I am doing it with eating just about everything I thought I'd never touch again, bread, rice, lovely carbs, always incorporate them into my calories now. Friday night takeaway night, Saturday morning cafe breakfast with family.

    If you put your general details in the below link and set it as moderate to very active you will probably see that you are just about eating at or below your BMR. I have my deficit set at 750 calories (allowing for margin of error on guestimating food weight) and I eat any exercise calories back, I also have a few nights out so I am only losing about 1kg a month and I plan to change it to .5kg pm loss closer to goal to get into a maintenance mode. So realistically it could take me 10 or so months.

    http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

    Its a mind game alright!!
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    stop 'dieting' and think 'healthy lifestyle'.

    log your cals, stick to your goal, eat some fruit and veg and enough protein, include the odd treat, do some regular exercise and if one day you eat cake and go over your calories, dont beat yourself up about it...
  • kuolo
    kuolo Posts: 251 Member
    Hi there, it sounds like you're being too restrictive and probably not eating enough. If you're nearly at a healthy bmi already you should probably be aiming for half a lb a week weight loss rather than 2lb. Try setting your mfp goals to that and eating back most of your exercise calories. It will be better to lose 5lb by your holiday than none at all.

    Also if you are struggling because you are restricting certain types of food, see if you can find a way to incorporate them into your calorie goal without needing to fall off the wagon and write the day off. Yes it will mean having less and less often but it sounds like you are struggling with an all or nothing approach.
  • TXEXrunner
    TXEXrunner Posts: 178 Member
    Not sure what all you use for motivation but staying committed to a healthy routine for your children would be a good one. Your goal is one you sound like you want to hit and then maintain. This is not a few months activity but a change that will mean a different lifestyle of the long run. Take it a day at a time. It sounds like you don't log your diet info when you have a bad day. Commit to logging - truthfully - every day; good or bad. If you don't like reporting the bad news (I don't when it happens to me), that too can motivate you to take corrective measures before you indulge in something out of your routine.
    How much water are you getting daily?
    Have you considered meal planning? Others on this site seem to benefit greatly from this, as long as they stick close to plan.
    Do you have accountability partners (in person or virtually)? Who are your cheerleaders?
    Have you considered that weight is not the only measure of progress? Are you also looking for changes in particular parts of your body that can be measured? Alternate measures may help give you other successes to celebrate.
    Good luck with your efforts - you have made noteworthy efforts and progress in the past and can get through this "phase". You can do this!!
  • webbo20
    webbo20 Posts: 32 Member
    Thank u all for ur replys yes I think the key is to be less restrictive my partner keeps telling me this too and also trying to loss to much too quickly ! I need to slow it down but get frustrated at slow progress I'm that sort of person ! I will take all of ur advice try to get my motivation sources right and then try raise my calories to something I can live with more easily I think I need to incorporate more appropriate exercise like walking or cycling to work instead of insanity or bouts of heavy weight lifting I should do a more leisurely activity that I can do without being completely destroyed for days after the thing I most turn to is fast food u just can't really eat it on any sort of diet as it's just a waste of calories I'm not a cake or sweets sort of person .