Losing my drive and patience

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I officially started losing weight in a very healthy way at the beginning of November. I was 165ish pounds and wanted to get down to 145. Right now, I am still stuck at 151, 7 months in! I have lost exactly 2 pounds every month, no more, even at the beginning. I am starting to lose my drive, I only have 6 pounds more to go but this has been so much longer than I wanted. I did learn how to eat much healthier, but I've also had to give up eating out every weekend, pretty much eliminated all the rice that I was used to eating, etc. I feel like I have changed my lifestyle so much, now I even work out at least 5 times a week, and some days even double cardio; but the weight loss doesn't respond to all the changes! And it's frustrating to see people losing 40-50+ pounds in the same amount of time. 7 months, 14 pounds...it's just insanely slow. I just don't have the same determination anymore, I feel miserable when I think about spending the next 3-4 months still on "losing weight" mode. So pretty much, almost an entire year with my daily 1500 calories for just 20 pounds. I just want it to end :( I just want to move on to Maintenance and learn. This "weight loss" mentality is driving my crazy...

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  • thepetiterunner
    thepetiterunner Posts: 1,238 Member
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    I understand your frustration, but everyone is different. I find that it's best, for me anyway, to not compare myself to others. I can't possibly lose 40-50 lbs. I just don't have that ability, and it takes me a really long time to lose even 2 lbs. Everyone's body responds differently.

    You sound a little burned out. Why don't you just move to maintenance for a few weeks until you feel motivated again? There's nothing wrong with putting the "pause" on losing weight.

    I do have one question for you: What do you think is going to change when you go into Maintenance mode? You said you gave up rice and going out and are working out all the time and some other things and feel unhappy about it. If you're not going to continue to make these choices, do you believe you will be able to maintain this current weight?

    Your mental perspective is that you're in a deprivation, DIET mode. I would challenge you to consider this as a lifestyle change instead. When you don't feel like you're "giving up" things, life because much easier.
  • nespinosa3
    nespinosa3 Posts: 116
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    I do have one question for you: What do you think is going to change when you go into Maintenance mode? You said you gave up rice and going out and are working out all the time and some other things and feel unhappy about it. If you're not going to continue to make these choices, do you believe you will be able to maintain this current weight?

    Your mental perspective is that you're in a deprivation, DIET mode. I would challenge you to consider this as a lifestyle change instead. When you don't feel like you're "giving up" things, life because much easier.

    I just feel like I had to "give up" things, not a 100% of the time but I pretty much can't be eating rice every day, even not every week. There are some foods that are just not worth the amount of calories, and that's fine with me; I just thought that all these lifestyle changes would bring more results. Right now, for example, I just spent a weekend visiting and next weekend I'll also be visiting family. Both of those times, I just can't control the food, I do control the portion but still :S how much can I work around pizza/burgers? So it's just stressful that everything I do in 1-2 weeks goes away as soon as I have 2-3 meals that are not good. I just feel like at maintenance, if that happens, I can recover during the next 2 weeks; while in weight loss mode, any of those weekends just ruin my progress and it's even mooore time I have to add to lose this pounds.
    You sound a little burned out. Why don't you just move to maintenance for a few weeks until you feel motivated again? There's nothing wrong with putting the "pause" on losing weight.
    I have thought about it :( what makes me scared is anytime I eat more for a few days, I gain a pound...so at this point I have no clue of what my maintenance is...and I really really really don't want to gain even more weight
  • JennyHollyHansen
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    if you are not getting the results you want then maybe try doing it slightly different. What you are doing does not sound like it is working for your body.

    Instead of all the cardio maybe do weight training.

    If 1500 calories is not losing the weight move your limit to 1300.

    What kind of foods are you eating? For me certain foods like rice bloat me up. I am a big believer that a restricted calorie diet of potato chips will not get the same results as a restricted calorie diet of veggies.
  • nespinosa3
    nespinosa3 Posts: 116
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    Instead of all the cardio maybe do weight training.

    If 1500 calories is not losing the weight move your limit to 1300.

    What kind of foods are you eating? For me certain foods like rice bloat me up. I am a big believer that a restricted calorie diet of potato chips will not get the same results as a restricted calorie diet of veggies.

    So the thing is, this is actually the only time I've lost weight at a steady rate :S any other time I've tried I've never been "this" successful. So that makes me happy...I just haven't found a way of losing it even at a better rate.
    Moving to less calories wouldn't work :S because of all the workouts, then I start getting dizzy and I don't have the same stamina if I lower the calories.
    For food, I am eating lean meats (turkey, chicken), healthy fats (almonds, peanut butter, etc). For lunch adn dinner I have either potatoes or sweet potatoes (and I measure everything). I've eliminated eating out all weekend long and the desserts, which are my weakness.
    FOr working out, I do some cardio 6x a week, and weight training 2-3 times a week. I'm working on making sure that I get that 3rd day in every week.
  • basillowe66
    basillowe66 Posts: 432 Member
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    HEY, You have lost 14 lbs !!! Nothing to sneeze at. You were given a beautiful face and it takes work AND TIME to get to where you want to be. You can quit and gain that 14 back and probably gain more. Or you can improve your program an get to where you want to be. There are plenty of positive people here that will help you, but unfortunately, you have to do it your self!!
    DON'T QUIT


    Basil
  • nicolemontagna22
    nicolemontagna22 Posts: 229 Member
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    Are you taking pics? Measurements? In the past month and a half I did jillian michaels 30 day shred and started ripped in 30. I only lost 4 lbs but lost inches!
  • Rose6300
    Rose6300 Posts: 232 Member
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    Don't forget too that the folks that are losing 40-50 pounds in the same time frame you've lost your 20 started out a lot heavier than you did. It's easy to lose weight fast when you have a lot of weight to lose.