YO-YO DIETERS, ENDING THE CYCLE

Hello TAGSSKEE1! I am a yo-yo dieter, too, but I haven't really thought about what my triggers are. Thank you for your post, because it's got me thinking that identifying those triggers would probably by very helpful in ending this crazy cycle.

I've spent a lot of my adult life gaining and then losing and then gaining back and then struggling to lose again. It's non-stop for the past 20 years, really. So let's see...

If I'm honest with myself, I think I just get lazy and that's coupled with an unhealthy love of fattening, greasy food. It's a lot easier to go through the drive-through and grab hash browns than it is to plan for and prepare healthy food. And although I like vegetables and fruit and exercise, I am easily enticed elsewhere. So keeping up the routine of making healthy choices gets old after awhile, and I think that's my major issue. I stop being accountable to myself and take the easy way.

I also have a family that has to be pushed to make healthy food choices (although they are all athletic and active). My husband, for example, is a personal trainer who expends a ton of calories every day. He's in deficit by virtue of the fact that he never sits down and is naturally active almost non-stop (whereas I sit all day for my job, commute, and grad school). He also doesn't like vegetables and is allergic to fish. And my kids, of course, would never choose those foods unless I prepare and insist they eat them.

My husband is home a lot more than I am and it works better for our routine if he does the cooking (but he is terrible at planning for meals and shopping). So if it were up to him, we would eat grilled cheese (with chips) or hamburgers (with fries) or pizza every night, and there would never be a vegetable on the plate. Anything on a roll makes him happy and he doesn't gain weight. So even though he is entirely supportive of all of us exercising and me making smart food choices, I still really have to push the healthy snacks, the healthy meals, and I feel sort of all alone in that. Once I get lazy about it, I just go with what's easier.

I feel like this all sounds like an excuse and I don't mean it to be. I'm glad that I'm thinking this through and writing it down so that I can pay attention the next time I feel like taking the easy way out!

As for helping each other stay the course, I am all for check-ins and making time for these community boards. They have helped me in the past (not at MFP but elsewhere), and I am going to keep talking to people like you who are similar to me: working hard to keep ourselves as motivated and accountable as possible!

Thanks again and have a great day!

I too am a Chronic Yo-Yo Dieter and desperately need to find a way to stop the cycle.

1. My falling off point is similar. I tend to do well in order to prepare for a certain event (vacation, wedding, birthday outfit, etc) but soon after that special event I fall back to the old habits.
2. My triggers are loneliness, boredom and complacency. Plus I have gotten so use to being on the diet roller coaster that falling off the wagon feels comfortable. Making changes in my diet and exercise is needed, but scary. I guess in my mind, I feel like I know change is needed, but I know I'm going to fail. I know! I need to work on my negative thinking.
3. Ideas to keep from falling off....."Work on Negative Thinking"! :-)

I have tried every diet known to man, but through it all I have found that a low-fat diet versus a low-carb diet works best for me. I don't feel deprived.

Well, my upcoming "Event" is my birthday and celebrating it in Miami, FL.!! Here lies the motivation and boy am I motivated!! The challenge is to keep the motivation going after this event, so hopefully teaming up with like minded people will give me the strength I need to keep going.

1) Having a finish line. I would reach the weight I needed to fit in the dress or for the vacation and then go back to bad habits. I no longer have a finish line. All my goals are intermediary and unless I achieve the perfect body and life I am not done.

This is why you need to change your mentality.... lose weight more slowly, follow an easier eating and lifestyle plan, and aim to keep the weight of for life and also to enjoy the process of losing weight. Make it your lifestyle (and then maintenance for life as your lifestyle once you get to goal). Otherwise you will always fall down after you get pas the finish line. Losing fat does not need to be difficult or torturous, you need good habits (logging, regular exercise) - but your calorie goal should include enough food for you to enjoy all your meals and include the treat foods you want to eat, and whatever exercise you should do should be fun and convenient so it's easy to stick to - and plus, exercise gives you extra calories to be able to enjoy more food.

2) My biggest trigger is stress. Stress just wore me down and I would reach for the comfort foods. I now try to exercise the stress away.
3) LOG LOG LOG- never stop. If you have bad internet write it down and log as soon as you can.

Good luck. I have kept the yo- yo heading down or at least steady for a few years and hope to lose a bit more this summer.

these other tips are good :drinker: especially logging and exercising the stress away