For those who lost weight and gained it back

Stress due to working 60-70 hour weeks because your work teammates aren't contributing, being extremely short-handed at work, trying to play mediator between my manager and the rest of the team, my grandma dying, a close co-worker dying, going onto year six of not being able to get pregnant, and having the ob/gyn want me to wait yet another 6 months before we try any medications, having zero help around the house due to the husband also working 16 hour days at his job.

I stopped caring for a couple of years, but I'm back on track now.

I've done this so many times and am always disappointed in myself for letting it get so far. The reasons?

1. Watching food intake is hard and sometimes I get lax out of fatigue. Then I'm left with a taste for everything that helps keep me heavy. And I INDULGE. It's gross and self destructive. I don't know why I do this to myself sometimes.

2. Boyfriends : D I get comfy, eat out, have drinks, and loose focus on me b/c I'm so wrapped up in us. I feel like I wake up one day "heavy" again. And then realize what I did and start keeping track again.

3. Financial problems get in the way of my efforts. I have a fast paced life (long commute, sometimes long hours). So I might rely on food from outside the home. I can keep things in perspective when I have enough money to always choose the salad or veggies. It's when I am also trying to cut costs and turn to the pizza or options for $5.00 or less that things slide downhill.

4. Less exercise: In the past, I'd loose weight by exercising very hard (hours at a time) and watching my diet. I have joint and back issues so I'll inevitably injure myself and then I don't adjust my diet enough so the weight creeps up. I don't do this anymore (the heavy exercising) b/c I don't think it was a healthy habit, so I don't think this will be a future issue. But it's been a major contributor to regaining in my late twenties and early thirties.

Job got bad, continued to work out but just kept eating more and more. Didn't stick to gluten free/ processed sugar free so it just piled back on. Thankfully not back to where I was when I started in 2009 but still its harder to drop the older I get. I just keep getting back on track and pushing forward best I can. :-)

My house burning down was the starting point. Lost all of my possessions, and my two cats. I remember being in the hotel room my insurance company provided, shoveling down junk food until I couldn't feel feelings anymore. The week after my house fire was just one week-long no-holding-back binge.

Lost a few family members along the way, a bad relationship, depression and being on crummy antidepressants. Granted, I didn't gain all the 50 lbs I lost back, but I did gain 10-15 of it back.

Lately, some upsetting events have been occurring but this time I'm trying to self-medicate in a safer way rather than stuffing my sad face.

I've lost and gained a few times.

1. I stopped weighing myself after getting to goal (more important to weight AFTER goal then getting to goal..because it can be discouraging)

2. Always lost on the six week body makeover diet… (a very healthy but unrealistic way of eating for a lifetime). So when I returned to regular eating I'd gain back partially for that reason.


This time… I feel I will succeed by doing the following..

eating healthy delicious food within my calorie goal…(love Skinnytaste.com) so I don't feel deprived and go off the deep end when I get to goal.

I will weigh myself every day after I'm at goal and not kid myself..

Here's a "different" before/after.

my before pic, I had lost my baby weight and decided to do a bikini competition. A few months later...

http://www.picisto.com/photos/picisto-20140719202002-388665.jpg

sure, the 2nd pic isn't all that big but..compared to the first one.. I was bummed.

I know now what made me gain.

Restrictive clean eating and working out for aesthetics without a goal beyond aesthetics once I hit my goal weight, and quite frankly I burnt the heck out. I live, I learn. I now concentrate on different goals, my goal now is performance in powerlifting and kettlebell sport competitions.

Now I am back to what I look like in my profile pic, leaner than my 2nd pic, but bigger than my bikini competition photo..and am fine with it. I feel good. I just train to get stronger and better in my lifts now. I no longer stress about clean eating. If I would mess up , I would feel like giving up the rest of the day. Now I forgive myself much more easily.

Stress>no exercise>unhealthy food>laziness

Lost. 50 lbs. I stopped logging , thought I knew what I was doing. Once I stopped keeping track I stopped being accountable , eventually I stopped jogging as often , didn't seem to gain weight so I started eating junk. Eventually I was falling I it old habits and I gained it all back.

Thankfully I kept up with weight training so I had a more sold frame but I was still overweight.

So don't stop logging!!!

I'm now down 40 again and hope I can keep the discipline to stay this way

Twice in my life I have lost over 100 pounds and I have gained it back. Every time I have lost weight I have diligently tracked my calories (it used to be in a spiral notebook) and exercised. When I gained it back I quit doing that. I got comfortable and it came back very easily. The second time I used my pregnancy as an excuse but I ended up gaining way more than the recommended 25 pounds. Then after I had my son I kept putting it on. I know for me that I really need to keep an eye on it all of the time. I don't feel that I could do a cheat day and be able to recover from it the next day. I know I'm not at a point to be able to do that yet. I'm on my third try with losing weight and I know for my health I need to be successful. Hopefully I can stick with it.

I lost 60+ lbs just before graduating from college through calorie restriction and excessive exercise. It was not a sustainable thing.

There are a few reasons, besides this that I consider my "excuses" though they aren't at all. Ultimately, what made me gain it back, was me. I gave up when life got tough.

-Graduated, had to get a job at a bakery because no one would hire me without experience in my degree field.
-Free food at that bakery, and so many cookies.
-Grandfather was killed in a fireworks accident, spent 3 weeks in the ICU eating fast food in addition to the stress.
-Moved across the country to a region with excellent food (Southwest) and enjoyed myself with too much booze, too many gut-busting meals, and not enough exercise.
-A dissolution of my 4 year relationship, depression, having to move back and basically be unemployed/homeless for a year. I was on food stamps for the first time in my life, and cheap calories are bad calories.

These things, especially the interruptions in my routine, had me gaining back every single pound I lost, and an additional 20 more over the course of 4 years. In April of 2013 I was the heaviest I"d ever been, a stone's throw away from 300 lbs.

Currently, I'm down 35 lbs in a matter of months, and am doing it in a sustainable way.

The secret to maintenance, is never giving up.