Discouraged Member No. 137

Sometimes mine needs Gatorade and a peptalk.

I think you know the answer to your problem. you can easily outeat your workouts.What might be funfor you to do is find lower cal versions of your favorite foods. Alot of the time, they taste surprisingly good and/or you only have to make small modifications to the original recipe.

Very depressed after my weigh in this morning. Gained 2.4 lbs in one week. I absolutely killed it in the gym working out every day except Sunday plus other activities like cutting the grass and golf. My diet and lack of will power are really holding me back. I just love to eat. I eat out a lot for work (this past week included chili cheese coney, prime rib sandwich + fries, burger & sweet potato fries), was home alone and ordered Thai noodles, had a family cookout with countless snacks & beer, played golf with 6-8 beers, went to two ball games with a slice of pizza, nachos, brat & beers. My wife is very social and likes to drink and I wish we would cut back a little on the socializing while I am trying to lose weight. We were at a ball game last night and just finished sharing a tray of nachos and a few innings later shows up with a brat to split. We had pizza at home before we left for the game. She knew I was trying to not eat much bc of my Wednesday weigh in but she is always tempting me with food and alcohol.

I guess I need to be stronger as no one has a gun to my head forcing me to eat.

It is just frustrating to work so hard in the gym and not see results on the scale.

It really is a combination of diet and exercise that causes you to lose weight. You exercise to become fit, you eat within your calories to lose weight. Do you have a calorie goal that you stick to? There is nothing inherently wrong with what are you are eating, it is the quantities.

I suggest you read this, OP. You are right, no one can make you put a gun to your head for you to lose weight. This is all you, all the time.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

You are no. 137 for this hour, right?

Seriously, we all get discouraged. You just have to keep your mind on your goal, and try not to let the setbacks drag you down. I've been at this for years, and I'm still thinking it's going to be another year or so to get to goal.

But it's called dedication. I get discouraged. I get unmotivated. But I never lose my dedication to EVENTUALLY get to my goal.

Try limiting yourself to smaller portions. Maybe that will help you get control over your eating habits. A lot of the time, I will eat pretty light throughout the day, and save my calories for my family. Because they always want to eat out or buy ice cream or whatever.

Not that I have any room to talk, but have you tried eating healthier options when you eat out for work? Or maybe just telling your wife no, I'm good on sharing food. And you also don't have to drink every time you socialize too.

That's my two cents.

We are all on here for support and because we are on a mission with challenges. Obstacles are part of that challenge. It's about learning self discipline and keeping that end goal in mind but at the same time it is a day to day battle. Do not let this depress you, let it pull you to push harder. We can all do this. You are on here because you are trying so keep that up!!! I also love food!!!

you need to determine how many calories you want,carbs 150-200, keep sodium in check.................if you want to eat bad, you must do a 36hr water fast.....burgers and pizza will keep you in neutral.......and you don't want to kill it in the gym for nothing.......you can never outburn a bad diet lol..........once you have your plan set, you should plan whole day early so you know exactly where you stand and if you can fit a slice of pizza in it or not..........I was doing stupid stuff and looked at my diary and have been more strict, and keeping carbs down, calories in check and sodium under, i've dropped 12 since last friday, tho I did a 36hr fast lol

Sorry you're feeling discouraged, the key here is not ONLY to exercise. Don't get me wrong exercise is GRREAT in and of itself, however; you MUST MODIFY your CURRENT EATING HABITS! I can't stress that enough. First of all I think that a lack of support from your spouse can be very detrimental to your success or lack thereof. Explain to your wife why getting in shape and eating clean is important to you, feel free to list all the reasons you embarked on this journey to begin with. Help her understand where you are coming from, the better idea she gets the more inclined she will want to be to support you and do whatever she can to help you reach your goals, afterall you are a TEAM! Your success will indeed be hers as well and knowing that she helped you will create a great sense of grattitude towards her (WIN/WIN situation Yeei!!). Don't consider yourself as being on a "diet" think of these changes as a lifestyle modification keep healthy foods at home and when traveling carry nuts/trail mixes/fruits when possible to snack on and as far as meals are concerned try to stick to lean meats and always include greens with your meals. Lastly, DON'T always rely on the numbers on the scale to define whether you are doing well or not (given the exception of this weeks bad eating) muscle weighs more than fat, and sometimes we tend to fluctuate 2-4lbs (try to weigh-in at the same time of day with NO CLOTHES to get a more accurate reading). Being healthy doesn't necessarily mean that you have to EX-COMMUNICATE THE WORLD (although I do think it would make things much easier haha) be more conscious of the food choices that you are making while out and about and try to limit yourself to a few alcoholic beverages per weekend. If you know that you will be eating out on a certain day of the week try to look up the menu online and input the food into MFP and then build the rest of your meals based on your remaining calories. Hope this helps! Stay motivated and never trade what you want RIGHT NOW for something that you've wanted for yourself for a looong time (happy & healthy YOU!).

I guess I need to be stronger as no one has a gun to my head forcing me to eat.

It is just frustrating to work so hard in the gym and not see results on the scale.

That's it right there. This isn't on anyone but you. You do not HAVE to eat when there is food at social functions.

And you can't out-exercise a crappy diet. You can only burn so many calories in a week.

I feel your pain. I feel that my wife sabotages my diet plan also. I know I drink too much when I go out. I did switch from regular Coors (148 calories) to Coors Light (102). It helps, but not much. I also noticed that salt kills my weight. It makes me retain water. And for all my life I thought that was a woman thing. All kidding aside, don't deprive yourself, or you will get discouraged and quit. Just acknowledge that not every day will be a weight loss day and accept it. Slow and steady wins the race. This month I'm stuck at only losing 2 pounds. Which sucks, I wanted to be down 4, but I know what happened, I accept, and keep trudging along. You'll get this.

To everyone that says to quit drinking, cut back eating blah, blah, blah... It's not really support, it's pointing out what you already know. Now accept that some weeks will be bad, but the end goal is still attainable...

My husband loves to share food too when we go to games or any event. What I do is take tiny bits this way he doesn't feel bad and i don't overeat my calories. Beer is alright too, just have 1 or 2 and drink slow. Don't let this slip get you down, just pull yourself up, dust yourself off and attempt to do better next time you are out. Good Luck, I know you have this and I will be reading your success story soon

Since you don't eat much in the way of fruit or veg, you are not getting the fiber that would help you feel full longer and make it easier to resist temptation. consider looking into the free app gym-pact.com and using the veggie pact. You set your own goal for the week and if you don't meet it, you are charged $10. If you do meet it, you get a couple of bucks that comes from people who didn't meet their goal. It handles the financial part with either your paypal account or your credit card. It is pretty dang amazing, if you ask me.

I am horrible about exercise and am using it very successfully.

Another benefit: Veggies and fruit are easier to track and record. Tracking is crucial to my success.

Best wishes and hang tough!