I'm back again and need to give and get support

Keep smiling, and remember that you need to do things for yourself sometimes!!!! This should not be a summer thing. Should make it a life change! Feel free to add me

Hello
I logged my food and followed MFP pretty well last summer. Then I stopped. I've gained what I lost and then some. Right now I feel very lost and a bit hopeless. I need to lose close to 80 pounds.

Here is my deal...I have an eight year old, four year triplets, my husband, and my 82 year old mother that I take care of and feed.

You know, I've typed out several different explanations why I have trouble sticking to a healthy eating program and I have deleted all of them. They all sounded like a bunch of unimportant excuses.

I guess I am just tired of taking care of so many others needs that I don't know where to begin and how to continue to take care of my needs.


"Life change"! Definitely!!

Thanks for listening and would love to add some new friends!

TripMom

I went through something similar, last year I did great for about 6 months but when my husband came home from deployment I slowly faded away from the program and gained back everything that I lost plus about 8 extra pounds. I felt so defeated and it was hard to get back into the routine.
The thing is that while you do have A LOT going on in your life you need to remember that you always will. However, if you make time daily to work out you will increase your energy and the people that depend on you will benefit from that. Not to mention the benefit of having you feel good about yourself.

Three pieces of advice that have changed things for me this time around:
1. It takes at least 21 days to build muscle memory and around the same amount of time to build a habit. So, pick an exercise and commit to doing it everyday for a month.
2. Try not to focus on losing weight, instead focus on creating healthy habits that you can maintain for a lifetime. (I haven't weighed in for weeks and am feeling more focused and less frustrated than ever before)!
3. Pick a type of physical exercise that you actually enjoy doing. If you are having fun you will want to keep doing it:)

Good luck to you!

Hi and welcome back...... first of all stop thinking of it in terms of "I gotta lose 80 pounds..." the psychological impact of that on our minds can be overwhelming. Here is what I would suggest.......

1) Make a PLAN and stick to your PLAN.....

2) Log into MFP EVERY DAY

3) Log EVERY SINGLE MORSEL that you put in your mouth. If you want to have a "cheat" day.. fine, just LOG IT!

4) Do some exercise everyday, even if its walking around the block....

5) Set REALISTIC goals (mini - goals for example... 4-6 pounds a month). I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but a year from now you have nearly reached your goal.... AND you have made a lifestyle change at that point, no quick weight loss schemes

6) Just take it 1 day at a time. The weight didn't come on overnight and it wont go away overnight either.

7) you mentioned you cook for your family.. try this..... cook for YOURSELF and let them eat what you eat. If you make fried chicken or chicken nuggets, its too tempting to just eat what they eat. Start preparing healthy meals and the entire family benefits.

8) If you drink Diet Drinks, cut those from your diet...It may not have any calories, but you'd be surprised how bad that stuff is for you. Google it I know, for every person or study that says its bad for you, there are others saying differently. All I can say is, I am on week 3 without and I have felt incredibly better.

9) It can not be stressed enough but...... Agua, H2O ....WATER WATER, WATER!!!! You need to drink water ALL DAY LONG. I don't know what you call "a lot of water" but ideally you should drink half your weight in water (ounces) - for example, I am around 200 lbs so I need to drink at least 100 oz a day... I drink about 150-160 ounces a day. It keeps me full and helps prevent dehydration and hunger twinges... BOTH lead to snacking. And yes you can get dehydrated being int he house all day.

10) Finally...... live by this credo "NO EXCUSES... JUST RESULTS"

Best of luck to you!

Hi,
I'm Stephanie and need to lose probably a hundred pounds by now. I wish I could go back in time where I was the right weight.
Anyway, I see you are taking care of so many and need to make time for yourself to take care of yourself. That is what I was always told in many weight loss plans.

I would try to make the healthy meals for everyone and somehow get exercise in 3 days a week. Another program that helps is Overeaters Anonymous. Everyone sympathizes with you because, I am not sure if you are a compulsive overeater but everyone has the same kind of thoughts and feelings about food. The website is OA.org in case you want to check it out. The program works if you work it.

I still have difficulty because I am such an emotional eater. It is hard to lose weight but never give up. I never give up and hang in there it will get better.

Just take some time for yourself somehow. I took care of my Mom too and it is worth it, but I did hire some help for her too and I worked at a stressful job too.

Still plugging along.
Stephanie
are of my Mom

Hi,
I like CWDAnley's post. I'm Stephanie and I like your post. It is all positives, but sometimes it is hard with emotional eating especially at night . I look forward to more positives.
Stephanie

Hi Stephanie... trust me, I understand about emotional eating... or eating when bored. I love nothing more than to eat popcorn at night while watching TV. BUT, since I started using this site, I only do that now when I have the extra calories to spare. If I dont, I dont touch it. I am not a perfect eater by any means, I am not on any specific "diet", other than watching what I eat and moderation. If I want something, I have it, but I control the portion sizes. Yesterday I just could not seem to get enough to eat, but I managed to stay under my caloric goals..... And its only because I am holding myself accountable. I know if I go to weigh n on Sunday morning and the scale went up or stayed the same, I can only be upset with my self...... No Excuses....

:-)