5th day and already discouraged..

If I had it to do over again, I would just log it. Log everyday. Log every bite. Don't worry about the calories or what My Fitness Pal tells you what you can eat for calories. (It wasn't enough in the beginning.) Just log it. Learn about yourself. What makes it easier to restrict calories and what doesn't. I've been on again off again for 3 years. I now know that eating some meat makes my next day better. So just log for now and get to know you

arditarose wrote: »

I think about food all the time. But I make it fun, for the most part. I enjoy pre-logging, and if there's something I really want for dessert, I log it first and work my day around it. A lot of times it's like a puzzle and I love seeing what I can eat to fit my calorie needs and macros. The other day I got to add dark chocolate to help me meet my fats goal.

Relax! Eat the things you like. Weigh them on a food scale to be sure of the calories.

Really like this idea! Fairly new to MFP (50 days or so) and kind mentally did this mentally to plan Easter dinner but logged after. I think this would be helpful to put that certain item I want in first and go from there.

The key is making sure you are eating enough so that you feel satisfied so you don't have to think about food all day long! That seems like an oxymoron because when we are trying to lose weight we feel we need to eat less - so we think it means we have to be hungry for weightloss to happen - but you don't need to be hungry. I'm not sure what types of foods you are eating but if you swap out anything that is typical diet food (low fat, low cal products) for real food - vegetables, fruit, avocados, high quality animal protein, beans, legumes, whole grains (actual grains like brown rice, quinoa etc - not products made with whole grain), nuts and seeds etc. you'll find you can eat a lot more good stuff for the same amount of calories. You'll feel satisfied by the food and you'll feel awesome about what you are putting in your body. Keep going - 5 days in is just the beginning and it can be easy to wish we could just snap our fingers and have the weight be gone! But it takes awhile to gain weight and it takes awhile to lose it. They say 21 days makes a habit - focus on eating well and getting some movement for that many days and I bet you will see and feel a difference and it will make you want to continue!

Havasufalls wrote: »

I have 120 pounds to lose and I am so embarrassed to say that I am already discouraged and it's my 5th day!I feel like all I do is think about food and I so badly want to get healthy and reach my goal weight. How did you deal with food cravings, mind set etc when you first started?? Thanks

Don't be embarrassed. You'll find you aren't the only one who has faced discouragement.

I was going to write a long story but changed my mind and will try to relate what worked for me, quite by accident, not by any design of mine.

When I started (Aug 2014) I didn't "diet". I didn't count calories in. I checked my weight once at a community pool and haven't done it again until just last week. Honestly... that first time made me afraid, and discouraged.

What I did do is identify my biggest single problem - I'd gone from a fit active life to quite a sedentary life. The reasons are not important. I ate healthy food, just a bit too much, and over 8 years following the sports injury at the start of my long decline, "just a bit too much" each day adds up to a lot of pounds.

Right or wrong I figured I first had to fix my fitness problem, so in August 2014 I set about working on that. I used to be a runner so naturally I wanted to use running as my tool of choice. This proved incredibly hard on me for both physical and emotional reasons as the delta between fit me and unfit me had grown so incredibly large I feared I'd never get anywhere near where I once was. I feared I might never improve meaningfully. Those early days were... awful. Fear of failure stopped me from going out some days, but somehow I kept on going.

A supportive wife helped, a lot. She'd run with me and patiently wait while I had to stop... so many times at first.

Long story short, I kept up with it, and by the time the horrible wet windy winter weather descended upon Vancouver, I'd made running a habit again. I even made a point of going out for runs on the absolute worst days of the year. It's too easy to say "tomorrow" when the weather is awful. I'd done that for years... but no more.

Fast forward, I've dropped about 50 pounds and have a little less than 50 more to go. I'm on notch 5 of my belt; I started on notch 1. The size 38's that were my wake up call were donated to the Sally Ann.

I still have a ways to go but now the outlook is nothing but positive. I know I'll get there, I know it will still take longer than I wish, but I'm ok with that. Just accepting that helps. A lot.

Could I have arrived at this point faster had I adopted at the very beginning a rigorous calorie in-calorie out regime of observation, combined with exercise? Yes, undoubtedly so, but I probably was not ready at the start to do all that.

Instead, putting the focus of my efforts at the start into exercise (and sleep) worked for me and got me to the point where everything else is now pretty easy given the huge motivation provided by visible results.

I'm not saying ignore your diet but if you find developing a total program for yourself is too overwhelming here at the start, maybe focussing on one thing at a time - just to get a firm foundation of improvement in place - can work for you.

Stick with whatever you decide to do. You'll find before long those first weeks pass, you've started to adopt new ways of living (eating / food / exercise / sleep / whatever you are adjusting) become habits. And one day you'll realise... wow, it's really working. From there it just gets easier.

Oops, I did write a long-ish story. Why say in 20 words what you can say in 500?

I started 105 days ago. The first week was hard. REALLY hard. All I wanted to do was stuff my face with all the bad stuff. But I figured I wanted to be slimmer more than I wanted to pig out so I stayed strong. I had earlier night's when it was too much to deal with.

105 days down the road, I still have days where I'd love to eat my body weight in grease but I don't. I've learnt that giving in isn't an option. It doesn't make you a failure if you DO give in but I'd rather not. I eat my fave things in moderation and within my calorie goals. It can be done and does get easier. Honestly.

Concentrate on WHY you are doing this. WHY it is important to you. My new mantra is eat to live, not live to eat. x

Nicola you appear to have said it all yourself - the reasons not to give up. Have you used the facility in MFP to work out your basal metabolic rate? This will tell you how many calories your body is using to survive. Once you know that to lose 1lb per week you need to reduce by 500 calories a day. However knowing this doesn't mean to say to have to jump in feet first and do it. What it may do though is to go some way to explain why you may not have lost any weight over the last week.

Pre-logging the food really helps me stay on track. Everytime I think about food, I drink water. I also try to think about what I'm feeling when I want to eat. Bored? A craving? Feeling emotional and want to escape? It seems to help me identify at least if I'm actually hungry. I'm usually not, or at least not so hungry that I can't wait until my next meal.

I've false started soooo many times! I think most of the times, the reason I fail is I do too much at once. Cutting down to super low calorie, adding in exercise, etc. This time I started logging food first, no changes. Just to get an idea of what I was eating. Then I started cutting the calories when I felt ready for that. Nothing too drastic. Then I'm going to see where I am in a couple weeks. Adjust the calorie intake if I need to. And I'm hoping soon I'll want to exercise, rather than force myself to. Baby steps. If you can talk to a nutritionist or naturopath, I highly recommend it! Some supplements might help!

It took months before I stopped thinking about food so much, and it is still a daily routine. No getting around that. If you're not craving it you are calculating how many calories it is. It sounds like pre-logging is working for you.

I suggest you set yourself mini-goals, like sitting down two weeks from now, working though your progress to date, and setting new goals.

Weight loss is not a goal, as so many factors out of our control can affect weight gain on a single day. Your weight can go up or down five pounds in a single day, on water weight alone! That's not a good measure of success or failure.

Preferable goals in a two week period are behavioral goals, as in pre-logging all desserts all week.

Now of course you have to weigh yourself once in a while just to check if you are going in the right direction but please don't wrap up all your happiness in a number on the scale.

I've been at this for many months now, and this is spoken from the heart. It's a long game, progressive habit change, and the weight will move...given time.