What is your biggest obstacle to weight loss?
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cherries12345
Posts: 70 Member
I thought it would be a good idea to share our greatest challenges as part of this group to maybe advise and support each other. My greatest obstacle would have to be binge eating. I end up justifying such self sabotage atleast once a week. It's also the reason I've had to "restart" several times-sometimes my eating just bounces back to normal for enough time that I decide to give up all together. No matter how much motivation and ambition, I some how always end up having binge days. So what is your greatest obstacle and how do you try and tackle it?
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I'm just getting started again but my biggest obstacle so far is eating/drinking Refined Sugar. When I started tracking my food in MFP I didn't realize how much refined sugar I was eating/drinking. So I guess the way I start to tackle it is to make sure I log it everyday and monitor it weekly, and one of the worst offenders is Soda Pop so I have started cutting back to only have pop on one day during the week, usually Sunday.0
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Great discussion subject! For me, right now, my obstacles are my kids and my husband. My 2 sons are 12 and 15 and they run cross country. They come home from practice and will spend the rest of the night eating. Not all at once, but at some point they'll have dinner, then dessert, then snacks, and drinks. My daughter does marching band and while she doesn't eat at much as the boys, she doesn't make the best choices. She has a job at a fast food restaurant and brings that home for dinner or dessert. Then there's hubby who likes to eat anything and a lot of it. Oh, and we're camping this weekend which means LOTS of meat cooked over a fire, and lots of adult beverages.
So, all in all, it's the family around me that makes me want to give up, but also they are what make me want to get and stay healthy so I can run with them, and be active and enjoy them! I counter their eating feasts by trying to stick to my plan, and if I simply can't ignore them eating, I try to have tiny portions or fruits and veggies. To me, it's all things in moderation so my plan for this weekend is to have a small serving of the caveman meats, then have plenty of fruits and veggies, and a single adult beverage with lots of bottled water otherwise. And move as much as I can. This doesn't always work but that's my plan anyway!0 -
Dine in restaurants. Not only do I usually cheat on my calories, but I have a difficult time logging the foods into my diary. Just the other day I had some Sarku Japan at the mall food court, and I had no idea how many calories it was (just that it was delicious). I tried my best as far as logging it in, but it was rough, lol.0
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Binge eating is mine, too...I used to go out to eat with friends and not want to look like a pig, so I would eat a reasonable amount and then be sitting there planning what l could pick up on my way home...and go home and eat until I felt like I was going to burst. I just wanted to eat everything and would have craving after craving. It's gotten a little better since I've been sticking to my plan pretty well for a few months now, but it's still a huge struggle some days. Some days it's all I can do not to run to the corner store and pick up a frozen pizza and some chips and dip...and then eat all of it. I've been trying to keep the cravings at bay by buying things that I genuinely like as a treat, and having a reasonable serving of it - instead of chips and dip, I'm getting chex mix or cheezits, because I like them, but don't get out of control with them. Instead of a whole digiorno pizza, I'll get Red Baron singles, or pizza rolls, because I can eat those in more reasonable portions. If I deprive myself completely, I tend to end up binging, where if I let myself have a little of things I can keep reasonable, I tend to stay under control better.0
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This is exactly how it is for me. I just want to eat all of my options at once for some reason, as if I'll never see them or have access to them again. Some of the items are not even that good and they are things I would've been able to fit into my daily calories in moderation if I wanted to anyway. I don't eat a lot of the same item but a "serving size" of everything I see. Good for you for sticking with it for a few months. I just "restarted" on MFP a couple weeks ago and have had 2 binge days since, but hopefully I'll do better this week.ewoksrule3 wrote: »Binge eating is mine, too...I used to go out to eat with friends and not want to look like a pig, so I would eat a reasonable amount and then be sitting there planning what l could pick up on my way home...and go home and eat until I felt like I was going to burst. I just wanted to eat everything and would have craving after craving. It's gotten a little better since I've been sticking to my plan pretty well for a few months now, but it's still a huge struggle some days. Some days it's all I can do not to run to the corner store and pick up a frozen pizza and some chips and dip...and then eat all of it. I've been trying to keep the cravings at bay by buying things that I genuinely like as a treat, and having a reasonable serving of it - instead of chips and dip, I'm getting chex mix or cheezits, because I like them, but don't get out of control with them. Instead of a whole digiorno pizza, I'll get Red Baron singles, or pizza rolls, because I can eat those in more reasonable portions. If I deprive myself completely, I tend to end up binging, where if I let myself have a little of things I can keep reasonable, I tend to stay under control better.
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Staying on track at social events is pretty hard, especially at "foody" events. I know this will be tested in the upcoming months for me, so I'll try to be like you and just have tiny portions of a few good items. I applaud for resisting all the extra food in your family. If someone brings something home that I like, I try to resist it for a few hours, but when it seems like no one else is eating it, I just go for it.Great discussion subject! For me, right now, my obstacles are my kids and my husband. My 2 sons are 12 and 15 and they run cross country. They come home from practice and will spend the rest of the night eating. Not all at once, but at some point they'll have dinner, then dessert, then snacks, and drinks. My daughter does marching band and while she doesn't eat at much as the boys, she doesn't make the best choices. She has a job at a fast food restaurant and brings that home for dinner or dessert. Then there's hubby who likes to eat anything and a lot of it. Oh, and we're camping this weekend which means LOTS of meat cooked over a fire, and lots of adult beverages.
So, all in all, it's the family around me that makes me want to give up, but also they are what make me want to get and stay healthy so I can run with them, and be active and enjoy them! I counter their eating feasts by trying to stick to my plan, and if I simply can't ignore them eating, I try to have tiny portions or fruits and veggies. To me, it's all things in moderation so my plan for this weekend is to have a small serving of the caveman meats, then have plenty of fruits and veggies, and a single adult beverage with lots of bottled water otherwise. And move as much as I can. This doesn't always work but that's my plan anyway!
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The advice I've read for social food events (especially ones where there's a buffet or table of food) is that you should walk around and see everything available first, and pick one or two items that you absolutely want, then take reasonable sized portions of those, and fill up the rest of the way on healthy items. That might be tough camping, but easier if you're helping pack the food for the trip!
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ewoksrule3 wrote: »The advice I've read for social food events (especially ones where there's a buffet or table of food) is that you should walk around and see everything available first, and pick one or two items that you absolutely want, then take reasonable sized portions of those, and fill up the rest of the way on healthy items. That might be tough camping, but easier if you're helping pack the food for the trip!
I'm not only packing all the food, but cooking and serving it! That will definitely help because I have lots of good stuff to pack -- grapes, carrots, and fresh peaches. Another big obstacle I have is eating out -- that's why I'm trying to avoid it at all costs right now.0 -
My biggest obstacle is fatigue eating. The more tired I get the more I put in my mouth and it is usually sweets.0
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kldickison wrote: »My biggest obstacle is fatigue eating. The more tired I get the more I put in my mouth and it is usually sweets.
I have this issue also.....the busier I am, seems the more tired I am. I make poor food choices and then just give up too easily. If I can just plan out my meals for the week and prepare them over the weekend, I have better success.
Of course, then there's the lack of willpower that happens when someone says "let's go out for lunch" or someone brings delicious goodies into the work breakroom!
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My biggest obstacle is eating enough calories a day lol. When its super humid and hot here, I don't eat as much as I'm supposed to. I need to eat more meals a day to keep my body satisfied and lose fat instead of muscle too.
I also have a problem with sleep. I've had sleeping issues my whole life. It is hard for me to fall asleep. Most of the time I can't fall asleep until around 1-5 am. This is a problem because for half the week I go to gym classes that are in the mornings lol.
I guess my obstacles are a lot different.0 -
My biggest problem is when we have busy days. I'm often out with my husband and my kids at an amusement park which doesn't allow us to bring food, at the zoo, the science centre, friends, family... It's hard to eat healthy on the go. Today we bribed the kids to leave the zoo and offered them sundaes... Ah.
My other problem is when I don't see a change on the scale for a while. I put in all this hard work, I feel homicidal from hunger sometimes (I freaked out on my sister and my husband the other day because I was hungry and irritable) and then I don't even see a payoff for it.
Oh ya, and I have a toddler who has begun waking 5-6 times a night. I'm exhausted.0 -
kldickison wrote: »My biggest obstacle is fatigue eating. The more tired I get the more I put in my mouth and it is usually sweets.
I agree, I tend to do a lot of pre-bedtime work and I of course that's when I am on the tired-side, so I find myself eating to get the energy to finish everything I want to get done. I'm working on getting the evening chores done earlier so I can just go to bed. Night time eating is so challenging!
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Night time eating is the hardest. If you are working, you snack to keep up energy and if you are not working, snacking while relaxing is too easy. I am going to just try to tell myself to not put anything in my mouth period after 7:00!! (except water or no calorie liquid...sometimes a cup of coffee helps the craving for something to eat.)0
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I guess my biggest obstacle would be my husband lol. Pretty sure he doesn't do it on purpose, but everytime I'm doing good, lost a bit and feeling good, he comes home with pizza for dinner, or a favorite ice cream, or decides its a restaurant kind of night. Used to be real bad with Dr Pepper, I would want just a 20 Oz fountain, and he would come home with a 12 pack. Of course, I'm the only one in the house that liked it, and there was no moderation once it was here. I'm Dr Pepper clean a month now, and he's stopped bringing it home, yay!
I'm trying to be more accountable and recognize that he's just trying to be nice. But it's ultimately up to me to keep my moderation in check.0 -
My biggest obstacle is separating food from my feelings. I need to learn how to not go straight to binge eating eating whenever I'm feeling stressed.0
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Rycbar_123 wrote: »I guess my biggest obstacle would be my husband lol. Pretty sure he doesn't do it on purpose, but everytime I'm doing good, lost a bit and feeling good, he comes home with pizza for dinner, or a favorite ice cream, or decides its a restaurant kind of night. Used to be real bad with Dr Pepper, I would want just a 20 Oz fountain, and he would come home with a 12 pack. Of course, I'm the only one in the house that liked it, and there was no moderation once it was here. I'm Dr Pepper clean a month now, and he's stopped bringing it home, yay!
I'm trying to be more accountable and recognize that he's just trying to be nice. But it's ultimately up to me to keep my moderation in check.Rycbar_123 wrote: »I guess my biggest obstacle would be my husband lol. Pretty sure he doesn't do it on purpose, but everytime I'm doing good, lost a bit and feeling good, he comes home with pizza for dinner, or a favorite ice cream, or decides its a restaurant kind of night. Used to be real bad with Dr Pepper, I would want just a 20 Oz fountain, and he would come home with a 12 pack. Of course, I'm the only one in the house that liked it, and there was no moderation once it was here. I'm Dr Pepper clean a month now, and he's stopped bringing it home, yay!
I'm trying to be more accountable and recognize that he's just trying to be nice. But it's ultimately up to me to keep my moderation in check.
I agree one of my big obstacles is my hubbie who wants to eat things which aren't that healthy. He has had weight issues but can deal with them quickly go back to eating more or less what he likes puts a bit back on cuts down a little again and so on whereas I only have to look at bread or not scuits etc and will balloon out. Oh well not blaming hubbie but he does find it easy to lose weight whereas I definitely don't.0 -
Laziness. Lol. I have a big problem getting exercise in. Another problem that makes this one worse is that I get very sore the day after I exercise. This makes me not want to do it that day, and then I end up putting it off for a while. I feel like if I could do it every day I would be able to stick with it, but having to take rest days throws me off and brings out the laziness.0
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I guess I just have a problem with starting. Once I get in a routine it is fine, but I have a lot of problems getting started and staying motivated. I also have a problem with eating SO much sugar. It has always been a problem, but I feel it has gotten worse especially in the last year or so. I am hoping that this time around I change my habits and really improve my health!0
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Biggest obstacle for me is dealing with paradox. I want instant results for all my hard work but at the same time I know full well that weight loss should be slow and steady, with plenty of time to develop new and better habits and to work out the psychological kinks that will ultimately lead to a brand new lifestyle! When I don't see results on the scale after a hard week of dedication, it makes me want to pack in the towel and bury myself in chips and dip. Today I bought a tape measure- I need to be prepared to accept non-scale victories as wins!0
