2 days back and feeling overwhelmed!

Hi, mpost.....I'm in the same place as you. 2 days back & wondering how I can make it work this time. Can I do it? Who knows! But I gotta keep trying!!!!!

Would it help to set a smaller goal of maybe 10 lbs, lose that, then set another 10 lb goal? Maybe reaching the smaller goals will take your mind off the larger one.
Set a reasonable weekly weight loss goal. The Doctors will be happy with a generous move in the right direction. They may be putting a lot of pressure on you to do this in one year. Do your best in a manner that will keep you motivated and going strong (and not overwhelming yourself). Talk with your Doctors to let them know your plans.
You can do this. Make small changes. As Kevinanderson says, add movement to your day in any way you can. Find lower calorie foods that you enjoy and will stick with. Explore some new food items. This is a lifestyle change and it takes time to find what works for you.
Hang in there. You can do this.

Must be good advice, you two!

I know how you feel, really I do. I'm in the same situation. It's hard for me and I don't have anyone in my real life that I can talk to about it. (My mom thinks she's fat at 110 lbs. and my husband is at his ideal weight) Every time I do this, I am successful and I feel great about it. Then I have a bad day with no exercise and I eat stuff I shouldn't. It completely spirals out of control and I quit. I've decided not to look at the big picture and the total amount of weight I have to lose. Instead I focus on making sure that I'm honest with myself and making my daily goals. I broke my overall weight goal into smaller segments so I can celebrate those wins. It's working for me. I'm not saying it will work for everybody, but it's a thought for you. Instead of saying I need to lose 100 lbs. I'm shooting for 23 right now. My only real advice to you is to stay with it. Don't give up when you have those bad days, learn from the triggers and try to better next time.

i weight 242 and got down to 233 and quit. A blood sugar spike of 455 which my doctor feared would put me in a coma had me running back to my fitnesspals. THANK GOD I am okay, but I have an oatmeal with unsweetened peanut butter and ground flax for breakfast. I eat a pound of dr fuhrman's GBOMBS (bitter greens collards, kale, turnips or watercress), beans, onions, mushrooms, berries, seeds with peanuts and sesame seeds and no dressing. For dinner I eat a 4 ounce burger with mayo and blue cheese, no bun. That's about 1600 calories and 135 carbs daily. I lost 15 pounds just like that. I walk six miles and climb eight stairs daily, yesterday it was 7 miles and 16 stairs. I take my siberian husky dog on half of my miles. You could borrow a dog. I went off of my spartan diet for 3 days and gained 2.5 pounds back-even my clothing felt tight. You can do this.

You've gotten a ton of great advice here!

I'll add, maybe don't even think about the weight at all at first. Set a small achievable goal, like "I will weigh and log everything I eat today". You don't have to restrict what you eat even, just commit to logging it. Then, once you've done that for a week, maybe try keeping to a reasonable calorie goal. I say "reasonable" to echo what other folks have said about not jumping into something unsustainable. You'll be able to go a long way with just watching your calories, so you don't necessarily have to worry about adding exercise, but it will help you feel better if you at least do a bit more walking (and that's not too hard to do). Sometimes, in the evening when I call my mom, I walk around the block, so we can go for a walk together.

If you do "fall off the wagon", the best way to keep from derailing is to just log it and move on. Just commit to logging everything--even if you have to guess at how much it was afterwards. For example, if you fall into a bag of chips and eat the whole thing (or almost the whole thing) without weighing it, just guess by looking at the number of servings in the whole bag and logging that amount. (and, yes, this has happened to me!) Or, if you get that desert you didn't plan for at a restaurant, try to find a comparable entry in the database and log it anyway.

The big key is to focus on each moment, as in "I will log what I am eating NOW", instead of focusing on a whole year or week or even day. It's much less overwhelming that way.

Good luck!

Capt_Apollo wrote: »

stop thinking that you have to lose a hundred pounds. stop thinking so long term. focus on just being healthy today.

I agree with this 100%. Right now make working on improving health a day to day thing.

cwolfman13 wrote: »

understand that time will pass either way...so what are you going to do with your time?

And ^ this too.

@mpost12590 the time to change things but her time is running out. @mpost12590 how are you going to use your time? Will you keep on heading the direction you've been on, or will you change course?

@mpost12590 says that this isn't her first time trying to make it work, so the key thing here is to help her figure out how to make it stick. There's no magic: she has to make a commitment to herself to make it happen. She's got to make an unbreakable vow with herself. No one else can do this for her.

If the prospect of an early death and poor quality of life while waiting to prematurely kick the bucket can't inspire someone to commit to changing their own future, then no amount of pep talk will.

Many of us here on MFP have been in her shoes. Fortunately many changed course and are still around to talk about it!

Almost exactly 1 year ago from today at 105 pounds over ideal weight for my frame I had the same "you've already set sail on a course to an early death" talk with my doctor. Our family doctor for decades, I knew he did not make such statements lightly and I was shaken into action. Yes I was fearful... and angry at myself for letting my health deteriorate.

So there would be no more failed New Years resolutions, no more "I'll start a diet after this next business trip", no more "I'll go for a walk|go to the gym|skip the second helping ... tomorrow procrastination. No more buying my own B.S.

I made a serious commitment to myself to alter course. Immediately.

Right from the start I worried about failing because I'd been there before, so for the first time I shared what I was doing publicly with people who knew me because I knew I simply could not stomach failing in full view of people who mattered to me. That bit of passive peer pressure helped me a lot in the early days, but soon I didn't need the extra push because each little success helped to propel me on to wanting to make new progress.

At the start I'd no idea how long it would take me to radically improve my fitness and drop the weight, and I feared it would take "forever".

I was dead wrong about that. It turns out you can do a lot in a year.

In the first 10 months I lost 75 of those target 105 pounds and went from being quite unfit to very fit in even less time. Along the way virtually all of my health issues were turned around. Last week I had my annual physical and doc was pretty amazed at the complete change across the board. Needless to say I'm not on the early death watch list now, but I knew that months ago.

@mpost12590 Commit to yourself, and just get going. Start today. Don't dwell on the distant horizon but work at it day to day and celebrate each win. If you stumble, forgive yourself, remember your commitment, and press on.