What made you finally stop the cycle and stay on track?

KpopGrad92
KpopGrad92 Posts: 93 Member
edited November 27 in Motivation and Support
As a repeat yo-yo dieter, and constantly starting over, what made things finally click for you and made you stick with it?

This time I have a real goal in mind. I want to go to South Korea and teach english starting in the fall. I want to be able to buy some clothes over there and not feel like a complete beachball. (Still will feel like a giant at 6'0). My sister got engaged right before christmas and now I will be the maid of honor at her wedding which is sometime next spring most likely.

I told myself no more of starting and stopping. No more losing a good chunk and giving up. I made myself a contract and signed it. It sits on my nightstand I look at it every day. This contract has the rules I am following for my lifestyle change and helpful reminders. This time I feel more motivated and have set goal of what I want to do and when I want to do it by.

What is helping motivate you to break the cycle and stick with it?

Replies

  • octgal06
    octgal06 Posts: 3 Member
    I was a supreme yo yo dieter. Could never keep weight off or not feel hungry. Love sweets and carbs. The thing that finally worked for me was to give up sweets and high carbs for a short time. I just decided I could do at least 10 days. I noticed that I was not having cravings after a few days. Snacked on raw almonds and ate lean meat and veggies stir fried in olive oil. Ate quinoa and whole grains. Lost 25 lbs and had lots of energy. I used Dr. Oz's 10 day rapid weight loss plan to start. I'm not a big fan of a lot of things on Dr. Oz site, but this worked to get me started. You can then add more foods to keep the variety interesting.
  • fiddletime
    fiddletime Posts: 1,868 Member
    I finally decided that I didn't want to spend from January to September trying to lose the weight I'd gained from Oct 31st to Dec 31st. It wasn't healthy and it was taking longer and longer and was getting harder to do. I needed to stabilize my eating habits before I just gave up and gained a ton of weight.
  • ARC1603
    ARC1603 Posts: 113 Member
    I've stopped setting unrealistic expectations of myself. Instead of trying to make radical changes and lose the weight overnight, I've been making small changes I can sustain over time.

    For the first time in my life I actually stayed the same weight over Christmas and new year, so this is a huge difference for me!
  • ARC1603
    ARC1603 Posts: 113 Member
    Just to add, by making small changes like only having a very small deficit, I can still eat the foods I enjoy without feeling deprived and still lose weight.
  • Frappleberry
    Frappleberry Posts: 251 Member
    Daily walking really worked for me and helped me maintain my weightloss even when my diet was slipping.
  • KpopGrad92
    KpopGrad92 Posts: 93 Member
    I love seeing everyone's different reasons, tips and tricks! Walking at least 15 minutes a day is part of my contract. I also created guidelines for indulging and going out, that was always one of my down falls. I am trying to foresee my failures and overcome them with a plan.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    In my experience, the starting and stopping and restarting mentality has a lot to do with unrealistic expectations of living this perfectly healthy lifestyle...nobody is 100% on all of the time and understanding that you're going to have good days and bad days and good weeks and bad weeks and even good months and bad months over the course of the hopefully many years of your life can help break that cycle. People tend to have a bad day or bad week or whatever and just throw their hands up and give up when what they really need to do is just acknowledge it and move on. When my oldest (5) was a toddler and learning to walk, he'd always fall down and I'd ask him, "what do we do when we fall down?" and he'd say, "get back up." When people take that all or nothing approach, they tend to struggle getting back up when they fall down...reality is that falling down is part of the process and should be embraced as such.

    I'd also say, focusing on overall health and wellness and concerning yourself with maintaining an overall healthy lifestyle rather than focusing so heavily on maintaining a specific weight. When you maintain an overall healthy lifestyle, everything else tends to fall into place.

    I've lived on both sides of the fence...I grew up involved in all manner of sports and athletics and was pretty active and fit until 30 when I took a desk job and started my family...I became more sedentary and my diet, while not horrible, wasn't that great either and I have a lot of hereditary predispositions so when I was 38 I decided I wanted to take back my health and returned to many of the healthy habits I had growing up and as a young adult...the rest took care of itself. Having been on both sides of that fence now makes me realize how superior being fit and healthy is which is motivation enough for me to maintain a pretty healthy lifestyle.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    I'd like to know what made me stop yo-yo dieting. All my life I had avoided being overweight by yo-yoing. Gain weight, lose weight, rinse, repeat.

    Then I just skipped the "lose weight" step for far too long. And it seems so much harder to lose now. I'd love to get back to my yo-yo days.
  • Madwife2009
    Madwife2009 Posts: 1,369 Member
    The day I got on the scale and it read the highest I'd ever been. At that moment I finally realised that only I could do anything about it. That was 5 months ago and I haven't looked back.
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    I hit rock bottom. It was 100% desperation.

    I started, read around the forums a bit and realized I didn't have to be miserable or give up any of my favorite foods - only that I needed to maintain a calorie deficit and the lightbulb went off and things began falling into place. I don't need motivation to live day by day, just like I don't need motivation to log my food. It's just what I do now.
  • msiamjan
    msiamjan Posts: 326 Member
    Changing the goal. If the goal is to get to a certain weight, then when you get there, it feels like you should be done, and thus begins the slide. If the goal has more to do with overall health and wellbeing, well that doesn't have a done point. FWIW
  • GemimaFitzTed
    GemimaFitzTed Posts: 260 Member
    I started my first journey in September 2007. I was, at that point, obese. One day, I was having lunch with my friend, and I was having penne carbonara. It was full of cream and you could see the oil on top of the serve. One the guys we worked with came in the room we were having lunch, looked at our lunches, turned to and said "do you think you really need that?". He quickly apologised. That night, I went home, and looked at myself, naked in the mirror. I was disgusted with myself. Next morning I weighed myself and was shocked at the number. Instead of going into denial, I went to a gym, on the way home and signed up.

    At the same time, I was staying with a friend/having a holiday in Queensland for 3 weeks, and after some soul-searching, I realised I needed to change my entire lifestyle. I came back to my hometown, moved out of my parents' place, culled useless/jealous friends, overhauled my diet and lifestyle and worked hard at the gym. After 12 months, I lost 44kgs. Back then, I didn't have MFP, and now I wished I did!

    The second journey is to lose all the weight I gained from two pregnancies. Because of my first journey, I have the necessary knowledge on what to do, but now I have the best weapon - MFP! And so far, I am conquering all my goals.
  • Mae0217
    Mae0217 Posts: 65 Member
    Over the past couple years, I just have been gaining weight and when I got motivated to lose it, it never lasted for long. This time I decided I just wasn't going to be in a hurry to lose, that I'm just going to keep at it. My real motivation is retirement next year. I'm tired of feeling exhausted, heading toward high blood pressure and pre-diabetes. I don't want to go into retirement that way. I want to be able to enjoy traveling and walking to see the sights.
  • angietes2u
    angietes2u Posts: 16 Member
    I cut sugar out ( sugar busters diet) 15 yrs ago and was down to high school weight. Then I got sick and had to go on prednisone 6 months and gained 50+lbs. I've yo yo'd since.

    My husband was recently diagnosed pre diabetic. He has high cholesterol and high blood pressure as well. I see him struggle with weight and all the new meds and started to get concerned.

    I do have diabetes in my family so am concerned. We started to cut sugar from our diet and lower our carb intake. I already cut out most red meat so other than an occasional hamburger from the grill I only eat lean meats.

    In 2 months I've dropped 1 size. The scale is not showing more than 10 1lbs but the inches are showing. That means more to me than the number on the scale.

    I have more energy and feel better. No huge cravings. Sugar free snacks satisfy me. I do allow myself the occasional sweet treat with low sugars. I don't over do though. I did not gain anything over the holidays.

    You can do it if you set your mind to it. Have a buddy or to to keep you motivated. Log meals. I walk. Just had elbow surgery so walking is my limit for now.

    Stay positive. Baby steps.

    Add me if you want a motivated friend to help you along the way. We all need a friend to keep us going!!!
  • IILikeToMoveItMoveIt
    IILikeToMoveItMoveIt Posts: 1,172 Member
    Before I didn't have the knowledge I needed to keep weight off. Now that I do, there is no going back. It's a long process but well worth it. CICO and MFP to maintenance and beyond.
  • Whitezombiegirl
    Whitezombiegirl Posts: 1,042 Member
    I gained 10lbs when my mum died and i wasnt motivated to cook so relied on convenience food. My clothes were getting tight and one day my pants were so uncomfortable that id had enough.
  • tomatosoup3
    tomatosoup3 Posts: 126 Member
    i was doing really well without external motivation, when i became pregnant and gained it all back. it was so hard to find the motivation to do it all over again! so i decided i would reward myself with a prize for every two weeks of logging. NOT even keeping to a calorie limit, JUST logging (wanted to really break things down into bite-size pieces. but logging everything made me keep to a caloric deficit anyway!) i decided what the prizes would be beforehand- they were not expensive and did not involve food, it was just something to look forward to to celebrate another two-week victory.

    the funny thing is, once the pounds started coming off, that in itself was my motivation and i never once even bought one of the prizes on my list!
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