Being successful and when it finally clicked?

I just joined MFP but have been @ this since Jan 04. I am down 12 pounds & have about 10 more to go.

Last night we had Dinner @ my mother in laws. She makes amazing Italian foods & the main event last night was home made pasta.

I had small portions (even the pasta) & said no to dessert. I managed to stay under my calories for the day.

This might not be a big deal to most but showing restraint to the many temptations is a small victory for me & I am proud of myself,,,,

I can't say exactly (as I am still working on it and have a ways to go) but I started to focus on what exercise and new types and cuisines of food would ADD to my life, not have to GIVE UP/LOSE. I have started to love running and I have learned to cook with other spices and styles I never have before. I now cook a lot more, including some of my favorite Chinese food dinners- so much healthier and still delicious, and it feels like I am treating myself!

I feel happier now, not staring at a scale for some specific "gotta have it" number but rather focusing on how I felt. I think this has helped me look at this as a true lifestyle change not just a quick fix (which I hoped for in the past). Even though I rarely weigh myself anymore, this week I could put on jeans from the "not" plus size section of Target (which I haven't been able to do in almost 10 years!). And I have so much more energy doing something I LIKE to do (I have a 10k in April and I hope to do a half marathon by November). I may still be very slow, but I am having fun discovering these new experiences (love my wok!), in some ways I don't feel like I am missing out much at all.

Also, I will echo checking out these posts

Ninkyou wrote: »

All the above happened when I read through the forums and really started sponging up the information to be had.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1235566/so-youre-new-here
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1
^These are great threads to read through. HIGHLY recommend.

In short- find what inspires you, educate yourself, be patient, and love yourself. I wish you good luck on your journey!

When I decided to trust the process and he consistent--I figured if I trusted it, and stuck to my calories, it would have to work eventually, regardless of how slow it felt.

And that made me realize I had to drop my perfectionism, that "all or nothing" mentality. A bad couple of days shouldn't mean I'd start over next week-- it should mean I recover as quickly as possible, to be consistent and trust the process. I started looking at it as a scientific process. If I wanted to lose, I needed to be more accurate with my logging, move more, and BE PATIENT! It's been a long two months because the scale has hardly budged. But I've worked my butt off and it's finally getting noticeable to me. But I didn't let that scale derail me, I didn't give up, I just kept trusting that it had to work.

It clicked for me when I realized I can enjoy all foods just different ways of doing it. Example at work they might have a lunch meeting, they'll order pizza. My old ways would have been eat 2-3 slices until I got full. My new way is bring in a salad and have 1 slice of pizza. Start on the salad and slowly eat the pizza. I'm enjoying the pizza, but using the salad to help fill me up.

I'm currently down 71 lbs and have another 20 or so to go. I started almost 1 year ago( April 1st 2015)

Ninkyou wrote: »

When I ditched the all-or-nothing mentality, lowered my expectations and realized I didn't have to be miserable.

If I have a day I go over, I log it and move on.
I expect to lose nothing and when I do lose, yay.
I don't exercise daily. I exercise when I can, and sometimes life gets in the way. I just try again. Also, rest days are important.
I eat all of the same foods (and more!) as before, I just eat less of them. I invested in a food scale, weigh my food, log it and bam done

Yes! This is my problem...if I"m not perfect I give up and wait for a new "start over" date. This has done nothing for me. I need to remember to accept the bad days and KEEP GOING. Thanks

I guess I always knew it was a fairly simple equation: calories in vs. calories out. I was already fairly fit since I'd gotten hooked on cycling in 2011. I was riding a lot and starting to race some, and had managed to ride myself down from a max of 235 to about 200-210 lbs depending on the time of year. When it finally "clicked" for me was summer of 2014 when I finally decided I was serious enough about racing my bikes that I hired a coach. It occurred to me that it was pretty dumb to hire a coach to help me get more fit when I was still carrying an extra 40-50 lbs. So, hired the coach, got serious about tracking calories, and 6 months later I was down from 209 to 175. I'm still a little heavy, I really should be about 10 lbs lighter, but that's what it was for me. I knew what I needed to do, MFP just really helped me do it.

Long, but here's what worked for me. Also, advice at the bottom:

I joined MFP in 2011 after a friend very kindly told me I was gaining so much weight he was worried about me. I already knew I was huge but it took someone I cared about saying it out loud to kick my brain on fully. I lost 80 lbs. the following year. Was still 30 lbs. from goal but looked and felt wonderful.

I took a job bartending (notoriously emotionally and physically unhealthy!) and gained it all back over about three years.

My boyfriend's been patient but we've talked about my weight a lot. I always originate the discussion. I kept losing and gaining the same 10 lbs.

Last month, I ordered a new digital food scale for the kitchen and new bathroom scale. When I stepped on the bathroom scale, I fully expected to weigh my heaviest of 235 but I was only 205! I'd accidentally lost a bunch of weight. I attribute that to my new, active job and immensely healthier home life.

That seemed to be kick enough to keep up the momentum this time around. Here we are three weeks later and I'm already under 200 lbs. 197.2 to be exact. My goal is to be down at least below 190 by my bf's birthday in early April.

I don't work out yet but I bought a used stationary bike from Craigslist ($15!) and am counting calories everyday. I spent all last week eating to maintenance because I was working a bunch of close/open shifts and was exhausted and stressed. But I logged EVERYTHING (no matter how embarrassing or frustrating) and didn't gain an ounce.

---

COUNT EVERYTHING. LOG IT.

BE KIND TO YOURSELF WHEN YOU MAKE MISTAKES BUT HOLD YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE.

MAKE MINI GOALS. Instead of only thinking, "I have 90 lbs. to lose," I think, "I have 90 lbs. to lose but FIRST I want to get into the 180s in April." When I achieve that, I create a new mini-goal. They're not always number-on-the-scale based but my next one will be. I was 172 when I first met my boyfriend and I'd love to reach that ASAP. Then start making progress toward my lowest weight with him of 152. After that, it's the homestretch to somewhere around 120.

EXERCISE WHEN YOU CAN, HOW YOU CAN, MIX IT UP, TRACK IT, HAVE FUN! Weight loss is 80% diet. Though, since I lost 80 lbs. before without working out regularly, I'd say it's 100% diet. But if you want a body that's strong and lithe and not just "not fat", exercise is key. I like to hike and swim so the closer we get to summer, the more I'll get to do that. I'd love to start using this stationary bike more regularly and am taking steps to organize my home and schedule better in order to make that a reality. Maybe just 30 minutes here and there to start then go from there.

---

What it really comes down to is having your own internal desire to reach a goal. Weight loss or otherwise! If you want it, you can get it. But you have to be your own boss about it. Discipline, routine, self-motivating practices and a clear vision of your goals are absolutely pertinent.

Good luck and keep up the good work!

This site is what changed things for me. I'd been going it alone and struggling on too few calories for my size and my weight loss stalled and I started feeling a bit desperate at the thought of not losing despite being hungry most of the time. MFP was a revelation to me. Exercise calories to eat back? Yes please! That gave me the incentive to exercise - and the reward. I've just clocked up 4 years of almost daily logging and 139lbs lost so far. It's mostly the decision to do it, the rest is having the tools and the persistence - plus the realisation that a bad day here and there often does you good! Don't strive for daily exercise though. Rest days are important to health too.

I logged my calories pretty well my first week or two, so seeing the scale drop immediately was enough to have me sold in that regard.

It took a few months for me to form a habit when it came to exercise. I was trying to run and hated it. Once I found heavy weight lifting my life changed. I was excited to go to the gym, my body was changing, I was losing more weight as I wasn't fixated on steady state cardio but rather logging my food accurately and working on body composition.

When workouts and healthy eating becomes habit and second thought. Routines are singlehanded the most important thing to me. Yes my routine can get throw out of whack but you always make time for showers and brushing your teeth why can't workouts be the same?

The food never "clicked", the portion sizes clicked. I still have pasta, and cheese, and ice cream, but I have it in appropriate portions. American restaurants are so set for "quantity" that most people eat 2+ servings of food without realizing it, and I was so used to eating a lot, that even just cutting down on that is a major improvement. If I'm hungry, there may be a day where I go over 100 calories, and while that's not good, that's what happened, and I have to move on, and not wallow in what I did wrong. Still learning to wallow in what I did right.

As for the exercise, not a fan. I try and walk a lot, but I let winter (the dreaded cold) deter me. I have to do something I like or find a way to motivate myself. For that I like MFP challenge groups to give me motivation, and also Zombies Run, because it has a storyline to motivate me to find out what happens next.

I've always been great at losing weight. I don't know how many times I've reached my goal weight. It is the maintaining weight that was difficult for me.

Realizing that my perfectionism, which I had been struggling against since I was a child, was leading me to embrace cognitive distortions was huge for me. Once I was able to identify and acknowledge my faulty thinking, I was able to successfully work on changing those thought patterns.

Another huge shift for me was when I took the concept of losing weight off the table. I focused on how I wanted to live the rest of my life instead. What choices can I make to ensure that I remain healthy and active? I had lost weight successfully often enough in the past that I could trust that would happen as a side effect of choosing to be healthy.

These shifts allowed me to take the focus off of the numbers (that dieting mentality). It didn't matter if I lost X pounds in Y weeks - that was no longer part of my thinking. Instead, I focused on setting goals that would lead me to increased health and fitness, such as running X miles this week or limiting my eating out to once per month.

I had a health issue at work and had to be taken down to the clinic by co-workers were the doctor put me on a heart monitor for 72 hours. It also helped that when I looked down while working at my desk my gut was lying on top of it. I said enough is enough. Then after I cut out all the mountain dew , added water, and stopped all the overeating of processed foods, I stopped being in pain. My body did not ach anymore. I could workout and have the good ach not the bad, "I am not working out tomorrow!" ach. Most of all my clothes are lose again and taking the stairs is not so bad anymore. I feel bad when I don't take them. Oh and my gut is no longer hanging out on my desk. Jan 6 2016: 244 March 8 2016: 226.

ArtsieSarah wrote: »

Hi everyone, I was looking for HOW people were successful (some inspiration). When did eating healthy finally click and when did exercise become a daily routine? I'm struggling and want to know how everyone got to where they are today, thanks!

When I went in for my 38th birthday wellness appointment and my doctor told me that my blood work showed me heading down a very bad path that was likely to leave me very sick if not dead by my early 60s...that's pretty much where the rubber met the road and I realized that a lot of my bad habits and *kitten* living had caught up to me. Deep down I always knew it would...

Fortunately, my diet really only needed some tweaking...I've learned to cook back in college namely because I was broke and it was an easy way to impress the ladies...but I learned how to cook a lot of things using scratch, whole ingredients and always enjoyed eating healthy...it was just that my unhealthy eating outweighed my healthy eating...so I just flipped that around.

As far as exerciser, I grew up involved in all manner of sports from about 2nd grade through my senior year in high school...so training wasn't really something unfamiliar to me. Really, I just had to get back into the swing of things which mean that I had to push myself initially to go do stuff even if I didn't really feel like it. I started out doing a lot of jogging and calisthenics which I really didn't like too much, but I made myself go out and do it...

I got a little more twinkle in my eye when I joined a gym a few months into things and started hitting the weights again...I had forgotten how good it felt to push and pull the iron and to dip my hands into a bucket of chalk and to hear the sound of a heavy clean and jerk dropping to the platform. It was kind of like a home coming of sorts.

I still wasn't into my jogging, but I slugged it out anyway and in an effort to motivate myself I signed up for a sprint triathlon...as part of my training I had to start riding and swimming...boom, another little twinkle...I had forgotten how much I used to love to ride and as a former lifeguard and swim team guy I take pretty naturally to water. I never did end up participating in that race as injury prevented me from doing so...but I found a passion in cycling and doing a little swimming here and there.

Exercise wise, I'd say it took me about six months to really find my stride...but to find my stride I had to find my passions...cycling and lifting...and a little swimming to cool me down when it's hot....I also enjoy a good hike in the mountains. I run a little here and there because as a matter of general fitness I feel like I should be able to at least run a decent 5K...but I loath every single minute of it.

My road started somewhere are the 220lb mark- I'm 5'2".
Why have I been successful? because I stopped looking for fads, diets, quick fixes or magic pills. Things clicked when I stopped depriving and starving myself because I wanted to lose 20lbs in a few weeks time. It's just not reasonable, nor sustainable. I've done it and afterwards would put on more weight than I had started with.

I now lose 4-5lbs a month, I eat whatever, whenever. Pasta at 11pm? Does it fit into my calories? then Yes, Please! The weight started coming off and keeps coming off. I like moving now, my body anticipates me moving. Even at work, I get up from my desk every 1-2hrs and take a 5-10min walk.

I have also accepted the slip ups. When I have gotten away from things and the weight began to creep back. I acknowledged it and fixed it. I am now 156lbs and 20lbs away from goal weight.