In a slump. What are some good get-back-on-track tricks?

It helps me to plan out what I will eat so I can feel "excited" about eating it and not have to think "oh what will I eat" and then end up eating anything.

And pre logging my meals help, if done things chsnge then I just switch it up.

Drinking lots of water helps me too.

There's no physical way to "jumpstart" a diet again, and it really comes down to your motivation and how you're feeling about your lifestyle changes.

What works for me is setting very small, attainable goals that I can achieve in a day or a week (some examples include marking out water bottles for increased water intake, setting a week or day of exercise plans, packing my gym bag ahead of time, prepping my breakfast and lunch for the next day or week, etc.)

I find that when my fitness, mental health and eating goals are small and attainable I am more likely to complete them and once I get started its easier to keep going.

I don't focus on "eating healthy". I eat what I want to eat, but limit my quantities to what fits into my daily goals (with exercise). I try to make my fiber goals and get a variety of foods (no days with a bag of chips counting as 2 meals any more) but it took a lot of the pressure off.

I find actually going food shopping and then making a detailed one week plan for every breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks puts me back on track.

kkenseth wrote: »

There's no physical way to "jumpstart" a diet again, and it really comes down to your motivation and how you're feeling about your lifestyle changes.

What works for me is setting very small, attainable goals that I can achieve in a day or a week (some examples include marking out water bottles for increased water intake, setting a week or day of exercise plans, packing my gym bag ahead of time, prepping my breakfast and lunch for the next day or week, etc.)

I find that when my fitness, mental health and eating goals are small and attainable I am more likely to complete them and once I get started its easier to keep going.

What she said!!! Also find your "WHY" again. Why you started in the first place. And keep that in your it in your mind's eye, write on your bathroom mirror, repeat it to yourself over and over. At some point, it will be second nature. And keep you from having to "reset" again. It hard when you have to lose the same 10 pounds over and over.

Believe!

Forget 'healthy' eating. Eat what you really want within your calories.

There's no reason why I should eat plain grilled chicken and steamed broccoli if I can fit delicious stuffed peppers or pasta with meat sauce in my calories... NONE.

So I ask myself what I want to eat, look up a lower calorie recipe on Google, and make it my meal.

Afura wrote: »

I just start eating well again. No jumpstart, no emotional guilt. I stalled out over December from depression and too much eating, I looked at my weigh ins and saw a pretty straight line. So I recommitted to myself to go forward and do better, and try and keep on track.
Too much guilt (my own) makes me continue to eat poorly because I depress myself, so when I start down that path I have to stop myself, and just accept that what happened happened, and it's what I do from here on out.

This bold bit for sure. Going off track can make you feel disappointed or angry, but hanging on to that doesn't lead anywhere helpful.

jsidogen wrote: »

You're already doing the right thing by asking for help. This is a hard process and that is why people tend to not follow through the majority of the time. Just ask yourself why you started this journey in the first place, we all have setbacks and obstacles we come across throughout the entire time. The important part is getting back on track by asking yourself, is it worth it? Why am I doing this? It is a mind over matter game, but how bad do you want it?

Every day.

tomteboda wrote: »

I don't focus on "eating healthy". I eat what I want to eat, but limit my quantities to what fits into my daily goals (with exercise). I try to make my fiber goals and get a variety of foods (no days with a bag of chips counting as 2 meals any more) but it took a lot of the pressure off.

I might know something (m'kay, a lot) about that.

kf1834 wrote: »

Thanks all for the tips and the motivation! To clarify on the "healthy", my goals in large part include the kinds of things my doctor would like (reducing sodium & added sugar, increasing fiber and good fats, balancing carbs with proteins and fats, etc, eating a variety of veggies) as well as reducing calories and increasing activity. Once I'm in the swing of it I know how great I feel, but having a busy week sent me into a eating-junk-on-the-go-no-time-to-exercise spiral followed by cravings for more of the junk and frustration that I can't eat like everyone else and wondering how sustainable it all is.

But the suggestions to plan and prepare ahead are great - if I keep going through with healthy plans, after a while my mood and motivation probably pick up too. And thank you everyone for the encouragingredients words, they have helped my motivation already. Let's do this!

You are so not alone with this. Other than some periods of depression I've never been an impressive volume eater. As a kid/teen as far as I could tell I didn't eat any more, or any worse than my peers, but I was always the fat girl.

I've had long spell of eating "healthy", cutting out junk, eating my vegetables, sticking with whole grains, going to the gym, and it made pretty much no difference because I wasn't tracking/weighing what I ate. But at the time it was really demoralizing.

But, here is the thing. In my lifetime overweight/obesity has taken off like a rocket. I was a fat kid when there weren't a lot of fat kids.

So, it seems to me that, at least in the long term, everyone else can't eat like everyone else either. Not without joining the burgeoning masses of the overweight and obese.

So choose your actions, choose your results.

rosebarnalice wrote: »

My reset is cabbage and tomato soup.

I make a HUGE stock pot with a whole head of cabbage, a can of diced tomatoes, some curry spices, lots of garlic powder and water water water. No salt.

Ill have it for both lunch and dinner on a reset day. The whole thing has like 600 calories, but it's SUCH a huge portion that it's hard to even finish it.

Lots of fiber, lots of water, lots of fullness AND lots of virtuous feelings!

Glad to know I am not the only one who still needs the occasional crutch. I will sometimes do meal replacement shakes as a start to getting on track. It is like a ladder for me. A day or two of meal replacement shakes so I can feel "in control." Then I take that day to plan all my meals and grocery shopping after that. Also remind myself I can eat cookies/hamburgers any time, for the rest of my life. So that means I can survive just fine not eating a hamburger for a week, I'll have a small lunch on Saturday and let myself enjoy one Saturday night etc. Everything is within calories, but planning out my treats and how I will keep them within calories helps. As does knowing I don't have to be perfect forever, just good enough for a little while.

Ask yourself how bad do you really want it? If you can answer unequivocally that you want it bad enough to just start the day or week over and leave the past behind, then just do that!

I like the approach from @ninkyou, just Log Every Damn Day.. and just keep doing it.

Leave the past behind you.. cannot back and change it so why worry over it...