Returning again to MFP? What is your plan?

Hello!

Welcome back to MFP. This site is filled with thousands of people including myself who have had real success here.

If you have been here before and had success but things happened and you didn't stick with it and are now back to try once more congratulations on taking that step again!

Regardless of the reasons one has for needing to try again there are some things to think about going at this a second time to ensure sustainability.

The first thing to think about is what you learned while you were "off the wagon"

You had a challenging time. But here you are, standing strong and you made it through. As you think about those days that passed, your reactions to the emotional roller coaster that is life, outside of food, what things in that situation were the backbone of support to help you get through it? How can you take those things and build on those so that you are ready for the next thing?

Sometimes when a situation comes to pass we are thankful its over and hope things are good for a while but life is always going to have ups and downs and hard times. Weight loss is a process made with time so we need to be able to remove food from plan A and replace it with something more supportive.

The second thing to think about is who are you as a person?

Sometimes in the midst of weight loss urgency we base our entire journey on someone else's success without wondering if it fits in our own life. Weight loss is simply a calorie deficit. Myfitnesspal gives you the tools to keep within that goal. But what about the details of obtaining that deficit? Different people have different reasons for their lifestyle choices. You need to think about what YOURS are. And not just "I want to eat low carb" or "I want to eat healthy". Think deeper then that. So.. You want to eat low carb... but why? Is there a health concern from your doctor about needing to limit it? Is it because these are things you've just heard about others doing and having success? Is it because you are a carb lover and go all carb crazy?

A health concern is definitely a good reason to follow a specific plan.

However if its simply a tale of success from another source you may be setting yourself up for failure especially if you already tried this the first time you were here. If you are a carb lover and carbs make you go carb crazy, you need to ask yourself "Can i avoid excess carbs for the rest of my life?" If no then your next question should be "How can i change this behavior so that i no longer feel out of control?" Avoiding something doesn't fix the problem, it just sits there waiting for you to have a weak moment. Lifestyle change is about taking steps to make change, those steps should also include a mental component outside of dietary moderation and physical activity if able.

Also.. what is eating healthy?
You are going to get probably a million and one answers to that question. Why? because healthy to someone is different to someone else, no sense piggy backing off of them, sometimes just small changes have a huge impact, even the simple act of moderation can achieve that. No one knows you better then you. If there is a simple concern of simply just getting more nutritious foods into your diet start small and work on one thing, don't go all out and do a complete 180 of drastic changes. And don't do it simply because someone else said "Well i do this and it's done this for my life and my health". Remember, someone elses life is different then yours no matter if they share a lot of similarities. Sure those changes they made had a good impact but the sustainable changes you could make can also obtain the same results.

The third thing to think about is what kind of food person am i?

In weight loss since the only thing required to achieve it is a calorie deficit its time to let go of the negative list of foods you have made. A common list for most people is pretty much all junk food and take out foods and any of their favorite comfort foods. You also need to let go of "diet tips" you've been hearing from fad diets and social media like facebook, instagram and pinterest. Now that you have given food a clean blank slate its time to learn how to use myfitnesspal for one of the main reasons it's here, moderation. If you are a carb lover and willing to put in the work to break yourself free of the compulsion to eat them into giving you a surplus of calories, work on that, don't go out of your way trying to adopt a low carb or keto lifestyle unless you know staying away from carbs is going to be easy for you. The benefits to a complete over hauled dietary change is only useful to the people who can successfully stick with it long term. If you can't often times falling off and going back to old habits is the result. This is with ANY major dietary change, not just low carb or keto, these are just examples.

There are many options out there for people, besides low carb, there is also IF, vegetarian, vegan, paleo, whole foods or just plain calorie deficit where all foods are included. All roads will lead down the same path as long as you have a calorie deficit but since weight loss is made over time you really need to choose an option you know you can stick with long term and not just pick one because it worked for someone else or to avoid a certain behavior or foods.

And lastly is my approach this time different then last time?

If you had success here before great!
But did you struggle with it? Did you suddenly decide to go vegetarian the day before someone invited you to a BBQ and you spent the whole time struggling not to eat a hamburger? Did you decide to give up all junk foods for carrot sticks and spend your whole time avoiding them too and dealing with the cravings and temptation? Did you constantly tell yourself how proud you were for not giving in and eating something because you just decided you shouldn't have it anymore cause you're trying to lose weight? Do you feel the need to seek approval and confess everything you do? "I ate a donut today but i am going to go for a long walk tonight and tomorrow is a new day!!"

Perhaps those changes weren't for you. Weight loss can be a long road but you shouldn't have to spend every day struggling and you shouldn't have to feel guilt for eating something within your calories. You also should never feel deprived if there is no reason too. Don't go down the same road twice if the first road lead you off a cliff. Don't just keep doing it and justify it by saying "Well i just didnt try hard enough". You probably did but you probably also made it harder then it needed to be.

Read these posts:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300319/most-helpful-posts-general-diet-and-weight-loss-help-must-reads#latest

use the information you have learned about yourself as a person and the information included here in these posts to build your own lifestyle changes that work for you and help you stay within a calorie deficit. The less time spent focused on trying to do a drastic lifestyle change that doesn't really suit you for no medical reasons, gives you more time to work on the things you were using those diet changes to avoid. You don't have to become an entirely new you, you just have to be an improved you. Make sustainable choices and changes.