Trouble getting started

I was a sugar junkie as well- I just find much lower sweet things I can eat that fit into my daily calories- such as Halo Top ice cream, chocolate graham crackers, yogurt with fresh fruit, healthy granola bars (the Love Crunch and Kind bars are really good). You have to be willing to make some concessions and really want to do it. It's not easy for anyone....

ahoover1979 wrote: »

Hi everyone! I'm on here looking to get help and motivated to loose the 20 lbs that I put back on over the last year after working so hard to get it off. I cannot seem to find the motivation to keep me going more than two days or so, as I always seem to turn to sugar to help my mood and I always justify it one way or another. I know that a fitter and slimmer me makes me the happiest, but I have a hard time getting past the initial temptations to realizing the bigger picture and it's so frustrating because I know that I've done it before! Why can I not get started again and why can't I stay committed to my goals. Would love to hear from all of you or anyone with some advice or motivation. Thanks!

I think this may be key, and you're the only person who can answer it. It may help to shift your goals: When I was on MFP the first time (three years ago), it was doing a 12-week programme. Because I thought of it as this finite process, when I came to the end I reverted to old habits. Three years later I came back, because I was back at that starting weight. But this time I shifted my focus. Yes, I have a target weight, and it is very much in sight, but my goal is not that weight: my goal is to get to maintenance. My goal is to still be doing the exercising, the conscious eating, the social interaction and accountability here in 6 years, in 60 years (I'll be 100 then, but I aim to be fit as long as I can be.)

When I came back, it was after a few weeks of saying to myself that I wouldn't. Wouldn't go back to CICO, wouldn't admit so solidly that I needed this. But I had a pretty serious 'real talk' moment with myself, and I came out of that knowing that the other thing I wouldn't do was change anything if I didn't change anything.

So here I am. I've got my workouts in my diary on a recurrence with no end date. I've got plans in place for when I do go into maintenance. And I know this is for the long haul. Some people may not need to keep it up, but I do. And I would say in dealing with the sugar issue: how did you deal with it before? What didn't work that's allowed the backsliding? Because the most valuable thing about coming back was that it gave me an opportunity to learn from my mistakes, and I'm doing that. Don't let the last year just be a loss: pull lessons from it, even if they're lessons in what not to do.