Tired Of Starting Over

I'm tired too. I feel like I keep trying everything, but maybe I'm just setting myself up to fail but trying to do too much too fast

Yup, motivation is fleeting.

Consider this, what is the “it” you’re trying to stick to? If you make your food diary your “it” things might be better.

Calculate a modest calorie deficit, get a food scale and start a food diary. Always log everything, even if you go over your number. Even if you go over by a lot. Don’t know how many calories in that meal? Make a good faith estimate. Perfect is the enemy of the good.

But from now on the process is more important than the numbers. Going over your number is not a reason to abandon the process. If you find your plan not working well at some point, problem solve and adjust. Weight loss requires repeated problem solving and adjusting. Give yourself a break. There’s a learning curve. Don’t quit just because you make a mistake.

Last- calorie counting can be a pain at first. Give it time, it gets easier. And give your program time to work. You have to find a way to eat in a deficit that you can actually live with. A plan you don’t stick to is just a bad plan, make a better one.

MzNiki91 wrote: »

How do people get the motivation to stick to it 1ce & for all? I hate being the 1 to post "starting over again, gave up last time, but this time im stickn to it!" The same tune diff day

Although it does take motivation, you can help yourself by thinking of this not as a diet but as a new way of life. Eating crap foods whenever we wanted with little or no exercise is usually what got most of us here in the first place. You shouldn't diet just so you can look and feel the way you want then go back to the way you were before. You'll end up back here every time.

Instead, don't be too restrictive. Set your goals moderately, and ease into things. Instead of setting yourself at 2lb/wk loss rate, set it at 1lb/week. Adopt an exercise routine that will help you to gain more calories to eat and still lose the weight. You might even start off with little exercise, then work your way up to more, and by the time you hit maintenance, you might back off a little on the exercise, but keep it up consistently to help you to maintain your calories and your weight.

For instance, I started at 2lb/week loss. It sucked, I did it for about 14 months to lose the weight I wanted. It was too restrictive and I exercised too much, even managed to injure myself along the way. So after I healed from the injuries I dialed back the weight loss to 1lb/week and reduced my exercise from 6-7 days a week to 5. Once I hit my goal, I slowly, over a period of three months, moved up to what I had calculated my exercise calories to be. During that time I kept my exercise routine the same. Once I was at maintenance levels for three months I adjusted my exercise routine to 4 days a week and reduced my calories a bit to compensate for that lost day. I've been here ever since. There may be a week or so each month I will do 5 days a week if I feel like it, and when I do I'll reward myself with extra calories, but for the most part I stick with 4 days a week now and maintenance calories and have maintained for 2+ years with the exception of gaining weight I intended to gain (building muscle). So make a plan, don't be too restrictive at first, keep your eyes on the prize, but realize that there really is no end, there is a difference you can expect eventually in the amount you eat and the amount you exercise but it's not going to be the same you were before you started.

Just my .02

The most important thing that helped me was to set reasonable goals. Stop trying to lose it all at once. It took me 2 years but I made it. You can do it too. Find what works for you that you can live with for the rest of your life. Take your time. Good luck.

This is my third time around saying "I'll start now". This time I am not trying for a 2lb loss per week, I have incorporated some different exercises in, I'm not killing myself this time. So far I am down 11 pounds, it is taking longer but I feel I'll be able to keep it up for the long haul and make permanent changes so that there isn't an "I'll start now" 2 years down the road. I truly believe weighing and logging regularly will truly keep me on track this time.

Just remember you’re doing this for you and you are worth it.

Try making small changes first. Set small goals and gradually increase them.

Learn to prepare your favorite foods in a healthier version.

Small changes bring about big results and changes. You can do it!!

I didn't even get on the scale until I had my jeans falling off me. I was motivated by keeping track of my calories (I cook every night, so putting recipes into the recipe builder took a little time, but it was such good information). I wore a fitbit at the beginning of my new lifestyle so that I could see if I needed to move more by the end of the day-and I usually did. I wouldn't describe the process as "fun," but I just kept learning about my activity level, what i enjoyed doing when I needed more activity, which foods gave me more caloric bang for my buck... It's been four years and yes, I'm back to logging faithfully due to 10 pounds that crept back on, but five of the are gone already because I know what I need to do and I'm not in a hurry.

So in those four years, I can plan my dinners around 14 pages of recipes in my recipe builder (makes logging so easy), I found ways to be active consistently because I chose things that I enjoy doing, I learned to swim, and now I'm stronger and fitter at 50 than I have been my entire life. One thing I try to remember is that whatever workout I'm doing is "what I do." So driving to the pool after work is "what I do," not negotiable. Not optional. Just what I do. It takes the wishy-washy part out of it. I just go. And then I swim or do a class. And I get my workout in. Sometimes it's easy to go, other times, I have to rely on my new routine. But it IS routine now. I expect it of myself. My family knows I go. It's what I do

Instead of "starting over" Start logging. Not just what you eat, but why, and how you feel before, right after and an hour after.After several days, this will give you a baseline of your uniwue lifestyle habits. Then go back and figure out one or two places where you can identify a particular bad eating habit and make a plan to change that. Not your whole lifestyle, not your entire diet, just one or two (at most) habits or behaviors you can experiment with.
Once those have been altered comfortably into your life, so that they are real habits, find one or two more things to work on.
This does a couple of things. First it helps you focus on and identify the real behaviors that cause you to gain, and change them into positive ones. Second it keeps you out of the all or nothing approach that is the most common issue behind failure. And finally, if you are only changing a few habits and behaviors st a time, then when you slack off, it won't destroy the entire thing. You will likely only fall back into one or two old habits, which can be easily identified and fixed again.
It is MUCH easier to fix "I can eat a half gallon of ice cream before bed" than it is to fix "I screwed up again, nothing works, I am a failure at dieting, I give up."