How do you mentally reset when you feel you're losing track?

I take a diet break of 2-4 weeks every 6-8 weeks because after that long at deficit eating I start to get a little crazy brain...a break lets me eat a bit more, relax a bit, and then be rested to dive in with new motivation after a bit of time off...this works for me, but not everyone.

Motivation comes in waves I find. Sometimes we have to fight harder to stay on track, thats when habit and will power come in! I personally fon't take diet breaks unless I'm on vacation, I find it too hard to get back into the mindset

every time I feel excuses creeping in, I look at my photo of when I started. It usually does the trick. If that doesn't work, I look at my medical records and how poor of health I was in.

Great question.

So I had 5 rock solid diet months where I hit my targets 93 % of all days - i.e. came in at or under my MFP calorie goal and did at least 40 minutes of cardio. The weight fell off at a very predictable pace, perfectly in line with what MFP said it would be. Every once in a while I'd take a day off but never eating over maintenance.

And then around Thanksgiving things suddenly got harder. Not just the holiday days. I started missing my calorie target several days a week, first by 30 or 40 calories, then by 100, then 150, the trend was clear. All of a sudden there were more off days, and some of them were not anywhere close to maintenance. My weight loss slowed from a predictable 2 lbs per week to a very hard won 1 lb per week, which doesn't sound bad, but it was 1 lb by virtue of dieting at a 2 lb/week level and then giving a lot of it back with binges. Which is bad and contains the seeds of potential total destruction.

Diet fatigue. Just wanted more food, I guess. I intellectually understood what I was dieting for, just like 6 months ago, but I was no longer really feeling it, not like at first.

So two weeks ago, after a Christmas binge with some other fat people who shouldn't have been binging either, I realized something had to seriously change. What I came up with was to make a deal with myself: increase the daily calories 100 per day in return for absolutely, positively not exceeding the new number by 1 calorie, and limiting any off day/binge type behavior strictly to maintenance calories, everything carefully logged and accounted for. So far I have held up my end of the bargain 100 % and I do feel reengaged with the diet again, like it's a new thing. I eagerly await my "free" 100 calories every day and I know I have to do my part to earn them, by not exceeding them.

There probably isn't much of a learning point in all that, but what I'm thinking is that making the diet a little easier makes it possible to comply everyday, which leads to more compliance, a virtuous circle of success. Conversely, overshooting the calorie target leads to more overshooting, a circle of failure. Having figured that out, I = adjusted the target

If I notice myself feeling drained, hungry and tired I usually take a diet break and eat at maintenance for a few weeks especially if it's been over 8 weeks at a deficit. Then I come back with more energy and motivation.

It helps me to get on myfitnesspal actually. Goofing around in the forums where there are other people doing the Same thing makes me feel better. And I sometimes go to the success stories section and look at before/after pictures.