Lost my way

Wow, you did great. - You have not lost your way, you are just taking a detour! You'll get where you want to be, just a hit slower than you hoped.

That's ok. Everybody says the last 10 pounds of so take forever to come off, anyway.

I don't know what you have been doing, so suggestions are hard. With how much you have lost you probably did all the typically recommended stuff (weighing everything you eat where possible, not forgetting to include condinents and drinks in your calories, checking if exercise REALLY burns as many calories for you as the app says and adjusting the percentage of what you eat back if needed, etc.).

Could it just be Christmas time eating slowing you down?

Oh, the dreaded "I ate a quite bit worse than before and now my body seems to want me to continue with that"-hunger.

I honestly don't know if there is a scientific reason for that one to even exist, but I have experienced it, too. Am right now, actually.

I am able to force myself to not eat all the stuff I want, but it is a lot less fun and easy than before Christmas.

Can you do lots of stuff that keeps you away from the temptations? Like long walks (with appropriate clothes, I guess...) or exercise outside of the house. Or collect all the stuff that tempts you and throw it out or, better, give it away? - I found in those spells where it is hard to control myself it is easier if I have controlled my environment to just not have much of the stuff I am overly craving.

I admire your ability to be honest and forthright, it is challenging for me sometimes to be so open. With that said, I do agree, you have accomplished so much. This time of year, especially this particular year, has a tendency to derail people pretty swiftly in so many ways. Fatigue sets in and our ability to continue forward as before diminishes. Baby steps sometimes helps me, just one small thing each time, vs looking at the larger picture all at once.

fdlewenstein wrote: »

That’s part of it and Thanksgiving. Prior to this slow down I logged and measured everything I put in my mouth. Loosing weight was mostly diet changes in addition to activity level. After Thanksgiving I seem to have a hankering for carbs and sugar (which I was able to control before). I feel like I can’t satisfy my appetite. I try to make good choices, but I give in to cravings easily. I want to get back on track.

It doesn't work for others (but I'm not the only one for whom it does): I made some progress on that front by consciously including multiple fruit servings daily for a while. Over time, that reduced my cravings for less nutrition-dense sweets, like cookies and candy. Much longer term, many of them started tasting too simple and too sweet, not as appealing.

I'd also observe that for me, the onset of cooler weather and shorter days seems to provoke appetite increase, every year. How to deal with that is pretty individual (and I'm not sure whether it's Winter where you are). Some folks (I've read around here) just expect to gain a few pounds over Winter, and to lose them again in Spring/Summer: That's what their maintenance looks like.

As another thing, sometimes sticking with a calorie deficit for a really long time, no maintenance break, can lead to sparked appetite for some reason; or to cortisol-related (stress) water retention that makes the scale stall. Since you're conscious of eating a bit more over the holidays, perhaps the water retention is less likely to be the factor, but it could be in there somewhere.

It's pretty obvious that you know what you need to do, to get back on track. I wish I knew how to flip that switch in my own brain at will, let alone in other people's (but if I did, I'd bottle it and sell it! 😉).

Hoping you can find a path back to your positive habits, and betting you can!

When I lost my way last year after losing 2 stone over 5 months, I think (with the benefit of hindsight) that two things were to blame. The first was that I'd let too many carbs creep into my diet in the form of sugary cereal bars and such. While they didn't take me over my calories, they reignited my sweet/carb cravings, so I fell off the wagon. This time round (only my first week, having gained a stone back over the last year), I'm much more wary of that tripwire. The second reason was, I think, simple diet fatigue. Several months of careful weighing and logging is tiring, not to mention the willpower required and physical exercise to boot. I wish now I had just planned a month-long diet break and enjoyed eating at maintenance. Even if I'd kept that up for half a year, I'd still be at least half a stone lighter than I am now. But my all or nothing mentality didn't allow that, so I kidded myself it was just a Christmas blip and I would start logging again in the New Year. I was exhausted with it all, but wouldn't admit it to myself.

Also, this may be too simplistic, but I find the "hump" at the start of any diet reset takes me three days to get through before my mind and body accept it and the cravings lessen. This time round, I just told myself to try for one day. It was hard, but the next day I wanted to aim for the three because I'd already done one. I nearly packed it in on the evening of day 2 because I had the munchies really badly - the cravings were worse than ever - and I felt so HANGRY, but day 3 was easier, and I've just completed day 4. Only 4 days, but it feels like I've got control again. I don't think I'd have made it even here if I hadn't tricked myself into just trying it for a day. I'm not out of the woods completely, and I know if have even one carby/sugary thing, I'll be a goner, but at this point I don't want to waste those difficult hangry days, or have to do them again in the future, so my stubbornness has kicked in to help my willpower now.

Anyway, I'm rambling, but really just meant to say I get it, and good luck!