Down in Dumps Up in Weight

Wow! Congrads to you!!! You need to give yourself credit, you have overcome some of the hardest things that can be. One step at a time, and you are right, that crap is very bad for you in all ways. Start by praising yourself for YOU and what you have done. Then walk proud and focus on a new you. I am 60 and finally comfortable with myself, could lose a few more but staying in check to not gain. Prayers to you and best of luck. You got this, give yourself some time too!!

What's helped me is not giving up the things I like. Find a treat that you crave but where you can still exercise self-control. For me that is peanut butter chocolate ice cream. Just one half of one of those little tubs is 580 calories. But I can save up for it, on workout days mostly, and enjoy it at night. It helps this be something sustainable, a routine that I can keep up indefinitely. Good luck to you!

Good luck on your journey but I would be careful with goals like never eating junk food again. When you draw a solid line like that and ever cross it things can fall completely apart. I'm a fan of "bend but don't break." The beauty of calorie counting is you can have literally anything you want as long as it adds up. Which for me is why it works vs any other diet or system. If I feel like a candy bar, I'll eat one! Just the only difference to before is that I only have the 1 instead of 3...and then 2 more later. Just the act of counting daily reminds me to think "do I really need this" before eating because I know then it means I won't be able to enjoy my dinner as much, or whatever else that day. And on the rare occasions the answer is "yes" I let myself eat more, if I'm that hungry, because I'd rather not get down on myself and still know that I'm winning most days at least, rather than feel like I've failed, get down on myself, and possibly give up for one mistake.

So long story short be careful with "nevers" and "always." For me what makes this work is not having to have rules like that. I've done the "never again" thing with drinking. And it works! For a while. It worked for me for several years in fact, but inevitably there comes a time where you think "ok just one" or "maybe I'll try again and moderate" and it completely falls apart. So I don't want to make that same mistake again with eating.

Rushko wrote: »

Good luck on your journey but I would be careful with goals like never eating junk food again. When you draw a solid line like that and ever cross it things can fall completely apart. I'm a fan of "bend but don't break." The beauty of calorie counting is you can have literally anything you want as long as it adds up. Which for me is why it works vs any other diet or system. If I feel like a candy bar, I'll eat one! Just the only difference to before is that I only have the 1 instead of 3...and then 2 more later. Just the act of counting daily reminds me to think "do I really need this" before eating because I know then it means I won't be able to enjoy my dinner as much, or whatever else that day. And on the rare occasions the answer is "yes" I let myself eat more, if I'm that hungry, because I'd rather not get down on myself and still know that I'm winning most days at least, rather than feel like I've failed, get down on myself, and possibly give up for one mistake.

So long story short be careful with "nevers" and "always."

Amen to this! Me too, that's the only way it works.
I tried both ways, and yes, without my treats I lost more more quickly, but I regained all and also some more, 'cause it's not an enjoyable way of living, and it's tooo sad to apply it, sooner or later you give up.
With my normal eating slightly readdressed (and I underline: slightly), I lost more slowly, but never regained (more than 10 years so far).
Now i've decided to lost some other kilos, and I'm doing it very slowly again (other 7 kilos in 9 months, so far), and it's very easy, 'cause I do not renounce anything. I still have my croissant for every breakfast, my weekly pizza and my weekly hamburger + fries, and my beloved pasta 4 or 5 days/week, and so on.
The difference is, for instance, that when I eat pasta it's half plate pasta and the other half vegetables and proteins; the pizza 9 times of 10 is with vegetables; fries are the little or medium container, and I eat also a big bunch of lettuce and tomatoes; and the morning croissant is giant but it's one (and not two or tree... simply, I don't buy the box at supermarket, or I'd eat them all in a day, but I eat it at cafè. And, since the cafè is about 1500 steps from home, I also "gain" 3000 steps moving ;-) )
Also, I discovered that the "plate diet" is more more satisfying - at least, for me - than other ways of eating: mixing all the nutrients in the same meal (both for lunch and dinner) satisfies me for more hours, so I have no craves and no hunger (I before ate one meal proteins + vegetables and the other one carbs).
And I'm really making no efforts, so I know I can do this for all life, 'cause at the bottom it's my usual eating, simply better balanced/mixed.

Edit for adding: I'm perimenopausal. And it's absolutely not a problem, I nonetheless lose without effort.