Why?

Get the junk thats sabotaging you out of the house. I know if there's chocolate or sweets in the house all my motivation just goes down the drain. I swear 99% of my success is not having the stuff there because as soon as my dad brings home cookies I just have to eat them.

It's not an easy road at all, but you can so do this!! The first step is to clear all of the junk out of your cabinets and pantry. If you don't have it in the house to eat, you can't eat it! Go to the grocery store and by healthy foods. Fill your fridge with fruits and veggies to snack on. Fill your pantry with oatmeal, whole wheat breads, brown rice, tuna, etc.
Set small goals for yourself and as you accomplish those, make new ones.
I have been there and I know what the fight and struggle is like. Don't give up!

That sounds so simple. But it's just been Christmas. My partner and his daughter have a load of their chocolates still in the cupboard. I thought about just putting them at the top of the cupboard as far away from my reach as possible (as I have to use a toddler step to get to the top shelf) and then our of sheer laziness wouldn't eat them. How do I motivate myself to eat well though? Do you think persevering with the planning would help? I thought about preparing some healthy dishes and keeping them in the freezer so I can just heat them up...? And the exercise is a HUGE point. How do I force myself to get off my bum and exercise? I hate it right now.

You don't have to do everything at once. Maybe you could start one day by just eating under your calorie goal, not worrying about eating healthy. Then once you've managed that for a while then you could start setting goals like eating healthier meals. If it seems too daunting it'll be harder to do, but if you just think "all I have to worry about today is not eating too many calories" then it might make it easier?

Start writing down your goals and posting them so you see it every day. And then measure yourself against those goals. Also, if you don't push yourself mentally, you wont' succeed either. And lastly, get a friend or someone to do this with you. It makes it easier.

Thats a good idea. I have thought about starting a journal.

And my sister is about 2 stone heavier than me and I know she wants to lose weight too. The only problem is she doesn't live near me and I only see her every couple of months or so.

It's ok if your sister doesn't live near you, you can use the internet or skype (video chat).... Or just keep coming on here every day and post your accountability.

Normally, I don't recommend an all or nothing viewpoint for weight loss. I feel like it causes resentment and leads to binge eating. HOWEVER. If you're struggling to keep yourself under control when it comes to junk foods? It is time to sweep the house clean of them. Get them out of the house and start fresh with healthy choices instead. Once you get into the groove, perhaps you'll be able to bring some of this stuff back around.

Only YOU can do this. YOU have to want this for yourself. No one else can want it for you.


Good Luck to you.

It takes something like 21 days to change a habit - so just do one day at a time. If you fail day 1, try again day 2. It actually gets easier after awhile. Of course, you have to want to change and set yourself up for success like everyone's saying - get rid of all the junk in the house.

Good luck!

In my experience, it's been more about eating the things that actually SATISFY hunger. Once you eat more of that, there's no more room/cravings for junky stuff. What I have noticed is that if I eat a tub of pringles.... I'll definitely want more pringles. Or something else with the same flavor pallet. I recently watched a documentary discussing the "triggers" in your stomach for fullness. A lot of the refined things or modified things we eat (ravioli, etc.) doesn't trigger the same hormones of satisfaction/satiety. Find some REALLY yummy food that has mostly whole grain, and you'll be sa-tis-fied! No room or desire for junk!

Try finding an exercise that you like more. Try a bunch of different things.. even walking is good exercise.. Like personally I hate running.. I love lifting weights so that's what I do. It's easier to talk yourself into exercise if you can remember how you felt at the end of the last time you did something you liked.

I don't think you have the mental part of this journey straightened out yet and if you don't have the proper mindset, all of the things you listed are going to happen to you. I think it is very beneficial to spend some time digging up the things you hate about your lifestyle and the reasons you want to change it. If you dig deep enough and find powerful enough reasons, you can succeed. Your mind is holding you back. It doesn't have to. Try the activity in my will power blog. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/H_Factor/view/recipe-for-a-will-power-pill-for-help-with-the-mental-part-of-the-journey-155978

Would you rather feed the voices in your head or be happy and healthy. Sorry it's that hard. Are you in charge of your life or not

Make sure you start when you're actually ready. If you're not physically, emotionally, and mentally ready for this challenge, you're probably not going to stick with it.

Try not to be too hard on yourself, and remember the cliche: Rome wasn't built in a day.

Like other have said, do what you can. Something is better than nothing.

For example, today I got up. I had a fairly healthy breakfast. And it all went downhill from there. I had chocolate, and tinned ravioli...

You don't have to be perfect you just have to be better...
Babysteps have always been the key to success for me... Do a little something is better than doing a whole lot of nothing...

1) Give yourself credit for your healthy breakfast and remember that just because the day went down hill doesn't give you permission to give up completely


This was the approach that worked best for me...

1) tracking for a couple of weeks before I worried about losing.
(although seeing what I was eating I couldn't help but rein back a bit)

2) seeing where I could make small changes on things that weren't that important to me.
(Don't even think of taking chocolate out of my diet!!!)
--Reducing quantities where I won't notice it so much
--Swapping out things instead of eliminating them.

3) Look at my diary and started adding foods that had positive healthy effects specifically for the health issue in my family.
I found most of the things I "should" add were really yummy too! salmon, avocado, oatmeal, mango, red grapes....
(Sort of think of food as medicine to deal with family history of various health issue oatmeal is good for heart health, mango and red grapes lower cholesterol, tumeric and cinnamon good for arthritis)

4) every couple of weeks I see where I can make another couple of small changes.
If you completely revamp your diet, it's way easy to revert to old ways in times of stress. (and who doesn't have stress?)
If you make a series of small changes, food still offers you some sense of comfort.
sort of a comfort continuum, and after a while the first small changes will seem comforting in themselves.
You don't have to be perfect you just have to do better.

5) also rather than being uberstrict with the target MFP set for me I did the math to find out the calories needed to maintain my goal weight and my current weight and I gave myself a range with 1200 as my rock bottom, lose 1 lb/wk as my target*** and maintain my goal weight as the top of my range. As long as I keep within in this range I'll lose. I tend to naturally zig zag my calories 3-4 at very close to my target and then a higher calorie day closer to the top of my range.

As long as I stayed under maintain my current weight calories I won't gain. So no need to throw in the towel, just pick-up where I left off.

Once I found ways to lessen the stress, I found it way easier to focus on the process and let the results follow. (It's what worked for me some people need the stress to get them motivated. Me I get scared and overwhelmed and don't see the big goal as achievable. I only worry about it 1 lb at a time.)

***also once my lose 1 lb/week target was down to 1200 calories I switch to lose 1/2 lb/ week (1200 cal rock bottom, 1/2 lb/week as my target, maintain goal weight as the high end of my range.)

Food is not the enemy.
Oddly enough on my journey here I've reduced guilt over food.
I have the occasional treat and I fully enjoy it with no guilt involved.
The thing is since I'm not eating crap all the time the occasional treat is just that a TREAT it's special and I enjoy it so much more than when I was unconsciously shovel junk food into my face.

I figure if I've got a good plan that I can actually maintain I can keep this off for a long time to come, without feeling deprived.

Oh I've so been there.

For me, a few things have worked for the past few weeks.

1. Like others said, have healthy things in the house. It's one thing to say no to something when there is a lower calorie healthy food that will satisfy you sitting next to it. If there are no good foods in the house, hunger will always win out.
2. Make good habits. Don't say "I'm going to work out for an hour" Say "I'll walk for 10 minutes". Make it managable, then it will build as your self confidence does.
3. Have a plan. I have the same breakfast every day and I plan how many calories I'm going to allot for snacks and meals. If I find myself at a lunch that's higher, I subtract it from snacks. Keep it simple, but plan.
4. Eat whole foods as often as possible. My breakfast is 2 eggs scrambled with a cup of diced red, orange and yellow peppers and a whole apple cut up. That's a LOT of food for 300 calories.
5. Forgive yourself for where you are. Accept it and move forward. You can do this. Your health is worth it!

I lay out a dish and/bowl on the counter and it has healthy stuff in it like nuts, fruit, veggies, peanut butter. That way I see them every time I'm in the kitchen. I check out the counter first and start making my meals and/or snacks there. I hardly ever go into the pantry anymore. That's where we keep my husband's chips and some crackers and canned staples. I also try to keep processed pantry food out of the house, unless it is for my husband. No cookies, chips, little debbie's etc. There used to be pretzels and popcorn as back up snacks, but nowadays I don't even keep those hardly.