I'm in love and growing! HELP!!!

Aw, bless you! In the same boat myself. Met an amazing man and - whoosh - the weight piled on.

Tracking what you eat is good as you can see exactly where things are going wrong. For me it's the weekends - alcohol, rich food, boyfriend-sized portions etc etc. It's terrifying to look at the MFP charts and see my calorie count rocket when I'm with him (he's slim, superfit and never seems to put on weight!).

A couple of weeks ago I got remotivated and started with a new approach:

1. Be ultra good fitness and diet wise on the days I'm not with him.
2. Try to be sensible on the days I am with him. I used to cook him rich food and go out to eat all the time. Now, if I'm cooking for us, I keep it healthy (he's happy to be cooked for and doesn't seem to notice) and make sure I give myself a smaller portion than him. Likewise, if eating out I try to make sensible choices.
3. Try to do something healthy together. For us it's hiking - burn 1,500 calories in a few hours hiking up hill and down dale, then you can have a nice dinner or bottle of wine in the evening without any guilt.
4. Be honest with him - don't use the word 'diet', just say you want to have a bit of a new year health kick and be on top form for summer. He might just want to do the same.

This is my plan... if I can stick to it, I know the weight will continue to come off.

SRH7 = VERY good advice.

Similar situation, though the main issue was initially living in hotels, then working becoming so insane it was difficult to:
a) plan around it to eat healthy
b) to not sucumb to comfort eating / instant gratification
coupled with meeting a guy who is awesome, for me it was even less motivation to "fix myself", even though I wasn't happy within myself because of how I was expanding in front of the mirror.

What changed?

I got on the scales and had one heck of a shock, in just over 2 years, I've increased over 4stone - to get back to where I was means a reduction of 1/3rd of total weight!!

Work is no better, life is still getting in the way. I'm working 12+hrs a day, add on another couple of hours commute and there's not much left. It's easy to slip at first and really hard to make it a permanent habit....so I plan. Sunday I grocery shop, I batch cook and I make sure I have enough food around me in work that its actually making things easier. I know what trips me up & I focus on flipping it into a positive, i.e...
- no time to spend cooking at night >>> george foreman, microwave, stir fry & salads are my bffs
- starving at work so head to the vending machine, or over order at lunch >> loads of fruit, nuts & healthy snacks stashed under the desk (my lazyness wins and I go for what's close)
- "indulging" on the weekend >>> realising that short term happy is long term miserable - so not worth the pain all those "little" indulgences add up to

Btw even when I fall off, I log it, so I can see exactly what the impact is and can't lie / avoid it. Everyone slips up, it's the getting back on that counts.

I've a long road to travel, but I absolutely know I am going to be better, healthier, slim and happier. Every time I make a positive choice towards it, it reinforces my goal. All these positive choices are my new treats, because I'm investing in myself and my future happiness.

Know what you want (really really want), know what you are (honestly admit what is stopping you and flip it) and consciously take control. It sucks, but unless you want it more than the instant gratification, the here and now will always win out. Write it down, the reasons why you want to be your goal weight and why you don't want to be where you're heading, visualise it. Pull out those old pictures of when you were heavier, remember how awesome you felt when you achieved your ideal weight previously. IMAGINE that feeling of achievement, PLUS the awesome guy you've met now.....then imagine him being so proud of his amazing girlfriend who constantly makes the right choices for her = triple happiness!

If he's a keeper, he will love you regardless but support and reward your positive choices....because he understands you're doing it for your health and happiness (which in Mr Caveman terms, should be his primary goals in relation to you). Make him your own personal cheerleader ;-)


Good luck!!!