on verge of quitting

Hi, dear one! You don't know me, but I could be you! I have a very stressful job working about 9 hours per day supervisory, but not allowed overtime, so I try to keep it down by clocking out on time and staying a few minutes longer. I have daily work, supervision, reports, monthly tasks, etc. No time for exercise...I eat out the wrong foods a lot of the week. When I hit the door at home, I just crash and so much is piling up and not getting done. This is when you really need to hang in there and force yourself to do the exericse. If it means getting up 15 min earlier - DO IT! It will decrease your stress level, help you think more clearly on the things you need to be mentally alert for and decision making. I am new to this program, but not to exercise and being overweight, and stress, stress, STRESS. If i exercise for even 10 minutes either in the morning or the evening, I end up sitting less and doing more around the house, or being more organized at work and on an even keel throughout the day. I know this works! I just can't explain how. It changes the endorphins or something! I am pullling for you. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don't stop. You do not have to spend extra money on this site, just keep your diary, chart your food and exercise. Don't worry so much about losing weight, think about it as staying healthy and in shape, becoming fitter. The pounds will eventually take care of themselves. Give your self a break by not feeling guilty if you eat the wrong thing at one meal or another, but just keep doing the exercise for your own well-being and confidence. I may not lose any weight, as I am in the last third of my life and metabolism is slower, but I will continue to improve my health and confidence - and SO WILL YOU!

You've had a lot of good comments and insights from others, and like many of them, and you, I've had similar periods of extremely high stress in my life. At my ripe old age of 55, I handle it better now than I used to, but that doesn't mean it isn't hard to stay positive, keep motivated, and stay with a healthy diet when life seems to suck all the energy from you.

It sounds as if you haven't gained even with all the stress/challenges you're facing at the moment, so try thinking about that as a success, rather than slow/no weight loss as a failure. I've been stuck at the same weight for more than 2 months--frustrating, but at least I'm not gaining, so I know that my logging everything that goes in my mouth and trying to figure out what I'm stuck is part of what I'll experience the rest of my life.

Also, if you haven't been to a physician you may want to consider that. I had a couple of years of tiredness, low energy, slow but steady weight gain, etc., and just thought it was "life"--lot of stress during that time. During an annual physical my MD decided to test my TSH levels and found that I had hypothyroidism. Within a couple of months I could feel my energy slowly come back and I realized then little energy I had had for quite a long time. Now I can often tell when my TSH levels are off and my meds need adjusting because I inexplicably have no energy for anything other than dragging through my day.

Hang in there!

You say that no one cares about you (which is probably the negativity talking), but remember that the most important person that needs to care about you is YOU! Show yourself you care and don't give up.

I agree with everyone's advice. DON'T GIVE UP!

I too have struggled. It has taken me a year to lose 28lbs!! Stress is a huge factor in not loosing weight for one. I go through it. Last year was horrible for me. The biggest thing for me was making small changes. As soon as I got used to one small change I would make another. I still do that to this day. I tried to do it all at once and crashed every time.

You need to focus on you. Taking time for yourself will also help your motivation. Even if you just sit and read a book for a few hours. It turns into other things eventually. Again small changes.

As for the housework. This is my advice. Tackle one room a night or morning. I had to learn how to do this when I was going to school full time, working full time and taking care of my family. Believe me my life sucked for awhile. But I lived through it.

Small changes may not get every thing done right now and you may not see immediate results but you WILL get results. So... NO QUITTING!! Just take it SLOW! And remember we are all here for you!

I'm so sorry you are struggling! I totally feel your pain! I've been at it for almost 8 weeks and have actually GAINED weight. It hurts to work so hard and not get any measurable (i.e. weight loss) validation for it. My friends stress that I must focus on how I FEEL and use that for motivation.

They may be on to something for us here! Keep on with the healthy changes and lifestyle, but don't track the weight just yet. I'm on an 8-week weight-loss program at my job and the weekly weigh-ins have seemed to only validate that I'm some sort of weight-gaining freak. Ah yes, the scale is inaccruate. Brilliant! I've wanted to throw that 40year old 5-ft tall analog doctors' scale through the window many times (...can I write that down as "strength training"????) My last weigh in is this Friday and after that, I'll continue logging food on MFP and keeping up my exercise and training programs, but I'm not weighing myself for a very long time.

When I get frustrated like this, a part of me even fears that my body is incapable of loosing weight (age, damaged metabolism, bad genes, falling out of favor with the "Skinny Chick" Goddesses, etc. ) and I may need to resort to bariatric surgery, but I'm going to give myself a year of hard work trying to loose the weight "naturally" like other "normal" people before I make that decision.

I hope that in a year...or even months from now...you and I can have a different story to tell and can share our motivation of finally being rewarded for our hard work! For that to happen you CAN'T QUIT! We aren't finished writing our stories yet!