sabotage your diet

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Hi

I am very frustrated with myself. I always start my week off great, I workout, eat properly and everything seems to be going well. I lose a few pounds and all of a sudden I find myself eating junk for the next couple days and gaining the weight back. I don't know why I do this. I've invested so much time and effort into my diet and it only takes a few days to undo all my work . I am a university student so I always feel the pressure to go out and drink or go out and eat with my friends. I know that our relationships shouldn't revolve around food and alcohol but it seems to be there wherever I go. And even if I do tell them that I'm staying in for the night I always end up going to get fast food. I feel like I'm punishing myself for not going out,, but if i would go out them I would blow my diet either way. I just want this weight off and be normal. Im 5,4 female, 220 pounds... Since I'm at this weight, I hate what my body looks like, I hate that I don't look like my friends and I hate that Im the only one who doesn't date.

Is anyone else just as frustrated as I am?

Replies

  • Splashlove
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    Well I've been sticking to the diet and the exercise and I'll weigh myself one day and be like yeahhh cause I lost weight. I'll weight a couple of days to weigh myself again and I've gained over half of it back. I'm not splurging on food or beverage but it's just not staying off. As far as family and friends, thankfully my closest friend is doing this with me but my family, they want fast food all of the time and when I cook healthy they don't like it. So I normally end up with a salad or something cheap to eat and feed them whatever they want. If only I could find healthy food for me and something that they'd like.
  • anasf139
    anasf139 Posts: 101
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    Hey I can understand your situation! I'm in a very similar place. It's an added stress to being a student and trying to lose weight. My friends are mostly tiny and so can eat or drink what they want, whereas I can't. I often stay in when they go out which isnt great coz I feel like im being boring but if I go out its ver difficult not to drink. Last week I planned to have 1 drink but had more because I could stop!

    I wish I had he strength to tell them that I was trying to lose weight because I think they may well be supportive but I'm scared of failing and them judging me which sounds stuppid I know!

    Anyway I completely get where you are coming from and feel the same.
  • tara7302011
    tara7302011 Posts: 94 Member
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    I have done all that a million times..... Its really hard to have the will power to say no to food and alcohol; especially, when you are with people who do those things. When myfriends and family get together for pizza and usually beer... I get a soda and have one piece, instead of the 3 i would have had before. It was a little weird at first, but its like anything else.... you will get used to it. I have a hundred pounds to lose myself.. The one thing that gets me through is just taking it one day at a time.. Do your best, if you mess up..well...know what you did wrong..and move on...don't ruin the whole day.. Good Luck... and don't let your weight make you miss out on all the great things in life... like..........dating.. =)
  • Dahllywood
    Dahllywood Posts: 642 Member
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    I'm currently in a similar situation as you. I binge eat and drink all the time when it comes to the weekend. For me, it's all about exercising more in order to balance out those extra calories. If you don't get back on track the next day and exercise, then it will add up. Yeah, the next few days might be bad scale wise, but if you just keep exercising it will go back down quickly (most of it is probably water weight anyway)

    But like tara said, enjoy going out and eating/drinking with your friends. Don't let the calories consume your lifestyle.
    Good luck and feel free to friend me
  • DataBased
    DataBased Posts: 513 Member
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    Hey all,

    First off, please allow me to explain that I'm not saying anything to you from my own store of vast experiences... I'm actually about to repeat something that I've read here on the forums. What I will say from my own experience is that there are a LOT of smart people here, and you did exactly the right thing by posting your questions here. Keep "bumping" them so that they get attention from people smarter than me.

    Now for the re-telling of what I have read here. This isn't a day-by-day experience we're on. Your calories should even out over a period of a week or so. The scale is NOT your friend! You can vary in weight by as much as 7 lbs in a single day. So do yourself a favor and take a longer view of what you're doing, and stop relying on the scale so much.

    1. Think of calorie goals in terms of a week or more. Same goes for workout goals.
    2. Weigh yourself AT MOST once a week.
    3. When you weigh yourself, do it 1st thing in the a.m. before you eat or drink anything and after you go to the bathroom. Incidentally, this is called your dry weight.
    4. Measure your body. Neck, bra band, waist, hips, forearms, biceps, thighs, knees, and calves. It will surprise you how much you might actually be losing... in inches. This is a GOOD thing! It means you are losing fat and replacing it with muscle.
    5. Keep posting! And don't cave in to your friends and family who want to eat empty calories. You're doing SUPER, so stick with it.

    Hope that helps!
    Schelly
  • treetop57
    treetop57 Posts: 1,578 Member
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    First thing I would do? Choose a different user name. Yes, dieting sucks. What doesn't suck is a healthy lifestyle that lets me go out with my friends, eat good food in moderation, drink in moderation, date if I want to, all while looking and feeling great doing it! As long as I'm focused on how losing weight means depriving myself of things I enjoy, of course I'm going to be miserable. I've got to remember this isn't about depriving myself, it's about becoming a healthier me, who can do even more things I enjoy.
  • roguex_1979
    roguex_1979 Posts: 247 Member
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    There are several reasons why we sabotage our diets:

    We got the way we are because we have an unhealthy relation ship with food. It wasn't our friend, but we sought after it on every occasion, good or bad. It was comfort and celebration at the same time.Maybe when we were younger we were denied some of the foods we now can get as adults freely, and it's hard to let them go again.

    Sometimes we find that when we're dieting, we are on a journey to an end result. 'I want to lose 10 lbs, once I've lost those 10lbs, I won't need to diet again.' And as we go along our little journey, we realise that it's not a journey to 10lbs lost, but a lifestyle change we have to make, and some people are not ready to make that sort of commitment, so we fail once and cannot get back on the wagon.

    When we see slight success, we naturally want to celebrate, and the way people celebrate these days is to PAR-TAY! And party means food, drink, indulgence. So how do we celebrate 1lb loss? Eat 3500 worth of calories in one day, hence undoing all our hard work.

    We need to change our attitudes to food and say NO to mid week treats. A treat should be for a special occasion. A takeaway for once a month if you really can't do without it. And MOVE MOVE MOVE.

    Its not our fault we sabotage, but we also need to take control and when we fall, get right back up again.

    Good luck getting to where you want to get to, and learning along the way to accept certain things need to change forever.
  • Dahllywood
    Dahllywood Posts: 642 Member
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    First thing I would do? Choose a different user name. Yes, dieting sucks. What doesn't suck is a healthy lifestyle that lets me go out with my friends, eat good food in moderation, drink in moderation, date if I want to, all while looking and feeling great doing it! As long as I'm focused on how losing weight means depriving myself of things I enjoy, of course I'm going to be miserable. I've got to remember this isn't about depriving myself, it's about becoming a healthier me, who can do even more things I enjoy.

    Very good advice