Ugh. Trying...failing...trying...failing...

Adding you!
What's your game plan?

MFP is a great place to make friends and create a good support system. But remember, true and consistent motivation comes from YOU! :-) Good luck!

Adding you :-)

Added!

The good news is you don't have to be perfect, you just have to be better.

Here's how I started:

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 was happier once I gave myself a range:

ROCK BOTTOM: 1200 cal
TARGET: MFP Calories for lose 1 lb a week (when that hit 1200 I changed to lose 1/2 lb per week)
TOP OF RANGE: Maintain Calories for my GOAL Weight.

---

(SAFETY VALVE: Maintain Calories for CURRENT Weight - remember to keep updating this number as you lose)

---

I naturally tended to do 2-4 days between 1200-1300 cal then a day at about 1500-1600 cal then back to the 1200-1300 cal. (No hard science here, but I credit the zig-zagging calories with preventing plateaus.)

--As long as I stayed under the top of my range I should continue to lose, even if it is at a slower rate.
--As long as I don't go past my safety valve I shouldn't gain.

BUT... The closer you get to your goal the smaller your range. (frustrating)

6) I only worry about it 1 lb at a time.
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. )

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, now 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.

Good Luck

You can do it!!! You just need motivation and encouragement!!

I hear you. it's a tough battle.

I'm Sarah and I struggle with weight loss...always have. The biggest struggle for me is portion size & not going overboard when I allow a treat.

Hang in there and know that you're not alone!!!

I recommend that your diet be primarily veggies with protein, few starches as you can. Veggies already contain carbs and natural sugars. Stay away from High Fructose corn syrup, too. It's just bad stuff.

Also, as a tip, I drink a high protein smoothie:

1 cup yogurt Plain or Vanilla Greek Yogurt
2 tbsp peanut butter (natural if possible)
1 bag of frozen spinach ( 4 servings)
1 banana
1 cup milk

if you use Greek plain yogurt, you get 23 grams of protein. I'm a huge fan of spinach, but if you're not, the banana & peanut butter cover it up. Plus, you can add berries to this, might i suggest raspberries or blackberries due to their wonderful healthful qualities.

good luck!
Sarah B.

What AuntieBabs said...

I truly believe that extreme dieting is the root of failure for so many people. You can still eat the foods you enjoy, just cut back on your portions and make a substitution here and there (leaner meats, more veg, etc) and it's totally livable. Basically, think of every excuse you might have and then think of a reason why it doesn't hold up.

Why do you feel like you "had" to go to Taco Bell?
Why did school, video games and sleeping in have to get in the way of eating healthy?

Trust me, this will help you n the long run. A friend of mine asked me why I had gained back the weight I'd lost on Atkins years ago. At first, I just didn't want to think about it - oh who cares, the past is the past, right? Wrong! Thinking about it and coming up with a reason (deprivation is a killer for me) was the best thing I ever did! If we don't learn from our mistakes, we're going to keep having the same failures time and time again.

Good luck!

DO NOT start with those stupid sugar free things or lunch bar,even if they work,they keep your mouth always working so u get use to have food in ur mouth coz is "sugar free",make sacrifice in the beginning after one month u will see u will not even be able to eat as much as before,its 90 days i make diet i am 1.83 man big costitution,trust when i say i can eat a lot,but after i did this diet after a 80g sandwich with some ham or cheese,i cannot eat anymore,compared to when i went outside with friend and i could eat 1.5 kg of grilled meat with bread dunno how much,of course with friends dont act like u care only about food,even if sometimes u eat a little more its no problem just eat healthy things,i dunno where u r from but mainly americans have the problem to not have food in tradition,maybe buy a recipe book and learn some very nice meals u dont need buy diet food just reduce the weight of the ingredients,i lost 7 kg in 90 days,but i did in this days 4 weeks of holydays so i ate without caring and a weak ,so i took back 3.5kg and then lost again so i like i lost 10.5 (24 pounds i think? XD i never used this unit XD),so if u r on a diet ,eating much more for a week will make your body take much faster,to recover on what he losts,so be carefull,and also (asked to a doctor) if tomorrow u eat 3 kg of food, and then u start again with ur diet,maybe u will gain 2-300 g but the rest will be fluid u will lost in time,so if sometimes u r with friends u can have fun,just start again the day after and DRINK a lot to help the body eliminate all that

Added, I need to lose 30 too