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Hello! I am a little overweight and am a complete yo yo dieter. After a few weeks on a diet and fitness regime, something happens / i get fed up etc, and I stop, put the weight back on, and then have to begin again. Ahhh!

 

I was wondering if there was anyone who had this problem and would like to monitor their progress with me on this thread as we begin trying to loose weight together. I thought we could give each other little 'pushes' in the right direction if our will power starts to slack and tell each other how much weight we have lost, etc.

 

If no one is really interested could someone tell me some tips on how to stay on track with weight loss please? Thanks, Samantha x

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As long as you make it about weight loss, you will always lose the battle. It's about complete lifestyle change. Somebody else started a 'how to lose weight' thread and there are a lot of great suggestions on it, but it will never ever EVER work unless you WANT it and unless you want it badly enough to make permanent changes to the way you live and eat.

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I agree with outcast. If you focus on the weight, then even if you do manage to stay on this diet and get to your goal weight, as soon as you're there, you'll "go off" your diet and gain the weight back. (How many times has this happened to you in the past??). In other words, I think that a support group on LS will just make your yo-yo cycle a little longer.

 

I'm going to tell you what I've done this past year because I think you and I are similar. I dieted in the past, and they always "worked" in that I lost weight on them, but they always FAILED because whenever I decided to end them, I would gain the weight back! So you just need to be honest with yourself and say DIETS ALWAYS FAIL FOR ME. So quit dieting!

 

I'm not guaranteeing this will work for you, all I can do is tell you what I did.

 

Instead focus on improving your health. My father had a heart attack in December, and I realized that eating healthy food isn't about wearing a smaller dress size, it's about lengthening your life, or at least improving the odds that you'll live a long life. I realized that exercise isn't about having less flabby ass in a swimsuit, it's about using my body the way it was MEANT to be used. If weight loss comes along with all the other benefits (lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, improved sleep, more energy) than OK, I'll take it, but just because the weight loss comes doesn't mean I'll stop eating healthy and exercising.

 

You probably get fed up because your diet/exercise plans are too extreme or restrictive. Making one lifestyle change a week is plenty. Then over the course of a many months or a few years, you make all the lifestyle changes you should. But at each week, it isn't painful or restrictive to add one new small goal to your lifestyle. I think it's when you try to start all of them at once that people rebel and eat a whole box of Oreos.

 

They say it takes at least 8 weeks to change a habit, most people don't stay on a diet long enough to make any permanent changes. So hopefully by the ninth week, the change you made starting in week one will be habit, and it won't be much work to keep that one going.

 

Here's an example (but obviously your goals could be different based on where your nutrition is at right now):

 

Week one: Eat at least three servings of vegetables most days of the week.

Week two: Find a reliable way to take a multivitamin and calcium supplement every day.

Week three: Drink 40 ozs of water a day. (for me, this was a big enough goal, I was drinking very little. Now I'm drinking more)

Week four: Take the dog for an hour long walk on Saturday and Sunday.

Week five: Switch from hamburgers to turkey burgers.

Week six: Eat a healthy breakfast every day.

 

Etc. etc.

 

Sometimes I have to take my week four goal and also make it my week fifteen goal if I've dropped it along the way. But in general, I find it's the last three week's goals that I have to really keep in mind. This is not a quick way to lose weight, it is a very slow way to change your life forever.

 

Eight months later, I'm still making changes. This week I exercised for 15 hours. I was at 2 hours a week in month one. I wouldn't have even thought I had 15 hours a week to give to exercise, but when you increase in little increments month by month, it happens.

 

My weight has gone down, but more importantly for me, I am proud walking out my front door because i know I'm taking care of myself. One of the worst things about being overweight is feeling like everyone thinks you're a lazy pig, and you agree with them. People might still think that about me, but I don't care, because I know that I'm definitely NOT lazy. My friends say I should enter a triathlon because I'm so much fitter now! (I'm not THAT fit yet, but maybe someday).

 

This has been a long post, I don't know if any of this makes sense to you.

 

Whatever you decide, I hope it works for what you want it to do.

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I am thankful to both of you for your encouraging e-mails. You are absolutely right, I need to change my lifestyle and my waistline, not just my waistline. I began on Monday changing my eating habits, and eating nutritional food rather than a lot of processed, calorie-laden food. I feel better having made this change already. The 'all or nothing' mentality I seem to follow has in the past got me nowhere and so its time to ditch it.

I am a comfort eater, which is my real downfall so I need to find comfort from something other than food, hopefully exercise! I hope that with a focus on health rather than weightloss, I won't crave 'forbidden' foods but want to help my body with foods that are beneficial to it.

I will add exercise into the equation next week as you have instructed. A better quality of life here I come! :D

Thanks again x

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It's usually a mistake to try to eliminate favorite foods from your routine. Instead, buy only small amounts of them and eat a little bit when the craving hits. Don't gulp it; eat it slowly and savour it.

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I started a similar post which you might find some helpful tips on a few days ago in this forum.

 

I also am a yo yoer so would like to join up too!

 

Perhaps we could post weights or if that's too personal pounds lost each week on an agreed day? Like weight watchers but without paying for it!

 

Use this week as your baseline weight?

 

Just a suggestion!

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Yeah! what one of the above posts mentioned I agree with... and that is 'There is no need to totally cut out your favourite foods'

 

You just gotta limit the intake. For me personally I eat well most days excluding Fridays.

 

Come friday night I begin what I call "FAT BOI FRIDAY' Where I usually get myself either a pizza and garlic bread or maybe even Hungry Jacks or somethin.. oh and also have some burborn and coke! ha.. thats the day I lash out and treat myself the foods I like.

 

But seriously after a while these foods we think we love, dont taste that great, and makes us feel like crap after.

 

After eating good healthy food for a while you wont appreciate Take out food that much.

 

Eating healthy tho does seem to cost a lil more and takes a little more preperation, but if you wanna lose the weight this shouldnt be an issue.

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