[Ufkkrxcq]

Alright.......so here is the dilema...

We all start off here "gung ho"....with motivation!!! and determination!! "Get er done"....."I'm never going back"......."this is the last time".......and then...not all...but some of us,.... myself included, kind of "drift" from the enthusiasm that we first set out with. We know this is something that we absolutely must accomplish for our own reasons. It might be a life threatening health issue, vanity, sanity, sense of well being, or physical ability,.. really, it could be anything but whatever it is, it is hugely important to us as individuals yet it becomes secondary to some of us after an undetermined amount of time and we seem to lose the urgency that got us started in the first place. ( Sorry Arlene, my published writer friend, I'm sure that sentence broke every grammar rule there is LOL)

Anyways, you all get the jist of my dilema. Why do we do it? I would love to hear any and all ideas, insights, experiences or absolutely anything that anyone wants to share on this topic. I think we can all benefit from each others trials and tribulations. There are some of you out there who have lost tremendous amounts of weight. What kept you going? How did you make it through the "I want to give up" times?

"The floor is open"...............

[CefGemYAffews]

Allie, I did not have any trouble reading that sentence! LOL
Now, i did not have a huge amount of weight to lose, but I had my grandsons in my mind. As you know, I am a hospice volunteer. I work with people who are trying to grab any time left. I want my time to be as healthy as I can. I have had so many surgeries, I dont want anymore but know they are in my future, my joints will wear out. I want them to last as long as I can. Your joints are so precious, the artificial replacements are wonderful but not the same. Heavy women make more estrogen and can be a starter for breast and other cancers. You have a short life, it goes by too fast. Now your decision is how do you want to live it? We cant give you anymore than what you have inside you. You have to find the answer and then find a way to be happy with it.

[Moupponge]

I didn't realize that more estrogen meant higher risk of cancer Arlene. Thats a bit scarey to say the least.
Anyways, I realize I have to find the stregnth within myself but I was wondering how others were dealing with it. Thats all. Not looking for answers, just insight and perhaps if I'm lucky, inspiration and a second wind.

[TopcigsCOM]

How about a kick in the Behind???????


LOL

[Jannet.K]

okay now you're just being mean!! LOL

[mynaflzak]

Thought I'd step in for Sarge......

[iqxdvjgmat]

I think maybe for me at least this has become "habit" and that is why I find I dont have the same motivation as I did when I first started. I "know" I cannot eat bread. I "know" I cannot drink pop. I "know" I cannot eat candy. etc. To me I dont look at food as like I did before. I look at it as I have to eat to survive. I get to a point where I find it boring. I hate to cook. I am a grab and eat person. I understand what you are dealing with. I have lost "that excitement". So I look at as "a goal" I want to reach.

[pennadyFeet]

Well said - I think that is a lot of the trouble, we want to go back to free & easy. For us, the trouble is that free & easy = fat & sick! But it is hard to steel yourself to go on at times. I know I have 'Oh bugger it' days when it would be all too easy . . . . . . .

[Yartonbler]

Odille....you hit the nail on the head. "Free & Easy" .....eat what you want....drink what you want......There are so many things that we have to worry about in this life and while eating right does fall into the "must do" category, we have done without it for so long that it's an easy one to cut off the worry list. It's probably the worst one for us to cut off but it's the easiest and it's a convenient excuse. At least for me it is. I so want to stay on track this time and while I don't think I'm going to make that reunion goal of 50lbs, I think that slowly and steadily I will win this battle. 'm sorry you and Cheryl are feeling the same but it is good just to hear that this is normal and I'm not alone. I don't want to post BS stories that I am doing well when I'm not. That defeats the whole purpose of being honest with one self, at least in my opinion.

Thanks everyone for your input!

[Quick$bux]

I agree Allie. You are you kidding when your not truthful? But you can only keep up with that so long and then they stop posting. They know what they did and cant face it but that is when you really have to look at yourself and "see why" you are gaining and fix it right then. That is when you have to focus. But people dont. They go back to the yo you syndrome. That is me. I can lose weight. But once I go off, I go off and it takes me awhile to get back on. I have been lucky. I went off for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Easter was the hardest. But I survived this time. My excitement has left me but the determination hasnt. I know the hardest part for me will hit me. That is to maintain. That they say is hard. I cant wait to try it!

[Dfvgthyju]

It's true, when I stop talking about my struggling, I start to give up. I'm afraid if I stop posting that that is what will happen. If I force myself to embarrass myself by admitting my screw ups, there is some accountability which will hopefully keep me from completely derailing. Maintenance does sound kind of scarey doesn't it LOL. Still, I can't wait to be there either.

[PerfectCreditForYou]

Allie,

To me it sounds like there are two problems here. Will you allow me to take a guess as to what they are? Forgive me for being so forward and direct but this is a public forum, so, I guess it's okay if I comment. I can only guess so confidently because I've been there a thousand times in the past... but no more!


FIRST: I can tell you have some cheat foods in the house. Get rid of them. You are using them CONSTANTLY. So much so that your cheat foods constitute your real diet and you are not actually on a low carb diet at all. Throw the junk food out. It's keeping you destabilized, and thus always in this miserable state of craving. You already know what the foods are, and you suspect they are causing the problem, but haven't gotten rid of them and keep buying more of whatever it is. Stop buying it and throw out what you have, right now.


SECOND: You are denying yourself something very important. Remember: This diet is about WHAT you eat.. not how much or how often, especially at the beginning. Not fully appreciating that is what's killing you now. Because you haven't fully appreciated that the diet is about what you eat (at first), you're denying the truth, which is that you DO want to eat, you want to gorge "free and easy" and you care more about that than losing weight... so the trick is: STOP KIDDING YOURSELF. EAT AS MUCH AS YOU WANT. That's the fantastic thing about this diet!!!!

You don't have to deny yourself ANYTHING at first, so stop trying to. Eat whenever you want... just remember to eat the RIGHT FOODS... that makes the "struggle" more like a "hell of a good time". Imagine... you can literally eat a pound or two of meatballs (make your own with zero carbs) in alfredo sauce (make your own with zero carbs) if you want to... just skip the bread and pasta. Still hungry? Eat MORE. Eat until you DON'T WANT TO EAT anymore. Problem solved. Here's why:

It's true, at first you may eat more than ever, I know I did. But as your body adjusts to a new low level of carbs, it will adapt itself and you will feel LESS like eating. And when you go into ketosis and STAY IN KETOSIS for a week or so, you will start getting "high energy" rushes. When you start getting those rushes, you won't want to gorge like you do now. After you stop gorging and your metabolism goes up, your stomach will shrink. When your stomach shrinks, your binges will shrink. You'll see.

Simple as that.

I believe that for persons such as yourself (and me), Atkins recommended they stay away from sugar alcohols and booze, too, and take L-Glutamine. You may want to research that yourself.

Hope I didn't overstp my bounds too terribly... but I also hope I'm right because right now you are telling yourself there is no practical solution... BUT THERE IS.

[Sertvfdnhgjk]

Thanks Tony

You are both right and wrong. I don't cheat foodwise and I don't have any cheat food in the house. I may over eat sometimes but I only over eat "good" LC foods. My biggest problem and where I slack off most often, is indulging in glasses of wine too often or , and just recently, LC beer 2.6 grams. One night becomes two then three etc. Selling booze, wine is my livelyhood and has been for 27yrs so I like to taste things to I know what I'm selling. Not an excuse but certainly a reason why I indulge more than I ought to. My struggle is also with my sense of entitlement. Why should I not be able to do, eat whatever I want (which clearly I can't) and I think that was more what the "free and easy" comment was about. Knowing that I can't eat a certain way if I want to lose weight isn't always the deterant that we both know it should be. Otherwise people would never fail now would they.
I was hoping you would give me a bit more of your own personal experience as far as what got you through the rough patches

[h98hhYxM]

Well, Michelob Ultra is a LOT of people's cheat food. It's not the beer so much as the day after that gets ya... waking up, ordering a pizza... grabbing some Blue Bunny Ice Cream... hehe.

Believe it or not, that's not such a bad thing. We are, in fact, entitled to do whatever we want to our ourselves, so, yes, some posts about my "Nights of Downfall" will be forthcoming as soon as there's time.

[zenihan]

"My struggle is also with my sense of entitlement. Why should I not be able to do, eat whatever I want (which clearly I can't) and I think that was more what the "free and easy" comment was about."

When this feeling rears its ugly head I remind myself that I CAN eat whatever I want to eat. I can. I'm an adult. If I want ice cream, pizza and donuts... I can eat all the ice cream, pizza and donuts my tummy will hold. It's my CHOICE. But, I don't get to choose the consequences. Those are predetermined. So, it's not really the junk food I'm choosing... it's the consequences. Take it that one step further in your head. What will happen if you have 3 glasses of wine most nights... and several low carb beers in the afternoon a couple days a week? That's what you're deciding... do you want the consequences, or not? If you take the emotional part of the choice out (the OMG, I LOVE that wine... or the mmm mmm creamy cold ice cream would taste so good right now) and focus on the consequences instead... maybe the (right/healthier) choice would be easier to make.

[nmnrIjGB]

Very true Tril. If I eat grains now I know I am in for a most unpleasant time, so I don't indulge. But it has taken me 7 years to reach this point - I must be a really S L O W study huh?! We are so blindsided, bamboozled and hornswoggled by Conventional Wisdom from doctors, nutritionists, the press, our family, our friends - it is very, very hard to be YOU and buck th systm. But we are all doing it.

So to all of us - Stay strong. Go forward. Be healthy!

[pharmaclid]

Oh my.....you are all so wise! Tril thats a brilliant approach! "choose the consequences not the action" !!!!! That might just work you know. I never get up and have pizza the next day or feel the need for ice cream and I don't get hangovers but I do know that sooner, more likely than later I am going to start to swell up, ache and just feel like a crappy old slug. It will usually take a couple of days in a row of indulging but it will happen. Guaranteed!

Thanks everyone and Tony, I still want to hear about your struggles. I think you have a lot to share after such a long and successful journey!

[investor]

Well, my struggle was only about six months long; but I'll be glad to offer my two cents anyway, if I think of anything else to offer.

Good luck!

:^)

[ClaudeMarkus]

Weight loss happens between the ears.

How you think determines how you act. How you act determines your results. Change the way you THINK and you will change the way you ACT.

[dremucha]

Tril you're the best!!!!