people who lost weight and kept it off...

16to12

Hi all, as my username suggests, my goal when setting out to lose weight just over 18 months ago was to get back to a size 12 after many years of eating junk and not exercising. I went up to a size 16 and was miserable. I am now a 12 in most things (unless its a very "skinny" shop) and even fit into a size 12 wedding dress last week!
But I am starting to slip with my food habits and am terrified I will end up overweight again. I am 5 foot 7 and still have quite a flabby stomach but have lost weight from everywhere else. I started walking for 30 minutes a day and stopped buying "nice" things for the house as I literally have no self control when it comes to food. If there is a packet of biscuits in the cupboard I can't have two with a cup of tea, I will eat half the packet and more sometimes. I even finally convinced my mother to stop bringing chocolate, biscuits, cakes etc when she popped round.
But lately its like I am self-sabotaging. If I am staying in at the weekend I think, ah I've lost so much weight, I'll get myself a treat. And end up buying a giant bag of crisps and tub of ice cream. I suppose if I was going out all the time like I did in my 20's and getting dressed up I would see myself in the mirror and be more motivated to keep losing it. But at 38 with a mortgage, wedding to pay for and full time job I am either at my desk or at home in comfy clothes doing housework! (The desk job doesn't help - unfortunately our company has a steady supply of chocolate and sweets and its so so hard to keep away.)

For the people who managed to keep their weight off and keep motivated to exercise, what helped you keep going? Some days I just feel oh great, another walk which is a terrible way to think when there are people out there who can't leave their house due to illness/disability etc. I need to get out of my negative train of thought but don't know how. I still walk but don't enjoy it as much and took up pilates a few weeks ago which I like but don't think a couple of times a week will lead to many pounds disappearing.
I've gone from eating things like granola or boiled eggs for breakfast back to having horrible things like a hot chocolate and a sausage roll. I've also started suffering from vertigo in the last few months which is quite upsetting as I am never ill and find it hard to exercise when I am dizzy, disoriented etc.
Sorry if this is a bit disjointed, I am just feeling quite down today and angry at myself for constantly giving in and having no determination. I've put 4lbs back on in the last couple of months and really need to knock this on the head now before it gets out of hand again. For reference, I was 14 stone and am now 12.8, I would like to be at least 12 for the wedding next year.
Any thoughts/advice/kick up the ass appreciated!

Dixie Chick

I have kept weight off for two years and every now and then have pockets of time where I am not great and then reboot and go again. I can't offer any easy solution but a few things

1) you obviously are not a fan of walking, neither am I . So I do a mix of things to keep me off the couch. if I though exercise was only going to be a walk, i would hate that.

2) The self sabotage is a load of sh1t and you just need to stop. Simply stop. Just by recognosing it as "self sabotage" you are putting a label on it and once there is a label then it becomes a thing, a thing people do. A sausage roll and a hot chocolate for breakfast is literally starting your day on ****e and how do you come back from there

3) Then I have a few things I say to myself when things are slipping . I remember seeing a pic of myself before and it was a part of my back sticking out over jeans...I looked like I didnt give a **** about myself. So I ask myself at times "where is the pride" or "do you want to look like you don't take care of yourself"

I am not saying it is perfect or correct but that is what helps me keep it off anyway.

Macy0161

I'm not sure it's necessarily healthy, but I've just carried on tracking, but at maintenance rather than a deficit. I'm less anal about it, and really don't sweat the weekends (I accept the weekends and just try to hold it together during the week tbh), but it helps me stay on track. I am training, so it does help me track my protein in take too, but I'd rather carry on than go back...

Early on during my diet, I accepted my sweet tooth - so I make wholemeal fruit loafs and experiment with other recipes that keep me off the really bad stuff. You still have to watch portions, but frozen pitted dates will often give me a sugar hit when I might be tempted by something else.

Perhaps a couch to 5 as a ramp from the walking? Or are there some local fitness classes? Only thing I can suggest on the exercise is to have some goal related to that exercise, if just doing it isn't enough.

bladespin

Macy0161 wrote: »

I'm not sure it's necessarily healthy, but I've just carried on tracking.

This, of course I made it complicated, I dropped over 2 stone between last August and December, really only part one of my goal (though I was very happy).

I've always done weight training to some degree so decided to build my newly leaned body, I inched up my cals until I found my balance point and then added a surplus and combined a BB type program, after a couple of months lean bulking I cut back again to drop bf% which worked pretty well. Lately I've tried dirty bulking (well kind of - 300 cal surplus no strict macros), I'm cutting now, I'll do that for a month then maintain just in time for another dirty bulk at Xmas