Help, I'm being attacked by a motivation bandit!

Someone please give me a kick in the pants.  I haven't kept my food log since Thanksgiving and am afraid to get on the scale.  I was so proud of my 4lb weight loss but the motivation bandit has robbed me.  I've fallen and I can't get up!!!!  Still struggling with bronchitis/pneumonia so haven't worked out one bit, have had several glasses of wine socially in the last 2 days and just not working the program.  What's up with this?  Anyone have any words of wisdom?

Don't be afraid of food or fat or the scale. It is what it is, and the past doesn't affect your chances of success in the future.

You had a rough week. I feel for you - I just had a rough month. In November, I gained a pound overall, after losing 46 lbs since May. And it was largely the same story... holidays, slacking, lots of tasty food. So we get back on the scale and we face it and live with it and we do better, today and tomorrow and the next day... Don't let it make you anxious and don't let it make you doubt yourself. Just slip back into a healthy lifestyle, zen-like, as water slips back into a stream... I am writing this for myself as well as for you, because putting "-1 pound" into my spreadsheet as my loss for November, in contrast to the "8 lbs" for October, was hard on morale. But it's done now, and there is only today. So I flow softly back into the river...

Start your food log TODAY. Weigh yourself right now and log that weight, whatever it is. Don't let that number get to you. If you lost 4 lbs before, you can do it again - and then 4 more, and 4 more, etc. That's how it starts, this journey, for all of us. I remember my first 4 lbs, and my second, and my third... I also remember the plateaus, and the rebounds, and the times I had to convince myself not to cry. I remember how easily this process can take control of your emotions of you let it, and how you must not let it - how you must temper and defang both the good and the bad, because if you let yourself feel TOO good one day (ecstatic), you will also let yourself feel TOO bad the next (paralyzed). You can choose a non-obese lifestyle, watching your calories, and doing it out of self-love and the desire to be healthier and happier. It's not a program, it's not a diet. It's your daily life and it is not time-circumscribed.

I am guessing that some little part of your brain still sees a healthy lifestyle as "punishment", or as less desirable than an unhealthy one. That is what needs to change (I struggle with that too). It's not punishment, it's not penance to live healthily. It's just a better life. When you're sick, or feeling down, habit is comforting - eating lots of food, drinking wine, etc.. We just need to change our habits, change the things that make us feel good. Once you get into the habit of counting calories, the habit of eating healthy foods, the pull of the old habits won't be so strong, because they won't BE your habits anymore. Your new habits will be eating a healthy breakfast every morning, taking long baths, meeting friends for coffee (aka 0-cal tea) instead of dinner or drinks, reading a good book, and that best habit of all, complaining that your jeans are too big and you need a smaller size again. :)

We can do this.

Words to live by, trustwomen!  I guess I'm having a difficult time because I've never had to "watch my weight" so the old habits are hard to break.  When I'm "having fun" the weight thing just doesn't kick in.  Well kinda . . . I choose low cal and healthy meals then top it off with wine. I do much better when I don't socialize but I'm a social person so I need balance.  I'll work on not kicking myself to the curb and I know that once I regain my health I'll be motivated to exercise.  I guess I'm also afraid that since I was down so long with my back and surgery that I won't ever become motivated again to work out.  I guess that's called projection and I should only dwell on the today.

Thanks for your reply. 

If you don't want to step on the scale for a week or two, don't.

But please continue to eat healthy, and start logging and measuring your food.

After you've done this for a few days, the scale won't seem quite so ... scary.

Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.  ~ Carl Bard

=^..^= MOLLY

It's tricky to figure out how to mix socializing (and wine) with counting calories but it's possible. You leave yourself room for the wine in your daily allotment, you go to restaurants where you can estimate calories more accurately (you find something low-cal that you love, and order it again and again). Definitely stay social - sometimes you change the terms of that sociality (invite people to dinner more often, go for coffee rather than drinks, switch the old haunts for healthier restaurants) but it's good for a person to have a jumping social life. :)

And remember there's no harm in a maintenance day. It delays your loss (by a day, big whoop), but does not counteract it the way an "overeating day" can.

As for exercise, do it if it makes you feel better when you do. Many people feel emotionally better after exercise (endorphin rush) as well as physically better - that pleasant fatigue, you know. But if it leaves you miserable and in pain, don't do it. There, I said it. This process is about self-love, not masochism, and it has to be sustainable.

FWIW two days back in the stream, and today I'm down two pounds. December is off to a great start. :)

Still struggling with pneumonia??  Please take care of yourself.  That's a major body scream- I had that horror last year and started to again this year until a wise doc. gave me anti-inflammatories before I went down again.  That kind of body attack really wiped me out for months after I was off the meds- made it hard for me to think and to eat etc.  Take care and drink lots of fluids if you can.  Forgive your slips and allow your body to gain strength.

You guys are so great and make me feel much, much better.  I finally got on the scale today and it wasn't as bad as I thought but still haven't exercised.  Thanks for all the words of encouragement and being so positive.  Still not up to par.  It's a bad air day in AZ and I'm feeling it in my chest.  Thanks again for your caring advice.  And KUDOS to you, trustwomen!!! It's such a season for all kinds of temptation and you're down 2lbs.  Keep it going!!!