So positive and motivated for so long and then...

I'm just finishing my 3rd week of healthy eating and exercising, my first week with CC, and up until Wednesday I felt so motivated and empowered and was so positive. My body didnt look th way I wanted it to but I felt the way that I wanted to and I used the gym as a way to get rid of stress, mroeso to prevent getting stressed. And yesterday I just crashed. I didn't care about going over my calorie goal (I only went over by 50), I did half the workout I normally do and I didnt tell myself "no" when I wanted sweet snacks, I just ate them. Same with today. It's as if all of the emotional problems that caused me to feel so bad about myself in the first place, and the reasoning behind getting to the gym and being healthier, are now making me feel like what I'm doing isn't good enough and instead of wanting to do better, I feel like I can't so I just give in. I'm worried that this is going to get worse. Today it was 50 calories over, tomorrow maybe 100 and so on. I don't know what to do! I don't know how to get on track and keep up the positive attitude that made me LOVE the gym and LOVE my healthy snacks!! Help! I need some motivation, even the 5k I'm running at the end of the month isn't enough motivation to keep up my cardio :-/

I did this too at first.  I was strong at the start and seemed to lose steam.

At first I thought it was a personal failing.  I was failing myself and I got a little down about it. 

But then I started reading others posts and I realized that the one thing I had not been doing (really 2 things) was taking a break.  A day of rest to allow my body to recoup.  I was also not taking a diet break.

I know this sounds counterproductive.  But your body does need regular breaks to regroup, build muscle (muscle builds when it is at rest), and restore its energy. 

Your brain also needs a break.  A break from constant worry if you are doing enough or smacking yourself around for not doing what you think you should.

Plan a day every week where you don't exercise (or only take a short walk).  Use this day to NOT diet.  Eat well but give yourself permission to eat at maintenance  one day a week.  You will restore your energy, and start developing the real habits that will carry you though after you reach your goals. 

It does not have to be a weekend day.  I use Thursdays as my rest day.  It is my busiest day of the week so it makes sense to relax this day and lighten my burden. 

Anyway, I think if you take time to rest you will feel much better and feel more rejuvenated to pursue your goals.

Hi,

I think madamq posted a fantastic responce and expressed things really well.  Just wanted to say I think this is a very natural responce to what is essentially a compleate lifesytle change.  I too went though this, you are not alone, when i skipped the gym I use to beat myself up, but over time I realised I was so over tired from what I was doing, that that in turn was making me really emotional.  I just needed time out and I realised that giving myself a break really wasn't the major hic-up in my weight loss that I thought It was going to be.  Be realistic don't let one day going over turn into 2 or more.  This journey is a marathon not a sprint but you will get there.  Your fairly new to cc so investigate this site its really is addictive, read the post's, read the success storys especially they really are an inspiration.  Keep going you will see results, and don't be so hard on yourself. xx

I think alot of people have gone trough the same thing at some point in time or another it took me about 2 months to get to that point and it sucked i felt like i was failing at everything not just my weight loss i still counted but i did go over but once i realized what i was doing i spent some time to get my mind back together. i relaxed read a book and wrote about it all in my food journal and now im back feeling like i want to count and excersise. it really does such especially when you enjoy excersising and then dont do it and cant understand why. losing weight is not going to be easy the whole time some days youll just want to stop and relax everything and stop thinking and others youll be super happy doing all of it, no matter how much you know it will take time you will have days that youll just want it all gone but stay with it youll do great youll feel awsome and you wont regret all the effort you put into it. good luck on your journey!

I had this problem too, but on a WAYYY larger scale. I kept up the healthy eating and exercising almost every day, for 8 months (july 08-february 09) and then came march 7, and I went out of town and couldn't exercise for a week, after that I consistently exercised less, only 30 min, then only 20, then counting walking my dog as exercise, etc. and by April, I wasn't working out at all. Now that it's June I've gained back 18 lbs. and am having a hard time trying to find my motivation again. I've just recently starting exercising more (every other day for 30 min.-- nothing compared to what I was doing in February!) and counting calories again, which is helping....

So like other posters have said, are you taking enough break time? you should allow your self two days a week as a break, but probably not two days in a row. I used to work out every day and have one day as a random break, like once a month or so, and that was way too much for me to handle and I burnt out eventually... It also might help to get on CC more often and just read other peoples problems and successes, etc. to get you in the mood to eat healthy and exercise.

Definitely DO NOT let this continue though! Or else you'll end up like me and 18 lbs. heavier! I was 5 lbs. away from my goal weight in February!