The 2 week breaking point

Last time I tried to diet properly was 2 years ago when I joined this site. I lost a stone in 2 weeks! probably mostly water weight I know Probably I lost about 4lbs of fat total. Anyway after those 2 weeks my willpower just sank and I fell off the wagon, maintained my new weight until recently when I stress ate like a trooper and gained the stone back. So I started again. 2 Weeks have passed and I have lost 12lbs. However now I'm just falling off the wagon again. Last night I stood there mindlessly eating leftover naanbread, rice and curry. After having a huge dinner and before that a meatball subway lunch with cheese and a cookie. Why can't I keep myself on track? What can I do to ensure I stay on track now?

How many calories are you eating each day, and what are your stats?

I'm 5"1 Currently I weight about 170lbs and I aim to eat 1400 a day and if I eat to maintainence its about 1700 - 1900. Iam VERY sedentary, I sleep in till like 3pm most days then stay on the pc or in front of the TV for most of the day. I've been trying to exercise every other day but currently I've only been able to last about 25 mins.

Usually when I fall off the wagon it's because I've been too restrictive on my diet.  In other words, I haven't allowed myself to eat things that I like or things that I want.  Everyday I let myself have a little cheat, so I'm satisfying my cravings and doing right by my body.  For example, the day before yesterday I had a mojito (okay, I had two mojitos).  Yesterday I had half a burrito from Qdoba.  Both fit into my calorie intake for the day, so I didn't blow anything, but I didn't feel like I was on a diet or restricting myself.  

Also, do you know if you're an emotional or stress eater?  It helps to figure out why you're eating when you eat.  Like the other day I started to figure out the bills, which is kind of stressful for me, and I unconsciously got up and walked into the kitchen to get a snack.  Once I was there I realized that I only wanted to eat because I didn't want to do the bills.  It sucked but I left without eating anything and went back to the task at hand.

Hope that helps a little :)

thank you for your reply :)

I'm usually pretty good about eating what I want, I never give anything up I eat what I want I just keep it to my calories. It's just then counting calories gets boring I think or I just forget I'm doing it.

Emotional eating is a huge problem for me, and I figured last nights binge on left overs was exactly that. I always eat when I'm deep in thought too. I can't remember what I was thinking of  tho  :( Just the naan bread that I ate so fast it gave me hiccups! Eating when I get upset or tired or even happy is something I am desperately trying to overcome but it just really isn't easy.

You're right it definitely isn't easy.  I think a lot of people don't understand how difficult it can be to get over emotional and stress eating.  When I first decided to knock it off, I had big issues at night.  I've never been addicted to cigarettes, but I imagine that how I was feeling was pretty close to a smoker needing a fix.  I felt like I needed to be doing something with my hands and I was horribly cranky and pissed off. 

That obviously didn't last long.  What I did to beat out the emotional eating was I replaced the crappy stuff I was eating with better options and saved myself about 300 calories after dinner so I could have 3 snacks that were about 100 calories each.  Then I found a handful of snacks that I could eat a large volume of for around 100 calories (homemade popcorn, veggie booty, meringue cookies, chocolate grahams, etc.)  Once I did that for a while I kind of naturally eased off them.  I'm still far from over it but I think I'm doing okay :)  Best of luck to you! 

This site has been so helpful to me in correcting my emotional eating. The suggestion was that I log my foods in advance, that I have a plan for the day. As others have said, I don't give up things I really love, I just plan them in. The idea is that if you vary from the plan, you will be more aware of it, and you can journal about what stressful events sent you into the pantry.

At first it was a bit of a stretch planning a whole week's food...but I have regular habits, a job 9-5, and special dietary requirements, so a lot of the questions just answered themselves. I've always been a healthy eater and a breakfast eater. My challenge is finding a good breakfast, full of protein, that doesn't have too many calories.

Keep working on this, and it will get easier--and you'll love losing the weight. 12 lbs in 2 weeks is a bit much, especially if you are sedentary--your body may actually be craving nutrients. A good plan will give you good nutrition grades for the week as well as the right number of calories.