How to get back on track?

[Kam-R 15]

Hi all.

I need some help.

Had my surgery Oct 2020. Went private in the UK which means no psychological help/therapy beforehand & £10,000 out of pocket 😕

I lost very quickly & easily, minimal complications. I'm about 12kg from my goal bmi of 23 and feel & look a million times better. But... I've stopped trying.

I injured myself about a month ago & couldn't exercise, I stopped tracking food & started eating rubbish. Not binge eating but actively making terrible choices, partly because real food was a struggle for a while & junk gave me energy at least.

I'm not losing but not putting on. I'm fit again but can't bring myself to exercise. Friends & family haven't noticed an issue as I'm a normal weight now but I know I have more to lose & would like to. Not sure what's happened, I just can't seem to remotivate & I'm terrified about wasting this "golden" time & know that if I carry on I will eventually start to gain.

Any advice or suggestions would be most welcome. Every day that passes I feel a little more lost & useless.

[Prestonandme 107]

Lots of different choices available to readjust your situation.

You can easily restart tracking your food. It will be helpful in several ways because you will have to write down exactly what you eat and how many calories, carbs, sugars, fats, etc. you take in. Be kind to yourself if you find that initially you are logging "bad" foods -- sugary treats, etc. Focus on hitting and not surpassing your maximum daily caloric intake. Little by little, modify your diet so that you are back on track with your Protein and carb goals. Remind yourself that you are not on a fast train to disaster. You have identified a problem before it is out of hand and you are immediately taking steps to remedy it.

As for exercise, lots of us falter, particularly during these COVID times. When I stopped exercising like you did during 2020 COVID (because I quit the gym), I was nagged by family members, sent articles about fitness, and finally was encouraged to take small steps to reintroduce the exercise I needed. I began viewing the Leslie Sansone "Walk at Home" videos on YouTube and walked along to them every day. At first, I would fast walk just 10 minutes three times a day with the videos and eventually I shifted to one 30 minute a day fast walk accompanied by video. She offers scores of different videos so I can do new ones every day for variation.

So I think actually you are in a great situation to regain control of your life. You haven't regained. You are very aware of your shortcomings. And you are motivated to change.

Take small steps towards each goal and you will get back on track. Best wishes.

[Kam-R 15]

Thanks so much for your reply. The suggestions when written down like that seem so achievable, I just need to start. I've started logging again today in My Fitness Pal & it's amazing how suddenly a cookie doesn't seem worth it when you see the nutrional information

I'm going to try a walk from home video tomorrow, checked one out briefly & looks like a good way to get back into moving.

I'm come so far & worked really hard to get this far. Time for the final push! Then the hard of work of maintaining can begin.

[WanderingHeart 140]

It seems like you know what you can do but you’re not doing it, which tells me that you’re experiencing a mental block.
This could be caused by a lot of things- maybe you really needed a break from what you were doing. Maybe you feel resistance or anger and you’re fighting your own plan. Maybe you need an outlet for emotions and you picked up food as a coping mechanism.
It seems like you’re hard on yourself and you cannot change anything from a place of disapproval. Find something in your behavior to approve of - whether it’s like “wow I did a really good job testing my boundaries with food here!” Or “my resistance is adorable/sexy/fun” or whatever applies to you.
I like to do a question practice where I write questions in my journal to discover what I want. Do not write questions that are down on yourself like “why did I mess up?” because there’s no way to authentically answer that. Questions like “how does my body feel? What does it crave? How can I support my body in this process? What foods feel nourishing and satisfying?”
Just focus on questions, do not answer them. The act of writing questions and letting them go allows them to be answered at the right time, sometimes just by noticing cues from your body or from the universe/god. Whatever you believe in.

if all else fails, therapy is awesome for unlocking resistance!

Edited March 25, 2021 by WanderingHeart

[David_L 67]

Another great topic and great interest to me. "Back on track" has to be the new normal for us. When I personally think of "back on track" and knowing my own vocabulary and actions, this implies that we're only doing well when we are in fact "on track". We're all going to stumble and get off track but these definitions and phrases may mean different things to different people. My personal "on track" typical day consists of drinking as much Water as possible first thing in the morning, limiting my coffee intake, walking every 2 hours while i'm working from home, and going to the gym at least 5 days a week. It's the grind that make me feel like I'm "on track". Hope this makes sense for others.