So what do you do when...?

So what do you do when your weight loss has all but completely dried up?
What do you do when calories in vs calories out just isn't working anymore?
What do you do when your body is changing but not how you thought?
What do you do when you're completely unmotivated to carry on?
What do you do when you still have more than 2 stone to go?
What do you do when you've been doing this for a year and a half and still obese?

I have all these questions going round my head, I dunno where to go from here. My weight loss has all but stopped, its very very slow. I'm getting really unmotivated, I've been at this for a year and a half and I'm still obese. I'm so tired of analysing and scrutinising every little thing I put in my mouth. Exercise has completely fallen by the wayside. I've already had a day where I just didn't care and ate what I liked, but felt terrible afterwards. My body is changing but really not like I thought it would, I'm flabby and saggy like an old lady, I dread to think what I'll be left with when I'm done. I think all of this is part of the reason why I'm not as motivated to carry on.

I knew going into this it wasn't going to be easy, I knew it was going to take a long time, I just don't know how to shake this feeling off and get back into this. I can feel my attitude changing a little bit each day, and not for the better, it's like I've stopped caring.

All I know is the decisions I make now are going to shape the next few months. I know I don't want to go back to the way I was, but this sucks. I think I'm going to have a shake up, look at some new recipes, try a few new things, and just generally try and get out of this funk.

*Disclaimer - If you were looking for a cheery, motivational weight loss post may I suggest you go here, here, or for some yummy low cal food here!*

I feel I should end this post on a positive note though so I'll post my progress so far.

SW:  269
CW: 197

Progress pic.

Are you allowed to eat that on your diet?

I have reached the stage in my weight loss where people know exactly what I'm doing and I don't have the luxury of just not telling anyone anymore. I liked it in those days, no-one noticed and I could go on my merry way and no-one would want any input. 

Now everyone seems to have advice, comments, criticism or just plain know better! Many times in the last few months I've heard 'are you allowed to eat that on your diet?' well lets just see, I'm 24 years old I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to eat whatever I want. Also yes I am on a diet, but I'm not restricted to any sort of specific foods. For instance I'm not doing Atkins or anything so drastic, so I don't have to cut out any major food groups, so again yes I am allowed to eat whatever I want. 

This question got me thinking. Why do people seem to be so interested? Or feel the need to tell you what you're doing wrong when you have never asked for advice? There's something about weight loss that makes everyone get involved. They all have some wonderful advice about their cousin's wife's uncle's daughter who lost lots of weight and all they did was drink these awesome shakes, drink water and eat nothing but baby food. Simple! These people, in my experience also tend to be the people who ask 'how are you doing it?' then look thoroughly disappointed when you say nothing but diet and exercise, everyone wants you to say 'oh I took two of these magic pill and woke up 60 pounds lighter.' Everyone looking for an easy answer and in all honesty from my experience, its not hard, its just a long drawn out process and can be ridiculously frustrating when things aren't going to plan. 

Photo from here.

I find the above picture sums it up nicely! 

Anyways back to my original point, people asking 'are you allowed to eat that on your diet?' who think they are doing you a favour by keeping you on track. Where were these people when I was 269 lbs? There was no-one saying to me 'should you really be eating that pizza? or that burger?'. They would never have said that as it would be considered rude. However that was the stage where an intervention would probably have been necessary. 

I have found the most polite way to respond to these comments are to just smile and accept the advice, regardless of whether you're going to use it or not, this way you're spared the lecture on how they know better and they get the lovely warm fuzzy feeling of thinking they helped. I think at the end of the day you always have to do what's best for you. As long as what you are doing is not dangerous to your health, then crack on, keep going and never give up!  

Photo found here.

SW: 269

CW: 208

CGW: 199

xx

Never give up.

I haven't been on here for a very long time, I sort of gave up on it, on the blog not on the weight loss, there was a few reasons for this, my blog was broken and my pictures are all slowly disappearing, an also I had nothing uplifting or even remotely motivational to put on here.

I've still been trying hard with the weight loss, I put on a little bit over Christmas but that was to be expected, that weight came off relatively quickly and then nothing, nada, zilch! I was stuck at the same weight and I couldn't understand why.

After chatting to a few friends and getting out of my grump, it really is quite grump inducing when nothing has changed and the scale isn't moving, I decided I needed to go back and rethink things. Its funny how when you take a step back suddenly things become so obvious. I realised that most days I really was struggling to hit 1200 calories and for someone who has still got a long way to go, thats really not enough! Also quite a large percentage of my total calories were coming from carbs, so that was something else to think about.

Over this last week I've changed things up a bit, and I know that its only been a week but I can see things are moving in the right direction, I'm currently eating 1500 calories and I'm regularly just under my calorie limit of 1660, I'm also more aware of the carbs that I'm eating even though they're still too high.

So my advice to everyone out there who is ready to give up, keep going, keep moving forward and you will succeed!

SW: 269
CW: 209
CGW: 199