How can maintaining or just getting back to target be so difficult? How do I recover my original motivation and focus which didn't waiver even when faced with take away's, booze and holidays the first time round?
I know my trouble started when I thought I could go it alone and stopped attending weigh ins, I felt that I knew what I was doing and was in control and didn't need 'official' weigh ins to keep my weight in check. Over 3 months my old bad habits started creeping in - a bag of cookies popped into the trolley, a slice of cake with my skinny cappuccino, a few mouthfuls of cheese while preparing dinner, not worrying about measuring my cereal, having a glass or two of wine with dinner (knowing already I would have been over my syns allowance), all the things which lead me to being overweight and unhappy in the first place.
But, I did eventually step back on the scales to find I had packed on a full 17 pounds, 'oh I will have that off in a few weeks' I thought to myself as I left the meeting that night, but I was very wrong.
I have managed to lose 9 of them but the last few weeks I have just added, lost, added, lost and this week maintained.
Now I'm not blaming the plan as I know for sure it works, after all losing almost 6 and half stone is incredible. I know its my lack of focus and general greedy guts persona returning. So I need to get back into the mind set of a new member and get back to goal.
So I have been thinking back and reflecting on how I was so successful in the first place and will be following these steps once again in the hope of achieving a loss every week from now until goal.
1) Setting a deadline
Then: First day of my son starting Pre-School, I actually achieved this 2 months before my deadline.
Now: 5th May 2019 Family Holiday to Cornwall.
2) Finding an item of clothing I really want to wear
Then: A pair of jeans I loved but hadn't been able to get into for years, but I actually only managed to wear them for a few weeks as they became too big too quickly.
Now: Holiday Dress (only worn once when I first got to goal) I did take it on holiday when I went away at Christmas but had to keep my cardigan on as I couldn't actually do the zip up.
3) Find a photo which showed everything I wanted to change
Then: I actually struggled because I didn't have any photos as I just wouldn't be in them or allow people to take them, so I knew that I wanted to just change myself enough to be happy to have photos taken of me.
Now: On Friday I went out for a girly night and couldn't wait to see the photos but looking at myself all I could see was an old, frumpy, overweight person. I'm sure the other girls didn't see that, but its how you feel in your own skin which matters and I didn't feel good. So I will keep looking at this photo in my moments of weakness.
4) A picture of my figure at target
Then: When I got married in 2009 I felt amazing in my dress, especially how good my collar bones and arms looked, so I kept this picture in my head whenever I was tempted to step off plan.
Now: On my first family holiday following my weight loss I felt incredible in my bikini and it's this figure I am going to keep in my head whenever my hand reaches for the biscuit tin.
5) Planning and organisation
Then: I wrote a weekly plan every Sunday for every meal of the week for the entire family and stuck to it. I also completed a food diary every day and recorded everything that passed my lips.
Now: Exactly the same as what I use to do as I believe this is the real key to being successful, if you haven't planned it's to easy to make wrong choices, so I have started to write my weekly meal plan and writing a food diary each day.