How do you keep from getting back to old habits???

This is a struggle I have. I join WW...lose the weight! Feel great that I lost the weight...feel like I can eat anything I want and then the weight comes back on and then I gain more weight and its a vicious cycle over and over and over

Message edited 8/18/2007 12:49:42 PM.

Re: How do you keep from getting back to old habits???

I think it is so important to keep going to meetings to help maintain your WL. The first week I went to WW our leader said "What are you willing to do to keep the weight off? Are you willing to come to the meeting every week. Are you willing to spend 30 minutes a week to keep the weight off and be happy?" It was then I realized I am willing to do that and I will go every week even when I am at goal. Hoping Bri will chime in here because I know she is at goal and still goes every week and she looks AMAZING!!

Re: How do you keep from getting back to old habits???

Re: How do you keep from getting back to old habits???

Bri,

That was great advice for all of us, not just people doing WW. Sometimes things are so simple, but sometimes it does not resonate until someone else says it to you.

Thanks so much for your insight.

Re: How do you keep from getting back to old habits???

I look at pictures of myself of when i looked great and that motivates me

Re: How do you keep from getting back to old habits???

Bri you really hit the nail on the head. You are A TOTAL INSPIRATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: How do you keep from getting back to old habits???

Thanks ladies

Re: How do you keep from getting back to old habits???

Posted by Bri

Posted by KimPetro

I think it is so important to keep going to meetings to help maintain your WL. The first week I went to WW our leader said "What are you willing to do to keep the weight off? Are you willing to come to the meeting every week. Are you willing to spend 30 minutes a week to keep the weight off and be happy?" It was then I realized I am willing to do that and I will go every week even when I am at goal. Hoping Bri will chime in here because I know she is at goal and still goes every week and she looks AMAZING!!

Thanks Kim

Kim hit it on the head. You really need to look at what the worth of losing the weight and keeping it off is to you. I started looking at food when I am about to binge and say "is it worth it?" Every move I make that can possibly interfere with program I ask "Is it worth it?" or "Am I in control right now?" If it's NOT worth it or I do NOT feel in control, I do everything in my power to NOT give in.

It might work to make a list of negative habits and replace each with a better habit. Habits are hard to break, but even reducing the level of the habit is success. For example, when I got stressed, I would grab something sinful to eat. I first replaced that behavior with eating half of whatever it was. I then went on to "only 3 bites to total taste satisfaction" (will explain shortly). Finally I reached one bite of the sinful food. Now I am working on replacing food with something not food related (and still after being at and under goal for nearly a year, I need to work at this.)

When it comes to bad habits, some never go away completely, and I know for me, food is a drug of choice, so I have tried to follow an idea that my leader frequently reinforces: "3 bites to total taste satisfaction." Basically she says that if you are eating something, no matter what it is, your taste buds are satisfied after 3 bites. So if you are eating something sinful, and high in points, if you can take 3 bites and push it away, your taste for it should be satisfied. It won't get any better after those 3 bites and may not be worth eating more. I try to follow this rule. Let's face it, 3 doritos is a hell of a lot less points than the whole bag- I have tasted it, I am satisfied and anymore will just lead to more points and more guilt. I try incorporate this idea whenever I can.

I would look at pictures I hated of myself and would put on my clothes that did not fit anymore as a reminder of how much I did not want the extra weight anymore and how "worth it" it was to me to get it off.

It hasn't gotten easier after having reached goal. People can be very bad. I constantly get taunted about how I can "afford" to eat more. When we have food at work, I am constantly taunted to have it because I don't "need to lose anymore weight." I get "why do you need to go to weight watchers for?" and "You still go to meetings every week- why?" They don't understand that keeping it off and staving off the bad habits is hard work and a forever journey. They don't understand that one bite of something- one indulgence at the wrong time can send me into a very bad tailspin. This is something I am still trying to figure out how to handle and is something at the top of my list of things that leads me back into bad habits.

In order to be successful, I had to be happy with small successes. I had to be happy with the smallest loss or staying the same. I had to look at a gain as a small bump in the road and not failure. I had to resign to the fact that losing it isn't the end and that keeping it off is a forever journey and sometimes a struggle, but one very "worth it" to me.

Keeping from going back to to old habits is the hardest part of the journey and having the will power to get back on track after a slip-up is even harder.

Once you get into a losing pattern, after you have set several small goals for yourself and met them, after you have been able to achieve your bigger goal, you will see and feel the hard work and you won't want to go back to the bad habits that will undo all your success. You just need to be ready to accept that it is a forever journey and it's never over once you've met your goal.

Re: How do you keep from getting back to old habits???

Re: How do you keep from getting back to old habits???

Posted by azoodie

Bri you really hit the nail on the head. You are A TOTAL INSPIRATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!