Motivation Needed

[715]

Been on Atkins for a year now and kept the weight off: 50 some lbs. Summer has been hard and I've cheated quite a bit (too many functions, parties, festivals, etc.), but I work out EVERY DAY (cardio and weight lifting). I am working out doing thinks I never thought I would do in a million years and I am loving it!! I actually crave working out.

Now I am trying to get back into the swing of things as there is more weight I want to lose and just can't seem to get back on track. Everything distracts me and I give in to temptation and then feel guilty for eating bad afterwards (someone brings lunch in for work for a birthday or anniversary, there is a cookout this weekend, there is a festival to attend ....). I keep saying "tomorrow, I will start over" and it seems like tomorrow never comes. I've gained some weight back, but I believe it to be mostly muscle as my clothes are still feeling the same (for the most part, I'm sure some of it is fat gain, but the majority is muscle), just the numbers went up on the scale. I know you can't count on what the scale reads, however when I started all this I never took measurments making the compairsons hard now. I see those numbers on the scale and feel sick with myself and disgusted with the numbers along with feeling the major amount of guilt from eating things I know that I am not supposed to eat!!

What is wrong with me?!?!?! I did this once before and I know that I can do it again ... I worked so hard to lose the weight and DON'T want to gain it all back and be a failure. That should be motivation enough for me, but recently it's not.

HELP!!!

[IrishIrish]

Well, first of all, congratulations on your success over the last year.

Make a plan for starting again. Clean out the junk. Make a list of menus. Carry the Acceptable Food List with you at all times (in your desk at work, your locker, your refrigerator, your purse or briefcase. Do I have to look at it much? Nope. But it does serve as a reminder every day of how far I've come.

The events and festivals and cookouts still give you control of what you are eating. You just have to make smart choices or bring a dish you can eat or eat something legal for your plan before you go. For me, I just had to decide how badly I wanted this and whether I was willing to stick to it and make choices in my social decisions for my better health. I made the right choices and I couldn't be happier with them today. They can easily be your decisions, too.

[Georgiana]

Congrats for the weight lost, Becky!

Unless you are eating junk food, you are probably supposed to be eating whatever you are eating. I say this because you only have 12 lbs left to lose. Why are you staying on Induction instead of moving to OWL? Dr. Atkins thought it is better for those who don't have a lot of weight to lose (he said 20-30 lbs as a lower limit, and you only have 12 left!) to start OWL, so that they have time to progress through the Carbohydrate Ladder and learn how to lose and maintain their weight while eating a larger food variety. According to Dr. Atkins, staying on Induction until goal is the wrong way to do Atkins.

So do yourself a favor and instead of feeling guilty for eating whatever, move to OWL and add back food groups in the way they are ordered on the Carbohydrate Ladder and by following the Rules of OWL. You are allowed on Atkins to eat things like yogurt, nuts, berries, melons, legumes, fruits, starchy vegetables, grains (and alcohol, if you drink), because Induction is only the first phase of Atkins, not the whole diet. Here is a thread with foods ADBBers eat on OWL and Pre-Maintenance: http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.c...enu-today.html (What's on your OWL/Pre-Main menu today?). You can see there are berries, nuts, beans and grains there, all perfectly "legal" for OWL.