WHY CAN'T I GET BACK ON TRACK!!!!!

[Eppy]

In September of 2002, Dr. McDougall emailed me and asked me to be a Star McDougaller after I had lost 100 pounds. Today, I have gained all but 10 of those pounds back. I am so discouraged. I have tried and tried to get back on the plan and just keep failing. Why can't I get back the determination I had before. Have any of you lost a ton only to gain it back and then successfully took it off again and KEPT it off? What is the secret of staying on the plan and never straying?

HELP!!!!!!!

[ladynnred1]

Eppy,
I fully understand your frustration. While I did not lose that much, I gained back all of the weight gradually over several years and have been so frustrated over the past couple of years. It was just a smidge of non-healthy foods here and there and voila, it was back.

Earlier this summer, still feeling I must be much healthier than other people, I got back tests indicating that I had developed some blockages in my carotid arteries. Even that didn't do it fully but the single worst migraine I've ever had four weeks ago did finally get me back on track. I realised that I was facing a true health emergency and I realised that I had to go back to eating what I knew was the right way: non-fat, whole and healthy food. I just got it.

I'm not where I want to be yet but have found that remembering the health implications, not just weight, has put me on track. I've got thirty pounds or so to lose, yet, but I no longer want the garbage that had been worth clinging to over the past 5 years or so as I watched Nettie and others return to health. I just want fruit, veg, and whole grains b/c the threat of stroke or heart attack is too clear to me.

Good luck. Put your health first.
Cynthia

[f1jim]

What made the success you experienced happen? What was it about the plan you could stay with it long enough to loss such a tremendous amount of weight? Did you follow the plan for good health or just to lose weight? It's relatively easy to loss weight on most any diet. I think the way to look at it is this...This food will always be healthy food. So if you eat off plan you make a decision to let health slide for a while, knowing you can always pick right up where you left off and lose weight anytime. If you are eating for health primarily, you wouldn't be as quick to sabotage your health by eating the SAD.

Just start again like everyone else does. Pick a definitive date to start back up. Clear out the garbage in the house. Put a lot of planning to work and do it. If it helps, journal your efforts. Plug into a very supportive network of people here and progress together. History is your textbook, we can help be your worker bees.
Don't feel ashamed or beat yourself to death over this. We all love a comeback story and yours can be one of the best! Who better to help someone going through what you are now than someone that's been there. Let's get back to work!
f1jim

[Eppy]

I was living in Belgium when I started the first time. I started to have gallbladder problems and I DID NOT want to end up in a Belgian hospital! I still have my gallbladder, but the twinges are coming back. I feel crummy over all. When I did McDougall before, I (who had never been a runner in my life) was running 5 miles a day and loving it. I felt WONDERFUL! I crashed and burned about 18 months later while living in Germany. I lived in a glorious place, with outdoor trails all around me. I ran faithfully 6 days a week. One day I didn't go. That afternoon, I decided to have a piece of chocolate (the first in 18 months) and that started the downhill spiral. I stopped running, I ate more chocolate, I let myself eat cheese and other things again...I guess I just started getting tired always defending as to why I wouldn't eat this or that. I had little support and lots of criticism...even from extended family and friends who would tell me I was getting too thing (I went from 240 to 140) and here I am...5 years later...back at 230.

[ladynnred1]

Eppy,
The point is that the rubbish food does rubbish to our bodies. I feel so much better and all I really care about this time is keeping healthy. If the weight comes off, terrific but having a stroke or other health problems would make life pretty awful.

Cynthia

[Eppy]

That's what I need to hear...plain bluntness. I am 52, so yes, if I don't take care of myself, those things are a threat.

Well, I did start again last evening. Total McDougall MWL program and no sugar. I also spent a lot of time reading about senior running. I now have a goal to run the 5K in the local Turkey Trot at Thanksgiving.

Thanks for your comments and this time I AM going to do this!!!!

[ladynnred1]

Ok, Eppy, I'm 52 as well. We'll do this as a team.
Cynthia

[Mrs. Doodlepunk]

Eppy, I have trouble with people always asking why I can't eat this or that. If I'm in a good mood, I explain that it's doctor's orders and just leave it at that. I also smile.

If I'm in a bad mood because the person asking is particularly annoying and I don't like him or her, I ask them if they want me to be sick or healthy and just wait for an answer. <---- With that look on my face. I have had only one person tell me that I'm incredibly selfish. For NOT eating the food that was lovingly prepared for our family to eat, that we didn't ask for, didn't expect, and that I could not eat.

For me, I had to get over FEELING selfish for wanting to eat this way. Now it is just automatic. (Eating this way and not feeling selfish about it.)

I suspect that if I had a taste of chocolate I would slide down a slippery slope into full blown SAD eating again. Maybe that's what happened to you? Chocolate and cheese are strongly addictive for me. So is coffee with cream.

I'm so glad you started in again. You can do it! Stick around here, there is a great bunch here, very supportive and just like family. And, I have found that it really helps to keep a journal here too!

[janluvs2heel]

I haven't lost 100 lbs but I did lose almost 50 about 10 years with McDougalling. Like you, one slip up started me on my journey upward. Here I am, 10 years later, back where I started. I actually started in March with Mary's Mini, I lost about 9 lbs quickly but started getting dizzy & it scared me a bit. I posted about it & was reassured that I was just not eating enough, even though I wasn't hungry & it went away after a few days of a few more potatoes. I even joined the On Track bunch but I find for me, it is allright to read about others but I seem to feel so much pressure about my "performance" that I have not posted for quite a while. I have been struggling like you, I lose a few lbs, then gain them back. It has been on going & it is really bugging me. I feel so much better when I am 100% so why do I sabotauge myself? Sometimes it is people who walk up to me, notice I have lost weight, then say, so what diet are you on NOW? Other times it is the SAD people at my work who seem to be really bothered by what I eat or what I dont eat. But one thing that is different this time, I have not given up & gone back to SAD. If I blow a meal, a day, I just start at the next one, with McDougalling. And I dont look in the mirror & hate myself for failing one more time. I just avoid the mirror, as much as I can & tell myself, I know this is right. I am doing what is right for my body & health. I can't change what I look like today, but I sure as heck can change how I look in a month, 2 months & in my health as well.

Good luck with your journey back & love yourself!!!

[MaryW]

Eppy, it's not you, it's the food. Junk food is irresistible because our taste buds are designed to seek it out. I would recommend reading Neal Barnard's Breaking the Food Seduction and Doug Lisle's The Pleasure Trap. Right now I'm reading Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes. In it is a brief version of Breaking the Food Seduction's points as well. Problem foods for many people are sugar, meat, cheese and chocolate.

We all mess up. Heaven knows I messed up many times. The secret is to just start again. Not tomorrow. Not next week. With your next meal. After I mess up, and then have a healthy meal, I remember not only how good this food tastes, but also how good I feel when I eat it. I NEVER feel good after I eat SAD food, physically or mentally.

[JessNZ]

Hi Eppy,

I don't feel very much like my Star McDougaller profile after 2 children.
I gained lots during my pregnancies and though I've made some good progress, I want to get down another 20 lbs at least, and I'm not really moving at all.
And summer is coming here in New Zealand...

What I find the hardest is satisfying the family's appetites and still staying
MWL myself. I really am OK with MWL food and would eat brown rice and
potatoes with super healthy lowfat sauces, but my husband won't and the children have their own wacky preferences!

None of them have a weight problem, so I have nutritious things like nuts
and coconut milk around (which tempt me more often than them).

And I get lots of emotional reward for serving pizza (even if it's veggie cheeseless) compared to whining for serving funny sauces.

I know it's possible to have my own versions of foods, but that requires
so much more organization and willpower. Anyway, just wanted to say
that you're not alone in seeking revitalization!

[green jeanne]

double post

[green jeanne]

Hi Eppy,

Dr. McDougall emailed me to ask me to be a STAR about 7 years ago, but I hadn't lost all the weight I wanted to so I never did it. I had lost 60 lbs. at that point and felt so good and I was off all medications! While continuing the program I allowed myself to add not-so-innocent-for-me wheat to my diet. I am really sensitive to wheat for my weight. That coupled with larger portions, but still with allowed foods, I gained 15 lbs. over 7 years.

I believe it's important to look at this program not as a weight loss program, but as a health promoting and maintaining program. If you are doing it to look good or fit into that pair of jeans, it won't have the importance for your life that it needs to help you keep going and to make the LIFESTYLE CHANGE for health reasons. You had a strong reason to stick to it back then, you didn't want to be in a Belgian hospital. Maybe now you could concentrate on staying out of any hospital!

Finally after 8 years of this program, I can trust myself to stay on it. Back then I knew how easy it would be for me to go back to the Standard American Diet so I watched myself stringently. We are deluged with it. I look at it this way....the food others are eating is like eating a huge can of tasty lard and as good as it looks, it's not for me but for 'someone else'. I had to convince myself of this. I did have times I felt sorry for myself, of course, but I knew at the same time I was, for once, doing it FOR ME! Everything I put in my mouth has a cause and effect. It's either going to literally kill me, or it's going to make me strong and healthy--and look good too, yay!

If you goof up, make the next drop of food into your mouth the right food! and continue on. Don't look back.

As far as the mean people out there who feel threatened by you doing good things for yourself, or those who have to belittle you because they can't do anything else with their sad selves (no pun intended)....shame on them. I can't remember which book I read that goes into that very topic (recommended reading by Dr. McDougall), but there are ways around them.

Did you know I'm allergic to sugar? Did you know any added fat makes me have terrible gastronomic problems? Did you know this is all doctor's orders? These things work! They aren't lies. Let them feel sad for you as you're feeling happy you're doing this great thing for yourself.

After all this time, I am finally getting the last of my pounds off. I've lost the 15 I regained and am on my way to finally really being that STAR McDougaller.

Best of luck. I hope you are soon on the road to feeling great about yourself again. Jeanne

[eaufraiche703]

Eppy,

In the Star McDougaller story about Joyce, Dr McDougall suggests that it is helpful to find a group. He does site the MWL group on these boards as a great support group. You might also benefit from Overeater's Annonymous or Weight Watchers.

Two other really helpful sources that deal with the underlying issues. "Shrink Yourself" is a book and a website that deals with reasons one might eat those off plan foods. Dr Joan Beck's books also deal w/ those cravings and urges.... either of these might help you identify and shape behaviors to eliminate those things you don't want to be eating. I bought one of Dr Beck's books on clearance at Borders for $4.... it's great! These work w/ any dietary plan - they're working on psychological reasons for overeating/indulging.

[Mrs. Doodlepunk]

Eppy, I've found the best support here over in the Journal section. Start a journal, post every day, it is great.