Lose weight the fun way.

I consider myself very lucky that I've been able to lose weight fairly easily. This is my 7th dietbet and I've won them all and am more than on track to win this one as well. I don't have lots of food cravings, so limiting my calories isn't difficult and I've been able to succeed with only adding in small doses of exercise, walking mainly and now riding a stationary bike our neighbors gave us.

The problem comes in maintenance. If I'm being honest, I'm just lazy. Sitting on the couch after putting the little one down to bed instead of a quick 30 minutes on the bike (still in front of the tv I might add), ordering pizza once a week, frozen convenience foods, they always win out. Too often that glass of wine with dinner will turn into two or three and the calories add up and the scale creeps back up without me even noticing.

I'm successful with dietbet because it gives me a goal and a finite amount of time to accomplish it. I can reason with myself that I can sustain these behaviors because I "only" need to do it for a few weeks. But I struggle with motivation once the bet is over. I want to make healthy, sustainable changes so I'm not constantly dropping the same 10lbs.

How do you get off the yo-yo? What inspires you to sustain the changes?

valentinedwv

10/21/2014 11:09AM

My weigh loss nutritionist calls it the Nike swoosh...
Been doing the yo-yo and swoosh for 7 years (found an old google spreadsheet). Six to eight weeks of losing weight followed by ignoring the scale.

How have I started to break it (I hope)?
Finally getting tired of losing the 40 pounds and making a change. For me it has been recognizing I can't do without long term help. Started with a Doctor supervised plan, since I was higher than I had been in seven years. This plan has weekly prepaid maintenance meetings with a group. I've committed to six months, with a plan to commit to another year, and Diet Bet 10's.

So it's really committing to a lifetime change, and not just a short term change. I'm working on strategic stacking of dietbet 10's. A weigh in every two weeks, and then I'll stack on one more about month 5 or six to kick off another round of loss. Basically, plan. No more swoosh. Just weight loss steps (2.5 months at 3%), and flats (1-2% loss).

Eleshia C. likes this comment.

The Yo-Yo

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