Really Down!

[colider]

Hi everybody,

I am really down because I still haven't lost any weight. Last night after my husband (who is supposed to be on the diet with me) fell off the wagon by eating a huge yummy peice of pizza in front of me while saying, "I don't like this diet, I want to lose weight in my own way" I went to the store. I went to try and find stuff to cook that I like in order to motivate myself (I thought maybe some jalapeno Poppers or lettuce wraps) in order to convince myself that the diet isn't that bad and you can still have food that you like. I ended up buying some sugar free candy with way too many carbs and ate the entire bag of sugar free reeses cups. and half a bag of dark chocolate peices. I can't tell you how horrible I felt after I ate them and I wanted to just break down and cry.

It's really hard for me to stay motivated when I am not losing anything!!! That was my only mess up since New Years Eve when I had 4 shots of Vodka. I'm sick of not seeing any results and then reading about all of these people who are dropping pounds like crazy everyday. Plus I know that if my husband stayed on the diet and still cheated everyday he would still be losing weight.

I am too down to talk to anyone or to have the want to listen to anyone right now so I am going to hide out for a couple of days and deal with my depression in the way that I normally do and that is by myself. I will be back when I am feeling better and not so angry. Don't worry, I will stay on the diet. and won't eat anymore sugar free candly! But I don't know how much longer I can deal with not losing any weight. I am working waaaaaaay too hard not to be seeing any results by now. My friend who went on weight watchers has already lost 8 pounds in 2 weeks and I have lost nothing. I was sure that I would be way passed her by now. I went onto this diet because I thought that it would be easier than weight watchers and it is not at all!!!!!! It's more complicated and harder. If anyone thinks that this diet doesn't involve a bunch of planning than they are wrong!!!!!!

[Laurenfra]

Re: Really Down!

Its really not hard there are yes foods and no foods. If you are finding it too hard post some menu's lets us help you. As for seeing weight loss you need to have at least 7 cheat free days to see results. If you had all that chocolate yesterday and vodka on New years you are not giving your body (and this WOE) a chance.

[colider]

Re: Really Down!

I will talk to everyone again when I am not so angry! Everything that you say right now is only going to make me angry and annoyed even if you are right! I don't want any advice right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will talk to you as soon as I am feeling better.

[inhisgrip]

Re: Really Down!

Lisa Marie, I'm not going to give you any advice right now because I can tell you don't want it until you calm down.

I just wanted to let you know that I know exactly how you feel. You're not alone. There are days when I get so frustrated that I've worked so hard and the scale didn't budge! Just go check out my journal, I get so bent out of shape sometimes. BUT, if I just keep doing what I know to be right, and giving it my all, the scale always suprises me with a loss in the end. I know this will happen for you too if you just keep on pushing on. Post a menu like Lauren suggested. There are so many people here that can help tweak them if something is off. Wishing you the best of luck and hoping that your hard work will reap rewards soon!

[not2late]

Re: Really Down!

Hi everybody,

I am really down because I still haven't lost any weight. Last night after my husband (who is supposed to be on the diet with me) fell off the wagon by eating a huge yummy peice of pizza in front of me while saying, "I don't like this diet, I want to lose weight in my own way" I went to the store. I went to try and find stuff to cook that I like in order to motivate myself (I thought maybe some jalapeno Poppers or lettuce wraps) in order to convince myself that the diet isn't that bad and you can still have food that you like. I ended up buying some sugar free candy with way too many carbs and ate the entire bag of sugar free reeses cups. and half a bag of dark chocolate peices. I can't tell you how horrible I felt after I ate them and I wanted to just break down and cry.

It's really hard for me to stay motivated when I am not losing anything!!! That was my only mess up since New Years Eve when I had 4 shots of Vodka. I'm sick of not seeing any results and then reading about all of these people who are dropping pounds like crazy everyday. Plus I know that if my husband stayed on the diet and still cheated everyday he would still be losing weight.

I am too down to talk to anyone or to have the want to listen to anyone right now so I am going to hide out for a couple of days and deal with my depression in the way that I normally do and that is by myself. I will be back when I am feeling better and not so angry. Don't worry, I will stay on the diet. and won't eat anymore sugar free candly! But I don't know how much longer I can deal with not losing any weight. I am working waaaaaaay too hard not to be seeing any results by now. My friend who went on weight watchers has already lost 8 pounds in 2 weeks and I have lost nothing. I was sure that I would be way passed her by now. I went onto this diet because I thought that it would be easier than weight watchers and it is not at all!!!!!! It's more complicated and harder. If anyone thinks that this diet doesn't involve a bunch of planning than they are wrong!!!!!!

You are correct. "Failure to plan is planning to fail" not only with Atkins but with any weight loss/diet regimen. So plan, plan, plan, plan, plan.

You HAVE to have Atkins friendly food available. If you don't, then you have the perfect excuse to sabotage your diet efforts go off plan because "you didn't have anything you could eat."

You HAVE to develop strategies to cope with temptations. I think each of us have been in similar situations where people have sat beside us and inhaled off-limit foods. But in order to avoid succumbing to that, we have developed coping mechanisms. If you don't develop them, you have the perfect excuse to sabotage your diet efforts and go off plan because you "couldn't help" but to eat/drink whatever it was.

You HAVE to plan when you go to the grocery store. At my grocery store, the produce and meat sections are at the perimeter. I stick to them and only venture into specific aisles for specific items. The candy and snack aisles are aisles unto themselves and I avoided walking through or near them when I was on the Induction Phase.

As for not losing weight....
1. Don't compare yourself to other people. Your metabolism isn't the same as your best friend, your co-worker, your sister-in-law, or your husband.

2. Did you take your measurements in addition to weighing yourself? Dr. Atkins wrote that the loss of inches was a more reliable indicator of fat loss because losing those inches represented fat emptying from your body. The scale lies. If you lose 1 pound of fat, but retained 1 pound of water weight, guess what---that scale won't show any change. Likewise, if you lose a pound of fat, but gain a pound of muscle and retain a pound of water, that scale will say you gained 1 pound. The goal of every weight loss diet is to lose FAT, not to lose water or muscle.

3. You say the diet isn't working for you. Yet, you say you messed up on New Year's by drinking 4 shots of vodka. As you know from reading the Induction Rules and the Induction Acceptable Foods list, alcohol is not allowed during the Induction Phase. Your body metabolizes alcohol before it will metabolize carbs, proteins and fats. While it was busy breaking down those 4 shots (approximately 6 fluid ounces), it was busy storing the carbs, proteins and fats you ate as fat. I hate to say it, but it's not fair to blame the diet for not working for you, when you chose to not to follow it.

You really have to sit down and be honest with yourself. If you see that your going to find any excuse to fall off the diet at every chance you get, then you might have to consider Atkins isn't for you and you should find something that you can follow wholeheartedly. I've been around ADBB long enough to see people starting, falling off, restarting, falling off, restarting, falling off for months and years. They get no where with their weight loss because whatever weight they do lose, they gain it right back because they cannot stick to the diet. It's nothing to be ashamed of. I would never be able to stick to the Ornish Diet or to Pritikin and I'm not ashamed to admit that because Ornish and Pritikin are too restrictive for my food likes and dislikes. So be honest with yourself, that's the best thing you can do at this point in your weight loss journey.

[julirama723]

Re: Really Down!

You may read this when you feel better!

First off, Atkins is NOT a diet. If you think of it as a diet, it's not going to work (mentally) in the long run. Atkins is a way of EATING, a way of LIFE. It's simply eating healthy foods that are good for your body. A diet is a "quick fix", something people go on to lose 5 pounds to fit into a cocktail dress. A healthy way of eating is something to be followed indefinitely. We all had horrible eating habits--that's how we ended up here. Don't expect 4 days of Atkins to solve a lifetime of food woes!

Since Atkins is a huge lifestyle change (and not a diet) weightloss will not be linear, and weightloss cannot be predicted. Your body will give up the weight when it's good and ready. You have not finished a 14-day induction (which is the soonest you're supposed to weigh, after 2 weeks), and your induction up to this point has not been clean. You have not given your body a chance to drop weight. Be patient. Do a CLEAN 14-day induction, that means NO alcohol, NO sugar free candy, eat NOTHING except the foods that are on the induction foods list.

Weight changes from hour to hour and day to day. Don't expect pounds to drop evenly and consistently. Be patient, follow the plan as intended.

But, if you feel that Atkins is not for you, then read up on other plans, try something else! There are other healthy plans out there that will work, too. For me, Atkins is ideal. It works for my body. But it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Think hard about what you want and how you feel. Only then can you move forward with Atkins or with another eating plan.

[ValidRouge]

Re: Really Down!

I've been back and looked at your previous posts. Members here have all jumped to help you and asked and asked you to give full detailed menus of what you are eating. You seem to avoid those direct questions. And, when you do give us a glimpse of what you are eating it is things like:
slim jims (full of corn syrup)
sugar free pudding
low carb wraps
low carb candy
alcohol
etc.

These are foods that pretty much only people who are already at goal and maintaining can eat on a daily basis. AND I'll be perfectly honest with you...if I AT GOAL were to eat ANY of this, I would GAIN weight (even in small quantities). Definitely not lose it.

You can't expect to eat maintenance type foods and lose weight! That's the bottom line. Some of the others who are losing weight, are doing the diet the way the book says to do it. They aren't eating sugar free junk food, and drinking. They are doing the plan the right way and are reaping the benefits.

So, you've now got to decide if you are going to give the plan a chance and do it right, or if you need to find something else that fits with the way you like to eat (as not2late said).

If you choose to do this, I highly suggest you get the book and read it thoroughly. Then spend two weeks only eating things from the induction acceptable food list. Don't eat or drink ANYTHING that isn't on the list.

[jimmyolsenblues]

Re: Really Down!

Lisa Marie, please stay off the scale for the whole 2 weeks. Or even better throw your scale away. Atkins works, take your measurements, see how your clothes will become looser after time. Your hunger will decrease and that is the most amazing thing about atkins. Don't give up. You can do it!

[kate58]

Re: Really Down!

I've done what you're doing on other attempts to lose, slunk off into a corner with anger and frustration, basically feeling sorry for myself. Mostly it was for the same reasons as you - I didn't stick with the plan, I ate things I shouldn't because I thought it wasn't fair that I couldn't have them when other people could, I pushed it a little here, a little there, with a bit more of this than was allowed or that little piece of something that was surely too small to matter. I did this repeatedly. And then when I didn't lose enough, or fast enough, I blamed the diet, not myself. Not poor me.

Though really I was blaming me and punishing myself for my weakness and my lack of will power. Like that was going to help. Not that is was me that actually suffered most, as I wallowed in self-pity and recrimination - all that anger, frustration and self-loathing is very, very hard on those around us, harder than we realise.

This may seem harsh, but Joy is right, your previous posts clearly reveal that you have not been doing Atkins. You've been doing some sort of makey-up diet that is an invention of your own. And it didn't work and it won't work.

But that's not bad news ..... THAT IS FANTASTIC NEWS!!!

It means you haven't in fact tried this great way of eating at all and you can now start, whenever you come back to read this doing Atkins for the first time. Read the book from cover the cover, get your kitchen stocked up, plan your meals and snacks and start it right, start it clean, start it with your head in the right place thinking "this is for ME, it's the best and nicest thing I can do for myself and my body and for those I love".

I promise you, and you can hold me to it, that if you do that, by the book and for real, you WILL lose weight. I promise you, and you can hold me to this to, that after a week or even less of a clean, healthy, induction you will feel so great, so full of energy, much, much more positive and much stronger in the face of temptation.

And we will ALL be here to help.

[ValidRouge]

Re: Really Down!

Kate, you have a great way with words. Me, blunt, just blurt it out there. Always with the best intentions...to help, but not as softly spoken.

Lisa Marie, we want to see you succeed. *I* want to see you get to your goal and be happy in your own skin. It's not easy though, and I'd rather see you do it right, get there quick without all the heartache. But, in order to do that, we've sometimes got to be blunt with ourselves. And, it's all a choice. I can choose to not eat certain things, even if it's not fair, or I don't like it. Or, I can sacrifice my weight to have that food. Most of the time (though I'm far, far from perfect) I choose not to eat certain things so that I can be thin. You've got to decide that for yourself.

[ShiningStarr]

Re: Really Down!

I understand what you are going through. I was off the wagon for over a week during the holidays and was having a hard time getting back on track. Then my husband decided to give it a try and at the end of day 1 he quit. He said he needed to eat the foods he wanted and just count calories. Well I was very disappointed becuase helping him succeed was helping me stay on track. I like the whole buddy system idea. But that is out the window and I am on my own...fighting an induction headache. But I know I can do it so I will! I know you can do it. Everyone here just wants to help you succeed. So of us are more gentler and some are quite blunt. (I got a bit offended by a reply once and that made me mad for a bit but then I realized it was exactly what I needed. THey were speaking the truth and I needed to hear the truth!) So clear your mind and read what everyone has written. There are so many wonderful people on here with great advice with results to back it up. Look at the pictures...they don't lie. You may have to also realize that you are just not ready for this right now. You may want to be ready but until you are in the right frame of mind to change you WOE than there really is nothing you can do. I find losing weight is nore than just a physical change it is a mental change too. You have to be ready in both areas to succeed. And when you are...You will do great!!!.....and we will be here for you!!!

[colider]

Re: Really Down!

I'm sorry. I feel so bad that everyone is so supportive when I know that everyone is fighting the same battle as I am. I was just disapointed in myself but I am going to give this ANOTHER TRY! I have gotten a journal out to write everything down that I eat each day along with my exercize and water consumption. I am also going to go ahead and write out what I am going to eat each day for the entire week and make sure that I have those foods and ingredients in my house and ready to eat. I am not going to ask my husband to do this diet with me in fact I hope that he doesn't!!! I am stronger without having to think about what he is doing or how he is doing. I know that when you look over my history of posts it appears that I am not dedicated but truly I have never been so dedicated!!! This means more to me than you know.

Kate 58, you hit my problem on the nose when you said...

"I ate things I shouldn't because I thought it wasn't fair that I couldn't have them when other people could, I pushed it a little here, a little there, with a bit more of this than was allowed or that little piece of something that was surely too small to matter. I did this repeatedly. And then when I didn't lose enough, or fast enough, I blamed the diet, not myself. Not poor me."

I do think that way and need to stop. I need to stop thinking that it's not fair and that I deserve it, because this is my main problem with food. I use it to reward myself and to nurture myself. It's embarrasing how deep my problem with food really is

I am going to be posting my menu to make sure that I am not bending the rules. If I do mess up please just inform me and don't throw this whole post in my face because that won't work well for me at all. That would just make me close up and stop coming to this post for help.

I want to say that I appreciate sooooooooo much that all of you replied to me and tried to help me with my problem even though I said not to and even though I was being selfish by only thinking about myself. Thank you to the people who were blunt, the people who were kind and gentle and the people who gave me my space because I needed all of that It is actually an overwhelmingly softening experience to have so much support. Thank you!

[kate58]

Re: Really Down!

I am just SOOOOOO happy you came back!!!!

Of course nobody will throw anything in your face - I'm willing to bet that just about everyone here has felt just as you do at some point, probably many times. But you've come back, and that wasn't easy, which means you are strong and resolute and you WILL succeed.

[IrishSarahHB]

Re: Really Down!

Yep .. I agree .. i think we have all been here at some point .. Once you get over the whole "i cant have" thing you will be really happy with your food choices ...

there is a lady in my office also dieting .. yesterday she had one peice of dry toast & 1/2 a can of dry tuna fo lunch .. she said thats all she could have and stay withen her calorie range .... i felt bad warming up my double cheeseburger patties topped with mushrooms & onions ... but i also felt like .. wow i can do this .. im so luck i can eat yummy food ..

Good luck to you !!!

[ValidRouge]

Re: Really Down!

I would say that the overwhelming majority of us feel this way. I STILL DO! I've just come to accept that this is a choice, and I am choosing to have a healthy life. What we don't DESERVE is the toxic things that refined carbohydrates do to us such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension.

Kate 58, you hit my problem on the nose when you said...

"I ate things I shouldn't because I thought it wasn't fair that I couldn't have them when other people could, I pushed it a little here, a little there, with a bit more of this than was allowed or that little piece of something that was surely too small to matter. I did this repeatedly. And then when I didn't lose enough, or fast enough, I blamed the diet, not myself. Not poor me."

I do think that way and need to stop. I need to stop thinking that it's not fair and that I deserve it, because this is my main problem with food. I use it to reward myself and to nurture myself. It's embarrasing how deep my problem with food really is

I am so glad you're OPEN to changing your life. That means you ARE ready, you ARE committed. It means it WILL happen. Whatever you DECIDE to do, you can DO!