While it is difficult to say “what is the thing that threw you off track?” I want to share with you a couple of things that I feel went wrong that caused me to gain some weight back.

Quick Summary

One year ago, January 2011, I stepped on the scale at 294 pounds. I had been heavier than that, maybe by 5-10 pounds, but I refused to step on the scale then. On February 1st, I started on Weight Watchers Online For Men. I started losing weight, about 2-3 pounds per week. I started running (after 2 months of walking) on April 1st. I ran my first 5K on Memorial Day. I kept running and kept losing weight. I got down to 247. I ran the San Antonio Half Marathon in November. Then, it all began to reverse.

What Went Wrong?

The first thing I would say is that I did not have a goal beyond November 13th, when I ran the half marathon. I had some general “wishes,” but not a specific goal, or set of goals to hold my focus.

For most people who are overweight, a lack of a specific goal can be dangerous. Otherwise, you just coast thru the day eating whatever, whenever. That is what began to happen to me.

I had reached my goal, and I began to lose focus and go throughout the next several weeks like a ship without a rudder, or ship without a fixed point on the horizon to aim for.

A goal helps me in making my decisions on a daily basis. For example:

• If I eat this, will it move me closer to or farther from my goal?
• If I don’t exercise, will it move me closer to or farther from my goal?

You get the idea. I had nothing in place to help motivate me with my decisions. I had no focus.

The second thing I would say is that I let life circumstances control my eating. I had a couple of family issues hit me pretty hard in December. Sometimes when someone gets very sick, has a major health crisis, or there is some kind of trauma in a family member’s life, I can tend to put life on hold and set aside my daily priorities.

For a couple of weeks in December, I began to find comfort in food. A quick drive through at McDonalds, some doughnuts, candy bars, etc. etc. etc.

It’s not that any one of these things is wrong to do or wrong to eat, but when I began to let too much of that happen, too often, and too close together, I began to allow food to help my moods.

The reality is, the food ultimately made me feel worse. On top of worrying about my family, I was beginning to feel worse as my jeans got tighter and I could feel myself beginning to go backwards.

The real help in this would have been for me to go for a long run. Exercise is one of THE best forms of stress relief and release. It kicks up your endorphins and when it is over, you get showered off, you feel better, your head is clearer, and you stay on track.

Those are probably the two main things that I would say went wrong.

Both of those things allowed me to compromise at almost every turn. I began to justify what I was doing. I was injured so I couldn’t run. It was Christmas so I should eat everything in sight. It was New Years, so I need to eat more nachos during the Bowl games. I will get back on track later.

Primary Lessons

1. Life happens. Be prepared ahead of time to take healthier choices for dealing with stress. Old habits die hard, but they MUST be replaced with better habits.
2. Don’t beat yourself up. I made a choice on January 25th I wasn’t going to beat myself up. If I did, I would only feel better if I at something to make myself better. It’s strange, I do the opposite of what I need to do in order to feel better.
3. It’s never too late to do the right thing, as long as it’s not too late. Until I am 6 feet under, it’s not too late. On January 25th, I woke up and made my re-commitment to do the right thing.

I appreciate your encouragement!

Mistakes happen. The best thing I can do is learn from them so that I don’t repeat them.

Related posts:

1. Overcoming Weight Loss Barriers
2. Weight Loss Goals
3. Discouraged By Slow Weight Loss