For Anyone That Feels Like Quitting…

Please don’t! Here’s why, how, and what to do if you have…

We all have them don’t we? Those days where it all seems too much and we just want to say f**k it and throw in the proverbial towel. If you don’t you’re a very lucky (and slightly odd) person, and I seriously envy you! I’m talking about those days where losing weight just feels like a never ending journey requiring far too much effort for far too little reward. Given that losing weight has unquantifiable benefits, from a physical and mental health point of view, that might seem stupid, but sometimes it’s just hard for those huge benefits to out-way quite how exhausting losing weight can be.

But the point is that we ALL have days like that. You are categorically not alone, and days like this are the ideal chance to engage with your weight loss on a more intellectual level and channel your feelings in a positive way to turn a momentary lapse in motivation and courage into a lesson learnt. The best thing that you can do for yourself at times like these, is to sit and really analyse why you’re feeling the way you are! 

Is it because someone put you down, or made a comment about your weight or your progress? Is it because you’re feeling left out from the rest of the non-dieting world? Is it because other people are losing weight faster than you? Is it because you’re tired of feeling like the ‘fat friend’ but you’re convinced that’s all you’ll ever be anyway so what’s the point? Or is it because of the every day stresses of life, love, work, home, family, partners, kids, pets…the list goes on and on… are too much? Life is a stressful thing, and the way that many people deal with stress is to eat ‘bad’ food, especially those of us who struggle with our relationship with food. 

Whatever the reason behind the feeling that you want to quit, by identifying it you will be taking the first steps to over coming it, and preventing yourself from ending up in that situation again in the future. Whilst it’s impossible to remove the stress out of life, after all what fun would that be right (!?!), we can put in place mechanisms with which we can deal with those stresses and improve our mood enough to avoid feeling like packing it all in. 

I know I’m talking about food here, however whilst I am certainly not a trained psychologist, I am someone who has struggled with depression and unhealthy eating habits throughout my teenage years and into my adult life. What’ I’ve found is that not only does identifying my triggers when it comes to food really help with my weight loss, but doing so for other areas of my life has really helped my emotional health too. Something they teach you in CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) is to identify the negative cycles in your life, and to work out how to break those cycles when they start. This goes for everything from food to relationships, so it’s a good life skill to develop! 

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Once you’ve identified what’s making you feel so crap, the next step is to make a very important conscious decision. That decision is to put whatever is causing these feelings behind you, to decide that you’re bigger than your problems, and tell yourself that you are worth fighting for. That might sound slightly over dramatic, but it’s true. Your physical, mental, and emotional health is 100% more important than a bad day at work or fight with  your other half. Life stress is something that we often have no control over, and a lack of control is one of the scariest things in life, however our eating habits and weight is something that we do have control over – so take advantage of that!

I am very aware that when you’re feeling low, depressed, unhappy, tired, emotional, frustrated, angry, disappointed, or pretty much any negative feeling out there, it’s very hard to put things into perspective…but it’s so important to try! Focusing on why you started, how far you’ve come (even if it’s only that you haven’t got any heavier!) and the long term benefits of your weight loss, will give you the strength to say ‘f**k off’ to those feelings instead of ‘f**k it’ to your weight loss! I am on the same journey that you are and I find it really difficult! I’m a very emotional person, and I wear my heart on my sleeve and in the contents of my fridge. If I’m feeling low I often very consciously make the decision to give in, which is completely the wrong thing to do! I am trying to get better at taking my own advice, because fixing one’s emotional relationship with food the one thing that I believe can really ensure long term weight loss.

This is why I love Slimming World! It has completely changed my relationship with food, and I’m so grateful for that. After years of crash diets, unhealthy eating habits, self loathing and a complete lack of body confidence, I have finally begun to fix the way I feel about food. I have come a hugely long way since starting this journey just over a year ago, utilising the techniques I’m talking about here. By identifying the negative cycles in my food habits, and working out how I can change them or avoid them completely, I have finally begun to appreciate food again for what it should be…an absolute delight! I’m hoping that sharing my recipes, thoughts, advice and struggles as I do on this blog can help other people to do the same, because it has completely changed my life! 

This is my progress so far!

This is my progress so far! Almost 4 stone down in a year!

Hopefully, by identifying the reason behind your lack of motivation, deciding to put yourself ahead of that event or feeling, and putting your emotions into perspective, you will be able to overcome the desire to give in. However, what’s perhaps even more important than this, is to know how to get yourself back on track once when things do get tough. Often the lack of motivation can be triggered by falling off plan in the first place, life gets in the way sometimes and that’s 100% OK! Working out how to pick yourself up after a set back is just as important as avoiding them in the first place. 

Because let’s face it, no matter how much we put our weight loss into perspective, or how often we decide that we are bigger than our problems, we all have bad days. We all have days where we sit in bed eating ice cream and ordering Chinese take away, it’s just called being human. If you can’t avoid it, that’s OK! The best thing about being on a journey to change your lifestyle, as opposed to a crash diet, is that you have the rest of your life to get it right. So my best and biggest piece of advice to you, if you have said ‘f**k it’ even just for a day, is this…

Forgive yourself! Stop beating yourself up, and leave it in the past. Your journey is larger than the pack of Haribo that you accidentally inhaled on the way to work, or the KFC you indulged in after a night out on the town, so put it behind you and move on. Remember that you are your biggest critic, so if you stop criticising yourself then the pressure is cut in half! It’s not healthy to associate food with negative feelings, no matter what that food is, so just as you should make an effort not to allow emotional feelings to make you eat unhealthily, you should equally not allow the fact that you’ve eaten ‘bad’ food to make you feel bad about yourself! Don’t punish yourself by going further and further off plan…that’s not going to help anyone, especially not you. 

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If you’re struggling or need advice please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below, I’ll always help where I can. As I always say, this blog is the story of my journey and the food that I eat on it, so the likelihood is that I’ve probably experienced similar feelings, and hopefully I can help in some way! Happy slimming gorgeous readers!


9 Comments

  • Julie

    08/08/2016 at 6:28 pm

    Ive been at slimming world for 2 years and only lost 1 and a half stone i need some setious help Any tips you can give me please
    1. Cliona

      09/08/2016 at 10:35 am

      Hi Julie, thank you so much for commenting. First of all, congratulations on your fantastic loss, you should never think of it as only one and a half stone! That's a huge amount of weight to lose, I know it can be really disheartening when you see other people losing loads and loads and your journey is slightly more scenic, but that doesn't make your journey any less incredible or any less worthwhile. I don't know how much weight you have to lose in total, but it may be that your body is closer to a healthy level and therefore loses less quickly. I have struggled a lot to lose since getting my three stone award, because my body is less unhealthy now. This might help, I wrote it the other day and it could help identify some little things you could change - https://basementbakehouse.com/2016/08/reasons-you-might-not-be-losing-weight-on-slimming-world/ :) Other than that, I think it's really important to remember that the plan is designed in a specific way and if we deviate from that it might well not work as well as it should. There are usually things that we do that compromise the effectiveness of the plan itself, so identifying those can be very helpful. Try writing everything you eat down (without fail!) for a week and then feel free to share that with me and I might be able to help. Do you attend a group? I find it very motivational to listen to everyone and you get so many helpful hints and tips at group. You might go to one already in which case you'll know that! If you do, what I know can often be very helpful is sitting in on the new member talk again, my consultant encourages that when we are struggling and I know lots of people find it very helpful! I hope I've given you some useful tips, but let me know if there's anything specifically that you're struggling with :) x
  • Lucy

    07/05/2017 at 11:45 am

    Hi Cliona, this was such an encouraging article thank you. Ive been doing SW for a few weeks and although I'm not thinking of packing it in, I do wonder if I can maintain this long enough to lose half my body weight (eek) and also can I do it for the rest of my life? I think I'm having a wobbly moment. I just ate half a brownie thinking it was about 5 syns, then found out it was 10.5! Maybe I just have to accept brownies can't be 'normal' food anymore! Grarg. Anyway thanks again for the article it did help me get things in perspective a bit. ??
    1. Cliona

      07/05/2017 at 11:58 pm

      Hi Lucy, I'm so pleased you found this useful! Remember slow and steady wins the race and you will get there in the end if you just stick with it! We all have wobbly moments but it's how we deal with them that sets success apart. I've got a few brownie recipes on here, as well as some other sweet treats, which might help! Good luck on your journey!
      1. Lucy

        08/05/2017 at 11:50 am

        Hiya, thanks so much for the encouragement. ? I will def look up those brownie recipes - I can't go without brownies forever! X
  • Cassie

    27/04/2018 at 7:57 pm

    Hi Cliona, Thank you for sharing your experience I was 4lbs from target (3stone 4lbs loss) and after gaining 2.5lbs last week I am ready to give up. I've been doing this for over 90 weeks. I lost weight to get married then became pregnant with my gorgeous boy and then have lost the above weight. My husband and I are fussy eaters so our menu is quite limited and I am fed up of making everything from scratch. I have lost the ability to say no to bad foods too. My colleague asked what I'm going to do when I get pregnant again and I don't know if it's psychologically made me give in. I keep going to group but keep wanting to give up. X
    1. Cliona

      23/05/2018 at 10:56 am

      HI Cassie, sorry for taking so long to get back to you! I'm really glad you found this post useful. I totally sympathise with you, I make a lot of bad food choices too and find it incredibly difficult to say no to bad food! You can do it, I'm sure of it! Don't get put off by what might happen in the future and focus on your here and now, that way you can take one day at a time for your weight loss. In terms of making everything from scratch, have you thought about making a big batch of certain foods that can be combined quickly and easily together to make different meals? For example, rice, chicken, veggies etc... all meal prepped and ready to cook up quickly together?
  • Sally

    01/09/2018 at 9:03 pm

    Hi cliona Read your blog all about wait loss and rheynwaynot forgive yourself, all my clothes are so tight at the moment and although I just want to get intonmymslimmingworld again but just really can't t get motivated, I have asked for your menu a couple of times but nothing has come through. I feel really in happy so any encouragement will help soo much, can't seem to get myself back to a class and seem to tell myself I can do it on my own but then I don't,,,,,HELP
    1. Cliona

      03/09/2018 at 10:12 am

      Hi Sally, thanks for reaching out! I can tell you now that I totally relate to what you're saying! I've struggled for some time with my motivation and it sucks big time....but trust me you can do it! Remember that you are worth so much more than feeling awful about yourself or your decisions and you deserve to feel positive and happy. Feeling happy should not come from your weight, but what will make all the difference is feeling in control. The minute you give yourself back control of your life you will automatically start to feel more powerful and that in turn will help you stick to plan and the weight loss will follow. Here is the link to my meal plan: https://basementbakehouse.com/2017/12/seven-day-slimming-world-meal-plan-3/ If you don't want to go back to class, be your own support instead. Schedule in your weekly weigh and follow it up with an hour of meal planning, recipe inspiration and self motivation. Carving out an hour or so to focus on you and be positive about your weight loss journey will be the first step in getting yourself back on track! Good luck!

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