BodyBuilding Discipline: How the Hell do you REFOCUS?

[saint sinner x]

After a long absence from eating healthy and so on, how the hell do you refocus or get back into the game? Seriously man, seems like everyday is a thousdand years, eating super clean ****, depriving of sugar and so on, **** bodybuilding diet, and changing a mindset takes hard work, how the hell do you all do it? Don't think I'm trolling because of my before and after display pic, everyone goes through **** in life you know? I've demonstrated willpower before, I just want to know how I can regain the power I've lost, hence I'm a former obese and former binge eater, seems like one challenge ends and a new one begins. Bodybuilding.com truly needs a psychology section for the sport and lifestyle, too much emphasize on other bull**** is dwelled in, and lets face the facts, your body changes when your mind chooses to....

[calislug]

I totally know what you are going through. I go home from school to visit my parents and eat horrible for a week, then need to go back to school and eat clean.

Basically I pick one day where I am going to do a 360 (go from dirty to clean). Also, plan your meals for your entire day, calories and all, so you will not go off of it. It also helps me to pre-plan something special for my cheat meal on the weekend. It can be more extravagant than usual so you will stick to your diet... something like a pint of icecream.

Just some things I do. I go back and forth every 10 weeks or so. It helps to go to the gym as well. Even if you don't do much. Even putting a little effort in at the gym creates a little angel above your shoulder that reminds you that you want to look good and prevents you from snacking or going off of your diet.

[waelkd]

u just keep on trying

[blkbelt42]

Originally Posted by calislug

I totally know what you are going through. I go home from school to visit my parents and eat horrible for a week, then need to go back to school and eat clean.

Basically I pick one day where I am going to do a 360 (go from dirty to clean). Also, plan your meals for your entire day, calories and all, so you will not go off of it. It also helps me to pre-plan something special for my cheat meal on the weekend. It can be more extravagant than usual so you will stick to your diet... something like a pint of icecream.

Just some things I do. I go back and forth every 10 weeks or so. It helps to go to the gym as well. Even if you don't do much. Even putting a little effort in at the gym creates a little angel above your shoulder that reminds you that you want to look good and prevents you from snacking or going off of your diet.

That's the best/only way....You need to plan that
**** out and have it all laid out. Guessing is whats
going to get you every time. Write it out and stick
to what you've written for the first week or 2 and
DON'T variate from the list!! Good Luck

[Ases]

Planning and counting calories is like 90% of the work IMO. After that, it's just easy to follow your diet and just eat what you wrote down.

75% of the times my diet fails is because I start to improvise and deviate from my plan.

[SupahStarr]

Yeah, as said above..planning and thinking ahead makes a difference in my book. But some people can get away without all the work. Just be consistant.

[hk_boarder]

Well I think for some people after a while some of the cheat items seem to be not so appetizing. For example I know for me and some of my friends after not drinking any soda for maybe a year or so the stuff does not attract me anymore. It's just thick syrup stuff.

As for the other good stuff, I think recipes and learning to cook decently helps a lot. I see a lot of my friends eat brown rice, broccoli, and a over-cooked dry chicken breast with salt/pepper multiple times a day. And they wonder why they get tired of eating clean. There are ways to make food taste GOOD, and still have it fit into your macros.

Even when I go home to visit my parents, I'll try to fit my mother's cooking into my diet, but if it doesn't fit I'll cook my own food. (Although she absolutely hates this)

[double gonad]

That's a tough question man, and it really depends on your individual psychological makeup. Take smoking as an example. Some people just decide to quit, put down the pack of smokes and never go back. Other people need to wean themselves off with patches, gum, etc.

There are certainly some good ideas already posted, and one might work for you. Another approach would be to get to your desired endpoint gradually. Being that you are a "former" binge eater, it might be easier and more sustainable if you substitute one bad thing for one good thing at a time. Once you've come to live with that substitution, move on to the next. Over time, you'll develop healthy habits that would probably be more likely to stick. Given your binge eating comment, I doubt switching cold turkey would be very successful for you - at least long term.

And there's nothing wrong with eating sugar, just don't eat too much of it. Planning your meals or at least tracking what you eat will definitely help with this but you don't need to start off doing it. If you start by substituting one bad thing (bad is subjective - so you decide what that is) with one good thing, you'll be on the right track. Get used to it for a while and when you're comfortable with the switch, move on to something else. When you're back in the groove, you can start tracking and planning. That might not be right away and that's fine - there's no rush.

Also, don't forget that you're 22 - that's young. You've got a lot of years in front of you so no need to rush or make yourself feel rushed. If it takes you a year or two to get to your desired endpoint, that's fine. If taking that long means that you will have made a permanent lifestyle change, then you'll be healthy and fit at 25 and when you're 35 you'll be able to look back and smile. Go slow and take it easy on yourself - enjoy it.

[tgabe213]

If you don't plan, you plan to fail

[lth]

Good thread bro.....i think we've all been there. When it happens, the burnout stage you speak of.....its simple. You need a break. I have taken as long as a month off from the gym after dieting....yeah you may lose some gains, you may not.....but the long term affects of taking that break will definitely outweight that short term effect. After that break, i always feel more motivated than ever and ready to hit it hard as hell again. Simple solution bro. Just take a break...maybe some light light workouts or cardio here and there but nothing too strenuous imo.

[Joe Go]

I have many motivators:
-Set short and long term goals for yourself. The goals must be a driving force. Not something you make up over night. Think about them before you set them.

-Take progress pictures so you can see the small changes.

-Ask for help from the man above often.

-Wake up and be happy for yourself every time you hit your daily goals.

-Listen to music that takes you to positive areas in your life.

-Be the driving force in your family.

-LISTEN to other peoples positive remarks.

-Live clean and respect others.

-Have fun with things. Never think it's hard work. It's more of a pleasure to feel great.

-Take control of the food. Don't let it control you. Beat the beast and advance.

[Wtf?]

I'd like to know the answer to this too. I go through cycles of eating clean to eating ****.

[Zody]

Good thread. Great stuff guys

[bdurr]

Originally Posted by saint sinner x

After a long absence from eating healthy and so on, how the hell do you refocus or get back into the game? Seriously man, seems like everyday is a thousdand years, eating super clean ****, depriving of sugar and so on, **** bodybuilding diet, and changing a mindset takes hard work, how the hell do you all do it? Don't think I'm trolling because of my before and after display pic, everyone goes through **** in life you know? I've demonstrated willpower before, I just want to know how I can regain the power I've lost, hence I'm a former obese and former binge eater, seems like one challenge ends and a new one begins. Bodybuilding.com truly needs a psychology section for the sport and lifestyle, too much emphasize on other bull**** is dwelled in, and lets face the facts, your body changes when your mind chooses to....

if you fall get up and try it again.


i know you don't want song quotes but that is all there is to it. planning your meals, rewarding yourself and all this other b.s. we do to make ourselves happy is just crap.

at the end of the day you have to get up and try again.

its never easy. and never will be no matter how great your results are.

hard work pays off you get what you put in.

k im thru quoting Santana.

[burgerboy]

Try to remember things aren't always black or white / perfectly clean or unclean.
There's gray area where most of us fall into, which is recreational weight training or simply vanity.

There are tons of little things people mention, but as long as you get the bigger picture somewhat right, you are on your way.

#1: food lists & learn to prep 2 or 3 basic meals(you can add more later)

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=4464953 -- Scivation food list+
http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes...ill-53086.aspx -- easy recipes for poor people

#2: Use Scivation's routine or lyle bulk routine. Not much reading, just do it.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=3730891 -- Scivation routine
http://www.clutchfitness.com/forums/...ead.php?t=5978 -- lyle's bulk routine

[rawlife]

You get information. Part of your motivation is going to lie in the reality of your past. You know what it looks like and you know exactly how to get back there-do exactly as your doing now. Sometimes, when I feel particularly unmotivated, I stop training and see how that feels, how my body responds, how I look..etc-I get information. Then I train for a while and see how that feels, how it looks...etc. We learn our way into staying motived; it's not just a kick in the ass, it's a grind.