What Happened When I Took A Diet Break (And Why I Decided I Needed One)

A diet break. Dun dun dun!

Is there anything more terrifying to a professional dieter than the thought of taking a diet break? There goes my progress. I’ve failed yet again. Here comes the binge! These are all thoughts that will flash through your brain as you contemplate taking a break from weight loss for a while.

Perhaps it’s because when you think of “diet” you think of having foods be off limits and being hungry. At least that’s what dieting USED to mean to me. Trust me, I get it! Up until recently, half my life was spent on diets I despised. That didn’t stop me from giving them the ol’ college try, though. However, each time I was on a restrictive diet for more than a month or two, I would start to feel like I desperately needed a break. I was miserable and couldn’t possibly continue.

It was always obvious to me that I needed to stop back then because my unhappiness was real.

Each time I stopped, though, I’d gain about 7 pounds. Then I’d see that 7 pound gain and reluctantly force myself on a diet again. I knew if I didn’t restart the dreaded diet, I’d quickly see a 10-15 pound gain. Or worse yet, gain ALL of it back in no time! It was an unenjoyable process. It was quite the cycle and why the first 45 pounds I lost took an epic 4.5 years to lose!

Despite being acutely aware of when I needed a break back then, I always hated taking a break because I KNEW I would be gaining weight during it. The deprivation I felt during a diet always led to eating like mad when I stopped for even a day or two.

So How Did I End Up On A Diet Break This time?

My weight loss had been stalling for a month or two. It mainly stalled because of days here or there where I had eating free-for-alls. Most of these days of over-the-top eating had absolutely nothing to do with feeling deprived or restricted on my current diet, but everything to do with reverting back to my old habits when it came to handling stress.

This was obviously a problem with my handling of stress…not a particular diet. That’s why it came as a surprise to me when someone suggested I take a diet break this go around. I was surprised because I wasn’t miserable (like I always used to be on a diet), and I was only eating foods I love (like I used to never do on a diet).

sidenote: why I was so stressed

These last 5 weeks have been a challenge. Right before I launched my “Mom’s Challenge” and “Mom’s Kids” weight loss support group, there were a lot of things I had to learn in order to create and sell it. That was all super overwhelming, but wasn’t even the worst part.

*Update 3/25/21 – I now have a physical weight loss planner for sale!!! Check it Out!

The worst part was suddenly being filled with all kinds of self doubt in my abilities. Who are you to help people? Is this going to create unhealthy habits in people by making them track so much? You aren’t a nutritionist, what are you doing?

Questions like these were playing on repeat in my brain. I don’t know why. I was just tearing myself to pieces, day in and day out. You haven’t done anything special. This won’t work. It was just a lucky break that you lost weight. You can’t help anyone.

I completely fell apart, doubting myself, my accomplishments, and what I’m capable of. It wasn’t pretty. Tack on the rest of my typical, busy, overwhelming days of trying to do it all – fitness fiend, mom, wife, teacher, housekeeper, chef, friend – I was barely making it.

It’s hard to lose weight.

Weight loss is hard when your life is running smoothly. Add any amount of stress to it and it only gets harder. Top off the stress with some anxiety, and, oh boy, you’ve got yourself Mission: Impossible. Weight loss takes a lot of effort, focus, and drive to continuously overcome bad habits, again and again, day after day.

I generally avoid reverting to stress eating these days, but it still takes a lot of effort! This past month was just a perfect storm of self doubt, stress, and negative thinking. It was tough on me and losing weight went to the back burner.

I quit posting my weight graph on social media.

Having my weight bouncing around or staying stagnant while I was dealing with all this negative self-talk and body-image stuff was starting to wear me out. I used to post my weight graph publicly to Instagram, and I felt like I needed to explain my weight and myself each day it remained the same or – GASP! – increased.

I didn’t have the energy for that on top of all the energy I was spending inside my head and doing the work for my planner and support group. Weighing myself, logging my weight, posting my weight, and explaining my weight and how I felt about it was utterly overwhelming. I recognized this, and stopped posting it. One less thing to deal with while I coped with my emotions and worked on surviving the season I was in.

Update: I quit social media all together. You can read about that change here, and follow me on Patreon instead!

The sad part of the story

My self-doubt started to affect me BEYOND creating and launching my planner and support group. I started letting it get in my head about my own weight loss progress, and where “I should be by now.” I felt like I had nothing to offer because looking at my physical self and personal weight loss struggles, I just couldn’t see how I had any value to add to anyone’s weight loss journey. I was also taking a lot of brutal “after” photos, ripping my body to shreds looking at each and every one of them. Not the healthiest choice when your body image is already at a low.

Overall, I’ve been a mess over here! Instead of seeing the MASS progress I have made, and feeling proud of the effort I’ve made to achieve said progress, I was seeing only the things I still didn’t like about my body. I got frustrated, angry, and sad. I felt like a fraud. The scale was standing still, and my cellulite and belly fat staring back at me in the mirror made me think, “You have gotten nowhere. You aren’t someone who can help people. Quit. Hide. Go away.”

Man, this is sad just writing it all down!

So I took a break.

My diet break was 2 weeks long. Here’s what I did during it:

I only tracked some of the time. If I felt like I could handle it, I did it. If I didn’t want to mess with it, I didn’t do it. I probably tracked 50% of my days precisely over the last 2 weeks.

For one week of it I upped my calories to 2500. Even going to 3000 one day, 4000 another. I didn’t stress about the days I went higher. At this point I understand a couple of high calorie days don’t matter.

I only weighed when I felt like it. That meant I weighed about 4 times during the last 2 weeks.

I spent most of the time pondering what happened. Why was I struggling? Where was my stress coming from? What did I need to do about it?

When I felt good and rested- and understood the root of my stalling weight, I returned to the weight loss world with some new boundaries to keep my stress under control and my mental health in check.

The happy part of the story

So that’s why I struggled these last five weeks, and what I did about it. Here is where this story gets less sad. Turns out the things I had been doing daily for 6 months had turned into habits. Solid, consistent, healthy habits. They are so solid, in fact, that when my old unhealthy habits popped up for a day or two, they didn’t have the power to crumble my new, healthy ones. The good, healthy habits were strong and rooted, and they won!

Despite all the craziness going on in both my brain and day-to-day life, my daily workouts and rhythm of eating that kept me within my calorie goal kept happening. These good habits stepped up and carried me through as I focused on simply surviving my tough mental season. Even though there was a week or two of unlogged meals and weights, I continued to do what I had always done: eat the foods in moderation and workout.

And Where was your weight at the end of this break?

Today I weighed 148.8, which means I’m where I was before my mental game went to crap! I basically gained NOTHING despite not logging 100%, not weighing, and having a lot of emotions through most of the month. This is a major victory and milestone in my life.

You know what I learned through all this mess? I am not a fraud, I do have something to offer, I have changed, and I’m not going anywhere. This method of weight loss works for long-term success. Honestly, I’m overwhelmed with excitement and pride.

Never before in my weight loss history has this happened on a diet break. Never before have I taken a break and not gained 5-10 pounds until desperately and reluctantly starting back up again. This time is so. much. different.

Now I’m on the other side of the stress and feeling better.

Mom’s Kids is going great, better and better everyday, and the planner is helping people! I have figured out how to be patient and self-loving again. I am MORE than excited to begin losing weight again, I am energized by the idea, and I’m looking forward to the process without an ounce of dread. I’ve never been in this place before, and I learned a lot through my struggles this month.

If you need support with your weight loss journey, join Mom’s Kids. It is run by someone who understands how you feel 100% – ME. Hope to see you there.

That about sums it up

As difficult as these last five weeks were, I’m thankful they happened. I learned more about my strengths, and I no longer fear my old weaknesses. I’m back to believing in myself, and I know I will make a difference in so many people’s lives. If this sounds like somewhere you’d like to be in your own weight loss journey, join me. I’ll get you started off in the right direction and support you along the way. It feels awesome to finally be on the other side of dieting!

Follow me on Patreon, as I continue on this never ending weight loss and fitness journey.