i mean it in a nice way, treat yo self. All the hard work you put in and the progress youve made, hope youre having at least a refeed day or cheat meal to give yourself a break. Once every two weeks or something like that if youve already reached your goals. Gotta live a little and enjoy this one life. Dont let the path burn you out. Hope this helps.
3.5 years of IF. 2 years of loss and 1.5 at maintenance. It never felt like that because I never let it feel like that. Too many people treat IF as just another quick way to lose weight. So they push far too hard, worry far too much, and don’t focus on the things that will really make a long term difference. They are worried about short term goals when the only thing that matters is long term, sustainable changes. I didn’t even have a scale for the first year of doing it so I didn’t know my start weight and didn’t weight myself until I saw some weight loss. I never actually counted calories and still don’t 3.5 years later. Sure it took me 2 years to lose that 70 pounds but I did it in a way that was sustainable and I can do without really any effort. Now that I am maintenance I hardly even think about it. It is just a natural balance that I feel. I have only been on a scale in the last 3 months a couple times for example. I really only use the scale when I am training hard to make sure I don’t lose too much.
So yes it is your destiny. You can make a new life that is sustainable or you can keep doing what you have always have one way or the other. Finding that balance is key and will make you not feel like you are constantly fighting yourself. The reason it feels that way is you haven’t found that balance. Most people are replacing one unsustainable way of living with another. So they eat whatever they want and then realise they have a beach vacation so they drop 20 or 30 leading up to that. So they gain, then lose over and over. But what happens is you age. And each time you do that it becomes a little harder. Middle age, and the wall you hit, is not age but what happens when you don’t find that balance. When you were 20 your youth saved you. But it won’t when you are 40. So when you say it wasn’t like that when you were young well that’s likely just because like most you were getting away with living improperly because of your age.
So you can look at this as a way to lose weight. Or you can look at it as a way to change your relationship with food. If you do that then the struggle will end and everything becomes so much easier.