Scale finally started going back down today Down 3lbs to 144.4. Hopefully I can be back to last weeks weigh in weight of 143.2 by Friday! Does anyone else have these crazy fluctuations?? I mean, are you guys able to put on 7lbs over night and lose 3-5lbs of water over night? It just seems kind of extreme.

So I had an epiphany last night. I realized that cheat meals/days do not work for me. They work so well for lots of people so I tried incorporating them, but I think they really don't work for me. My cheat meal turns into cheat day turns into cheat weekend, turns into cheat week ect. I've decided to instead allow myself small treats throughout the week instead of going nuts on the weekend like I've been doing. I'm optimistic that this will help with the water weight fluctuations as well as speed up my losses

What about you guys? Do cheat meals, days ect work for you?

Hi everyone! I've been so poofy, though I'm not going to lie...part of it is me lacking the motivation to exercise, despite the eating going right. Typically when I disappear like that, it's me avoiding the reality or chore of losing weight, hahaha! Silly silly.

Anyway, my post-Superbowl-Sunday weigh-in on Monday FINALLY brought me out of the 150s, so cheers to that! Although prior to Superbowl, I was actually in the 147s! Hahaha. Yah for 2lbs of water retention and yolo day meals!

Dottington ~ I can't imagine what it'd be like to have such an extreme fluctuation in weight, especially since I weigh-in daily! It'd probably scare me half to death! I'm glad that you realized that the cheat treats help you more than cheat meals. I'm kind of the opposite in a sense that if I give myself one day to look forward to that week, I can be good throughout the week...however, if I were to give myself something small daily, that something small would increase to something bigger and then becomes borderline binge. It's really interesting to see how differently everyone's minds work, but hey, whatever works right?

Atarimae-I weigh daily too and putting it all into a daily weigh-in list helps me remember it will go down and notice patterns so I don't fall into despair over the crazy fluctuations. That's so interesting! Yeah I think it really is interesting how the cheat meal/day works for some but others like me go into a tailspin of overeating and the same is true for little rewards each day with some people Great job getting solidly out of the 50s!

So the little treats each day is working really well! Tuesday I had a fancy coffee, yesterday I had some meringue cookies, and today I had a tbsp of peanut butter in my smoothie. I'm not going overboard at all, really the treats are all about 100 calories when I think about it! And I just cut back a little on dressing in my salad and that makes up for it calorie wise I'm so glad this is working and what's also great is I'm not obsessing about what my cheat day will be! I would seriously obsess and plan and get anxious thinking about it. But now its no bother!

More good news-the scale is back down to 143.8! I'm really hoping it at least stays there tomorrow or drops a bit more for my official weigh in.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Hi everyone, 152 this week Hope everyone has a good week!

lulubelle-Great work!

Weight holding steady at 143.8. From charting my daily weigh-ins I notice that Thursday and Friday are usually the same. My weekly drop seems to come Wed or Thursday. Its interesting. Little treats still working well. I'm not sure what little treat I will have today though....I'm heading to LA tonight to spend the weekend with my bf(which I'm sooo happy about!) and I'm not sure what we'll do for dinner. I won't get there till close to 9....so we might not go out to eat. I've left myself 600 calories for the day though just in case I need a pick me up treat from starbucks or we go out

Hope you ladies have a great weekend!

So last night i drove straight after work to LA to my bf's So happy to be here! We went out to dinner at one of my fav cheap vegan places. I hadn't eaten that much all day so I decided to try the Rad Nar instead of my go-to yellow curry. Rad Nar is rice noodles, garlic, and broccoli in a gravy. Its healthier then the other Thai noodle dishes I like and less calories, but still has a comforty-food feel. Well, my bf got noodles too and neither of ours were very good. It was disappointing because everything else we've tried there is so good! Oh well I only ate about half of mine and got the rest to go. Then I was craving something sweet so got a fancy chocolate bar and had a few squares and was satisfied. Really, the daily treat thing is still going well Yesterday was still a little higher though, but only over by 18 calories(which I'm really not sweating haha).
Today I made us breakfast. Made my bf a giant pile of mexican inspired goodness-corn tortillas layered with cheese, black beans in a spicy tomato sauce I made, avocado, eggs, and smoky salsa. For myself I had a corn tortilla with goat cheese, two eggs, some avocado, black beans, and salsa. I'm soooo full. I'm not used to eating a big breakfast anymore. I actually feel kind of gross and missed my regular morning smoothie :/
I doubt I'll be hungry again before dinner. I will probably make dinner for us tonight(I'm thinking potato lasagna or curry). Tomorrow we're going into downtown to explore and try out this gluten free vegan restaurant. I'm going to force my bf up early to go hiking also bc I need to do it tomorrow or I'll miss my goal for the pyramid challenge!

Hey guys! How was everyone's weekend??!!

My weekend was awesome, it was so nice to get away and visit my bf in LA. The small treats worked too except for Sunday night. During the day we went and explored around downtown, going to MOCA, eating at and incredible gluten free vegan place for lunch, then to the fashion district where I got a new blouse and a pair of shoes. It was so much fun and we were really active overall this weekend. But yeah last night I was having intense cravings for pizza and cake
I tried ignoring it, made us a healthy dinner of gluten free pasta with lots of veggies and homemade creamy tomato vegan sauce but still it wasn't leaving. I ended up eating a bunch of chocolate and was about to just go all out and eat everything in sight but managed to stop myself. I realized eating wasn't making me feel better and nothing was going to satisfy my cravings anyways. I was very proud of myself for catching myself before I went too nuts with eating. So yeah Friday and Sat were good with cals from 1600-1700 then Sunday was up to 2200. But really, its not that bad because we really were very active, its lower then normal, and I managed to stop myself from a crazy binge.

The only thing that sucks is I forgot to bring my scale, so I'm feeling anxious about that I hope my weigh-in tomorrow morning isn't too depressing!
Hope everyone has a great week!

Hiya, Dottington! So sorry, I haven't been very much of a chatter bug...mostly just logging in, viewing a few threads, then logging out. Yikes! Great job on controlling the binge though! Your Mexican style breakfast from the previous post...oh my, there goes my craving radar!

Sooo, as every other weekend for me goes, this one was another family dinner-filled weekend that revolved around curry and white rice, then Krispy Kreme donuts. Yep, my yolo day was on Saturday this time though, so I had three small pieces of a donut as well as like...an almost binge-worthy amount of cookies! Eh, it's quite alright I guess, since the next day, the scale had only went up 0.2lbs. It made me wonder if the whole calorie cycling thing (even on bad cals) really did affect me at all!

Yesterday was back to normal...sort of. Sandwich for lunch, half a mug of black bean soup for a snack, chili frank, no rice for dinner. It's kind of nice that I can still eat the foods that are deemed bad, because I watch sugar intake versus calories (most of the time!). Although I guess it can get frustrating when people don't realize I'm restricting what I eat and then it makes me look like the fatty!

Regardless, scale is down to 147.0! So that is my weigh-in for the week. Granted, it is on a different scale - one that I had always assumed weighs less than expected. For that reason, instead of feeling like it's a cheat number, I'll use it as motivation to prove to myself next, week on my scale, that it was accurate after all! Happy Monday everyone! Off to take my grandma on some errands. Though...we're having lunch after. I might have to give into some not-as-good choices, depending on where we go!

Atarimae Awesome job getting down to 147! I feel ya on the scale thing though, I can only trust my own also, but I think using this number is great motivation like you said to keep you in check You're going to fly through these 40s!

So had a good Monday and Wed. Rehearsed with the orchestra for my concert on Monday and it went very well. Have another rehearsal tomorrow. I've been good with eating and even managed to get in a little exercise today at lunch Got in 8000 steps today which is really good for me. Slowly I'm upping my steps. The little treats thing is still working really well and I haven't been bingey at all lately since Sunday. I'm so excited bc my treat tomorrow is going to be starbucks Scale was up to 145 today, but I expected as much from extra sodium over the weekend and the almost binge on Sunday. But tonight I was back down to 144(don't you just love when your weight drops during the day? Always makes me feel good) and I'm REALLY hoping to see 142 this week. Gah then I'll only be a couple lbs away from the 30s

Hope everyone has an awesome Wed!

dehtripper-How are you doing? Hope everything is going well with you this week Atarimae!

Anyways really nervous for my weigh in tomorrow. I've been soooo good. Like today, I was so careful and really pushed through to lower my calories and I just really want to see 142 so bad I know I shouldn't care/worry about the scale and all that jazz but really, I feel like I've been working so hard and would like a little bit of confirmation from the scale to keep me motivated and trusting in this plan.

Tomorrow I'm going to see my mom and hang with her since its been a while(I live an hour away and haven't been home in almost 2 months). We're going to go out to eat so I will probably not do breakfast or lunch depending on when we go to make up for the extra cals. We're probably going to this health food type place with vegan and gluten free options that looks really good and they have a vegan date shake which I'm dying to try. Date shakes are so good and a total desert staple so I've missed being able to get them

We'll probably do some walking around downtown Palm Springs and maybe do a little shopping. I really need to find a pair of jeans haha I feel like this happens every few months or so and I always come on here and complain but seriously…why are pants so f-ing hard to shop for?! I only have one pair of pants that fits and they're a size 6. I have a pair of jeans that are a size 11 and just comical at this point and another that are a size 8 and baggy but still mostly wearable after I shrink them in the wash but become baggy through out the day(hate that). So yeah, I'm going to attempt to buy a pair of jeans this weekend! Wish me luck bc I have been half heartedly looking for a few weeks with zero luck

Gosh I was so good today in preparation for my weigh in tomorrow I didn't even have a treat! haha

Dang it, up 1/2 lb, 152.5 this week!

Lulubelle-Don't worry about the half pound too much, most likely just water weight. Are you following any specific type of diet or plan?

Happy Valentines Day Everyone! Scale put me at 143.0 which I'm ok with! Still a loss over-all and a new all time low for me Have a great weekend!

Hey ladies! I've been Mia! Had a rough week, but I've been mostly on-track the last few days. Valentine's Day... Blah! I'm a teacher, and while it's so sweet that my students shower me with chocolate boxes, now I have to resist temptation! I skipped breakfast today in preparation of having a v-day treat this afternoon... I had a big ol' cupcake and it was worth it.

This coming week I'm going to try a new strategy.... I've read a bit about the 5-2 (or Fast Diet). Two non-consecutive low calorie (fast) days a week, two much higher calorie days (most likely the weekend for me), then the other 3 days will be my usual 1300 ish days. From what I've read, the two fasting days should be around 500 calories, but I would probably bump it up to 800 since I exercise, then my high calorie days would be 1800-2000. In theory, the weekly calories should all balance out. I have no problem staying on plan during the work week, but the weekend comes and I want to eat out and have a drink at dinner! We'll see how this little science experiment works.

Thanks Dottington , I am doing low carb. Couldn't resist and got on the scale today and was happy to see 151

OhThePlaces-I've seen some people have great success on the 5-2 diet I know it wouldn't work for me personally, but I wish you the best of luck! Keep us posted on how it goes

Lulubelle-Awesome Knew it was just some water weight Do you like low carb? What's your carb target each day?

Tomorrow's the concert! Going to wake up early-ish to go on a quick run(good to get the adrenaline out!) then do beauty stuff(bath, mask, nails ect) then hair and makeup. Then to dress rehearsal then come home, eat a smallish healthy protein rich dinner, then put on the dress, touch up make up, and head to the green room to wait for my turn! I love getting this stuff all planned out so I know exactly what I'm doing at any given time.

I had a wonderful Valentine's Day. First went out to Palm Springs to visit my mom and I got dressed up for fun because hey, why not? (including a pic) We went out to lunch at this amazing health type place with tons of vegan and gluten free options. We both got the gluten free blueberry pancakes and vegan date shakes. Yum! And then we went to Target bc I was determined to find some jeans. The only pair of blue jeans I have are a size 11 And yeah, I've finally accepted that I can't wear them anymore haha So I checked out the clearance and found a pair of size 4s. I was like "Yeah probably won't fit at all but will be interesting to see how far away from that I am", then a pair of 7s which again I was pretty sure wouldn't fit at all. Then a size 6 and size 8 that weren't on sale. I was pretty sure I'd end up with the 8s since I always seem to be bigger in jeans(stupid butt). Also grabbed a medium shirt, 2 junior small dresses, a women's small dress, and a women's small jumpsuit. The two junior dresses fit really well, but I didn't like one of them. The women's though were shockingly too big. Like ridiculous! I was so sad bc the jumpsuit was so cute, but just comical looking on And the medium shirt….yeah it came down to my knees! I know it was supposed to be longer and loose for the style but not to the point where it comes past your knees!
For the pants I was pleasantly surprised that the 6s fit, but they were cut kind of funny and looked a little like mom jeans. So then for a laugh I tried on the 4s and….THEY FIT! ASLKJA;SLDFJ!!!! Haha I couldn't believe it! Its so awesome to go shopping and have almost everything be too big and be able to fit into smaller sizes then you think you are! It was awesome
My bf came later in the evening and brought me a beautiful bouquet of red roses and a super pretty card he wrote a romantic note in. Then he took me out to BJs which was awesome. I tried this amazing berry cider that was so good. Also had some wine and yeah calories were wayyy over but it was a special occasion so I'm not sweating it. Yesterday calories were a bit high too, but it was a weird day, I did extra exercise, and they still were only at maintenance anyways. But today I'm up 3lbs. Water intake hasn't been good. So I'm back to normal today, had my smoothie, downing the water, and going on a hike

How was everyone else's Valentines day? Are you guys having a good weekend? Anyone struggling a little like me because of the holiday?