MamaWhitty: I know it can be so frustrating when you are following all the rules and it doesn't seem to be working, but it sounds like you're just on a plateau and will be due for a whoosh in the near future if you can just motivate yourself to keep it up. Are you stressed? Have you been sleeping enough? I've noticed that those things can sometimes slow me down even if i'm sticking to my diet plan. I knew someone who was doing a really good job for a month or so and didn't know why it wasn't working, and then she had a little vacation from the stress of work and was able to get adequate sleep and dropped a bunch all at once. Make sure that you have those bases covered!!
Koconut: Congratulations about making it through a whole night out without alcohol! If you're anything like me, that's a serious accomplishment! Let us know how the juice cleanse goes-- I did that last week after the fouth of july weekend and it really helped me flush out all the water weight quickly. I only did it for one day but I did notice that I felt very energized by the end of the day, probably from staying so hydrated.
CherryChan: Don't worry, we all have weekends where we break bad and carboload-- it's a natural part of the diet cycle! The only thing that will matter in the end is not how many carbs you ate, but that you dusted yourself off and climbed right back on the wagon. None of us can be perfect all the time, so don't be too hard on yourself.
Stimkovs: I used to live alone too, before my boyfriend moved in with me, and I had a really hard time with grocery shopping and dieting. One thing I started doing was only keeping bare essentials around that required me to cook them in order for them to be edible (i.e. eggs), plus maybe some fruit or something. That way I had to go through the extra step of cooking it before I could eat it, and that made me really consider whether I was actually hungry. For snacks and everything else, I wouldn't keep it in my apartment so that if I wanted something like that, I would have to walk to the grocery store (i live in NYC) and go get it each time. Let me tell you, that really helped me cut back! It gives you extra time to think about whether you really want something instead of the instant gratification of being able to put the food in your mouth and be done with it. Plus it had the added bonus of saving me money, because i realized that when I lived alone and did big grocery trips, I often didn't have time to finish allt he perishable things I'd purchased anyway, so they would go bad and be wasted. Just some advice from a fellow solitary dwelling dieter!
Good luck this week everybody! I've been on a serious plateau but am desperately hoping for a woosh this week. I've had a hard time staying totally OP but I'm determined to at least lose something by Thurs! Wish me luck...