[Janie Canuck]

...that I have had to log on to adjust my ticker...UPWARDS!! I admit that I considered just leaving it, and working to get back to where I was, but then realized that the whole point of coming here is honesty, accountability, and responsibility. So even though I cringed, I made the adjustment.

My birthday was last week, and I confess to using that as an excuse to go off my program for pretty much the entire week. Not that it was all directly birthday-related... like I said, it was just an excuse, and a flimsy one at that. A day or 2 of that was even kind of bingey, though blessedly, the size/extent of my binge behaviour is nothing compared to what it used to be. It was less about how much I ate, and more about my state of mind when I ate it - I'm sure plenty here know what I mean.

As of this morning, I appear to have gained a whopping 5 pounds. Yes, I was "bad", but I can't help but feel that a 5 pound gain is way out of proportion to what I did. But some of that initial loss occured when I was sick with a nasty virus, so I guess sick-weight-loss is probably more precarious that that achieved more slowly. Kind of like crash-diet-weight-loss, I suppose.

So, I'm trying to think of it as a learning experience, let it go, and move forward from here. I got up and worked out on the elliptical this morning, so got the new week off on the right foot. Not much junk in the house right now, but lots of healthy foods, so I should be able to get back on track, now that the "festivities" (such as they were) are over.

[ChocoBroc]

You are forgiven. Nothing wrong with the occasional setback especially when you are celebrating something as special as your birthday.

[ariel27]

Cheer up! It's ok to put the ticker up now, because then you'll feel just that much better when you get to move it back down again.
If this happens to me I will do the "honest thing" too and move my ticker back up ... but I sure hope the next time we both move our tickers, it's in the downward direction!

[alinnell]

Janie~I'm sure a lot of that 5 pounds is due to water weight gain. Birthday celebrations can be alcohol and salt laden (well, mine were!!!). You'll be fine. Owning up to your mistake is the first step, getting back on plan is the second and it appears you've done both! Good luck!

[Bikini Dreader]

I just found out I went up rather than down this week too. I was sad at first but I'm not letting it bring me down. All this work will pay off and its never a completely downward path anyway. You'd think I'd read enough posts by now to figure that out, but I was liking the drop every week.

I'll just keep working hard and it'll pay off soon.

Good luck everyone.

[Goodbye Chubby]

I've read posts where people have different views on changing their tickers. I too struggled with the concept of honesty on this forum. I actually just mentioned this today in a post in another section. For me, moving my ticker in only one direction is like an affirmation that any weight I gain will come back off. However, to address the honesty issue, whenever I post something specifically regarding my weight, I always make a note in parenthesis that my ticker is not accurate at the time (it's not my intention to mislead anyone). This system personally has worked for me in the past when I've had slight fluctuations. Recently, I'm ashamed to admit that I had gained 15 lbs but I've lost about 10 of those and am continually getting closer to my ticker (I'm 4.5 lbs. away to be exact).

Janie, it sounds like you have a great outlook, and those 5 lbs. are only a little bump in the road; small setbacks are to be expected from time to time. I'm confident you'll do just fine in the long run.

[BlueToBlue]

Oh Janie, I did the same thing during my birthday week. We had a party with catered Indian food and ended up with tons leftover, so I continued to eat it all week. It was loaded with fat and oil (but tasted to good!) ; I hate to think how many calories I consumed. I'm not sure I gained 5 lbs, but I was already up anyway from the holidays (my b-day is the first week of Feb), and it definitely didn't help.

And sadly, almost any weight you lose when you are sick always comes right back when you are able to eat normally again. I had the stomach flu and couldn't keep anything down for about 24 hours. I literally lost 6 lbs overnight. But as soon as I could eat normally again, it all came back. I'm sure a lot of what I lost was just water, anyway. If you can eat while you are sick, it's a good idea to try to eat at least what you would on a low calorie day, so that you keep your metabolism up.

Just put that week behind you and I'm sure you will be back on track in no time.

[Doughnut]

I went on holiday to Italy at the beginning of February for a week. I put my ticker up 2lbs before I went (in anticipation) but still had to put if up again by another 3 lbs when I came back.

I put it up immediately because it was truthful but more importantly for me I had the satisfaction of putting it down again. It only took a week of being totally on plan to shift it - it was largely water weight.