Hi all!

I'm struggling to readjust to life in the UK, but my eating has been OK-ish. I went to visit friends at the weekend and we ate homemade bread, pancakes and drank lots of wine.I'm normally paleo/low carb so this morning I felt a bit bloated. I seem to be on track though now and feel better for it! I'll be staying on the paleo (+ yoghurt and odd white coffee) for the foreseeable future

Have a good week!

Hey everyone, I'm hanging in there. Met the (ex-)bf today for the first time since the breakup. Lots of sadness and eating and more sadness.

I haven't weighed but I know it won't be nice. Need to fix this. Setting a goal of 130 for Halloween, since I was 130 at Halloween last year.

Krampus - chin up! Is there any reason why you are seeing him so soon after the break up? I always find it easier to not see them for a few months afterwards so I can get used to life on my own etc. You've had so much going on recently, don't beat yourself up with the scale Hope you feel better soon!

Hi, all. Quiet time here in the chat.

Glad you're doing well with the eating, Claire. Hope you continue to adjust to being back in the UK.

Krampus, I agree with Claire that life's easier if you can establish a full separation before seeing an ex again. Not always possible though. Hang in there.

My eating's inching back into better. Must admit to being motivated by my ex, who's tweeting about getting back into the dating game. I don't mind, and it's about time, it's been almost a year since we broke up, but I still have some of that, "ooh, I want to be hot next time I see you" thing going on.

Well, I sort of did the breaking over the phone, and I think he rather wanted to see if he couldn't persuade me to change my mind. It is such a headache to think about - I feel so terrible about it because it was a completely one-sided decision, and I don't even know/think it was "final" so much as I just need to be on my own for a bit, maybe make reckless short-term dating decisions and whatnot to get that out of my system. Ugh!

Today has been a clean/healthy day for the first time in many days. I weighed 136 this morning which is not great but not unsalvageably horrid either I guess. Still thinking I'd like to shoot for 130 for Halloween.

claire Sorry to hear you're struggling with readjustment...I've been there for a while and it's still tough but has gotten better.

ann Motivation from wherever is good, right? Glad to hear eating has been going in the right direction. I always feel better if I eat well.

I am again 122.8lbs this morning, which was my weigh in last week. I guess that's good, there were a lot of heavy meals and binge drinking episodes throughout the week. Not a gain, I guess. I would really like to see that middle number be a 1, but I'm just not putting in the work since I look OK -- frustrating.

Boyfriend and I have tickets to SO many college football/pro football/hockey games... I have 4 games to go to in the next 2 weeks! I have not figured out how to tailgate in a healthy manner.

krampus - Sorry to hear that you're stressed out about things with your former beau -- but you did the right thing. If you're needing time to yourself to explore relationships with other people, then the absolute RIGHT thing to do is end the relationship you're in first instead of being unfaithful. There is nothing wrong with your feelings changing -- it's very human. It will get better!

ann71 - I would love to bump into my ex when I'm at goal and looking ridiculously hot. I would also love to kick him in the shin. Nothing wrong with using him as your motivating factor at all!

claire0412 - Pancakes and wine sounds pretty amazing, haha. Hope you find your groove soon! You can get back into a routine in no time.

Keep it up everyone!

Krampus, it's always hard breaking up, but I can just give you a little insight into what happened to me. I was with a guy for awhile, and things were fine, but I just didn't want to be part of a couple anymore. We broke up, and it was one-sided, and it was a really great decision at the time. Also, you should know, that I never once regretted the decision. I'm married now to someone who is absolutely beyond awesome that I wouldn't have met if I would have stayed in the other relationship. Nothing was particularly "wrong" with it, but it just wasn't where I wanted to be. I feel that you should always trust your gut, and if your gut said you need a time out from the relationship, you're doing the right thing.

Dorian, 122.8 is awesome! Sounds like you'll get to where you want to be soon!

Today I did around 9 miles (7 running, 2.5 with my puppies and husband) and felt pretty good. I ate a lot of junk the past couple of days though, and didn't work out, so... there's that. One step forward, one step back. I know why I don't lose quickly. I just can't keep my spoon out of the ice cream. Or fork out of the cake. Or hand out of the candy jar.

dorian, good luck figuring out healthy tailgating!

pinkrunner, woo! 7 miles running, that's great!

As for me, my food is much improved since about Wednesday. We'll see how I do as it gets colder and I move into hibernation mode.
Also my period came early, and so at least of few of my new pounds were that. Here's hoping for a good weigh in on Monday.

I had a pretty rough weekend in terms of eating and drinking. I went to a vegan buffet on Friday, Wegmans hot food bar and "fat sandwiches" in New Brunswick on Saturday, and today I'm too nervous to eat much so am staying 100% on plan. Scale went uuup though.

Buuut I am getting flown to Atlanta tomorrow for a job interview with XXXXX Airlines as a flight attendant w/Japanese speaking qualification - my Japanese isn't that great but somehow I passed the preliminary language phone test. I'm NERVOUS AS HECK, partially because they seem to have not sent me the email containing all the info about the interview. I'll worry about that when I get to Atlanta and still have nothing, ha. It's Tuesday at 0730 - brutal.

ann71 Monday's weigh-in is looking to be a good one! Well done on the food. That's the hardest part for me.

pinkrunner Thank you so much for your relationship anecdote. It really helps with perspective. Awesome on the running, and as for the junk I know how that goes!

Dorian5 Damn girl that's a lot of games! With the way your week sounds, I think staying the same is pretty good considering. Enjoy yourself - you have a lot to celebrate and be proud of.

Ann, nice work with the food!
Krampus, I also have a job interview on Tuesday! Good luck!

I am stressed out today because I'm away from my husband for the job interview-- and if I get it, I'll be moving away from him for about 8 months. I'm having a hard time with this for just a few days, so I can't imagine months. I've always prided myself on my independence, but my husband truly lights up my life and I can't imagine spending so much time apart. So stress=weight loss (when I'm stressed out I have a difficult time eating), but it is fake weight loss because as soon as I am unstressed I will end up gaining it all back. Sigh.

Krampus and Pinkrunner, good luck to both of you on your interviews! Krampus, have you ever been a flight attendant before? That sounds like an interesting job!

Dorian, it sounds like you have an awesome schedule and I agree that maintaining through all of it is pretty impressive!

The scale hasn't been super kind lately. It's not going up, but it's also not really going down. Frustrating with how much work I've been putting into it. We're getting family photos taken tomorrow afternoon at the beach, and this will be our first family shoot since my daughter's newborn session in our home in January. I really want to like these photos and be proud to display them... not think, Ew I have a belly roll and my butt looks big and my chin looks fat. Ugh!

Bleh, ate about at maintenance Monday, yesterday I was at about 1500 calories... Not putting in the work!

Ugh, once I get through these Saturday football games I won't have to worry about restricting hard during the week to make for the tailgating! From the beer and salty food on the weekend, I was at about 125lbs Tuesday.

I think I'm at a technically healthy weight but I don't like the way my stomach looks, so I feel that more fat loss is required. I look pretty good in clothes, but wouldn't it be nice to look good naked??

I wouldn't even enjoy myself at games if I was counting my food and beer and worrying about calories.... I love to go and just focus on having an awesome time with the beau -- so if that means I plateau for a couple of weeks, then I will take it. It's worth it.

But I still hate feeling fat afterwards.

dorian, I agree that it's much more fun to just go to events and enjoy yourself without focusing on calories. No point in living longer if you hate all the extra minutes! Although looking good naked is a great goal, too.

My Monday weigh in was not the success I expected. Oh, well. We're having a nice week weather wise and I'm getting in some good runs at least.

This is just a vent.

Sometimes I have days where I have an unbelievable amount of self loathing about the way I look and my body and my face and my hair and my personality and my intelligence and basically everything about me. Today is one of those days.

I feel like if I tell my boyfriend or my mother or anyone they'll just roll their eyes or brush me off and think that I'm being dumb or craving attention or fishing for compliments and tell me THEY think I look fine and then end the conversation. And maybe I do have a need for constant validation?

I'm an ice queen at work because the men here are just awful and I get hit on constantly, it's easier to just have a reputation of being a b!tch so they leave me alone... I -hate- getting hit on. But then at the same time I feel like I can't even get my boyfriend's attention anymore. Not that we don't have sex, but... I don't know, I just like to hear that he finds me attractive, but he doesn't really say it much. Not that he should have to, maybe I'm just needy. Ugh, gross, I do not want to be that girl.

My ex had me believing that I was the most beautiful girl he's ever had the pleasure of knowing. He was also sleeping with everyone we knew. I think the shower of affection was a part of his sociopathic tendencies.

Bleh, idk where I'm going with this except to ask if any of you ever have times when you just want someone to tell you your beautiful and make you believe it.

Forgive my venting, I just didn't know where else to bleed this out.

My eating is awful this week! Angry scale!

Dorian,
I totally know where you're coming from. I have those days all of the time too. I think it's just a part of being a woman, unfortunately. We can be educated, attractive, intelligent...and still feel like crap some days. The best thing is to just ride through them and hope for better days. You know you're on the right track and one bad week of food or one day of self loathing isn't excessive.
My husband is great with the compliments, and I've never been one to constantly crave attention, but I also have those days where I just need him to tell me that I'm not a hideous beast-- so don't worry, times like this don't make you THAT girl. Everyone needs that kind of attention sometimes, and there's nothing wrong with it :0)
Hope your day turns out better. I also had an ex that told me I was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, and he ended up cheating as well. Sometimes, like you said, the ones that overkill the affection are the crappy ones after all!