Just checking in to say I've been eating in my calorie range and exercising.

Banana, what food plan are you on? Maybe it's not balanced enough for you. If you count cals, you can eat carbs, proteins and fats. Just a thought. By the way, I heard on Dr. Oz that Peppermint Oil helps with headaches. Massage your temples with it. We bought some at Whole Foods for my hubby, and he says it works!

Ahh, sorry you had a bad night banananutmuffin! You'll be back on track in no time though.
I pretty well yesterday, stayed at 1400 calories. I'm trying to make my eating window smaller so that maybe i'll have more control with my calories.

Good morning everyone!

Banana, don't feel like crap. We ALL blow it occasionally. It not normal to never blow it. It's expected every once in a while. You're still making forward progress! And, as Ange said to me, one day back on plan with no deviations will make you feel good about yourself again. I hope you have a good day today.

Thanks everyone!

Yeah, back on track today with no falls off the ol' wagon and no temptations at all. lol Sometimes I actually think I *need* the occasional cheat to keep my sanity, you know?

Tyla: I'm eating primal/paleo. Its an experiment for me, since I've never done low carb before.

Lisa: Yeah, I've been thinking about tinkering with my eating window, too. (Although lately, mine has been "whenever I'm awake" lol.) How short are you thinking about making yours?

Pixie: Thanks! Hope you have a good day, too!

i agree! i reckon an occasional cheat or even a couple of days of eating a fair bit more is natural and keeps your body guessing what's coming next. Keeps the metabolism ticking over.

I've managed to cut back a tad on my nonstop sweet eating at work. I'm pretty much back to my usual level - under 10 small pieces of candy/chocolate per day.

I know many of you like low carb diets. I just don't think I could do it. I eat a lot of fruit and whole grains and I couldn't imagine not doing so. On the other hand, when I made a lifestyle change and started incorporating whole grains instead of a ton of potatoes, white bread and pasta I trimmed down.

I believe that you do need to "cheat" to keep up your metabolism. It's not really a strategy on my part, I just want to enjoy myself but it always has to be really good food.About once per week I dine out and enjoy multiple courses and wine.

So today actually went really well calorie wise! I finished off the day at 1275!

Banananutmuffin - I'm not a very good IFer I generally start eating between 12-1pm but then sometimes I eat up until 10pm! So it makes it like a 9 hour window. Id like to be able to make it 6-7 hours.

Today I had lunch at 12 and then dinner at 5pm and then slipped out with a light beer with my friend at 9pm..but overall it was pretty good and I was able to stay within my calorie limit.

As for the treat - I agree it's absolutely necessary!

couple more days on track for me, but it's my wedding anniversary today (15 years!) and we're about to head out to a little local Italian restauraunt tonight and i'm in the mood for a couple of glasses of wine and some nice food. Must be due for a treat!

Congrats, ange. That's a reason to celebrate!

Congrats on the anniversary!

Indulged in some red wine last night (my one real vice) and feel sluggish today. Got a bit of a cold, too. Ah well... this too shall pass.

I keep having problems at dinner time. I do great during the day, with breakfast and lunch. But then I go home and consistently eat too much. I can't even blame this on being married because I did it when I was single, only my metabolism was better then.

Do any of you struggle with this? What are your tricks to keep from overeating at night? Last night I had the munchies so bad, I started eating my step son's Honey Nut Cheerios. Oi vay!

Ange - Congrats on the anniversary! You deserve a nice meal

PixieChix - That also happens to me, I always overeat in the evenings, to balance it out I just try to eat extra low calories during the day.

Night time eating has always been hard for me. For the past year, my evening routine consisted of putting the kids to bed, drinking 3-5 glasses of wine with Hubby, and then eating a HUGE meal around midnight.

I still struggle with the urge to snack and eat at night.

I agree with Lisa: eating less during the day can help balance out those night time calories. For me, though, I have to make sure what I eat during the day is very satiating. If I just "graze" my way through, I'll end up overeating during the day and then overeating at night, too.

I used to simply try and choose lower calorie snacks for my night time eating, too. Like air popped popcorn, plain. That helped. Very few calories, but kept my mouth busy and allowed me to succumb to the urge to eat.

Hi, I recently joined! I just wanted to pop in to this part of the conversation. Do you guys find you still have success when eating more of your food at night? I barely have time in the day for meals, so I'll usually get about 1/3 or 1/2 of my calories in and then I'm free from about 8 until I go to sleep, which is around 2 or 3. I like to stop eating about 3 hours before bed, so that only makes my window about 4 hours long. Eating 2/3 of my calories in that small amount of time leaves me feeling pretty stuffed, even when I get to sleep, and I just feel like it's all sitting there in my stomach.

i can't help with this conversation, as normally i eat 3-4 small meals between 7am and 5pm and that's it for the day. I'm not hungry later on at all, so all i have if i'm home in the evening is a peppermint tea! Guess i'm just lucky in this one as this schedule really works for me and means that i don't get hungry.

The italian meal and a couple of glasses of a nice wine was great last night though!