After several years away from 3fc and several months of lax exercise standards, I have gotten the resolve to take advantage of the gym at the hotel I am staying at on a regular basis. The one time I successfully lost pounds, it was all about the exercise, several hours a day, everyday or close to it. I am trying to get back to that. I struggled over the years because exercise was not convenient; there was traffic on the road (In my defense it was really fast moving dangerous traffic); the gym was too far away; no one would go with me; I was moving soon and I would start then; my commute was too long; I was too tired. I had all the excuses … and all the pounds to show for it.
I have only made a week and a half, and usually it is around week 2 or 3 that my resolve gives out, so I will be returning here for support. Expect me.

In addition to the gym I have returned to tracking my food intake on fitday, something I stopped doing when I joined WW (I have since quit, I wasn’t feeling the local group and I didn’t have the energy to drive to the group I liked on a regular basis in rush hour traffic.) Since I am living at a hotel with limited cooking capabilities and included breakfasts and dinners, I figured I would get a baseline of my eating habits and really work on restricting calories when I move into my new home. However what I have discovered is the mere act of recording my caloric intake is enough to restrict it. Over the past week I have consumed about 100 calories less each day. Not because I have been trying to, by because I don’t eat casually. When I have to journal each thing that does into my mouth I consider each thing that goes into my mouth. And more often then not, I choose not to consume it. Great, I guess, but I also need to be careful that I A) do not shrink my caloric intake below a safe limit, a problem I had both on WW and when I was really loosing on my own, and B) don’t self-restrict to the point where I never get to enjoy the fun stuff... (I am a sucker for Space Ice Cream, good chocolate and lollipops) and then let myself get derailed or discouraged by these treats, or the lack thereof.

What I have noticed is when I am hungry. I require a snack around 11 am and again around 4:30pm. The 4:30 pm snack can’t be just water, which, while very satisfying, make me have to go to the restroom in the middle of my workout.
I have also the last few nights (esp. last night and the one before when my caloric intake was down 200-300 calories from my first paying-attention day, and an unknown amount from my not-paying-attentions days) been comfortably hungry when I went to bed, and I have been remembering my high school days when I felt an obscene amount of pride at that bedtime hunger. Of course looking back on it, while I was way skinny in HS, I was also probably anorexic (I went to boarding school and food was presented on a schedule; I do not eat well, or at all, when placed on a strict schedule), so this might not be a good thing to go back to.

Back! I know all about the excuses to not exercise. I'm the queen of excuses. It makes you feel so much better though, it is so worth it. I'm glad you are back and look forward to seeing your progress!