I seem to be doing great now, BUT the thing that threw me off in the past was stress. When I felt like something was happening that was out of my control, and very upsetting, I'd binge.

Ditto to the whole post. Although I'm pretty decent with the bread basket - usually .

Oh my goodness - I'd be NO WHERE without planning. Which is why I never, eve, ever, ever, do not plan. I just can't take that chance. Eating healthy won't happen on it's own - it got to be thought out and prepared for in advance, at least for me. One of my fav quotes - "failing to plan is planning to fail". Never a truer statement, at least for me.

Oh and when I do any kind of home baking... which is why I don't do it very often! And even if I'm at a friends house, if they've got regular old cake or cookies - I'm good, no problem - but if it's HOME baked - oy.

Fatigue is bad for me. When I'm really over-tired, I tend to get confused and think I need food when what I really need is rest.

That being said, nothing completely derails me.... after ten months of tracking my weight every day, I have a good sense of my pattern and I the stuck scale doesn't faze me at all.

Ha, ditto this

And ditto this!! Mostly, because I have put most packaged baked goods on my "forever no" list, but home made stuff is still okay, as special treats. I don't want to live my life without them, but I can go overboard on occasion.

But hey, 5 years later, the occasional overboard home baked treat hasn't hurt my maintenance. Maybe having those special treats has helped it?

It doesn't normally derail me, but it does anger me when friends or family try to get me to eat fattening foods knowing full well I'm on a specific diet plan. Sometimes it feels like they don't want me to succeed with my weight loss, but that can't be true. Occasionally I've given in and eaten whatever "forbidden" food it was and felt tons of guilt afterwards. I've made a commitment to myself to not allow one mistake become a day or week of mistakes.

I must add to my previous post... along with feeling physical pain (as I said before) ... Like many others, not planning, is always bad. Also - the scale play with my head too.

Busyness does me in on occasion, but only insomuch as it throws me off for a meal before I recover. Nothing can make me give up that I have yet found, I plan on keeping it that way

But when I am busy and running errands it becomes a lot easier to justify junk food. And yes, it never tastes as good to my mouth as it did in my head

Complacency.

Things go so smoothly, I start thinking it's all under control, it's easy, and I can just live on a kind of auto-pilot.

That's when the scale creep starts.

The scale. When it doesn't move, I don't want to move. LOL. Its hard not to lose week after week. That's why I'm doing measurements AND weight AND pics this time. I hope nothing derails me this time though.

Stress. And anger. (I shove food into my mouth when I get ticked off, crazy isn't it?!)

And cravings for pizza or something sweet!

I used to HATE that expression about failing to plan but it sure describes my downfalls, exactly. I've been checking restaurants websites for nutritional information (if possible), carry bags of "on plan" snax with me, gave my husband a basic once-over of my plan so he won't bring home any of my binge foods. Better I plan the easier my life is and the better I stay on plan.

Agreeing with the scale. OMG I was almost 20 pounds lighter and I hit the wall. I needed to reduce my calories and I did but instead of losing the 3 or 4 pounds a week I was only losing 1 or maybe 2 and I flipped! I just went crazy and some months later I put back on the weight. I now know what I did wrong. Too bad I didn't know then. (big sigh) but now I am back determined to do it and now what to do when I get to that point. Social events are bad too. I went to an aerobics class where there were cupcakes afterwards! WTF!!! Talk about counterproductive. LOL! I ate only one small one and that's it but I have actually avoided social situations in order to not go crazy and screw up. I am not anti social but I need to do right by me and that's what I am doing now.

Not planning and social events. This month is going to be a doozy with a baby shower tomorrow, my husband's graduation in two weeks, and my sister-in-law's wedding in 4 weeks. I've vowed to eat at each of these as if I was eating at home. I may need my husband help me stick to that resolve.