I regularly indulge after dinner and am fine, and tonight I have the calories for a treat, but am not really hungry. I know I'm just sad that one of my kids is gone on his first sleep-over at a friend's and I want pity ice cream. I think I'll go get a glass of water and see how I feel in an hour. Shopping and lunch out for a "girl's day" with my 5yo DD tomorrow ought to cheer me up! My favorite lunch from Applebees has been moved to the under 550 cal menu. Nice to control calories, but they just made the portion smaller while leaving the price the same, and now I don't get leftovers to take home :(

I'm still here, and still moving in the right direction for re-losing. I have been on reading some, but was sick all last weekend and it's been a very busy week so haven't been able to post. I haven't been too sick or busy to stay on plan though.

Headed out to run/walk in a few minutes!

Friday, Jan 27
B= 1/2 banana, 1 c cereal, 1/2 c milk
L= 1/2 Chickfila grilled wrap, dressing
D= 1/2homemade BBQ Chicken pizza
S= pumpkin/choc muffin
E= 40min cardio

I outdid myself of the pizza this week! I usually just pull the stuff out fo the freezer, slap it on the par-baked crust and stick it back in the over. Yesterday I thawed out the peppers/onions ahead of time, sauteed them in a pan with a little truffle oil, added the leftover roasted chicken, while I parbaked the crust. Topped the crust with flaxseed, jar sauce, freshly grated colby cheese, the pepper mix, drizzled a little BBQ sauce on top and baked. I used a tube of refridgerated rolled crust but it came out very thin and crispy.

2Bheatlthy, We had also bought a cupcake for Hubby, but he was at work, so I didn't want to eat the whole thing at once, then sit there while he ate his later, feeling deprived. Thus the split. I like making sweets for an 'event', I can control the 'mindless' eating if I know I have to have enough to take the cookies someplace. Thanks for your prayers!

Squiddle, welcome, glad to have you join us!

Kuchick, aww, a first sleepover!:D I do better if I wait until after dinner for a indulgent snack also; knowing I can have something good later, keeps me on track!

Where did I go wrong?

I'm doing pretty good back eating healthy and losing weight - down 6 pounds so far - but I'm trying to figure out how I went off the rails.

I know I hit 100 pounds down and a plateau at the same time. Then I went on a week vacation with friends where I didn't stay on plan at all. That put me up 10 pounds. After that I went back to eating healthy but the 10 pounds didn't go away and slowly I started eating more junk food.

And then it took me 6 months to get serious again.

But why did I go back to eating junk food? And why did I wait so long to go back to healthy eating. Even if I'm not losing weight I feel so much better when I am eating whole foods and not pigging out on sugar.

I honestly think sugar is a physical addiction. Once we get it back in our systems it is really hard to break the cycle. I have a huge problem with carbs and sugar of any variety, and the minute I start letting grains creep back into my diet it's SO hard to control myself.

I love eating oatmeal for breakfast and it's so healthy, but even though it's good for me, it triggers carb cravings. So I just can't have it at all.

I think sugar does the same thing to us. Once we let it creep back in, our brains get sort of fogged and our bodies crave another hit, and breaking the pattern of addiction takes a tremendous effort. Good for you for making the break! If it's any comfort at all, I am right there with you. I just have to accept that I can never go back to eating 'like a normal person', not if I want to keep the weight off permanently this time.

Here's 2 helpful mantras that I grabbed from other's posts here that really fits the topic of going off plan. I find them to be so true, and want to keep them in mind when I'm making future choices ...

Sometimes it's easier to avoid a temptation than trying to fight it! (Kaplods; paraphrased)

and ...

It's easier to stay on plan, than to get back on plan!


I also save any dessert for an evening snack; and find that way I don't get off track. I make sure to choose something that isn't a binge trigger food; and it must fit into my daily calorie allotment. :D

Sat Jan 28
B= {Hubby made pancakes!} 1 huge blueberry pancake 8" across, syrup, 2 c milk
L= Longhorn 3oz steak, 1/2 baked potato, 1/2 sweet potato, 1 bread slice
S= chips and salsa
D= homemade chicken salad sandwich {meal 4 out of the roasted chicken from Sunday}, roasted veggies
S= 1/2 c milk, 1 c cereal
E= dog walk, 40min cardio, 25min stretch fusion

Wow...I was reading through this thread and thought "this describes me PERFECTLY."

I don't post much in the 100+ forum. I usually only bother to check the 20 somethings forum actually....and I haven't been posting much at all since my gain.

In 2009 I started my journey. I went from my highest weight ever of 251, down to 180 pounds. I was finally starting to feel normal and happy....and then I started dating my best friend of 8 years (who I am still with) in April of 2010...had major foot surgery around May or June (and was in bed for almost 8 weeks after)....and the weight started piling back on. A couple weeks ago I was up to 257....HIGHER then my original starting weight. That scared the crap out of me and I started trying to change.

I'm really struggling though. Last time around it seemed so easy. Once I saw the results it was easy to stick to my plan because i was so excited that it was working. Now, when I lose...I find myself thinking either "yeah, but i'm still not 180" or "what's the point if I'm just going to gain it all back again!"

I just don't understand how to get my motivation back. I have an addiction to fast food....that I really really struggle with. Last time I allowed myself one fast food meal a week, and I was still able to lose and I did really well with it. Obviously it's not the healthiest thing, but I find that if I completely cut things like that out of my life....I crave them more and more and more until I can't resist and binge. I'm trying to learn how to fight this...I just don't understand.

I do well for a couple of days, and get down around 253 or so....and then I screw up and give all that work up for a damn cheeseburger. I don't know why I'm doing it, and I don't know why it's so hard this time. Last time, I didn't struggle with it NEARLY this much.

Any advice you ladies can give would be wonderful. I don't want to be stuck this way for the rest of my life. I want to be healthy. I'm already happy, so I can't use that as motivation like I was last time....and I just don't know how else to motivate myself.

I'm in it as well.. I will let the photos do the talking (Whenever I am able to post them)*NEW MEMBER*:wave::wave: . Even though I wasn't where I wanted to be previously... I was making a HUGE progress... Then I sabotaged myself with the emotional eating due to MAJOR LIFE CHANGES! But I believe I am in a better place in my life and I am very disgusted at where I am now.

DivineFidelity - the first time I lost all this stupid weight I did it without giving up cheeseburgers. I plan on doing that again. I didn't start on this journey just to lose weight, my main goal was to be healthier. I'm in my 50's and finally accepting my mortality. My older brother was diagnosed as pro-diabetic, my own cholesterol numbers were getting worse each annual check-up. The "stuff" I could get away with in my 20's was obviously killing me in my 50's.

So I gave up fast food hamburgers (2 years later my mouth stills waters when I'm downwind from a Burger King...) but I still enjoy the occasional (once or twice a month) bacon cheese burger made with local pastured beef, nitrate free bacon, and raw milk cheddar cheese. Those burgers are so amazingly good they are worth waiting for and I don't feel deprived.

I didn't regain my weight because of the burgers, I regained it because of candy bars and chips - two things that just aren't part of a healthy whole foods diet. Especially on a regular basis. But I lost 100 pounds in a year while still enjoying cheeseburgers and my bloodwork is outstanding now, even with the weight gain.

I'd like to join you guys too. I was down to 199 last September, but by January 1st of this year I was back up at 217. My weight loss had slowed significantly in 2011, due to just being a little more lax, but I was still moving downward. Things went really off the rails for me in November when I went on a cruise where we ate all the time. When we came back it seemed I had only gained 3lbs, but a couple of days later that was 9lbs, I guess it took a few days to catch up with me. After that it was holiday season and one party or get together after another I gained another 8lbs on top of that.

I'm having success with going back to a more limited plan, mostly lean protein, green veggies and very limited carbs...ideally less than 50g per day right now.

It's good to know that there are others on the same path; I love reading your thoughts and it always gives me more insight into my own journey.

Sun Jan 29
b= 1/2 coffee, 2 c milk, vits
L= Rafferty's 1/2 cheeseburger, 1/2 sweet potato
S= 1 apple + 2 TB PB
D= homemade chicken and veggie stirfry
S= choc/pumpkin muffin
E= 50min cardio

Angie, where were those extra lbs from the cruise hiding?? Weighing can drive me nuts!

Vladadog, what is it about the smell of fast food places that drives me nuts. I very rarely will even eat fast food, but I can smell one from 2 streets over! :dizzy:

DF, I've been working on my relationship with food for the past year; it can be done, but like everything it takes practice, especially to unlearn those long embeded habits. I got a lot of help from Judith Beck's book, Shrink Yourself {moderatley helpful; I didn't finish it, but the first chapter was very interesting!}, and Made To Crave by Lysa TerKeurst {Christian themed}

Penguin - I'm pretty sure they add stuff to the burgers just to make them smell better and then use GIANT fans to get that smell out there to lure folks in. Burger King is the worst, too. No one else smells as good or from as far away as BK...

I'm going out with friends for burgers on Saturday though so I can be strong and resist the siren call of the flame grilled scent....

Good morning! It's a new week so I thought I should check in here. I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Personally, I find it a lot harder to stay OP without the structure of the work day, but I did fine this weekend. I had to force myself to make dinner both days, but that was only because I wasn't really hungry.

I'm currently down six pounds since my weight loss reboot, three of those since I started my Whole 30 challenge. I'm on day 5 now, and sticking with the plan is challenging, but that's the point, right? Technically you're not supposed to weigh yourself during the 30 days, but I was never going to follow that rule. I figure if I'm going to break one of the rules, better that one than the no alcohol rule, which is where most people seem to slip up.

Baking bread and doing laundry today. Typical Monday stuff.

Vlada, Hubby and I used to eat at fastfood places a lot on weekends. I started eating healthier and that was one of the first changes I made. Poor guy is still trying to keep up, but he's getting better. He raves about my homemade burgers but still wants to have them out, we just go to a better class of place now. Hubby and I comment on the aromas coming from fast food places, I'll have to tell him your idea about the giant fans, He'll like that!

Caroline, If you know you are going to break a rule, I agree weighing is the best one! great job on the 6 lbs.