Dang! This low-carb plan is no joke! Knock on wood that the # stays consistent, but I'm already down 3.4 lbs this week after weeks of nothing. I was sure I'd be up today. Yesterday I got bitten a few times by some mystery insect while weeding, broke out into hives all over my body, tongue/throat swelled, etc. I had to go to the ER and pumped full of drugs, was there for hours. The crazy thing is, I have NO allergies. No food, no medicine, no seasonal. And there's no way to know exactly what bit me. I felt something skittering down my back but I thought it was sweat running (90+ degree day with killer humidity). Dr. said I was 7/10 on the allergic reaction scale. I'm a little paranoid to get back to work in the yard now!

Bookmark, binge eating is such a struggle. There are others on this board who struggle with it too. Two things have really helped me: a podcast called "Brain Over Binge" and "Breaking Free From Compulsive Eating" by Geneen Roth. I've been binge-free for almost 6 weeks with the help of those two resources, and I've been a binge eater since 4th grade. I used to believe that recovery wasn't possible...after decades of trying, dieting, therapy attempts, etc. But now I believe it is. I'm glad you're back!!

Hope everyone's having a great weekend!

Wow, Frances! I'd be super nervous too not knowing what caused the reaction. And excellent work breaking thru the binge barrier. That's a super hard addiction to overcome.

Laurie - I have to laugh about us crossing each other on our fitbit goals. But you'll be back over 10k in no time I'm sure. Back last winter when you were running 10 miles I could, seriously, barely walk across my living room. You're visit to the land of 8000 footsteps will be very brief I'm sure.

Bookmark - glad to see you here as well as the daily accountability thread. There's something to be said for the "misery loves company" theme of the regainers relosing. All of us have kicked ourselves for not stopping the regain sooner. But we didn't give up! That's the important thing.

Slash - Congratulations on surviving the baseball tournament (I am assuming you survived)!

Pacifica - congrats on a great month's loss!!!!

Dread - sorry the work week's been rough but it's good to hear you are staying mostly on plan. When work gets crazy it is so easy to let everything else slide so it's impressive you are doing so well.

Uber - "normal eating" what a concept!

Lillion - I'm dying to know if you exercised while on vacation... I always have such grand plans and then, um, yeah, well, less said about that the better I guess....

So, I had my dreaded doctor's appointment. This winter when I was sick they took blood so often and the readings were all over the place. No rhyme or reason (except anything related to my liver was way outta whack in frightening ways because my liver was so angry with my gallbladder.... But even non-liver things would be way high one week and way low the next. There was really no telling if any of them were concerning individually or just overall indicative of what a mess I was.

I've got the results already and everything looks good. I'm sure losing 60 pounds, eating healthy, and getting regular exercise didn't hurt. But it's encouraging and reassuring to not see every test pointing to "danger! danger! Abandon Ship! total system failure imminent!".

Other good news: for me one of the hardest things on my weight loss journey this time 'round has been finding easy food solutions for work. And for home too when I'm just too tired to manage much more than a sandwich. But now that I have a freezer again I've spent much of a few Saturdays prepping meals so that when 9pm rolls around I just have to make a reasonable guess what I'll be hungry for in 5 hours and toss it in my bag. It's such a huge improvement for me not having to stress about healthy choices at work.

I'm feeling pretty positive about Onederland this month. Positive and excited!

Good morning!

Diane - Hope the baseball binge was awesome! And that work eventually becomes less hectic for you.

Bookmark - Moving and a new job? Both incredibly exciting and super stressful. Glad you have a plan in place. That would be very challenging to be in a position of submitting your resignation and not knowing where to be next. Congratulations on starting to get into rhythm again. At least for me, periodic binges will always be part of my life. Being able to shut it down early is super impressive.

Frances - I just finished telling Bookmark that I have just accepted that binge eating will be part of my life forever. But I think I'm going to look into the resources you recommend. Oof. Sorry about your allergy drama. I am super excited about your fantastic results, though. I may look into doing low-carb again, actually. Not necessarily for the quick weight loss, but for the freedom from binge eating that low-carb often allows me.

Vladadog - Your post completely made my day! 60 pounds down. Great results from the doctor. No more "abandon ship" readings. (I LOLed when I read that, BTW. And yay for meal prep! I will be back over 10K soon, too, I hope. I appreciate your encouragement.

I went to the thrift store on Saturday. I wanted to wait six weeks after my surgery (as I guess swelling is supposed to be pretty much gone by then, but not completely gone for six months to a year). But my size 10 shorts were falling off of me. I went only to buy new shorts, but ended up buying lots of new clothes. Thrift store, so it's not that much of a risk. I am now in mostly size 6 stuff, though my replacement shorts, ironically, are a size 10. (I hate women's clothing sizing!) I do have one size 4 jacket that I like. Size 4, y'all. But, of course, probably not a real size 4, since women's clothing sizes are so random.

Today's goals:
1 - No searching for candy/sugar in the afternoon. I did buy FiberOne brownies again (my old nemesis/ally), so I will allow myself to enjoy one of those.
2 - 8,000 steps. For real today, not my usual "almost-8,000" steps.
3 - Focus in on work.

Hope all goes well for everyone this week!

Hey Everybody!

Sorry I haven't been around much lately. Lots going on in UBER land. Daughter graduated, cross country drive to bring her car home, and finishing up a big project, so I'm not going to take the time to comment to everyone individually, but just wanted you all to know that I'm still hanging in there. My cross-country trip included quite a bit of fast food, but also a lot of skipped meals. I was afraid that I would have gained 5 lbs during the four day trip, so I was relieved to only be up 2.8. The hardest thing for me is reining it back in after going off my usual food plan-- I like eating more and it's cutting back again that proves hard. But happily, I was down 1.8 this morning, so just half a pound above 269, where I was when I left for the trip. So it's pretty awesome-- I'm down 4 for the month of June even though it was more of a maintainer month than a loser month. I think the med my doc gave me really seems to help. I feel like I can eat more calories and still keep dropping. I'm really happy to not be on the lose-gain-lose cycle. I feel like a stair step method of lose ten, maintain, lose ten, maintain, might actually be the solution for me. Because whenever I'm losing, including the time I lost 110lbs, there was always this element of feeling as if I was "holding my breath" the entire time, and if I ever "let go" it would all be over, and I'm not sure I felt that consciously, but it was there. So I love that this time, I'm down 26 lbs, and there have been french fries along the way. I DO NOT feel like I'm one binge away from disaster, because I don't feel as if one mistake will send me back down the bad path.

Re bingeing. I'm one of the bingers, big time. I have read Brain Over Binge and I do find that sometimes the techniques work for me-- one that works really well is setting a timer and telling myself that if I wait a certain amount of time I can binge if I want to, and then when I hit the time, I realize that I was in fact able to wait 10 minutes, so why not wait ten more... just the act of waiting seems to help break the impulse. The other thing that has worked for me, and this is when I'm going out and buying binge food, is to step outside myself and pretend that I'm watching myself walking into the candy aisle, buying the food, etc... for some reason, when I see myself doing it in my mind's eye, it's easier to feel compassion for myself-- and it can snap me out of myself. Since 2009 when I lost all my weight the first time, I have long periods of remission, but each major episode of regain has been caused by me going through a prolonged binge period. On the good side, when I stop bingeing and eat normally I immediately drop weight.

Mornin!

I cheated a little bit this weekend and feel guilty about it. Logically I know it was minor, but it feels like if I don't admit it and decide to batten the hatches that it can get out of control. The cheat was that I didn't measure my vegan cheese-like sauce perfectly, and when I was making a batch of chili for my work week lunches I did excessive tasting. That in itself wouldn't be so bad, except that it has quinoa and hemp seeds in it which are calorific. I may have overshot my 1200 cal allowance for the day by several hundred calories and I have no idea.

Well, there, I have said it out loud and admitted it was a mistake. Let's hope I have a good week to make up for it! It also doesn't help that the scale has bounced up +2 lbs overnight. I know that is phantom weight, but mixing with the cheating just makes me feel guilty. But, I will move forward and try to remember how crappy I feel when I do this to myself and maybe be able to avoid this feeling by not taking those tastes next time.

Laurie : I really love your goals and how they are full life daily goals and not just food related. That seems like a very healthy habit! I also wanted to stick my nose in and give you a possible resource regarding binging that has helped me immensely (Uber, you too!). Check out Bright Line Eating by Susan Pierce Thompson. I have suggested this book to others on this forum a few times (apologies if once was to you already!). I just find this book so invigorating, meaningful, and amazing on so many levels. I want everyone I know that has food issues to read it because I honestly feel that it is making me better.

Frances: that is a tough road to travel. No sugar/flour/fruit/low carb is how I lost 180lbs in 2010 so I have been there! I am still no sugar since then, and newly no flour again (but I am not low carb - I believe whole food starches is something I need in my life) so I am pretty much there with you. It's a tough but worthy road to travel. Regarding your bite: holy smokes! That is crazy. I know that allergies can pop up later in life, but that is a crazy out of the blue reaction to have! Hope everything has calmed down now

Vlad : so happy to hear that your results came back and everything is looking good. I bet that is a HUGE stress off of you! I love meal prepping for my work week. It takes so much stress off of my day-to-day thinking about food. I actually eat all 3 meals at my office since I am here 11 hours a day. I practice intermittent fasting too so once I have my dinner here just before I leave, I don't eat anything until breakfast the next morning at the office. Of course, I look ridiculous bringing in 2 huge grocery bags of food on Monday mornings. So glad we have a full-sized fridge at my office else this wouldn't be nearly as easy to manage.

Hey all, I can't believe the day is almost over and I haven't checked in. Sorry, busy day. I'll be better tomorrow, but today I'll just make a few comments. Baseball was fun, but eating was a problem. There aren't really great choices at the ball park, but I tried to stay on track. I'm glad to be getting back to reality a little bit anyway! I went to spin class this morning, and I'm glad to be back to workouts. I forgot to weigh this morning, so I'm not sure of the damage. It may have been that I wanted to forget, but I'll get back to weighing soon too. Oh boy.

Glad to see everyone posting!

Argh! I lost my post, and I need to get back to work! Very brief summaries below.

Diane - Glad you're back to spinning and that you enjoyed your baseball detour.

PacificaBee - Acknowledging what seems on the surface to be a minor mistake, but recognizing that it could cause significant issues in the future so changing the pattern before it becomes a pattern = success!

Ubergirl! - Glad you're back, and enthusiastic about your new stair-step-down pattern of loss. I want to replicate the whole "not holding my breath" feeling. Also, going to schedule a Brazilian blow-out this week. Nervous about it, but I am tired of my hair the way it is.

Overwhelmed at work, but feeling better after the surgery. I walked 11,000 steps yesterday, and did not feel exhausted at the end of the day. I even ran a few steps to get across the street on a walk sign, and my abdomen did not feel like the jostling would make it fall out. Maybe I'm closer to recovery than I thought? I hope so, at least.

Goals -
1 - 10,000 steps
2 - Eat more fruit/veggies. Stop eating the Fiber One brownies again.
3 - Power through all of the work tasks on my to-do list.
4 - Try to check out the books that Uber and Pacifica recommended on binges.

Hello, everyone! Happy to report that candida flare-up seems to be about over and now I can incorporate more carbs + raw honey + some fruit, but still striving to keep carbs on the low/moderate side. Still losing steadily (.4 so far since Monday) and super excited. I even had part of a full-fat homemade peanut butter brownie yesterday. I was chanting to myself, "If you want it, eat the whole thing." I was amazed to discover that a couple of bites were enough because it was so sweet and rich. Talk about an NSV!

I'm listening to another podcast that you guys might find interesting. It's called HALF SIZE ME. In the one I listened to yesterday, the host interviewed a woman who gave her testimonial on how she 'finally, finally' got in the right head space to really lose the weight. It was when she finally stopped obsessing over the scale and decided to go with "the average." After a month or so she was able to determine her average and that helped her ignore unpleasant weigh-ins. She could project ahead and have an idea what she'd weigh in 2 mos, 6 mos, 1 year. I've been doing this same thing and it's been really helpful.

Slashnl, glad you made it through baseball season! :)

LaurieDawn, those Fiber One bars held me prisoner for MONTHS! "But they're healthy because...they're full of FIBER!" LOL! Pretty seductive. Glad you have your healthy eating plan in place...and hooray for buyer smaller-sized clothes!!

PBee, sorry for your +2 weigh in. Your body might be doing that annoying "bounce back" thing since you lost so much in May. That happens to me too. I totally know how you feel about the measuring. For me, not constantly measuring has actually caused a binge in the past ("ACK! I have no idea how many calories I've eaten! Probably a billion...might as well enjoy myself until I can start over tomorrow!!"). Glad to hear you're back on track!

Uber, glad you're back! Sounds like a pretty busy month. And 4 pounds is GREAT for May, even if it's just a 'maintaining' month! I love your idea of "stair-stepping" your loss. I've never been able to maintain - ever - and when my loss would flatten out, I'd panic and binge. Then gain. Up and down. I think you're right...moderation WITH TREATS is key!

Vlad, great news from your doctor! And also great about the meal prep/planning head. That's tough to do but I know it makes it so much easier to stay on track if you've got your healthy food right in front of you!

I think I should just stop weighing myself daily - or at least stop thinking about it. I bounce up and down, but I am almost always right around -2 by the end of each week. For this first week of June I am down 1.9; Good stuff! Yesterday I did have several strawberries and roughly 10 raw English pea pods off-plan, but I did check to make sure having them were still within my calorie range and I came in under my 1.2k cut off. I still probably should not have eaten them considering that I am not supposed to be eating ANYTHING between actual meals, but dang it was so tempting sitting out in the front office on the credenza which is in my periphery 11 hours a day. I don't really get tempted by junk food out there, but as soon as there is something healthy that I can eat, I just can't stop thinking about it.

Good morning!

This is post #474 on this thread, so it looks like we will need one soon. I don't tend to be a thread-starter, but I will do it if no one else wants to. (Was that subtle? Or just kinda bossy in a wishy-washy passive-aggressive way?)

Frances - I love that you told yourself you could eat the entire brownie if you wanted, but then realized that you didn't really want it. I have had those experiences when I'm able to let myself chill on the obsessiveness thing. Those moments can be glorious! Thank you for reminding me that they're possible.

PacificaBee - The agonies and ecstasies of daily weighing! I feel ya. Sometimes, weighing daily is a gift. Other times, it makes me crazy. I love that you were tempted by strawberries and pea pods! I love them, but am never "tempted" by them -- probably because I have never excluded them from my diet. I am so impressed by your consistent losses.

I am not impressing myself on making sure I have food that I want to be eating available at the office. It's so easy, really. There's a grocery store on my way home, for goodness sake. I have dried-up, unappetizing chicken for lunch, with a FiberOne brownie. (I only have a few left, and I am going to finish them.) But I would rather have tasty lean protein and some sort of fruit, and I really need to add some green veggies.

Otherwise, I might even be where I want to be for maintenance, minus the hard-core exercise. I have gotten 11,000K+ steps three days in a row, so I am recovering enough to be able to walk a decent amount. I still have more fatigue than I would like, but I knew I would have to build up stamina. Hopefully, I will be able to start running again soon, and will be able to go through the C25K a lot faster this time.

Goals -
1 - Stop at the grocery store.
2 - Get in my 11K steps.
3 - Focus on work today.

I am surprised at how un-angsty I have been lately, and my goals sort of reflect that. Perhaps I will have a long honeymoon period and be able to be pretty casual about how I eat. That is certainly my hope.

On a vanity note, I didn't realize I had swelling in my abdomen post-surgically. I had been warned about it, but did not realize that my newly-flat stomach was actually swollen. Now that the swelling is going down, I have a Western-culture-approved flat, bordering on tiny, stomach. It's cra.zy.

Laurie: Congrats on the new tiny stomach! I don't know what I'd do with that! I don't think I ever could say that about mine! That's good that you are having a nice, un-angst filled time right now.

PacificaBee: I go through wanting to weigh daily to hating it daily. Right now, I think it keeps me in check. I typically will weigh daily. But you might try just once a week. I know a lot of people who do that, too.

Frances: Congrats on the weight loss! That's always good. I'm glad you're feeling better too!

For me, I worked out Monday and Tuesday, but took off today just because I was feeling very tired. I'll get back at it tomorrow. And, very busy at work, so I'll keep this short.

Diane - Glad to see you crushing the work-outs again. And not surprised to discover that you're still busy at work. Hope things slow down for you a bit on that front.

Still doing okay with the food and the walking. I think I might start running again soon. Just take it slow, start building up. I did get to the grocery store, so I have food at work today.

Goals -
1 - 11,000 steps, including a short run this evening
2 - Sensible eating
3 - Get caught up at work

Just a quick check in. I'll be going out of town tomorrow through the weekend. I'll check back in next week.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Slashnl, have a fun trip!

LaurieDawn, hooray for being at maintenance! That's huge!

What do you guys think about eating when you aren't hungry? I met with a nutritionist a while back who set my calories around 1600/day because of my workouts, but I've found to lose my slightly-over-a-pound-a-week I really should be 1450 - 1550/day. No big deal and no difficulties in staying there, but some days I am just not very hungry and hate forcing myself to eat more than, say, 1300 cals or so. This can be true on a heavy workout day. I'd rather just listen to my body and only eat when I'm hungry, but I don't want to send myself into "starvation mode" or something. Just wondered what you all thought/do!

Frances - I don't eat if I'm not hungry. I did this winter when i was sick and having trouble even getting 1000 calories a day. I made myself eat then. But now some days I'm extra hungry and some days I'm not. I also aim for 1600 a day but some days I only get 1400 and occasionally I go over 1600. I try to be aware of the balance (at least as many under days as over) and make sure I'm (mostly) making healthy food choices and don't get too fussed about the exact count for each day. I accept I am going to have to track my food for the rest of my life (otherwise I lie to myself and cheat...) but I don't want my calorie limit to be the only thing in my life. So I'm working on finding a balance.

Laurie - un-angsty maintainence! W00t!!!! That's my goal. Congratulations!!! i know you'll be running again soon and you'll kick C25k's butt. (heck, you'll kick C210k's butt too.)

Pacifica - I don't weight daily. I did the last time and it really helped keep me motivated and accountable but it also made me crazy. Because I work overnights 4 nights a week there's no good time to weigh in on those days. If I weigh in at 8am every day (for example) 4 of those days I'd have been up and eating for hours. Anyway, the once a week thing is working much better for me this time around. It's more what I'll do when I hit maintenance so I think of it as practicing those future good habits. Anyway, do you feel like your daily fluctuations are helping or hurting your attitude and motivation? There isn't a right answer so pick what's most helpful for you.

Uber - watching yourself in the candy aisle.... I had to laugh. Once a year I teach kids at a summer camp how to eat with chopsticks. The kids have been at camp with no junk food and few sweets for nearly a week when i show up with bags and bags of candy and other "crap". The only way the kids can get at this treasure is with chopsticks. If the only way you can eat M&Ms or Cheese Curls is with two strange sticks you learn really fast. The kids are super motivated. Anyway, one the day I go shopping I buy so much horrible food. I'm thinking of "what kids will really want to eat" and "what you can eat with chopsticks" so I get cocoa puffs and two sizes of marshmellows and just a crazy variety of candy in different sizes and shapes and textures. When I was 280 pounds I'm sure people all thought "ha! No wonder she's so fat!" but when I was thinner who knows.... But I do always wonder what people think about my cart full of junk food.

Bookmark - how goes the battle?

DreadPirate - I hope you're on plan and still hitting the gym!

Slash - I hope you stay pretty much on plan while you travel.

I'm down another pound and still have might my sights set on Onederland for this month. It's only a couple more pounds but those pounds, that milestone, is so psychologically important. I'll go back to striving to be un-angsty like Laurie once I see 199 on the scale. Even 199.8. I'm not picky. I just want that 1xx.....

I changed my goals today. I've shrunk a bit during the last 5 years or so. I went to a true 5'6" to something a little shorter. So I change that and while I was at it I made my goal 150 instead of 160. Right now I feel like it is doable. It might take me a year or two to get to 150 from my current 202 but I feel like I can get there and stay there. I might change it once I get close, who knows, but it feels right for now.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!