Hi girls,
I'm an oldie (but goodie), that's back b/c I've put ona few pounds I have been feeling lately that I am totally out of control of my eating. Like last night...I went out to dinner with my office and actually did a pretty good job eating. Then, when I got home, even though I wasn't hungry, I was craving ice cream. So I went out and bought some frozen yogurt (thank god it was just frozen yogurt!) but still..wasn't hungry, and at my weigh in this morning, I was a up a pound. Why do I have these cravings? Why can't I just go home and go to bed like a normal person? Does anyone else ever feel like this?

Struggle of the year, Michelle! I've been trying as of late now that I am on my own for the summer (no one to offer up ice cream late at night and so on) to identify these points where I go on auto-pilot- like it's totallly natural to want peanut butter m&m's every night and pizza after a night of drinking. I think we get into habits of following our tastebuds and triggers just like we get into habits of going to the gym (some are easier to acquire than others, though!)

I will say that I have been drinking more (it's Nashvegas, I mean, c'mon!) and I have been working really hard to NOT stop at the convenience store on my way home and the more I do it, the easier it gets. It's interesting how that happened, though... I had stopped at the store after anight out for some "drunchies" and it was closed. I needed the store to be closed for me to realize that I didn't need it and I haven't stopped since then. It was by chance, but I'll take it...

Definitely. There are times when my carb cravings seem to completely take over. Part of the problem is I have the apartment stocked up with yummy foods that I'm not allowed to have now, but will be allowed to have when I go on maintenance in a few weeks. However, take comfort in the fact that if you struggle through them, they will eventually get easier to handle!

I totally feel you. If it weren't for the fact that I just plain dont allow bad foods in my house, or rather foods that I just really, really love, I would gorge myself everyday. I remember being on a low fat diet awhile back and buying some of those low fat chocolate chip granola bars and just eating the whole box in one sitting. Then I would think to myself, why the heck did I do that?!

It's so good to hear that it's not just me I have the hardest time when I go out to eat...I'll sit down with a healthy plan, and then it all goes out the window when everyone else starts eating cr*p. And the drunchies are the worst Jen!! I just don't keep anything to drunk munch on in my apartment..it's so funny, as I go around visiting friends in other cities and go out, I realize that all my really thin/healthy friends never keep any of that stuff in their house (but it's more just because they don't buy it as opposed to me who makes a point to keep it out)

Yeah. Since I live at home over the summer it's really hard with food. We have a million (okay, maybe 4, but that's way more than any family needs) boxes of brownie mix just sitting on the shelf!
They call to me in the night.

I hate that out of control feeling, I got a little tast of it this weekend and I really didn't like it. Now, I am struggling to get back on track. Even when I stay on plan I worry that I'm going to get out of control again. I think it's important that we dont go on auto pilot as Jen called it and we're always cautious of what we're eating and why we're eating it. It's so hard to do that when you get in that mode though, it scares me :S :S

Blame the full moon! (which is about how often I get out of control anyways ) I'm sure anyone who's trying to lose weight has been there, especially since an important aspect of successful weight loss is about controlling what and how much you eat--so we've all had our moments when we lost control a bit (I think the worst is when I self-talk myself into it being OK to overeat, like last week when I convinced myself somehow that I can make up for it by exercising more and eating less the next few days after.)

I think the big thing is not to beat yourself up over a momentary lost of control; just learn the lessons (what made me go off and how can I prevent it next time?) and move on.

I share your feelings (the calling in the night). My thing is usually mint chocolate chip ice cream (the Breyers slow churned is just heavenly). I've been locking down my foodstuffs recently using peer pressure. It's been working quite well recently.