Had a bit of a hiccup a couple of weeks ago, and now slowly coming back from it. Almost at 148.8 again!

I gained a little a couple of weeks ago, not because I ate junk food but because I was overeating.
Especially at night, I keep thinking about food and I'm not even hungry!!! It's really annoying.
I can tell myself that I will regret it, and I will more than likely see the number on the scale go up, but it doesn't help.
Last night and today I have been good - only eating when I need too.
So hopefully this is the start of me getting that control back.

And when I say overeating I don't mean binging, I just mean having an extra snack or meal in the afternoon and/or at night that I don't need.

What do you guys do when all you can think about is food?

I must say water did help me a bit last night, so I might need to have a bottle of water next to me every night and when I feel like food have a drink and see how that goes.

Warrior -- gum! And water And I also keep a supply on hand of these little organic hard rootbeer candies. I have discovered that 5 or those (or pretty much any hard candy) is only like 60-70 calories. Whereas 5 bites of a snicker/other candy bar is over 200 calories. If I suck on the hard candy in one side of my mouth, and chew the gum on the other side, it satiates that need to eat something sweet. I have to chew gum with the candy though, or otherwise I just chew up the candy in a few seconds and I'm screwed, ha ha. But if I chew the gum, the candy will last like 15 minutes and it's only 10-15 calories.

And yeah, water. I drink a crapload of water.

Jessicado22 - Thank you so much!! I'll try it out.

SKIPPING this week! Unusual weight gain this morning!

The scale has finally reflected my efforts. Awesome!

166.6 this morning, glad to finally be in the 160's after being in the 170's for two months!!

Good morning everyone

Weight in this morning was 243!!! Down 42lbs overall and down 25 lbs since the start of this challenge I am seriously loving this challenge!
First of all I do weigh myself every day, as it does not discourage me if I see a gain in fact it does quite the opposite it completely motivates me to work that much harder that day to drop and lose again, and if I do see a loss that of course motivates me to keep going as we'll. I also like to know how the type and amount of food I ate the day before effects my weight. I know a day to day weight difference is mostly water but if I had a higher amount of salt well then I am pretty sure that gain is retention, but if I happened to have a total binge day and have a gain I can say see if I eat to much it will show and I just can't do that. So daily weigh ins is a completely double positive for me!
Secondly my reporting here every Thursday is a huge motivator for me no matter how many times I weigh during the week it's like here is the one that makes me accountable for my week. When I am craving a less them optimal snack I think about this challenge and how I really REALLY want to get an extra cute maybe even sexy Halloween costume this year. Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year but for the past few years finding a costume has just been depressing, at 285lbs not even the plus side costumes fit or if they do I don't think I looked good in them since they were just not flattering to my shape so for the past 2-3 years I haven't even gotten a costume but not this year I can't wait to go shopping!!!!!

Congrats to everyone who had a loss this week way to go, I love reading the posts here and all of you are awesome no matter what the scale reads!
jessicado22 your posts are always an inspiration to me, love your advice and your progress has been amazing!
thnknthin1 Awesome! You are so close to goal!!!!
Warrior Fighting with food at night is sometimes the hardest thing for me, during the day so many other things keep me occupied, but when everyone is asleep and the house is quiet and the treats start calling my name ( like you said wether I'm hungry or not) it becomes hard to resist. I wish I had some magic advice but most of the time I have to chalk it up to will power (which I haven't had much of in the past) brushing my teeth and just going to bed. Over the past month or so I have been drinking ALOT more water at night or even pop a peppermint candy or two since not a whole lot tastes as good after toothpaste and peppermint. I also know what I eat that late will reflect on my morning weigh in so sometimes that helps me not want to eat. Congrats on all the progress you have made so far!!!

Well, after a month of stalling and seeing zero downward movement on the scale, I finally had a good weigh in today! I've been stuck at 147/146.5 since the end of the fourth of July challenge, so I've been trying to really buckle down this week and hold myself accountable with tracking everything I eat-- whenever i diet for a long period of time i always start to becoming more lax with myself without realizing it as time goes on, but this time I'm determined to keep trucking along. Up to this point, exercise has not been a part of my plan-- I know that this sounds ridiculous, but I've managed to lose about 40 pounds through limiting my intake alone, so since it was working for me I didn't see the need to change it. Now that I'm down to a lower weight though, I think I've reached the point that I'm going to need to pull out every stop if I want to keep losing, which means going back to the gym. It's a pain for me since a. gyms are SUPER expensive in NYC, and b. I work at a large law firm and my hours can make it really hard to make time for exercise, but I did some digging and found a planet fitness location nearby that is only $20 a month, and even though it's out of my way, I've been making myself go. Maybe that's what finally made the difference this week, who knows! It's never really made a difference for me in the past because it always makes me more hungry. I'm also planning to cut down on the carbs for the next week or so and see if that gives me an extra jump start-- I desperately need it!

Congratulations to everyone who has lost this week! Jessicado, your posts always inspire me! I can't believe you're down almost to the 170's already. It was only like a month ago that you were hoping to get past the 210s and 200s! Whatever you're doing is REALLY working-- teach me your ways, oh wise one.

Warrior-- I totally know what you mean about night cravings. Sometimes i wake up in the middle of the night just craving sugar and I try to raid the cabinets. The only thing that works for me is not to keep anything sweet around the apartment, but I'm addicted to sugar. Water and some of those flavored seltzer water drinks have really helped me a lot. Sometimes you just need to taste something. I like Jessicado's idea about the root beer candies, too. Those sound really yummy!

Suzukigirl-- way to go on your loss this week! I like to weigh myself every day too, it's kind of like a daily reminder to keep on track, even though it can be frustrating to watch it fluctuate up and down every day. I always just count whatever my Thursday weigh in was as the final word for the week-- despite the fluctuations, over time, if you're really losing weight, it does go down. I sometimes look at the spreadsheet to remind myself of that!

Thinknthin-- congrats on your losses! you can do it!

gained a couple of pounds, but have been doing LOTS of walking, so it's not too terrible. Sometimes i have to remind myself it's not the number that's important, it's how I feel, and I feel great!

First full week back on plan, feels great to see your efforts on the scale. It wasn't super easy, but I love when I can feel that determination in myself that says "this time I mean it, I'm going to lose this weight!"

Going out of town for the next three days for my anniversary and pretty nervous. Trying to stay on track as much as possible on the trip, but will admit I am thankful that next weigh-in won't be until next Friday.

Also, recruited some of my nursing gals to work out with me as I start my routine next week. Pretty excited about that. Can't wait to see what adding exercise in will do to the scale.

Congrats to everyone who lost this week!

Congrats! It's always a great feeling to make positive progress

Congrats on breaking your plateau!

That's amazing!!! Whenever I see other people achieve progress, it really helps inspire me to keep going

Congrats on breaking your plateau! I am at a similar point with everything you just said. I used to lose weight based solely on watching my diet and now that I'm a bit smaller, I need to add in exercise. Also, exercise helps me like the way my body looks, more toned and less jiggly lol. Chicago (where I live) can be expensive as far as gyms are concerned too, but it's worth it!
And, the low-carb diet has been the only diet that has worked for me. I did crazy low carbs for a while (Dr. suggested) but I've gradually increased my carbs (around 100-150 grams a day), of mostly fruit and legumes and it's worked well for me. I feel more energetic, and my hair, skin and nails have all improved (not to mention my weight ).



Finally, after my freakout over the last two weeks of GAINING instead of losing, I have dropped some poundage, and I am actually 0.2 below my lowest weight, haha. May not seem like much, but after having gained 2 lbs, I will take it!

UGH! TOM + Hitting a plateau + A pmsing 10 year old in my house has made this a extremely cranky week. *sigh* hopefully my body smartens up as much as i want to say eff this week and cave to some sweet tooth cravings and devour steak like a man, i will not! Wish i could turn water into calorie free wine thou.

Seize The Day -- Since you sound like you're experienced in the world of low carb stuff, I have questions for you! I've always just been a calorie counter, so this is kind of new to me. What exactly qualifies as being low carb? I've been trying just to keep mine below 100 g/day, which isn't too hard but definitely requires some effort because I'm not a huge fan of meat, so I usually rely on beans and eggs for my protein. I'm scared if I try to force myself to go too low carb I'm going to end up only eating eggs, and i don't want to go into cholesterol overload (I refuse to give up yolks!). I also don't want to push myself too far over the edge of making everything super difficult/depriving myself of all the things I like, because that has only led to pushing me off the wagon in the past.

Any info is appreciated!

vdh2102: People throw around a lot of different numbers in regards to low carb. I consider it to be anything considerably less than what your "normal" amount would be. My "normal" amount, or the amount that a woman my age and size is "supposed" to eat is 210 grams.

I'm epileptic, and to try and help with my disorder, my dr. suggested I go on a ketogenic diet, which is ideally 20 grams of carbs a day. This is practically nothing, and I tended to stick around 50 grams a day. After doing the keto diet for 2 months, my dr. moved me to a more typical low carb diet where I can have 100-ish carbs a day, but twice a week, I try and get my carbs back down around 50.

The medical reasoning behind going low carb, is that when your body isn't burning glucose (energy from carbs) it will burn fat, and fat releases ketones which help brain function. It has been theorized that people used to eat a more meat and veggie based diet, and this helped protect brain function, and now that we are a carbs based society, more cognitive issues have arisen (Not sure if this true or not, but interesting nonetheless).

Everyone's body releases ketones at its own pace, meaning, we each burn glucose at a different rate (based on metabolism) and when that glucose is gone, we each burn fat at a different rate. For me, 50 grams of carbs a day meant pretty consistently losing a 0.5 lbs, to 1 lb every week, pretty much without even trying (though my first week I lost 4 lbs - and I am in the 120's so I lose much slower than I used to). At 100 grams a day, I lose 1 lb about every 2 weeks, or slightly less.

Bumping up exercise = bumping up glucose burning, which means you are able to start burning fat much faster. On a low carb diet, you will start to notice that you look more toned, based on losing fat, and replenishing muscle mass with protein.

My advice is to drink a ton of water, especially at first. Every glucose molecule has 4 water molecules, whereas fat/protein molecules only have 1 or 2, so you will feel thirsty, and possibly a little light headed at first, but that goes away quickly, and with it, your energy should increase, and any headaches, etc. should go away (or seizures for me ).

Eggs are great for low carb. I eat them hardboiled, scrambled, etc. Meat is important - though it took me a while to get used to since I used to not be a big meat eater - and there are tons of recipes out there on how to incorporate it in new and interesting ways.

Foods I would suggest are:

• Eggs
• String Cheese/ or other types of cheese
• coffee/lattes done breve (with half and half, lots of cals but almost no carbs, and quite filling)
• soups made with a chicken stock or beef stock, with vegetables and meet
• avocados (these have some carbs, but not to many, and they are quite filling, and full of healthy fats)
• olive oil
• coconut oil
• nuts
• beans (you have to be careful with beans as they have a decent amoutn of carbs)
• Berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries)
• greek yogurt (plain and unsweetened
• cucumbers
• spinach
• turnips
• cauliflower
• broccoli
• Bell peppers (be careful with these though as red/yellow/orange have a bit more carbs)
• crustless cheesecake (made with stevia)
• sugarfree pudding
• pickles

Make sure you eat enough fat - preferably healthy fats found in avocados, olive oil, coconut oil, etc. Because otherwise you can get protein poisoning (often called rabbit flu). And be careful with sweetners (which are often added to "lowfat" or diet foods to make them taste better, and are full of carbs) fruit - which can be high carb due to the natural sugars, and root vegetables (potatoes, carrots, etc.).

There are some great low carb recipes and ideas here: http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/recipes.html

Let me know if you have any other questions, and good luck

Down 2.5 pounds this week.
Excited because I had gotten down to 237 this past February, and then gained 20 pounds. Super excited that (hopefully) next weigh-in will be lower than 237 and I can start loosing NEW weight!!