Christmas is coming! The most dreaded season for dieters .

Fruitcake, eggnog, gingerbread, plum pudding . Bring on the lbs.!

Are you planning any coping strategies yet?

Have a great week everyone!

Good morning all!

I didn't lose or gain anything last week. I have figured out how to maintain my current weight just by what I'm eating . No writing, measuring, etc. I just know when I've gone over a bit one day and compensate the next.

But that's not the goal - YET!

So back to the notebook and scale. It's getting harder to stay under 1400 calories as the weather's much colder and I'm crashing hard in the afternoon.

And this week I have an evening walk to do three days a week and I have a short sleep-over, which just adds to the stress of the coming holiday season.

There's gonna be lotsa whining and excuses from me this week. I'm trying to figure out how to motivate myself for these last three lbs while keeping all the rest of the balls in the air.

Dagmar (lotsa "frownies" this week)

Have been very good at staying on track this last week, and am trying very hard not to let the numbers on the scale dictate how i feel about me. It is a number, not who i am.

Plan to continue as before but give myself some extra wiggle room for Thanksgiving, and then start back again the next day.

I had a great weekend when my weight finally got back to ticker weight, but it's back up again due to a couple of desserts this weekend. I'm sure the burrito for lunch Saturday didn't help either.

I'll buckle down and keep an eye on my caloric intake this week and I'll stay away from the desserts. I also have to watch the wine....

Just dropped in to say hello

I'm still lurking around and seem to be maintaining my weight but I have decided to do something different instead of calorie counting. I guess I'm getting burned out on logging everything that goes in my mouth so I'm just doing portion control for now. I need to stop stepping on the scale everyday too. It all seems like it becomes too obsessive and then I rebel and tend to overeat . Right now I only eat when I'm truly hungry and stop when I start to feel satisfied. It seems to be working out. I've only been doing it a week and although I haven't lost any weight, I haven't gained any either .

Anyway, just wanted to say hi and I'll keep you up to date on how my new "plan" is working.

Evening folks! I'm home from work and winding down from the first decent food day I've had in ages.

Pathetic I tells ya! That's what the last few days have been.

Not really much positive stuff to report... I fell way off-plan yesterday. Was traveling on business and ended up having a good-sized breakfast (nothing really bad, but considering the way I ate for the rest of the day it should have been a lot smaller). A big slice of mushroom pizza for lunch, and it wasn't even very good. And then for dinner... oh, dinner. Fried calamari, fried mushroom with a potato frite, salad (no cheese at least, as if that's any consolation), and then pork/shrimp cassoulet as my main course. All of this tempered with lots and lots of wine, which I had chosen so I got myself sucked into trying each of the bottles as they came out (which then led to me loving what I had picked and having a full glass from each one). And for dessert? More wine (but one of the best dessert wines I've ever had), and then apple-raisin bread pudding with french vanilla ice cream on top. After dinner I then went to a bar and had a cranberry-vodka (which is at least one of the lowest-cal drinks you can get, since I don't drink diet soda, but it's still not great). The worst part is, I would do it all again in a second - the food was delicious. I have no willpower.

Actually, I guess I have one positive. I abstained from the bread basket at dinner. Whoo hoo

I'm flying back to NYC right now, but I obviously couldn't pack lunch today, so that means I'll have to go out for lunch. I'm going to try to slip out without my manager noticing so that I can go to Subway. If he realizes that I didn't bring lunch before I buy anything, he'll try to get me to go somewhere with him that will take me even further off-plan. My weigh-in is going to be tomorrow morning, and I'm nervous.

So much for me eating a bit lighter to gear up for Thanksgiving, huh?

I too am not doing so well this week (and it's only Tues. - pathetic).

Just replaced the belgian chocolate cookies tin which I got into last night . Didn't eat them all (thank goodness - it's about 2 lbs. of cookies) and the compost bin got the ones I didn't gobble. Expensive compost.

And the really boneheaded thing about it was that I ate the cookies 'cause I was mad at my DH. He wouldn't let me eat any of his chocolate ice cream

Well I showed him, didn't I? I think I've gained more lbs. from sulking than from any other one factor. Lots of salad for dinner tonite. SIGH

We need a smilie with a dunce cap

Dagmar

Dagmar - sorry to hear about your run-in with the cookies.
What is it about DH's and food?

Mine brought home 3 frozen pies - I wasn't too worried as I don't really like pie.
...But after that lovely pie came out of the oven and was sitting on the counter all hot and smelling delish - I caved
Not much mind you - but every bit adds up.

How will I ever see the 140's again at this rate??
-S

I think this has been mentioned many times. Our DH's, partners, parents, friends, etc. may feel threatened by what we are doing with our bodies. There are not many people out there who like change, particularly if they think they themselves are also expected to change.

My own DH is in the high risk group now for a heart attack. He has a stomach hernia, where his belly fat has literally pushed out his intestines and ripped his stomach wall. And do I want to make love with a guy with a beach ball sized mound of fat on his belly? Not really.

And I'm not nagging him. I'm trying to set an example that I hope he'll follow but I'm not ordering him to do anything. I have expressed concern about his health and offered various solutions.

He keeps bringing home the ice cream and cookies. I've asked him not to do it and his answer?

"I've got stress"

I've told him time and time again (even though we can't really afford it) to quit his present job and find a better place to work.

Nothing changes. I'm beginning to think the only way to change this situation is for me to leave. And this is not a decision I've made lightly. This has been going on for three years. I really can't keep listening to all of his negativity and watching him destroy his health with food.

Sorry to go on so long.

Dagmar

Hi everyone. Hope you have a great upcoming holiday! I am having an early Thanksgiving dinner later today, another one tomorrow and yet another big dinner Friday! Makes it really hard to SOP! So far WW is working out better than anything else has, although the ticker crept up to 145 again. I am SLOWLY losing weight now. I have upped my work-outs to try to help it along. At this rate, I won't reach goal until about May! I do have to get into a swimsuit in about 4 wks...always a good motivator!

.......one day at a time!

Morning!

My butt is kinda draggin' this morning. I had the weirdest shift last evening. I ate my chicken with my fingers while I did my charting. When I got home (with most of lunch still in my bag) I had soup and a sandwich. Odd midnight snack.

Just as soon as I gather my wits, I'm going for a walk ... honest. And I'd better pack more finger food for work tonight.

Doing a little happy dance , out of the 30's and into the 20's. Wouldn't it be bizarre if I reach goal on Thanksgiving day ?

Dagmar, sorry to hear about all your troubles. I'm not married so I can't quite relate to getting thrown off, but I dated a guy for a year who smoked. I can't stand that, and he quit when we first started dating, but picked it back up about 6 months into the relationship. What's odd is, he was always trying to get in shape: biking, running, swimming, lifting weights, etc. For a while he was even toying with the idea of doing a triathlon or a marathon. His answer was always that he was stressed, or he was at a party and just wanted to smoke socially. We stayed very close friends after we broke up, but actually hit a snag about a week ago because I keep trying to get him to be more responsible. I don't want his life to get derailed because of silly choices (smoking being just one example, though I gave up on trying to get him to quit a while ago). It's REALLY hard to express concern and help someone without coming off as nagging. My friends keep telling me to leave it alone, and that I can't make it my problem, but that kind of thing is hard when you really care about someone and want the best for them. It sounds like you are in a similar situation. Unfortunately, I think I screwed it up, so I'm probably not the best person to ask for advice.

I weighed in this morning (two days late, because of my travels - I refuse to weigh in on a different scale just because you never know what the scale-to-scale differences may be). I'm up 1/2 pound. Not a huge deal, but disappointing nonetheless, especially since I'm not expecting to fare very well with my diet on Thanksgiving.

I've been working on a spreadsheet, now that I've been tracking calories/weight consistently for a bit, to figure out exactly what my maintenance/loss calories are and should be. Haven't spent a ton of time with it yet, but right now, based on my net calories for last week and how that affected the scale, it seems like my maintenance amount calories per day is 1500, which would mean to lose 1 pound/week, I'd have to net only 1000 calories a day. Which I know is dangerous, and I'm not going to attempt that. Alternately, if I ignore the "net calories" and only look at what I actually ate, I can have 2000 calories a day as maintenance, as long as I also work out for an hour a day. That just doesn't seem right. So... how is this possible? Ridiculously slow metabolism? I know I'm not overweight but I definitely have a few extra pounds so it seems like it SHOULD be possible to lose them.

Hopefully I'm reading and interpreting Laura's question correctly ...

It's OK to NET 1000 calories. Since that includes calories you did eat but worked off, you did get nutrition ... is that clear?

I don't like the concept of net calories. Exercise expenditures are veeerrry difficult to estimate with any accuracy. The only thing you can track with much precision is your intake.
2000 calories for a young healthy acitve woman? Could be. There's got to be some basis for the labelling of nutrients as a percentage of a 2000 calorie diet.