Way to go on the 50 miles Allison!

I went off plan for one meal on Saturday (date got canceled.. DH was sick). That makes only 3 times off plan since Jan 2nd! :carrot:

I do plan on having a "free evening" for the Superbowl this weekend (but that's in Feb :D )

At my Dr appt yesterday - all cysts are gone! and I'm starting my 3rd attempt at an IVF cycle with Lupron injections starting tomorrow :dizzy: I'd love to drop a few more pounds between now and when the stim injections begin on Feb 16th. Would be great to get back down to 135 - at least I wouldn't be in the "overweight" range for my height anymore. ;)

I suck with working out. Walking my dogs is the only exercise I'm getting, and right now I just don't care enough to try to do more.

Great news on the cysts, Tamsie! My mom gets tons of cysts, and she's had to have several removed, so I'm sure my time will come... I'm dreading it though. Also, your number of off-plan meals is really impressively low. I tend to be off-plan a few times a week! Haha.

Just got the news that I'm going to be working in Boston for the next two weeks, so that gives me extra incentive to eat healthy before I go, because I know it'll be tricky to eat healthy on the road. Superbowl Sunday will be tough, but if I end up at a friend's apartment party, I'll definitely bring some homemade healthy goodies. I think I'm doomed if we go with the plan to just all go to a bar though...

Ha! Laura, when I was your age, I woulda been off plan several times a week too!! ;) I'm a homebody these days :D

I used to travel a lot for work too - getting a microwave and fridge put in your hotel room could help out tons.

Oh my dear friends, I'm having a terrible time!

Most of the time, I just don't care (read here vodka in one hand, popcorn in the other). The rest of the time, I feel guilty and fat.

Once we learn to lose weight effectively, do we destine ourselves to a life of two-faced self-flagelation?

And I'm supposed to be a February welcome wagon poster! Who wants to be welcomed by someone who can't fit in her jeans????

Give it to me with both barrels gals. I should know better.

Susan - it's sounds more like you need a hug than a smack down :hug::hug:

Take a step back, you don't have to get back into it all at once, start small... with one thing and let it build from there. i.e. put down the popcorn (keep the vodka.. hahaha.. i'm bad :D ), or let go of something else so you can have your popcorn.

You don't have to be perfect to get back into your jeans... just consistent.

My *** outgrew my jeans quickly.. and I kept trying to find a way to get back into them just as quick. It didn't work... I just had to resign myself to it taking however long it takes, but as long as I don't give up completely... somewhere down the road, I'll be better off than I am today.

:hug::hug:

Oh, Susan, we all have that problem!!! I'm still trying to get off my holiday pounds and instead of losing, I've gained this week. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the oatmeal raisin cookies I bought on Monday (now all eaten--mainly by me) and the Valentines candy (eating too much after dinner, still half there).

Reflecting back on the past two years when I was able to lose, I figured out what I'm doing different this year. The other years, I was president of a charity organization which required me to be at two to three meetings per month. Each meeting was in the early evening/late afternoon and food was generally served (munchies most of the time). I would eat the healthy munchies or nothing at all if it wasn't healthy. When I'd get home at 8 or 9 PM it would be too late to eat so I'd have a glass of wine with a couple crackers with cheese. Okay, so it's not all that nutritious, but it made my daily calorie count on those 2-3 days per month very low. I'm starting to think that this is what helped contribute to my steady loss. I think I need to start zig-zagging my calories throughout the week rather than my steady 1200-1400 per day.

Oh Susan, I wonder this too sometimes! Everytime I eat off-plan, I feel so horribly guilty about it. I miss the days when I could go to a restaurant, order what I want, and not feel guilty about it. Eating out has become an ordeal. Or last night, I really wanted a piece of cinnamon bread and you can't imagine how long I agonized about whether or not I should eat it. I was already off-plan because I had dinner out, so I knew I shouldn't have it. In the end, I broke down and ate it and of course immediately wished I hadn't. I have a birthday coming up and friends offered to take me out to lunch and I turned them down, partly because I just didn't want to have one more off-plan meal. Oh how I wish I could get back to the days where eating didn't require so much thought.

Susan et al..... I feel the same way :grouphug: ... This is why 3FC is such a life saver for me, 3FC made me realise that I am NOT alone ... This is what hit the the hardest when I joined here a few years ago... EVERYONE was in the same boat... I was so surprised at this revelation... Some days/weeks/months are good some not so.... I am finally on the right track this month after not being on track from September to December... Some times it just takes longer than other times to get back on track... We all know you CAN and WILL get back on track Susan... Just keep at it and posting here...:grouphug:

Thank you ... thank you all. :hug:

I know, I know, I know, I know .... intellectually, I know.

Although I'm not much into the psychology of this whole thing ... I have been thinking about a couple of things today. I'm not sure when cuz work was ****-on-wheels, however. "I'm not much good at losing weight while I'm working full-time. I could get myself properly aligned if I had some time off." and "Vacation weight, oi! I eat too much when we're away ... and Christmas!"

So I've pretty much absolved myself there, haven't I? Not while I'm working and not while I'm off. And I'm guessing that's the old 'you are what you think about most of the time' thing happening.

Working full-time is not a temporary inconvenience. It is what I do now. Visiting my family in Alabama is not an unforseen circumstance. It is something we do 3 or 4 times a year. Christmas holidays come around pretty regularly. THIS is my life. I can accommodate this life or I can be fat. That's it, that's all, there ain't no more.

Pretty wordy blather for -JUST DO IT-

OK, Susan time to get back on track, I know you can do it, and you know you can do it. I was watching you while I was trying to get to goal and so admired the way you could maintain. Take your last shot of Vodka and your last handful of popcorn. I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT!! Don't make out to be a liar.

PS, Susan , I will be watching, good luck.

Susan, none of us are in a position to give it to you with both barrels. We have been there and done that. Please be kind to yourself. Beating yourself up just adds another round to a downward spiral. What's done is done. You can be back on plan with your next meal.

I have never maintained a good weight. It has been up-down-up-down. I figured out that at the rate I am losing, I will only be able to increase my calories by 200-300 when I reach my goal. I usually gain weight when I travel and am prone to overeat and flake off on exercise when I get too tired. I hope there is a way to maintain weight without a lot of mental stuff--the anxiety when eating out, the depression after "blowing it".

Both barrels Susan
 

Both barrels are pointed right at my expanding GUT!! I have been using stress as an excuse :o to slip back into the old :devil: bad habits.

Losing the weight is the easier part (:eek: no, no, don't everyone slap me around). Trying to wrap our heads around the fact that we have to eat healthily for the most part FOR THE REST OF OUR GOLDDRUN LIVES is the harder part.

Everyone likes treats, be they drinks, eats, massages, expensive jewels, cars ;) etc. A vodka now and then and popcorn a couple of times a week can be ok. We just can't do it all the time.

It's hard to accept that we have to watch what we eat for the rest of our lives. But we don't have to obsess every day, turn down friend's invitiations, or get out our hair shirts. We just have to have more good days than bad and try to make the bad days not so bad.

You're already there Susan. Just go back to having more good days and accept that there will be some bad ones.

Dagmar (the cookie guru ;))

I'm traveling on business, and the Doubletree hotel where I'm staying gives you a chocolate chip cookie on check in. I ate the whole thing (see my blog), and felt horribly guilty. I then got back on track by heading to the hotel gym immediately after putting my stuff in my room, and actually burning off what I ate! (At least, if you subscribe to the one mile = 100 cals thing). But then I sabotaged myself after dinner by having two more cookies!!!! I knew I would feel terrible, but I wanted the cookies and I didn't care. I'm going to do a little bit of a workout in my hotel room, but it's definitely not going to really fix it... frustrating.

I'm fueled for the weather
 

Just to make sure I can cope with today's freezing rain/ice pellets/blowing snow I ate an entire box of crackers and half a bag of corn chips last night. it's been that kind of stuff the last two weeks. And I still have two more weeks of long, long, stressful days without taking winter storms into account.

I'm afraid to step on the scale right now. Winter is always tough for me but this year, with my dad's foolishness and the car being stolen, plus of course DH has a new "crisis" at work because I'm so stressed and he needs more attention, I'm afraid of gaining all the weight back.

I have to get a grip. Today I move in to stay with 2 dogs whose house is being renovated. No kitchen. Maybe I can pull something out of this. I have a fridge and microwave and a kettle. Have to develop a whole new eating plan.

I will definitely take along my Michael Clayton photo and post it somewhere really visible. He and this board are all the support I have. DH is going away with his buddies tomorrow so I have to look after our own cats too and one of them is getting sick.

I will deal with this. If hunger is not the problem, eating is not the solution. I will not regain all the weight I have so painfully and slowly lost. I have to make that decision every day.

Dagmar