Oneoftwelve, I truly admire your restraint and wish I could do that. How on earth can you not wallow in self-pity when all you get is "a sliver of pie minus the crust, and a spoonful of ice-cream"? If I do that, all I can think about is how it will be gone in 2-3 bites, and everyone else is eating 4x that much?

And this brings me to the subject of today's issue, which is self-pity. I have been indulging in altogether too much of it this week, and I don't know why. Everything about my dieting seems unfair all of a sudden- my slow weight loss despite "doing everything right" (95% of the time), that everyone around me seems to indulge in treats that I can't have, the fact that I have to get up at 6:40 in order to get my exercise in, etc. I really need to shake myself free of this attitude, and finding it hard.

I feel like I'm losing steam to lose. 128 seems to be a "magic number" that is really tough to get below. I am by all rights in a healthy weight range and could stop losing if I wanted to but I know it would be dishonest to myself because I am still really unsatisfied with how I look. I have been feeling resentful and jealous of other people who eat whatever they want without caring. It feels dangerous. I hope I can find "the zone" soon and get excited about losing again.

Jessiecat - I was at the place you are right now when I finally decided to do this - and do it right! I was just so fed up, had my last straw and couldnt take the constant dieting and obsession. I wanted to finally get the weight gone and keep it off. I have full faith in myself that I can keep the weight off (I have a maintenance plan :devil:) but its sticking to a plan long enough to get off the weight I want. To get where I want, I am estimating about a 4 month long process - maybe even more! Those last pounds are stubborn! You asked what my plan is. Well after trying 29348 different "diets" and only being able to stick with them for about 2 weeks at most I have finally found one that works. Basically this is what I have been doing since September 27:

Calories: I try to stay under 1300 calories a day eating clean. Sounds boring I know. But honestly I have found clean foods that taste so good. I do NOT cut out carbs. I love them and they have been what helps me stay on track. I eat things like ezekial whole grain bread (seriously like 5 pieces a day!), laughing cow cheese, eggs, chicken, kettle popcorn, almonds, low fat string cheese, ham and cheese sandwhiches and its all clean. I have found that the weight comes off a lot faster eating 1300 calories of clean food rather than 1200 calories of lean cuisines :D I have tracked my calorie intake since I started. I want to make a note that I have NOT stayed on plan 100%. During the first 4 weeks I went off plan 6 days. And 3 of those days were at 2000 calories and one was even at 3000 calories. My point is, you can mess up and still get back on the wagon and lose. I have gone out to eat, enjoyed yummy foods (treats) and drank alcohol. You just have to be smart and somehow fit it in your plan! As for exercise, the first month I didnt. I wanted my body to get used to what I was doing and I didnt want to stress too much because thats when I binge. But now that I have gotten used to this new diet plan I try to run 2.5 miles at least 4 days a week. But honestly, I have been slacking on that as well.

Lose and Jessiecat - I am all too familiar with binges. Actually just had one last night while babysitting. I always seem to do it when I babysit - their food is just so damn hard to resist. Binges def. set you back but I dont believe they ruin a diet like some people might say. Most of the time when you step on the scale the next day after a binge, a lot of it is water weight. Just like you cant lose 2 pounds in a day, you cant gain it either. So lets say you have an all out binge and eat 3000 calories. If you burn 2000 calories between your bmr and your daily movement/activities you would realistically gain at most .3 pounds from your binge. 1000/3500 = .28. If you make a dificit the next day or two of 1000, it will even out and you will be back on track. The only thing that stinks is you lost those 3 days gaining/getting back on track that you could have been losing! So its really not as traumatic as we make ourselves feel; but if you binge often, it will catch up!

Well Happy Thursday feathers! We are almost at Friday :carrot:

After my lovely LATE night binge at babysitting, the scale went up from 129.6 to 131 this morning. I am not too worried though. Even though I binged and it shot my carbs up to 200, my calories were still around 1800 which wont produce a gain. I will bet my pennies my weight will be at 129.8 tomorrow morning. We will see :D I have been on TOM for two days now and I think thats where my crazy cravings and binges are coming from. Damn TOM.

Have a great day feathers and keep it up!!

Hey all,
Neurodoc and Krampus Lol i love how were all sort of going through the same emotions at the same time. I have been wallowing in self pity too but not because i cant eat more, but just because i am not the skinniest one within my friends and how they have it so much easier then me. Which i guess yes it also has to do with them eating whatever they want and not gaining. I SWEAR it feels like i befriend girls who are not only skinny but also can eat whatever they want. Its lifes little joke on me. Three my best friends and they are exactly that. But soon i know i will be there except i still wont be eating what i want unless it my birthday (i think).

Diana: Thank you for that i feel better and your whole outlook on the binge makes me want to binge more. LOL no i am kidding. It actually makes it easier to move on.

On a shocking level: I actually weighed myself today and after three days of crazy binge ONLY ON chocolate and almonds i am back at 138 lbs. Which i cannot believe. Furthermore it proves that Dianne your logic is 100 % true.


Okay everyone lets stop wallowing and start losing!!! hugs to everyone.

Lose25, cutting out sugar for a while may be very helpful. Just make sure you read labels for sugar ingredients like "malt syrup" or whatever all the fake sugars are called (you can find all the various forms of sugar in a quick google search). Or be vigilant about checking the grams of sugar on the panel. A lot of people find that eating sugar makes them crave more sugar, so it's a spiraling cycle. Think of it as a detox period, not a deprivation diet, and see if it helps! Also, have you been to the "chicks in control" board here? I find it helpful when I'm in a binge or trying to get back to normal.

It seems a bunch of us are suffering from calorie envy -- being jealous of other people who can eat more. When I start down that road, I [try to :)] remind myself that it's no different from being jealous of someone with more money or a bigger house or a nicer car. Life isn't fair. Also, have you ever been jealous of someone who had something you didn't, only to find out later that his/her life had more challenges or difficulties than you imagined?

Diane (just easier to go by your screen name I think), I so agree with your philosophy on the occasional binge. It's important to realize that going a thousand, two thousand, heck even three thousand calories over is not going to ruin any progress we've made. There was a #FC member who was binging, seeing the immediate weight gain, panicking, and going into very-low-cal eating to make up for it. But the problem was, the vlc days just set her up for another binge. She wasn't realizing that much of the gain was temporary, and a few days of regular ol' on-plan eating would quickly erase most (if not all) of that gain. Of course, those who binge frequently will eventually see a gain. :(

The scale is coming down for me little by little after my bad weekend. TOM started today so hopefully that trend will continue. I find it very hard to drink water now that it is cold out. I drink a lot of decaf tea but I just can't bring myself to chug bottles of plain water now that I am freezing most of the day! (and it's in the 50s here). January is going to be brutal!

Hey everyone!
Officially been here 20 days... got my ticker/signature this morning!

Scale back down a wee little bit today. Going to try my very best to stay focused and keep on plan. I'm THISCLOSE to my Dec 1st goal!

On the topic of the binge--ALMOST had a binge situation last night, but let myself have a (whole) bag of popcorn and an apple instead. The 300-ish calories of healthy food were a good choice in the face of a potentially ugly snack-a-thon.

Also had a "NSV" this week.... I ran the longest consecutive distance I've ever run in my WHOLE life: 7 miles! No walking! I had a serious runner friend with me at the time, and she's been an amazing source of knowledge and motivation. I plan to keep her close and go to her for motivation, encouragement, and as a role model.

Hoping to keep working at this running goal, and will be signing up for an 8k in January :) I am finding that having something to work on/shoot for really keeps me motivated to stay movin.'

Hope you're all feelin' the good vibes today!

xoxo
FPSJ

Diane- Thank you so much for posting all that info. You have made wonderful progress since September. WTG!

Lose25- How is it going today being back on track? I'm anxious to hear!

Well my day is going well. I am trying to adapt 4 rules I learned watching TLC once... some of you may have heard him, his name is Paul McKenna.
Here they are:
1. When you are hungry, eat.
2. Eat what you want, not what you think you should.
3. Eat consciously and enjoy every mouthful.
4. When you think you are full, stop!

Sounds easy right? :dizzy:Well that is what I am trying to implement. I'll see if it works!;)

So much for HIIT being the magic cure to my plateau. Bounced back to 128 yesterday and was still there this morning (and I'm not pre-menstrual). I'm beginning to think I'm destined for this weight, which is NOT ok by me. Krampus, this is exactly the same weight you are, which is an odd coincidence; and I see we're having similar "attitude issues" towards weight loss as well. However, since I'm barely 5'2", trust me, you must look a **** of a lot thinner at this same weight than I do. Good luck- I'm not done fighting yet, and I bet neither are you.

JessieCat, there's a whole thread over on the Maintaining board which talks about "intuitive eating," whose rules you are essentially quoting. You should read the conversation; the ladies there were not too keen on it for weight loss.

Same7, I am soo with you on the cold water thing. I was FREEZING all day today (literally had tingling toes and had to blow on my fingers repeatedly). There is no way I'm going to drink cold water. I have been using hot tea (usually green, sometimes herbal), coffee and occasionally instant miso soup to give me that full feeling before and between meals.

Dianne042425, I agree that the lower your body weight gets, the more weight loss slows. What I'm not so sure I agree with is what constitutes "clean" food (why is packaged kettle corn or a laughing cow cheese any "cleaner" than a Lean Cuisine? The list of additives/preservatives on each of these is quite similar), and why eating 1300 calories of said "clean" foods would make weight loss any easier than 1300 calories of junk. Here is an interesting article (food for thought, so to speak): http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08...sor/index.html

Good night everyone. Hope your scale readings are all favorable tomorrow.

So. . .
Busiest day of the semester--studying like mad for an insane Nutrition exam tomorrow. Exhausted yet hyped up on caffeine from coke zero.
And I still ate under 2000 calories (too much from carb, but I'll do better tomorrow) and did weights/calisthenics for 30 minutes.
Heck yes! I can do this thing! :)

57.8 kg (127.5 or so) this morning while playing the "standing really close to the edge on top of the analog scale" game. Up from a week ago. Still feel a bit burned out/hopeless but I'm really stressed out and busy at work so maybe I'll burn calories from worrying. harhar.

Funny you should mention thinness neurodoc. I took some pictures of myself in underwear recently and unless I stand in weird poses flexing or with my arms over my head I feel like I look about 140 lbs. I understand this could be a product of being "skinny fat" and having residual skin from never getting very toned anywhere but it is very disheartening. I do not understand the science of a flat stomach.

Thesame7lbs. I think your right and i havent had sugar in the last two days and i plan on staying away from it. I actually havent looked into that forum but will for sure from now on, and hopefully it will help me.

Jessiecate: Thanks for being anxious to hear lol makesme feel a little important that my progress will somehow affect you. Its actually been really good. So second day of doing perfect and tomorrow is my third. You know when you restart fresh and have this gut feeling that you will have a perfect two weeks. Well i am sure of those two weeks but i am hoping i will have a perfect month.

So as you can all se its about 1:30 am and i was just too anxious to sleep. I have so many questions to ask and sort of want answers or lots of opinions on Question one: (this will be long) Does anyone come from an overweight family? I come from one and i have 5 siblings all of them are overweight and one obese except for my very oldest. I am the fourth one. And my whole life i have been trying to lose weight/ not get fat because i saw first hand how much weight affected my sisters. They would cry if nothing fit them and sometimes we would miss parties as a whole because they had nothing to wear. My oldest sister did lose weight about 50 lbs (which i am VERY proud of) but now shes pregnant and plans on losing it again when she delievers. However the other one whos 25 has one of those faces that is beyond gorgeous but then there is always the afterthought of IF Only she lost weight. And shes the obese one in our family. What i guess i am trying to get at is even though i have tried to lose weight my whole life i feel like i have always had 25 lbs to lose even when i didnt. SO now that i have gone to a new low in my weight 138 which i havent been at since highschool it borthers me that the 25 year old isnt doing doing anything about it. Actually it beyond pisses me off. And the two younger ones are trying but my mother isnt supporting them by cooking healthy meals or portion control. and i feel like i cannot keep telling them how much of what they should be eating. They either dont eat at all or eat unhealthy. i dont know how to encourage them. We never really eat out but the portion control is crazy in my family and i feel no matter what i do i fail them. Because i cant cook for them all the time or at all when they are young adn cant do it for themselves. Does that make sense? SO it makes me angry. I know this is long but i have been thinking of it for so long and the closer i get to goal the more i think about how much it bothers me and this is really the only thread i have felt comfortable sharing this with.

Second question and shorter for sure. As far as the weight loss when did you guys really start feeling thin? And thats it i promise no more questions... for now :).

Have a great weekend everyone!

Really feeling thin? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I can't recall ever feeling like that, but then again in Japan the average weight for a female is 114 lbs and a size 2 or 4. I'll probably (wrongly) feel like a supermodel when I go back to America this summer.

As for your siblings, it may be that they'll have to make their own choices to lose weight. I have a similar problem with my dad. My mom lost a lot of weight and watches her portions and walks daily, and I'm super proud of her for being the thinnest one in her group of friends at 5'6 and just under 130 and a size 6. I always happily regale my dad with stories of my successes hoping he'll have some good news for me, but he never does. There is a small part of me that wants to shake him and scream "YOU'RE SHAVING YEARS OFF YOUR LIFE BY BEING THIS FAT" but I know that would do nothing other than hurt his feelings.

I think most really overweight people know they have a problem, but maybe they don't know where to go. Have you ever talked to your sister about this site?

Same7, I agree about the calorie-envy thing.
I remind myself when I go into the cafeteria that I have $20 ($1=100 calories) to spend for the whole day. I can spend it anyway I want, but when it's gone, it's gone and there are some essentials I need to make sure I get and not waste my "money" on foolish purchases. Sometimes I can buy a small amount of something expensive, but most of the time I want the biggest bang for my buck so I buy "cheap" (lower-calorie) foods that give me what I need (vitamins, minerals, healthy fats, antioxidants, phytochemicals, etc.).
That usually helps me. But still, I'm sometimes jealous of those who can "afford" to "spend" on crazy things like ice cream and such. Oh well. Not all of us can afford Gucci handbags or Prada shoes either. :)

Neuro - The ingredients in laughing cow cheese are cheese, salt, whey, cream, sodium phosphate and sodium citrate. It is a lot less processed than most foods/cheeses. Take a look at the list of ingredients in a lean cuisinse. There are a lot more chemicals. The kettle popcorn's ingredients are palm oil, popping corn, and less than 2% of salt, sugar, citric acid, and potassium chloride. If these two things are the worst of what I am eating all day, Id say its a pretty clean day. For me personally, eating cleaner most of the day at 1300 calories works a lot better than eating 1200 calories of lean cuisines, low cal/low carb foods masked in lots of chemicals and preservatives, etc. And I believe eating cleaner makes weight loss easier because your body digests it better. Just like if you eat 50 calories of white bread vs. 50 calories of whole grain bread, your body will process it a lot different. I didnt say you cant lose weight eating lean cuisines; I said I think its easier to lose weight when eating cleaner.

Very interesting article. However, I am not surprised. He said 2/3 of his food came from the twinkies. However, he was eating vegetables, protein shakes and taking a multivitamin as well. Between that and lowering his calories by 800 a day, it is no surprise to me he lost weight. I think we all know it comes down to calories in vs calories out. My earlier observation was simply that in my opinion weight loss is faster when you are eating cleaner.

Lose - My family is split. Id say about half are overweight and the other half are just "normal". I completley understand your frustration with your sisters. My mother who was at a healthy weight up until about her 40's eats portions way bigger than necessary. It too makes me angry that she wont try to change her habits. In my personal opinon, slowly helping them change their habits is the best way to go. Maybe cut back on big portions? Have they commented on your weight loss? Maybe you can help motivate them through your success!

Oneoftwelve - You are such an inspiration! You put your mind to something and you do it. That is truly admirable!

krampus - I feel ya girl! I feel like I still look like I am 140. I too was wondering the other day just when do you feel smaller and thinner?

Happy Friday feathers!! :carrot:


I am pretty sure TOM is affecting the scale :lol: I feel so bloated! I am not discouraged though. I cant believe it has been almost 8 weeks since I have started this new way of living. I have never been able to stick a "diet" that long. If nothing else, that will keep me motivated till the end!

Have a great day Feathers!!

Geeze, are we all having our TOM right now?! I'm feeling bloated and with all the stress of buying a house I'm just hoping to maintain until Dec 1.