I wish I had the restraint to only do 5-6 knife dips.

There is a monster living inside me that really doesn't want me anywhere under 128 lbs.

Yeah but my knife dips are not kat's "whispers." It is me trying to use a knife as a spoon.

This made me LOL. That's me and jelly sometimes if I'm in one of those fits where it's like AAA I HAVE TO HAVE SUGAR RIGHT NOW OR I WILL CUT SOMEONE!

Just wolfed down a bowl of cereal and two rice krispies. I think I'm with you girls on cravings triggers from not having enough carbs... low-carb is NOT working for me.

And I have definitely eaten cake frosting by the spoonful, and Nutella by the jar... nothing wrong with that

You actually inspired me to try some Nutella again -- I purchased a couple of jars this week of the discount stuff (tastes exactly the same, for €1.50 cheaper! Love it!) So I've been macking down on Nutella on toast for snack instead of my ham and cheese snack sandwiches. Body doesn't seem to mind... still exercising and losing inches. Hopefully the number will be down again soon.

So, thanks for the inspiration! Sometimes I think I get stuck in these ruts and kind of don't venture out. Nutella (OK, bootleg Nutella, but still) has sweetened up my life this week.

So guess what? I discovered today that I like grapefruit. A lot! And then I ate 2 whole grapefruits- minus what my toddler demanded. I feel like I'm going to puke. You know you're messed up when you binge on grapefruit.

Hehe, it's all good! It's healthy, right? I've binged on cucumber and tomatoes. When they're just right and juicy, maaaan. So good.

TGIF. I'm up almost 2 lbs on the scale and my stomach feels gross but there's no point in moaning about it, what's done is done. I'm still in the 120s (127.9) and I definitely won't be peanut butter binging again any time soon. Sugar cravings are, interestingly, gone, which is nice.

The hard thing for me is dealing with the "deprivation" feeling. I eat pretty balanced meals with protein, fat and carbs, at regular intervals and mealtimes. Yet after only 4 days of eating at loss level (not even, Tuesday was maintenance-ish) I felt like I was starving to death. I have some mental block that desperately wants to keep me at or above 128 and I don't know how to move past it. Have any of you experienced anything similar?

lackadaisy I'm with you- I could NEVER do low-carbs. I try to keep my carbs in check and usually go with only whole-grain ones, but I would totally fail on a low-carb diet.

fivestone Glad you were able to introduce Nutella into your diet in a very healthy/moderate way! Hopefully I'll be able to someday have your maturity and restraint haha. It's like the "go-to" sweet for me to buy when I'm living abroad, since most chocolates in other countries don't taste nearly as good as they do in Europe/the US. For this reason I have to learn to develop a healthy relationship with it....

Changed I LOVE grapefruit! I remember the day when I was able to start eating it without sugar. It's so good for you, and lots of fiber if you can handle eating a little bit of the rind. And yes I agree with fivestone, much better than binging on chips or Hershey's!

krampus: definitely. As an adult I have never weighed or tried to weigh less than 125. I just don't think I "can"- I would have to cut out too much and the emotional/physical costs would be more than the weight loss benefits. I also don't want to- at 125-127 I can generally eat reasonably what I want without calorie counting- including splurging on pizza, Mexican food, etc from time to time.

Right now I'm trying to drop down to 120 just to see if I can, but if I really can't get beyond 125-127, I'm not going to push it. I'd rather be a little curvier than I'd like and be happy and healthy than try to squeeze that last 5 lbs out of me when my body obviously really doesn't want to.

I had headache yesterday, which not only caused me to skip my afternoon pilates session (even though, honestly, it probably would have HELPED my headache), but I also scarfed down a sugar-free pudding cup and seven Hershey's Kisses, arguing that the sugar/caffeine combo would help my head. Which it did, actually, but I feel really bloated this morning, even though I still did a tough workout yesterday morning and had healthy meals otherwise all day long yesterday.

I jogged a mile this morning and did a quick strength training workout, ate a reasonable breakfast, and plan to work out again tonight. I'm not weighing today until I feel like I've fully made up for that little candy nosedive.

And, honestly? I know I'm beating myself up too much about that. We can have treats. I kept that snack to under 200 calories, but I guess I just feel like if I'm going to snack, I should have fruit or something else that packs a little more nutrients in it. It's not the snack's existence that was the problem for me, it was that it was solely junk food, which is my Achilles's Heel. Half the reason I gained weight when I quit smoking was that I replaced cigarettes with things like M&M's--not a good plan.

krampus, so with you there -- definitely battling set point now.

Went to bed early last night and didn't wake up for 12 hours, which was nice / unproductive, but that means I ate about 1100 for the day... tried not to eat when I woke at 8:30am, and that set off the first morning binge of my life. Two cookies, one protein bar, rice cake, half a serving of chips, half a serving of miniwafers, a handful of cashews. Don't know how I got it all (700 calories) down, but now 3 hrs later, I feel like crap.

Will probably be skipping lunch except for a veggie salad just because I feel so unwell. I really need to start working out 1 hr+ a day so I have room in my budget for more calories.

I just posted this on the 130s thread but I really am at a loss and seeking advice.

Yesterday I allegedly at 1500 calories, according to my online calorie counter. This is higher than where I've previously been (around 1250-1400 for the past couple weeks). I did a pretty intensive 45 minute yoga class in the morning and was hungry all day. I made good choices about food- eating tuna and spinach when I was hungry, homemade iced coffee with skim milk and 1 tsp sugar when I got a sweet craving, etc. The only place I faltered was for dinner. We went to a party and all they had was fried Indian food. I had probably 6 pieces of spinach pakora (fried spinach) and 1.5 glasses of red wine. That wasn't a snack, that was my dinner.

And today I'm up to 131.2, from 130.6 yesterday! This is absolutely ridiculous. I'm not going to starve myself- if I'm hungry I'm going to eat protein and other nutritious foods. Hunger is a signal I'm not eating enough right? If I respond sensibily to my body's request to feed it, I shouldn't gain weight.

I am really distrustful of calorie counting for my situation. I live abroad and foods made in restaurants or by hosts who have their own "family" way of cooking the item and how the heck does an online calorie counter have any idea how much oil, etc this person put in this food? I am very skeptical I'm counting my calories correctly for this reason, but what is the alternative?

But even if the calorie count was off, I still tried to listen to my body and eat resonably. As I said, if I'm hungry I am going to eat, and yesterday (except for the pakora) I ate very, very reasonably. Protein, limited carbs, three 750 ML glasses of water. Exercise. And still a weight GAIN of almost a POUND.

What the heck, guys?

indiblue -- i don't think you can assume that you gained because you ate more. It's often just water-based fluctuation, whether you've pooped yet that day, etc. Maybe the additional sugar/salt caused retention?

In any case, it's not fat. Don't worry about it so much. I know that's SO much easier to say than to hear, but that's why we're here -- to say it often enough that you eventually have to hear it!

I'm learning to fall in love with the elliptical. It still feels a little stupid / mindless, but now I'm on the eliptical and typing at the same time. AND listening to reggaeton. Oh man... I can really feel the burn as I'm typing this...

Thanks for the reassurance, lackadaisy. I know I'm being impatient, I just haven't seen any net loss at all for over a week. I'll try to calm down and give it time. Also still really skeptical about counting calories on food whose ingredients I'm totally unsure about. I usually use the scale to generally indicate if my calorie counting is on track, and so no movement in the scale (or movement in the wrong direction) makes me wonder if I need to do something different besides count calories.

I totally agree. I've been counting calories diligently, but manufacturers round egregiously on their labels -- it's really absurd -- and I fear that I'm actually 300 over what I think I am all the time. All the studies show that people tend to underestimate portions and overestimate workout calories, so I'm super paranoid... and I basically haven't seen a net loss in two weeks so, yes, unhappy.

I tell myself that at least I'm definitely not regaining. I have been such a yo-yo anytime I'm not consciously counting calories that that itself is a blessing -- it doesn't take me long to balloon up 10 lbs.