I rarely eat processed carbs these days (although some of those naked pita chips fell into my mouth last night - darn it!) and I definitely eat lots of non-starchy veg. But calories is calories. 1000 calories of celery vs 1000 calories of cake is still 1000 calories. But one will make me go to the bathroom a lot more!

And I'm a foodie too. Drug of choice! I get all excited when people start talking food. Plus I'm a self-admitted food snob.

(I found some blood orange balsamic vinegar last week and I had the BEST spinach salad dressed with it! Can't stop talking it up with my friends. They're so sick of me!)

I made it 20 hours of my fast which is still good. I am still overeating but I am planning to combat that.

Geo I am doing a liquid/low carb plan like Impatient Dieter on my off days. It works but the protein work on my stomach. I am thinking of doing the Fat Smash intro and only use the shakes when I run. I have to plan it out because when I start to run over 4 miles my stomach get finicky.

Having a really bad start to the week so far! Emotional eating, out of schedule eating routine and boredom getting the better of me!

On a better note, i got a signature and a blog, so hopefully this slight change will spur me on!!!!!!

I need encouragement!!!!!

I haven't done very well the last few days. We had a snow day which is rare for us so I ate more than normal. I'm one of those emotional eaters too and I have to stop that. I'm getting back on track today. :)

I believe that IF has helped with my emotional eating. When I'm fasting, if something comes up that is upsetting, stressful, or even if I'm bored (all times when I eat emotionally), I am forced to deal with it in a different way.

This has been a huge benefit of IF. With other programs, if I was eating an allotted amount of food on a regular basis, when I had an emotional eating moment, the floodgates would open and within 20 minutes I would have done a huge amount of damage.

I haven't conquered it completely, but there has been a significant improvement in the last 10 weeks that I've been doing IF. I have over eaten at a meal or celebration, or if someone brings a great dessert, but I can honestly say that I've only succumbed to an emotional binge a couple of times since starting IF.

Enjoying those special meals and treats are a real part of life that IF can accommodate. I do separate that from emotional eating.

I try to keep in mind the long term benefits of IF, other than weight loss, as I do think I'm in it for the long haul.

well today is my weigh in.....I lost 1.5 lbs. I'll take it! :carrot:

Hope everyone has a happy valentines day.

My boss got all of us chocolates, so I think I will give them to the Husband. That way gift covered and I don't do any damage! :D

Congratulations wvuchick on the weight loss!! and to everyone who is trucking along this journey.

Italianne I am also trying to focus on IF as a long term way of life and if I do slip up and eat more than I would like then I keep on going. Yesterday, i enjoyed my meals as well as sweets and I was ok with that, I made the decision that I would eat them, enjoy them and continue as I have.

gamesmaster and Violet, dont beat yourself up about overeating or not having an eating day like you would have liked. You are doing great and like a baby that falls when shes starting to walk, just get up and keep going.. dont let a dissapointing day or days get you down and give up. You are all worth the work :)

Everyone here is worth love, especially from themselves, so remember its Valentines Day and be good to yourself ( i know its corny, haha, but thats who i am :) )

Girls thanks for the words of encouragement! I very rarely over-eat and binge, and yes the floodgates don't happen that often now, one of the reasons i do IF (i stick to my window) !

I am going to get right back at it tomorrow, cause I feel miserable when I'm like this (i dont even enjoy the food)!

The rough weekend continues...:( Was supposed to fast last night thru tonight but have been battling a nasty cold. Chest congestion and cough make working out unthinkable since it gets hard to catch my breath...but.. I am back on track tonight.:D Started my first fast of the week tonight and will finish tomorrow night.

Despite not being able to workout or do weights for several days I have been mindful of not going crazy on my off days. As of this morning I am down 17 whopping lbs! yay!:carrot::carrot::carrot:

Kudos to all who weighed in today.;) Whether your change was smaller or bigger than you hoped, sticking it out another day is a significant milestone nonetheless!

Mellyme - that is amazing! Great will power, especially since you have been unwell. :carrot:

Esmi1234 and Italiannie - you girls are so encouraging and I can absolutely identify with what you are writing about re emotional eating etc. Last time I had a binge like that was about 4 months ago. But it wasn't about the food, it was the deeper emotional trigger for me. I let the devil win, that's why I was so annoyed yesterday!:devil:

I recognise the self-destructive path I was on, and today I'm back with Fast 5 and doing so well. I was so caught up in my own self-pity, today I'm taking my eyes off myself and focusing on making the kids happy and having fun:hug:

Yikes, I also had a bit of a bump in the road! Overindulged in some Chocolate Valentine Cake. Weight was a bit higher this morning - sugar and carbs really do make the scale go up for me.

So...... Today, back to eating healthy whole foods, low carb.
The beauty of IF - one day on plan and it will come right back off!

We're all in the same boat!
Let's keep going.
I'm trying to lose 1.5lbs per week consistently.

melleyme - Fabulous success! IF is a lifestyle, so don't worry about not working out when you're not well. Give your body time to heal. Whatever you're doing, you're doing it right.

Violet - I ate too much last night, not to worry, IF is very forgiving.

gamesmaster - Hope you had a great day jumping back in.

esmi - I don't think your corny, I think we all need to be reminded that we are valuable, regardless of what the scale says. Thanks for sharing.

wvuchick - Congrats on the 1.5! Keep going!

Geoblewis - I'm going to look for that vinegar. I've heard of it, but I keep forgetting about it. Thanks for the reminder.

Mizzthingaling - The overeating will subside, as your body gets used to less food. Over eating in the beginning is not something you should worry about, slow and easy does it. This will work for you.

Moozie - Are you still out there? Jump back in, today is a new day!

I tripped over the dominoes of failure on Sunday and fell headlong into V-day indulgences. I sprained my shoulder Sunday and haven't been able to move my arm much since. Lots of pain. So instead of going out last night (had a plan to eat grilled meat and a salad), and instead of cooking dinner, I opted to order a pizza and some wings. My plan was to keep the servings small. I had saved my carbs and calories for the end of the day as well. But once the pizza got in the door, I made half of it evaporate pretty quickly. And the wings. And a glass of rootbeer. Gained two pounds this morning!

So, back on plan again for me today. It's going to be tough because my normal eating window is in the afternoon/evening and the carbs from last night have made me quite hungry this morning. Trying to muscle through, but I think I'm going to need some protein this morning to manage that.

Have a great day!

o i also indulged in Valentine's day sweets but I was pleasantly surprised by the scale this morning so that just motivates me even more.

Way to go to everybody who is losing amazing weight and to all of us who despite what goes on in our lives are still committed to bettering ourselves at whatever rate that may be. :D

So I'm gonna jump in here.

I started trying out IF over the summer when I found my weight starting to gain from all the junk I was eating at work (I was a waitress at a restaurant-pub). I found it worked for me on the days I was off work and helped me get a hold on my cravings and boredom eating at home, but it wasn't viable durin my shifts as I was sometimes on 12h shifts, constantly running around and not eating would make me feel ill.

But now I'm back at uni, I've re-read all the IF info I could find, caught up on what all you lovely people are writing about on here and have been doing ESE for just over a week. I lost 3lbs last week (WI day is Friday for me), hoping for 2 this week.

I did indulge on pizza and chocolates with the bf yesterday and the carbs kinda threw me off plan today but I just had an egg and cress salad for dinner, did a healthy shop for the rest of the week and am starting my 24h fast now :) I'm busy all day tomorrow so that should keep me in check and hopefully make a comeback by WI day!

Hope you're all having/have had a good day! :)

Hi everyone,
i feel like the prodigal son!!!
have had a bad week and half, have not posted or even read posts till today. But Im back.

last week was not a disaster but not a good one either. I had a week off work, but home alone. was missing my daughter (17) who went on a college trip to Florence Italy.
we are really close and i missed her to bits- I think i was dwelling on the fact that she will be going to University this September and got stupidly depressed about it. Hormones!

everything seemed to be against me, I started and never finished a fast. had lots of unplanned visitors.

On Thursday it should have been my best friends daughters birthday. she would have been 10 but tragically she died at only 22 months old.
I spent the day thinking of her and having those internal conversations with myself about how unfair life is.
it also got me thinking about my weight loss journey. When Emma died, I had just got down to 160 lbs, after 8 months of really rigid following of the Atkins diet.
Emmas death was sadly also the catalist to me regaining all and more weight. my Friend had such a hard time, and as friends stopped calling, I was the one who remained , but it took its toll on me. i dont regret being there for her and i would do it again 100 times, but I listened comforted and supported her whilst not having any where to vent my own distress.
it wasnt till i started to write today that i thought about my weight in relation to Emma. and I am no way blaming the situation, its just that emotional eating is such a way of life for me.

so in true Moozie form I ate last week- but not bingeing, so maybe a modified Moozie form!!.

so I did weigh on Monday, and I had stayed the same again, which actually is really good.

I have managed to do a full 24 hr fast today and did fast 5 yesterday. I think I will start combining them- another experiment!!

its very therapeutic posting, |I was feeling quite upset with myself, but having glanced back on what ive written, Im giving myself a Pat on the back.its odd but since starting IF, I have def been more forgiving of myself.

anyway, thats enough of the heavy!!

Itallienne- I love out numbered. Ive been watching it since it started in UK a few years ago. its real laugh out loud stuff. I watched a documentary about the making of it, and a lot is ab-libbed. the kids are given the general outline of what the scenes are and they do have some scripted lines, but most is their own take. the Adults have a more scripted approach, but have to modify it depending on what the kids do and say.
love it!!

lovely to see so many on this thread now and will be back to posting again after my wobble.
thanks to all of you for the support and the motivation to continue.
x
:)