Hawaii69 - hope you had fun at lunch with your friend! Sounds like you have a good plan for dealing with the extra carbs. I love that we've learned how to do that - our eating will never be perfect for maintaining all day, every day and learning the balance and to just deal with it makes the whole thing so much easier.

evemomma - hooray for the bathing suit! Sounds like you are crazy busy so I hope you have a nice, relaxing vacation.

Jenny38 - Wow - what a thing for someone to say! Of course you're going to be vigilant about keeping your weight in check, you didn't do all this hard work just to gain it back! I don't think people get it sometimes - there's a difference between being obsessive about your weight and paying attention.

I am not a naturally thin person - I need to pay attention to my overall health, including my weight, so that I feel good and can do the things I want to do. If I could just naturally eat at maintenance I would, but that's not the way I'm wired so I have to pay attention. That's not obsession, that's common sense.

PT will continue for at least a couple of more months or until I no longer need adult supervision. My PT guy's goal is to get me to the point that I can either exercise at home or at a gym without fear of seriously injuring myself. He thinks I'll be back to pre-surgery condition very quickly.

Liana - your film festival sounds like fun! And nice for you and dh to get away for a bit - let your hair down and enjoy!

Not so fat anymore - great job of on the fly eating!

Just a quick note to say hi and happy weekend. I traveled yesterday and will be with my Dad, brothers, nieces, and nephews this week. Will make the choices a little harder but I know I can do it.

Jenny: just wanted to wholeheartedly agree with "people just don't get it if they haven't been through it"

Notsofatanymore:great job managing the unplanned and Mickey Ds.

Liana: Cabo will be wonderful. Sun. I'm starting to crave it and we haven't even gone through winter yet.

Evemomma: I've heard good things about LANs end swimwear. Hope it works out.

Happy weekend all!

Hi all,

Have been reading all week, but have been too tired to coherently comment to everyone.

Not so fat anymore- great planning on the fly and wonderful coaching to your 5.2 friend.

Liana, your weekend sounds like a lot of fun. Hoping you win tons of swag.

Eve, glad the bathing suit is going to work out.

Ruth Ann, enjoy your time in the office without the boss

Vachinyc, I am hating this cold spell too! Have a wonderful time with your family.

Jenny, most people do not understand the psychology involved with maintaining a large weight loss. The fear of regaining- because we know the honest truth about our previous food habits. I think that this journey is very personal, and frankly no one else's business unless we invite them to be part of it. Also, the people in upstate NY have been in my prayers all week. I can not even imagine.

As for me, I have been struggling a little food wise. I am still in my range, but do not feel like I am doing enough "clean" eating. I am definitely not getting in enough water, part of that is being freezing at school! Going to focus on water this coming week. Thanksgiving will be my free meal this coming week.

Hope all those on the ending Phases are doing well.

Slip, you might want to try getting one of those little plug-in immersion heaters to make a quick cup of hot herbal tea while you are in the classroom. That way you can keep a large container of water handy even if it's room temp or cool, and without going out of the classroom get yourself a quick mug of something hot. Of course that might depend on how your students deal with their impulsivity. A hot prod can do a lot of damage in someone's uninhibited mitts. Not sure how 'difficult' your class is to deal with.

Usage tip from another website: Most people don't know that you're never supposed to pull an immersion heater out of the water while it's still plugged in. So... make sure you've immersed the heater BEFORE you plug it in, and then don't remove it from the cup until after you unplug it.
http://www.ebay.com/bhp/immersion-heater

Liana

Slip:
I take a thermos of hot water for tea making every day in the winter.

Morning, happy Sunday! So, I went pretty far off plan on Friday night. We had a happy hour(s) for a friend of mine who is moving away and I partook in a lot of hard cider. Ok, not a lot, but it hit me pretty hard. Anyway, I woke up yesterday really dehydrated and up to 164. Did a P1 day while I nursed my hangover and drank as much water as I could. I'm still at 163.8 this morning. Already had my P3 breakfast today, but I'm wondering if I should extend P3 for a couple of days or just go on as planned and start P4 on Tuesday?

Pishposh; My advice is to stick to your plan, making sure you drink lots of water in the next couple of days. P3 is still not taking in any bad carbs. But, go with how you feel. I bet the scale will be down tomorrow.

I had friends over last night and had tasty but high carb food and wine and today is lots of water and P1. Everyone is different in how their bodies handle the carbs but for me, I need to have a day or two of being strict.

I woke up with a bit of a headache, my body doesn't like bad eating anymore! Thats a good thing but will wait to do my run later on in the day. Have a great day everyone!

vachinyc - Have a great time with your family! I'm with you, I'm craving sun and it's going to be a long time before we get any.

Slipfree - Hope you get some rest over the long weekend. It sounds like you have your hands full.

pishposhappelsauce - I would just continue on and make sure you get lots of water in. the question is, did you have a good time?

Hawaii69 - Sounds like a good time. Enjoy your run!

I woke up at 2 a.m. with a monster headache - sinuses I'm sure, but it took better than an hour to get it under control and then I wasn't sleepy any more. Think a nap is in order.

Have a good Sunday afternoon!

Haha, yes. A bit too much fun it would seem.

Quiet day here, I went to gym and kids had a pj day. I even had a nap this afternoon and kids got to watch some extra TV. Ruth Ann hope your headache went away and you got a nap in as well. I appreciate your "that's not obsessive that's common sense" coment. Clearly people who haven't had the weight issue or haven't dealt with their own weight issue don't get it. Keep up the great work with your PT.

Slip - how was your weekend? I hope you got a chance to re charge. Sounds like you have a good plan to eat clean and feel better. Good for you for staying in your range. Ahh the psychology of maintenance after a significant weight loss, maybe that is why I'm so tired at the end of the day. This is a lot of work but worth it.

Hawaii, Pishposh, Vachinyc - sounds like a good fun day/meal was had but everyone back on track. It is great to have the tools in P1.

Not so fat any more - great planning at McDonald's.


DH and I celebrated our 7th anniversary on Friday and It was a fun meal. Back on track with mostly p1 for the weekend and wanting to do one more P1 day Monday and then back to P3 Tuesday.

Have a great week

Hi all,

Pishposh, I would stay on Phase 3 with lower carb choices. Phase 4 in time for Turkey day!

Jenny, Happy Anniversary! Glad you enjoyed your nap. I had a nice weekend. Dinner out on Fri. Lunch with an old friend that I had not seen for a while. Pajama and chore day today. Best part, I found a perfect 8'10 rug for the livingroom for $125.00!

Today was a good Phase 1 day. Made Dijon/WF maple syrup pork tenderloin and turnip fries for dinner. Leftovers ready for tomorrow. Going to keep it pretty low carb. until Thanksgiving. Thanks for all the hot water ideas.

Eve and Lisa, the St. Louis area is in my prayers.

Knock, knock
Hello...
Just coming around to introduce myself to this room.
I'm in my second week of Phase 2 and will be starting Phase 3 on Wednesday. I am struggling a bit with the decision of whether to maintain at this weight or continue with some more Phase 1 after the holidays.
I would like to be at a weight that it doesn't drive me insane to try and maintain... but I look at some of the clothes in my closet and want them to fit the way they used to... But there has been yet another baby in between when I was wearing them and now (that's baby #4) and I'm not sure if anything but time and exercise is really going to help my poor skin.
Trying very hard to be realistic but still meet expectation... and finding it difficult to tell where the line is.
Anyway, going to give it a couple months and re-evaluate. May as well be patient with the process.

We are starting P3 on the same day! I was also thinking of pushing a little further on P1 then realized it was better to phase off and see how I do over the next month. I will be away on 3 different trip plus Christmas in there! I will re-evaluate in the new year.
Plus I spent the last week going over the P3 breakfasts here and planning my own which is very exciting. My coach is amazing and I had an extra meeting with her this week to look over my breakfast plans. All in all I planned them out really well. Can't wait for Wednesday! Not sure what I am going to eat first!!!!

Jenny38 - I got my nap in too! After I got the grocery shopping done and the meal planning for the week out of the way. I kept thinking I should be getting stuff done but ended up taking a nap and watching Netflix for a couple of hours. I think my brain needed some down time.

Congrats on the anniversary!

Slipfree - Glad you had a nice weekend, you deserved one!

RefreshingMe and AllMe- Welcome and congrats on the losses! I totally understand the worry about whether to go lower or not. I decided to just try and maintain for awhile and see how I do. I can always go lower if needed but so far this weight is working for me.

Plus, I continued to lose in P2 and P3 and for a bit in maintenance. So you may find yourself lighter than you thought you would be.

Off to work I go! Have a great day all!

Hi everyone!

I am 3 pounds from goal (REALLY??! ) and unsure of when to begin Phase 2. As some of you know from previous posts, I have had a horrible time with hair loss since July (and it is continuing). I have lost about 75% of my hair's volume, and, in some places, scalp is showing through.

I don't know if I should move to Phase 2 next week or hold off until I see my goal weight on the scale. I feel like I may want to get to 150 (rather than my original goal of 155), but the hair loss is ridiculous, and because it will take time to grow back, I'm wondering if I should go ahead and move to Phase 2. Wondering how much weight I will lose in Phases 2 and 3...is it possible I could wind up close to the 150? The other thing holding me back is that I am completely terrified of leaving the structure and comfort of Phase 1. I have been reading the maintenance boards, and I have ZERO idea of how to put together any sort of Phase 4 meals or Phase 3 breakfasts. All the rules seem so complicated and overwhelming. Do I want to add in that stress during the holidays?

Any insight from you awesome maintainers would be fantastic!