Robin, it's 3 week no scale for me. I'm kind of curious, but it usually derails me whether it's high or low.

My jeans are loose again :carrot:

Mel

Loose jeans?? :bravo::woohoo::bravo:

Ahhh, I remember the days when my jeans were loose, not there yet, but they sure do look a heck of a lot better then they did on Monday. Monday I looked like a stuffed sausage in my pants. Actually I looked like several stuffed sausages. SCARY where my "fat/water/fat" goes to.

In fact, THAT is when I want to weigh myself again - when my jeans are loose again. I'm thinking/hoping that that could be in 2 or 3 more weeks. Don't know if I can hold out that long. Heck, I don't know if I can get them loose or baggy in 2 - 3 weeks either for that matter ;) .

I must tell you, it amazes me how much we all umm, fluctuate here. I mean I've been up and down 5 lbs so many times already since I hit maintenance. Well actually since December. That's when I think I ran into my first maintenance "blip". How many times can a person actually keep on losing those 5 lbs. I mean will there be a time when I/we just can't do it anymore?

Will there be a time where my body says, "sorry lady, you blew it, no can do anymore. You've done this one time too many. You're just gonna have to stay where you are."? I'm serious, is this a possibility? I'm thinking it just may be.

I really don't think so. My personal experience is there may be a time when your MIND says that, but not your body in the foreseeable future. It just takes more effort. I've been doing this for almost 7 years now. Along the way, I went through menopause, many life crises, illness, injury, etc. Each time I derailed, I knew what I was doing and what it would take to get back "there". I know I'll probably never get back to my lowest, because I was in the midst of a thyroid cascade (hyper) at the time. But with a lot of work...super clean eating and lots of the right kind of exercise for me...my body still responds in my fifties.

Will I get to a point when my mind won't go there? Maybe. But not for a long time.

Mel

Thanks Mel. I was actually hoping one of our longterm maintainers WOULD indeed answer this question for me.

I am fully aware of the mind aspect (I certainly hear you loud & clear), but I was really questioning the BODY. Can it really and truly keep on losing and gaining and losing those 5 lbs? I'm thrilled to hear that after almost 7 years, your body does respond to your efforts. What a relief!!! Thanks.

Gosh those same five pounds, that's the train ride I am on for like 3 months and it's really only been 3 months of maintenance. I find myself struggling with nuts at snack time. I can't stop at a few and I just can't seem to cut them out. I bought big costco things cause I've never had problems with them. Now that I am in maintenance and feel like I need to add a few more calories, I can't seem to control them. I am trying different things to just say no but it's so difficult and I don't understand why. My meals are great, same as always. It's those snacks and the extra nuts that i eat on top of my snacks that I worry about.

Still, I am going down right now probably losing my monthly water, but unfortunately today, I found myself in the situation where I had to eat out twice. Unfortunately, that is usually worse eating than I would do at home and i am sad because I am pretty sure tomorrow would have been a good weight day. I am trying not to obsess about it, because I know if I can cut the nuts I will go back to my goal weight during my lowest point of the month.

I will not be buying nuts in bulk as soon as what I have is over. Ugh.

well dinner went pretty well at tne new Italian joint. Angie and I did/did not split our meal. I ordered a pasta and shrimp dish and spilt it in half for lunch today. Angie got a talapia dish which she split in with my former wife.

I got in a 4 mile walk with the mutts this morning and 2 miles on the treadmill.

ROBIN ~ can I have those thighs next week? They sound delicious!

Nice work, Robin, and I hope today (this morning) went well for you! I know those situations can be really hard, but you sound determined.

Mel, congrats on the loose jeans. :)

Well, I was very proud of how well I did yesterday-- mostly do to my no excuses mantra this week!!
After staying away from the sundae party at work, I had to be at a school event (working) from 4-7:30. I ate a snack before I went, but found myself very hungry at the event. There was pizza, egg rolls, ice cream, etc. to eat. I *almost* got egg rolls, but stopped myself. I went to the bathroom and there were bowls of M&M's just sitting there calling to me! I yelled at them back.
I waited until I got home to eat dinner and it sure felt good.
I weighed in at WW this morning and I was down .8 for the week. I am sure I wouldn't have been down at all if I had succumbed to all of the temptations.
Now to stay strong this weekend...........so far so good...........

I think I have today in the bag! :)

B - oatmeal with raisins, walnuts, ff milk, toast, :coffee:
S - Clif luna bar (10g protein), tea
L - homemade veggie soup (110 cal/cup), 5 crackers
D - the last - I hope - serving of chili over the last of the rice :)
S - ff yogurt w/raspberries

Yay, half the weekend'd meals ON PLAN!

bluex, THAT is the very reason nuts, as healthy as they may be, are a big no-no for me. Sure, they're healthy - in moderation. I just have a hard time doing nuts - moderately. So therefore, I don't do them at all. Can I make a small suggestion? With the nuts that you have remaining now - freeze them or toss them if need be. Better they should be in the trash, then you should eat them. :hug:

Gary, the thighs - they're all yours. Great going on your splitsville dinner. :carrot:

Pat, Good for you! It feels GREAT, doesn't it? :dancer:

Oh my. Oh my. Could it possibly be? It's 10:45PM, on a SATURDAY night no less and I have stayed perfectly on plan!

This morning's brunch - no problemo. I walked in, said my hellos. Barely glanced at the amazing array of food (kept a blind eye to that fabulous looking dessert table) and walked over to the drinks and poured me a big cup of seltzer. I did notice some bell pepper strips, some cut up fruit and the such, but decided against it. I didn't want to start eating and since my lunch was due shortly & I had eaten breakfast and wasn't hungry, I said - nah. Stayed a bit longer and got the heck out of there.

And it looks like I am free and clear of going out this evening, not that it would have mattered ;). So, IT"S ALL GOOD! I did change up a thing or 2. I had some leftover roasted veggies from last night instead of an apple. I had a 25 calorie Swiss Miss Hot chocolate (Thanks very much to Glory & Meg) and a 25 calorie creamsicle with that little bit of wiggle room that I had left myself. I did start nibbling at that stupid fresh pineapple that I bought, but I stopped myself after having only 2 tiny pieces. I actually thought to myself, "do I really want to ruin a perfect day by overeating some pineapple?" So with just hours left to the night, I'm calling Day 6 a success!!!!

Thank you all so much. :grouphug:

robin, yay!!! :)

I love weekends because they are so much easier for me! Today I came in well under my calorie limit, which makes up for the extra ginger cookies I had on Thursday. Here's how it worked out:

B: 3 slices bacon, 1/4 cup muesli, 1/4 cup nonfat yogurt, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1 apricot.
L: Sandwich of turkey, spinach, broiled apricot, and Alouette light spreadable cheese; pickles; marinated mushrooms, four sesame coated walnut pieces
S: Multi-grain hot cereal with an apricot and FF cream cheese
D: Seared tuna (really raw tuna with just the very edge cooked-yum!) with Orange-Rosemary Sauce, sauteed chard, green salad with low cal dressing and a broiled apricot
S: Banana-chocolate-cherry corn muffin with frosting made of NF cream cheese blended with spenda; cinnamon almonds

It all came in at about 1350 calories.

Exercise: 75 minutes swimming

I worry about this all the time! In fact, every time I have some sort of mishap where I gain 5 lbs (like the holidays), I think, "this is it, I'm not going to be able to lose them this time." But so far, I've always been able to lose them. In fact, despite the same amount of weight gain, if not more, this holiday season, I actually recovered quicker than I did last year. Yet, in early January I was convinced that I has somehow screwed up my metabolism and would not be able to lose the weight.

The pumpkin pudding is awesome, one of my favorite desserts. It is just 1 package instant, sugar-free, fat-free jello pudding, with 1 1/4 cups skim milk, 1 cup pumpkin puree, and 1-2 tsp pumpkin pie spice. Mix it up and divide it into 4 individual serving containers, then refrigerate until set (an hour or so). It tastes like pumpkin pie filling to me and comes in at 75 calories per serving.

The ginger cookies are Trader Joe's Ginger Cats Cookies (they're shaped like cats, but the package clearly says they are for people). They come in at 120 calories per serving, for a handful of about 30 cookies (they're pretty small cookies). I usually crumble 1/2 serving into the pudding. If I have enough calories leftover for the day, I just eat the other 1/2 of the serving. :devil: You could crumble graham crackers into the pudding instead (I seem to recall that you don't have a Trader Joe's nearby) or you could just eat it by itself.

Barbara, it's so funny how we are all different. You actually have an easier time on the weekends. You are doing great. :cheer:

Your pudding and cookies sound delicious. You seem to have much more control then me though. I could easily down the entire 4 servings of that pudding. Easily. But I am going to copy the recipe and save it for when company comes. Sounds like something nice to serve.

As far as those 5 lbs up and down, I wonder if knowing that if, no make that when, I do go up, knowing that I can get it back down is leaving the door open for me to overindulge. But I won't deny it. I DO like to overindulge from time to time now that I'm in maintenance. Knowing that I can (as of yet) get the added pounds off is the reason that I do it. Not quite sure if that's a bad thing :shrug:.

Thanks for the recipes, Barbara! Do you mind if I copy and paste them to the recipe thread?

Angie and I did 4 miles this morning with the mutts to Starbucks and Bunny Poo Park.

Due to a busy late afternoon Angie and I picked up a LARGE pizza from the local mom and pop pizza joint....she had 2 pieces....the pizza is gone! Did you notice the key word here?....LARGE!

DANG!....those oz. I lost Friday to get to 176 are back! 177....dang!.....double dang!

If I only knew why............

Yesterday went VERY well. Scale read 125 today. :)

EZMONEY~ (sorry, I don't know your name!)

Sorry about the pizza. Some things are just way too tempting. Believe me, I know. *sigh.* (Friday night I was practically feasting myself when we went out to dinner).

At least you got a good bit of exercise in! And as long as you stay on plan today, the scale could be lower tomorrow. (part of the gain might be due to sodium).

Yesterday - fabulously on plan (though the plan was modified somewhat - frozen yogurt for dessert instead of the ice cream and berries, and I served the stirfry over soba noodles instead of brown rice).

Today -
B - We went out and I did SO well. Egg white omelette with broccoli, bell pepper, spinach, olives, and canadian bacon - no cheese. Resisted the fried potatoes and got myself a side of steamed spinach with lemon - you HAVE to love a place that offers steamed spinach instead of fried potatoes! They just bring a dish with a lemon wedge and a pat of butter on the side. Avoided the butter and squeezed on the lemon...delicious!
L - Leftovers of pork tenderloin stirfry with tons of veggies over soba noodles
D - This is a planned splurge (Sunday is our informal date night) but still healthy. We're doing a french-style picnic...wheat baguette with turkey breast, prosciutto, cheese, and fig preserves, veggies with hummus, and chocolate dipped strawberries.

There has been so much dedication and commitment in this thread this week.

I just want to thank you all AGAIN (I really don't think I can thank you all enough!!) for being here and having this thread. It was a good week with more exercise than usual and the scale showed a 2 lbs loss this morning!

Next week even better - Sundays are my w/i day and normally when we go out IF we go out for a meal. My DF wanted to cook from his Jamie Oliver cook book instead of going out, so he picked the recipe yesterday, we tweaked it a bit (not so much cheese for example), I entered the recipe in my WW program and figured out my points for it this morning and ate breakfast and lunch according to the points I had left. I do believe this is my FIRST Sunday on WW since I started that I was actually under points! AND I had an AMAZING pasta for dinner!

Thanks again for everything - this place is really a life saver!

Ah, you gotta love it. I'm paying attention again - measuring instead of eyeballing, etc.

B - crepes with 1/2 cup applesauce, 1/4 cup cottage cheese, and 1 TBSP real maple syrup. (I put the crepes into fitday and they come out under 500 cals for 1/2 the recipe, and since they have 3 eggs, there's plenty of protein)
S - nibbled at church fellowship - grapes, 4 slices of apple, 3 bites of chicken chili (I don't need more beans this week :lol: ) and :coffee: DH was in heaven since they had brownies and cake.
L - bowl of homemade veggies soup, 5 ritz crackers
S - nf yogurt with berries, maybe
D - Barbara's tamale pie, large salad, 1 piece of garlic bread, small piece of lemon poppyseed cake (it's a pound cake, so really I'll have 1/2 thin slice).

I was at ~900 after lunch, so I figure 1400 without the cake. A good day!

Another good day in the bag :D

Calories came in at about 370. I may have a bit of yogurt before be. I can cope with anything except going to bed hungry!

Today was rest day from formal exercise, but I mowed the lawn, spread 5 bags of mulch, and painted 1 huge wall in the basement.

Day 8
Mel

Yikes, Mel :lol: I'm assuming you meant 1370!

Dinner was great. Your tamale pie was a hit Barbara. Next time I might use mild salsa, as DH thought it a "bit spicy." Had a spinach salad with it, as well as homemade garlic bread (garlic and parmesean in the dough), as well as the lemon poppyseed cake. That cake is leaving my house tomorrow!! I stuck to my plan, but it was waaay too tasty to remain in my kitchen. :) The others had ice cream with theirs, too. Me, I had a nice cup of tea with mine. And I'm stuffed! Oh and I never did eat my afternoon snack - got too busy.

Have tomorrow's lunch 90% packed. Just need to add another fruit.

B - oatmeal with raisins, nuts, milk; toast; :coffee:
S - 1/4 c ff yogurt mixed with 1/4 c lf cottage cheese and raspberries
L - homemade veggie soup, small slice of garlic bread
S - apple or orange
D - chicken or pork w broccoli and sweet potato or tamale pie. :)

I came in well under in calories today too. Here's how it all worked out:

B: 3 slices bacon, Penny's Low-Fat Muffin, FF cream cheese, Meyer Lemon Marmalade, 1/2 cup FF cottage cheese
L: Salad of spinach, celery, cucumbers, beets, chicken, apricots, feta, and pumpkin seeds with dressing of feta, lemon, and FF yogurt. I'm getting tired of this salad, I'm glad I'm almost done with it.
S: Oat bran with FF cream cheese and 1/2 a peach
D: Seared tuna with Orange-Rosemary Sauce, snap peas sauteed with lemon slices, green salad with local dressing and a peach
S: Pumpkin pudding with ginger cookies

It all came in at around 1300 calories.

Exercise: 15 min elliptical, 15 min abs, 22 min intervals on TM

Robin: I know, I'm the opposite of everyone else, but weekends are easy for me because we don't eat breakfast until 11:00 AM or noon. So that pushes lunch back until 3:00 or 4:00 PM (sometimes 5:00 PM if I'm really busy), leaving room for only one afternoon snack before dinner at our usual time. All of which means my calories usually come in low. Also, I'm usually running around or busy with chores, so it's actually sometimes hard to fit food in. During the week, I work from home, so I'm sitting at my computer all day thinking about eating. And my friends always want to go out during the week because they have family stuff on the weekends, so we don't have weekend plans that often.

I divide the pudding into four single-serving containers as soon as I make it--I actually weigh each one to make sure they are all the same amount (within 5 grams). I'm pretty good with stuff that has already been portioned out--it would be really unusual for me to eat more than one container of pudding at a time.

WaterRat: I'm glad you liked the Tamale Pie!

Midwife: I copied my recipes into the recipe thread--it seemed silly to make you do it.

Barbara, thank you for your recipes. :) Anyone else has any good ones?

Just coming here and reading about everyone's success is so motivating! :carrot:

OK, here's my week's recap:

I lost exactly one pound. It doesn't sound like much, but mathematically it's about right since my maintenance calories with exercise are around 1600, so even dropping calories down to 1100 - 1200 only gives me a small deficit. How I miss those weeks of 2 - 3 pounds!

Food was better than it's been for months, so hurray for accountability. :cp: Knowing that I would have to post about bad choices kept me from making them on many occasions.

Exercise was probably my weak link because of unexpected toe surgery, then we spent the past three days moving DS into his own apartment. Though it was very physical, I don't think it did much in the way of calorie burn. My goal for this week is seven solid days in the gym.

I haven't tried on my tight jeans yet but will. I'm convinced I'm retaining water because I can't even budge my wedding ring. :dizzy:

My commitment for the week: calories around 1200, seven days of cardio, five days of weights.

If anyone would like to do it again, this week's thread is here: No Excuses Week #2 - All Welcome!

Well, I was NOT perfectly on plan yesterday........
 

But I did manage only about a hundred - 2 hundred calories over at the very most. NO EXCUSES. I planned poorly. Well I planned well, but didn't STICK with the plan. Did a bunch of cooking and spent waaay too much time in the kitchen. Yup, it was those darn BLT's that did me in. I switched up my plan, cut back on my dinner calories (which I don't like doing) and managed to salvage the day. Oh, another thing I didn't do well with yesterday - exercise.

I am still quite pleased with the week. Quite. It was the best 7 day stretch I've had in a while. My jeans were fitting comfortably yesterday, not loose like they had been, but comfortably. :smug:

Barbara, yes, I can see how that would make an easier time for you. And again, kudos for not delving into those portioned out puddings - I'm not there yet. Don't know if I'll ever be. :(

Congratulations to all you who kept it up for 7 days & those of you who came close and improved their weeks from their norm.

I'll head on over to the new thread in a bit.

Yesterday was a planned splurge, definitely no excuses since I'm quite pleased about it, really. It was a delicious picnic of bread, cheese, preserves, and vegetables, and a bottle of wine. Worth every bite. And my total calories came in around 1800, which is maintenance for me.

I'm sitting at the airport, coffee in hand, waiting for my flight to board. I've got yogurt in my purse to avoid the peanut handouts. Then it'll be go, go, go until Thursday evening.

This thread was very helpful to me - definitely improved my average, and stuck to what I had planned (even if what I had planned wasn't 100% at my weight loss level).

Well I did really well through Friday but Saturday the kids decided a picnic would be fun and they had things all prepared by the time we arrive and were literally standing on the sidewalk watching for us at 9:00 am Saturday morning. I didn’t even try to resist, there hearts were so in the right place.

Sunday, again we wanted to take them out to breakfast and then head back to AZ and the restaurant I was recommending (because I knew I could get egg beaters and stick to my guns) turned into a home town style restaurant that offered more choices and I didn’t exercise my well planned control. I didn’t make wise choices other then getting up this morning and dusting myself off and firmly focused on not using the weekend as an excuse to not eat on plan today and fit my workout in. I’ll see you all in the new thread tomorrow and report in.

This thread really was just what I needed just when I needed it. I was really struggling and just the tag line of No Excuses hit home, that is all I’ve been doing is coming up with excuses as to why I didn’t do xy or z.

Thx for giving me one more week to prove I can do this.

Other than bombing on that pizza the other night I am doing pretty good. I am getting my miles in and then some. Mexican tongiht...I.m going easy on the cheese and portions!

I promise!! I have to!

Today I was hungry, cranky, tired, and near vending machines and all manner and variety of food dispensers. I let myself get over-everything.

And still...STILL...I am on plan so far (or at least, as on-plan as one can be with almost no fresh veggies or fruit servings...I'm gonna try to get something veggie-heavy at dinner).

B - Yogurt (150 cals)
S - Zone Bar (210 cals, 14 grams of protein...was trying to prevent the hungries)
L - Grocery store salad w/ chicken, feta, walnuts, dried cranberries and raspberry dressing. (Nutrition label said 290 cals, but I only ate half of the dressing...still, we'll count it at 275)
S - Airport packet of pretzels (note to self - do not depend on healthy options in office vending machine - 50 calories)

I'm off to a business dinner, where I will make a healthy, veggie filled choice and have one glass of wine!

We're on a new thread for Week 2 - join us over there!