I started yesterday and stayed within my calorie limit. Today so far so good. I am only 3 pounds over goal but I know what happens 3 pounds become 5 and 5 becomes 10, 10 becomes 20 etc..................

I thought of ya'll while packing my own snack and resisting the donuts, juice, cookies, etc at the blood donor center. They had a girl there whose job it was to give out the snacks...she was very disappointed. Finally I let her get me a bottle of water, which placated her some...even though I had my reusable bottle right there.

I was so proud of myself today at work.
A salesman came by and brought me an Oatmeal Cookie from Starbucks. He hadn't seen me since last year and (just like men) he asked what was different about me. He said I looked so different but I think he was afraid to say that I'd lost weight. I pointed it out and he said I looked amazing. So I wasn't about to eat the cookie after he left.
Ok-- maybe I thought about it. Ok-- maybe I really thought about it. I had tons of excuses why I could eat it--it's just one cookie, how bad could it really be?, I'll work out extra hard at the gym, no one will know, I can't just throw it away, it's a gift......
I offered it to one of my co-workers and she took it happily-- made her day!
Then I checked dwlz.com to see the points and it would have been 10 points-- half my points for the whole day! Sooooo not worth it!!!
So, I had no excuses (once I finished arguing inside my head!!)

10 points for one cookie! That's about 500 calories, isn't it?

to all of you who resisted temptation today!! Isn't it funny how, when we wake up in the morning, we never regret passing something up the day before? I've never said to myself: "Darn it, now why didn't I go ahead and have that box of Girl Scout cookies? And the matching can of Pringles? Wish I hadn't talked myself out of it!"

Another good day for me here. This was the third day of hard-core, no excuses for me and it really DOES get easier as the days go by. Tomorrow will be Leg Day and that always makes me hungry, so it will be a bit of a challenge. I may increase my oatmeal from 1/3 cup to 1/2 to get a few more carbs in.

Hope you're all having a wonderful evening!

Yay, Michele! The cookies are long gone from our kitchen - phew! I got around to entering my food into Fitday, and I'm happy to say that I can have a little more for dinner than I planned or a small evening snack. Yum. And I've eaten just what I planned, with the addition of one of those 50 cal plastic cups of unsweetened applesauce. It got mixed with my cottage cheese this morning. One more hour and I'm off to the gym for some cardio...

Great job Ladies....reading your posts makes me hungry!

B~ Bowl of Total and orange juice

L ~ A thermos of my homemade soup ~ turkey sandwich on wheat ~ vanilla yogurt

D~ Angie says we are have risotto with chicken ~ sourdough bread and salad

S~ 2 beers....so far

Exercise ~ after work I did a 3 mile walk with Angie and the mutts!

I was very bummed this morning with the scale...down 2 yesterday...2 back today...what gives?

This is going to sound stupid, but the one thing I am willing to have no excuses about this week is giving up some sugar free caramel hard candies I really have become quite attached to. I realized there are several things I'm "letting" myself just have--yes, I write them down, but... anyway, when I went to buy 6 (yes, 6!) packages of the caramel candies today, I realized that this "love interest" has gotten out of hand. So, for this week, one day at a time, I'm going to give up my sugar free caramel candies. The way I look at it, each of those sweet babies is 9 calories. I chew them up, and eat a bag like they're nothing. Perhaps they're affecting my weight and I don't even know it. Now, what will I use for a substitute? Time to get out the carrots and munch away. My mouth will be busy, and I can do this...just keep repeating I can do this. SF caramel candies cannot be in control of my choices; I need to have control over them!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree Meg! You never regret not eating something bad or not exercising-- never!!
I've been thinking since I got home how much better I feel knowing I made a good choice. If I had caved, I would be feeling guilt. I would much rather be feeling good than guilty!

too funny. And sometimes they really are disappointed or confused about why you simply would not just want to allow yourself this wonderful treat. ~sigh~
Grocery stores...all of the time.

That's great Meg. Your right but it is really hard to delay gratification while trying to work through the habit of eating something that really isn't part of your planned day. Thanks so much for starting this challenge. You've saved me from a lot of refined carbs the last two days. And you are correct, flexing the NO muscle becomes easier as time goes on. I KNOW THIS. I tell other people this all of the time. Time to practice what I'm preaching in order to stop pretending to lose these last ten pounds and just do it.

I thought today was going to be a little shaky. DS2 didn't want to go to the gym this morning. For me nutrition and my workouts go hand in hand. While I'm at the gym I'm expending energy and not consuming calories in the mid morning. By mid afternoon I'm busy catching up with the family. There is no time to nosh except for the 3:00pm snack that's built into my day.

Fortunately the crisis was averted. A friend called and invited us out for a playdate. The pastries at Panara no longer call my name, okay my eyes did wander over the bagels a little longer than necessary and I chocked when I heard a clerk ask the customer behind me if they wanted their's toasted. But I stuck with the latte. I could have had hot tea but I really needed a little sweetness and the milk helped curb my hunger.

I did hit the gym later in the afternoon after DH came home early from work. He wasn't feeling well but assured me he could supervise DS2 for a little while as they napped on the couch. He didn't have to tell me twice to go. Well, actually he did. The guilt. But I left and had one of the best workouts in a long time. Sometimes it feels so calming afterwards and everything I've been tossing around in my head suddenly is focused and clear. This was one of those workouts. :

Food looked like this today:
B Oatmeal/ff cottage cheese/protein powder combo
S Skim latte
L 4 egg white omlette with 3 deli thin slices of lf ham
S EAS lite bar post workout
D 5 oz grilled chicken breast and steamed broccoli
Evening Sleepytime tea. Icewater Vitamins.

Am I hungry right now? You better believe it. But it's bedtime and I'm counting on doing a happy dance around the scale tomorrow morning.

Hi Renee perhaps I can help here! I am an American living in Austria now, who happens to be on the WW Flex as well!

I have found a Splenda substitute here. It's called ( and please let the umlat u show up... ) Süssli Streusüsse. Per half a gram its 1.7 calories. And you use it as you would normal sugar. Trust me when I say nobody knows the difference when baking with it. Or using it in salad dressings, fruit salads, mixing it is practically undetectable. Now if your going to use it in your coffee or tea its a little sweeter then normal sugar so a little goes a long way. ( If you use a teaspoon of sugar try a half teaspoon of the Süssli ) There is a subtle after taste but after a couple of cups you wont notice it anymore. Its all what you get used to.

I don't know if they sell it in the Netherlands but I am willing to bet if you know where to look you can find a simular product. I found my product in the isle where they sell food for Diabetic's.

Good luck!

So far I've been on-plan this week, but I really haven't been in any tempting situations, so I can't really call it much of an achievement. I expect the rest of the week to be more of the same. It's a relief to have a week with no meals out, which are always my trigger for off-plan eating.

I've been eating oat bran (from Trader Joe's) as an alternative to oatmeal and I have to say that this stuff is awesome. A single 1/3 cup serving cooks up to a BIG bowl of cereal (I swear it seems like more than what my 1/2 cup of oatmeal cooks up to). And it is so warm and creamy, sort of like cream of wheat but better for you. It even has 1g more fiber and 2g more protein than my oatmeal.

Today's food was:
B: FF plain yogurt with raspberries and High Fiber Cereal
S: decaf coffee with FF half and half and SF Torani
L: Pork and tofu stir fry with brown rice, pickles and pickled mushrooms
S: Oat bran with 1 tbsp FF cream cheese
S: Tuna sensations with water crackers
S: Fiber One muffin with non-fat cream cheese and a small apricot
D: Chinese cabbage salad with chicken and tofu
S: Fiber One cereal
S: Pumpkin pudding with ginger cookies, 2 sugar-free hard candies

It all came in at 1600 calories.

Exercise as 15 min on the step mill (10 of those were intervals), 15 min abs, and 20 min intervals on the treadmill.

Thanks for the idea, Sassy! I'd suggest cutting back on the vinegar if you weren't going to use some kind of sweetener, Renee, otherwise the dressing would be really acidic. Or you could try a little real sugar and add it into the calories -- the original recipe had 1/2 cup sugar and I just substituted Splenda.

Goal, I've found that I abuse things like SF candy too. If I buy a bag, I tend to eat it all "because it's sugar free" (or as many as I can eat without major digestive issues!) Same thing with SF Cool Whip. But I ended up making the same decision as you to stop buying them because 1. there's no nutritional reason to eat them, and 2. they were encouraging the kind of binge eating behavior that I desperately want to get away from. I don't want to feel like I always need something sweet in my mouth! And I don't want to binge on anything, even if it's sugar free. We're cheering you on!!

The gym opens at 5:30 am and I'm off to do legs and cardio.

Let's make it a great day!!

Good heavens, Barbara, are you still up? I love oat bran too, especially with a bit of SF maple syrup. But my grocery store stopped carrying it, so I need to find it somewhere else. We don't have Trader Joes here, unfortunately -- people from Pittsburgh drive to Cleveland to shop there!

Starting day 4 POP...this will be a hard one. I did a kick *** interval workout this morning, but can't go to the gym. Lunchtime business meeting in center city , then I am taking the rest of the day off to visit my aunt who lives there. She only eats out- I've tried to cook for her, to bring food, but noooooo...we HAVE to go to a Chinese restaurant!

Everyone is doing GREAT

Day 4- why aren't my clothes hanging off me????

Mel

I have still yet to get myself to a Trader Joes. Or a Whole Foods MArket. I have both of them, but not very near by. Probably an hour or so away.

Yesterday was FANTASTIC!!! Simply wonderful. A couple of times I was ready to grab a handful of my kids cereal (Life) and stopped myself. Knowing that I would have to report it here and also knowing that for me one handful can very easily turn into 2 handfuls and then 3 and then, well I probably don't have to tell you the rest. So, I thought about it and said, "nuh-uh, this is NOT what I want to be doing. It's not worth it to take the chance and start." I also had in mind what Meg said, no BLT's. It felt good to turn it down. So though my day was wonderful, I too was not faced with enormous amounts of temptation. But still........

Barbara, I'm loving the sound of your dinner. Chinese cabbage salad with chicken and tofu.

goal, I too have a problem with SF candies. I found a couple of very good brands. One is 6 calories a piece and another is 7. I can easily eat 10 of them. I'm working on cutting it down also. I've even had a problem with Tic Tacs a few weeks ago. I ate an entire container in one sitting. They had a six pack on sale yesterday and I put them in my cart - and then put them back. I can't stand that feeling of shoveling things down my throat. Really, the best way to combat this stuff - is to just not have them around. Good luck to you and of course you CAN do this!!! You can.

Here's to another stellar day. But I can't get thoughts of the upcoming weekend out of my head. All right, one day at a time.......