Exercise is definitely good for body comp. that is my focus now. My bodyfat is pretty low, but I am trying to get it down a bit more.

Here is a link to Relay For Life Angie and Gary have walked this for several years, sadly she will walk it alone this year. She is asking for donations and hoped she wasn't being too forward in asking.
http://main.acsevents.org/goto/garymiller

First of all, staying up past 10 pm and sleeping until 6 am is normal and good and healthy. It is something to be pleased about, not feel guilty about. If you make that kind of timetable more of your norm, you would be able to fit in more of the social activities that frighten you now because they derail your routine. Just sayin.

Second, I am convinced that our bodies are really really good at adjusting to whatever we make our habit. So, if you increase your exercise to 2 hours every day so you can eat more, soon you will be automatically eating exactly the extra calories you are burning (or more) in your more intensive exercise bouts. Anecdotally, people training for a marathon frequently gain 10 pounds, and more objectively, there are a lot of studies (the most recent one is here: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23377831) suggesting that moderation in exercise is better for weight loss/maintenance than more extreme bouts. The data are fairly convincing. Would you consider backing off your exercise routine to 4-5 days a week of 1 hour for a few weeks as an experiment? It will mess with your head for sure, but I sense that you are at a point of serious frustration, and I don't think more and more of the same is sustainable in the long run.

And now that I've inserted myself where I probably don't belong, feel free to tell me to piss off and mind my own business.

Andrea

Andrea - I've looked at that data before on our bodies adjusting to what we make our habit, and I have backed down my exercise back and forth over the years. I don't know that it has made a difference, or I guess how to tell really.

Thank you for posting this. I will definitely be donating. My daughter is walking it this Friday/Saturday. I've told her about Gary so she will also be thinking of him as she walks.

It's right by me. Anytime you'd like to meet, I'm game. You're not too far away. ;)

Shannon - the new avatar is from my usual path on the Silver Comet. This past weekend I did Stone Mountain with my cousin and her son while her husband was out of town - they've lived in the area for a year and never done it before!

I'm just checking in. On day 2 of NOT overeating and being back in my regular pattern, which is nice. I've been adding to the strength training recently - both weight and routine - and everything is sore, in a good way.

This work week, however, may swallow me whole! Is it Friday yet?

Oh cool, Jen! I've never done the Silver Comet, even with it so close.

Andrea, I believe in the scientific studies, but my motivation for exercising is now a lot more complex than simply keeping my weight down. I use the cardio to blow off steam and decrease my stress level. And I am becoming fascinated by strength training. (My interest in it increased exponentially after Hurricane Irene and my displacement, so I'm sure there's some connection between feeling like a victim and wanting to get physically stronger.) The strength training is developing into a hobby of sorts. I guess what I have to adapt to is the scale number changing if I really want to pursue this interest. For the first time, my clothes are actually in danger of getting tight in the shoulders and arms.

Bargoo, hugs to you. No great advice right now, but I'm so sorry that you are going through this.

I'm not sure how my post popped up before yours that I had read and was replying to, bargoo.

I am a mess of emotions and my eating yesterday reflected this outside of a Hershey Milk Chocolate bar I didn't eat anything bad but ate all day long.The same day Gary passed away a neighbor did , also. I had called 911 for him and he was taken to the hospital but passed away the following day, he was a good neighbor but not a close friend, oddly I felt a stronger connection to Gary whom I never met in person than a man I have met personally but of course it was sad in both cases. Last week my OS went bad and I had to have a new one installed, I spent several hours on the phone with Dell in the hopes I could recover my files and did, I then had to listen to a hard sell sales pitch from him that I refused and felt guilty for refusing this person who had spent so much time, helping me. Now my printer is refusing to print. So I have had a whirlwind of emotions going on all at the same time. Sadness, frustration and guilt.
Today I am reminding myself that these are events out of my control and stuffing my face is not going to change anything, except the number on the scale.

Hugs and prayers to you, bargoo.

I overate last night on purpose. There was a yummy bit of food in the house and I chose to eat it. I'm not going to call it a binge - there was not out-of-control feeling, which is how I define a binge for myself - but after I counted all the calories I was DOUBLE over my daily limit.

I'm in a place of frustration. I am NOT overweight. I exercise regularly and am fit. I love my strong, muscular legs. I wear single digit clothing. Does my body just not want to lose these 5 pounds? Is my willpower too weak? Am I a "bad" person? (That last one is both rhetorical and hyperbolic, but I feel it right now.)

I know I have body image issues but my stomach is a true problem. I need to lose some abdominal fat - it's not all loose skin. But I also compare myself to others much too much. I'm working on that inner demon.

Sorry, friends, for a downer of a post. But I needed to get some of this out to people who would understand.

Jen, you sound like you are reading a script from inside my head with your post. I deliberately overate this morning. Telling my self the entire time that it didn't matter, I looked fine, I was the only one really unhappy with myself. My big hot point is my tummy, too. It has been slimmer, and I gained some muscle, but in the last year I also gained back some fat there. I don't feel as fit as I did - maybe because I'm over 40 and things are just moving slower than they were. LOL

I totally understand, and have been letting myself be consumed by it lately.

Make that three, Jen and Shannon. I also deliberately overate after getting home from work last night. I just recently moved in with my boyfriend, and it makes me feel a bit panicked that if I *want* to eat badly, I am too embarrassed to do it in front of him. So I maintain my super-healthy outward behavior in front of him...but if I get home before him, apparently I cram peanut butter in my mouth. The sad thing is, once I realized I would get home first, I started rushing to make sure I would be home with enough time to do some overeating.

Pathetic. I mean really. And I haven't weighed myself for a while. I will face the music tonight.