Thanks, Becky, for a full answer to the question. I award 5 extra points for the excellent link. We like stats here but the properly obtained sample can be a problem sometimes (usual reasons - forget to do/write down/remember, refuse consciously or unconsciously, away from standard apparatus, standard apparatus on the blink etc).

I might try the average method. I tend to run my eye over the readings and look for peaks, troughs, trends: this is partly because I haven't have a computer at home (except shared and thus inaccessible ones). Am getting one though so all this will change, a bit, at least.

This discussion on double sided tape is cracking me up. I have never or will never attempt a strapless or spaghetti dress. The support I would need can't be had with the bras that are available strapless.

Someone asked me how many extra calories I was looking at for Holidays when I suggested losing a few as a buffer. I am not sure exactly. Thanksgiving lends its self to pecan pie. My old tradition was to eat a slice the day after for breakfast.....but that is about 800 calories after what ever else I would be eating the day before. I need to remind my self to eat like a skinny person because I AM A SKINNY PERSON.

I think my plan going forward will be to eat basic and non splurging for a week or two before Thanksgiving..... Have two days of moderately heavier meals and then a week of lighter eating after. Rinse and repeat for Christmas. That should be more than fine unless I go way off plan. Last year I tried to make up the overage and felt like I was starving the week after Christmas. This year I want to just go back to "normal" after.

I need a strategy though in order to feel like I'm working my plan in the mist of holiday junk food.

Yom Kippur fasting has given me the motivation to switch up my daily intake more radically than I have in years. I have decided to try eating only a single piece of fruit with coffee for breakfast, only veggies and 3-4 oz of protein for lunch (and more veggies or another piece of fruit for afternoon snack if absolutely needed), and then have a 1000 calorie dinner/dessert. This is what I did today, and it was fairly bearable. I'll let you know how it goes next weekend.

I love the fashion tapes - i gave both mentioned here, as well as thin stick on and silicone reusable versions of bra replacements and a couple of different cleavage tapes. I'm a socket for gimmick items.

I ran, well walked a lot, a 15k today. I finished, which was my goal. Next year I'll get back into shape and try for time again. Now I just want to survive.

Birchie - i have a weight chart with monthly and weekly averages going back five years now. Not as detailed as Becky's the but lots of info.

Andrea - i have read a lot in support for that fasting plan. Let us know how it goes.

I forgot to post this morning, but I believe I'm down a little over 2 pounds for this week.

Becky, I like your averages. I've been weighing daily and although I'm higher today than on the weekend (big dinner last night) the average looks good. But I'm so embarrassed by both my weight and the average that I refuse to put it down here.

I can't believe how a really simple change to my routine has thrown me. On Mondays, I have to commute to headquarters in CT, but will see my therapist at 7:15 AM beforehand. So there goes my nascent routine of going for a run on Monday morning. I'd have to run after work. Or do something else at the gym entirely. But not spin because I did that on Saturday & Sunday. And I'm sitting here nonplussed, thinking: Is that actually allowed, to run after work, rather than in the morning? My mind is weirdly similar to an ant that is used to going straight forward and can't figure out an alternate route when something is placed in its path. I can be so ingenious in solving creative issues but when it comes to my own life, I'm easily thrown.

No idea what my weight is, but I keep eating six or seven fresh figs every night for dessert. I like when they're a little sticky on the outside. Those are always sweeter than the others.

I think I'm going to get a fig tree. And 'simple' changes like that throw me, too. They are never really simple.

I've tracked for one day. Down one pound. Hmmmmm.... at this rate I'll be back under my redline in less than a week! Ha Ha!!! I wish it was that easy.

I wish it were that easy, too, Michele!

I've been tracking my food on My Fitness Pal which syncs to the Up app on my phone. I was originally tracking my food on the Up app but MFP is so much easier (UP is phone only, MFP is either phone or computer and I can see the computer much better). The Up app tracks my movement (goal of 10,000 steps a day is really a lot!) and my sleep (wants me to get at least 7 hours of sleep which I do most days).

Speaking of seeing, I think I need to see my optometrist soon. I'm thinking of trying bifocal contacts so I can get rid of these blasted reading glasses!

I agree, Allison, that 10,000 steps is a lot to fit in. I've been wearing a pedometer for a few months and I'm finding it's helping me to seek out extra bits of walking. I've found that what I think of as fairly lengthy errand-running only takes me to about 4k or 5k. I really have to build in a "walk" as well and that's not always possible. It's surprising how much I pace around our tiny house, though. For me, 10k steps is about 4 miles.

On a non-exercise day I average about 2500-3000 steps per day. On exercise days (usually 2 miles on the treadmill) I average 7500-8000 steps.

"For me, 10k steps is about 4 miles."
Wow, I never owned a pedometer, so I never looked. But I have been preaching the 10K steps a day thing to my patients for years. I had no idea it was that much (I figured more like 2 miles). Yeah, I'm guessing no 80 year old with Parkinson's disease every met that 10K-a-day goal I so breezily set before them.

As for me, today makes day 4 of my new "only veggies and a small amount of protein all day, then 1000 calories for dinner" diet. Modified Fast-5 I guess. So far so good - no binges, no excessive hunger. As expected, the lower carbs overall has given me a little whoosh, so I'm at my standard (these days) low weight of 126 and change. Now, the hard part- keeping to this when the scale stops its downward plunge and flattens out toward the looong slow creep of real fat loss, usually 1/4-1/3 pound a week in my recent experience.

Your diet sounds so hard Andrea. I hope the results are worth your effort!

I once thought I could stay under 1500 cals per day for my maintenance weight. My body would demand more calories about every 3rd day and I usually wasn't able to stop once I started eating.

I haven't figured out what I'm going to do re even getting under red line right now. I haven't gotten on the scale in over 2 weeks and don't want to know right now. Giving away 4 pairs of fall pants shows pretty graphically what's happening to my weight. Ever upwards!

DH skipped a night at the new house last night - he is really really both physically and mentally - and we messed around watching all sorts of funny stuff on TV via Utube. I didn't realize quite how lonely I had been for the last month or so. And I've been eating to fill that loneliness and also to try to replenish some of the energy lost by not sleeping much for about a month. I have been really worried about DH collapsing physically and my worrying generally translates into not sleeping much @ night.

I think we can now both take a night off from the new house at least once a week and relax with each other. There is still the pressure of the next dog sit (11 days long and no yard for the dogs) and then marshalling 20 or so people to replace me while I take a week "off" to move and unpack.

I know I have to do a pre-emptive weight loss or I will go way over 140 lbs. by November, when all of this two-house business ends. I should start now but I have no energy for it and I have a dog sit tomorrow to Saturday.

I'm going to try to not eat junk one night at a time I guess. Tonite I have my dad's papers to sort and throw out - that will keep me busy until bedtime.

Dagmar

I didn't get my workout in last night because DH's car is in the shop (had to order a part) and that meant I couldn't go home at my normal 4 PM(ish) and get all my home chores done and fix dinner. I like my routine and things like that that get in the way cause me stress and I just needed to sit and relax after dinner. I hope to get the workout done today. Can't do it tomorrow as we have a function after dinner.

I've decided the Up band doesn't really track my awake times during the night. If I physically get up and out of bed it says I've been awake, but if I wake up and toss and turn a bit it records it as "light sleep" which is opposed to "deep sleep" which I guess means I'm sleeping and not moving. I know for a fact that I was awake at 3 AM but didn't get out of bed so it thought I was still asleep. Next time I wake up and have trouble getting back to sleep I will get out of bed and then see if it figures out how long I take to get back to sleep. I did get back to sleep in small bits but kept waking up again.

My weight is back down to Saturday morning's reading. This is my last weekend with DS around (we move him to his dorm on Sunday) so this should be my last weekend where we eat a bit more. But two or three days of "up" and then back down again isn't too much to deal with.

Andrea, your plan looks spot-on to me. My stats are showing far too many carbs and I'm sure that is slowing my loss.

Dagmar~good luck on your impending dog sit. I'd hate not having a yard to turn the dogs out into.

Andrea-- your plan sounds difficult to me as well. What do your before dinner meals look like if you don't mind me asking?