Join me in waving goodbye to 2.5lbs, lost over the past calendar month. In fact, it was lost during the first 10 days and then my weight stabilised. I couldn’t understand why this happened. Perhaps my body needed to get used to being at a lower weight? Perhaps I should change food around a bit? And then I realised that the hiatus began around the time the DB went to Belgium and I took him to catch the bus at midnight. A few days later I picked him up about 9.30 in the evening. And when he’s at school, I don’t get quite enough sleep. Nor can I sleep late at the weekend: I just wake up at 6 am on the dot.

Sleep has always been central to my weight loss efforts. Followed closely by space. And then food. And then exercise. Perhaps those last two go hand-in-hand. It took me a long time to work it all out and I appear to have completely forgotten it for the past few weeks. Anyway, now I know again and I’m turning out the light earlier and keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll see the effect on on the scales.

:wave: dstalksalot! Do call in again. It’s nice to see a new face.

Yay, birchie! Woo!

I have found that my body likes to "get used" to a weight before it decides to lose some more, regardless of how hard I try. So instead of trying so hard (and failing to lose and therefore feeling bad about myself), I allow myself to go slack a little. Sometimes I gain a pound (that's where I am now) but eventually I go back to trying and the weight just falls off. Granted it may only be a pound or two but at least I'm not beating myself up about it. Kind of like taking three steps forward and one step back. It may take longer to get there, but I will get there.

Going golfing this afternoon. I hope the wind dies down a little. It's a warm day but the wind is very cool and it can sometimes interfere with the game.

Sleep makes a huge difference for me. And like Allison, my body also likes to stick at a new weight for a bit before bouncing onward. And previous set points are the worst kind of stubborn.

I'm still at 153.0, just like last Sunday. But I had a rare cheat last Monday and it's taken this whole week to recover the lost ground. Lesson learned and remembered!

Checking in after a wonderful week at Club Med Turkoise (located in Providenciales, on the Turks & Caicos Islands). It was completely wonderful to be somewhere warm and sunny, and no kids to boot (my parents came to MI to watch our brood while we did the vaca). Wow; I haven't been so relaxed in years. We went scuba diving again for the first time since 2000, something the DH and I loved dearly back in the day, and realized we should do more of it again. We also spent hours digging our toes in the sand, strolling on the beach, and reading novels on lounge chairs. And, oh yes, having delicious low-cal food that led to a 2-pound weight loss in 5 days. Admittedly, that may also have been from the unaccustomed sorts of exercise (I even took flying trapeze lessons, which are apparently a specialty of Club Meds), but I was amazed that every meal featured an assortment of innovative salads, steamed and roasted veggies, and meats that tended to the broiled, stir-fried or grilled. It was easy to stay away from the dessert bar because it was in a separate part of the dining room from everything else. If any of you are looking for a reasonably-priced all-inclusive getaway, this is the one.

Andrea~that vacation sounds wonderful!!! WTG on the loss, too!

We went out to dinner with friends last night. Not a memorable meal other than too much garlic (still tasted it when I got up this morning). The food, the lack of sleep for two nights and probably more salt than I needed in that meal made the scale jump up over 2 pounds! I must be diligent to get that off.

Andrea-- your trip does sound amazing!!! And to lose weight on it?! Were you eating a special plan or is all the food (except the dessert area) health conscious? I've never done Club Med. I'd love to hear about the atmosphere, age range of guests, etc.

Got off to a rough start for the week yesterday :(. Sometimes I'm running on adrenaline for a whole week and then just fall over when I get home. I forgot to pack my afternoon snack and had a diet pop and some chips because I was really hungry and had about 10 seconds to pick up something. That set up all sorts of cravings. Now all the junk is gone and I will pack my healthy lunch and snack today. :D

It can only get better from there. DH is at class tonite - he came to bed after midnight so he's going to have a long, long day - so I'm going to catch up on laundry and stuff. Get the stale smoke smell out of everything and get organized for the rest of the week.

My evening snack is going to be 1/2 cup fresh diced pineapple and 1/2 cup low fat vanilla yogurt. Period.

Dagmar :D

One of the two garlic pounds is off as of this morning. Did I tell you about the garlic? This restaurant has never been on my "bucket list" for a number of reasons. And going there Sunday night just confirmed that I don't need to return. Granted the wedge salad was really good, but how do you wreck a wedge? We had escargot for an appetizer and then dipped the rolls in the butter and garlic sauce that they came in. I had a chicken entree and the vegetables were apparently cooked in the same garlic sauce as the entree. I don't know what DH had but the next morning he said the garlic about killed him. This place was over priced and not worth it at all.

Michelle, there is no "special meal plan" - just a very wide array of food to choose from, and quite a lot of it is health-conscious (yes, you have to avoid the stuff that's fried or sitting in cream sauce, but there wasn't a whole lot of it). The clientele was a very diverse assortment. A LOT of Canadians, especially French-speakers from Montreal and Quebec, but also a great many Americans from the Northeast/Midwest. Given the crappy winter we've had in this part of North America, it's probably not too surprising that 3/4 of the guests were from the "snow belt." The age range was late 20s to early 70s, with the majority of guests being between 30 and 60. Club Meds encourage interaction (most dining tables are communal; they have umpteen group activities every day; there are dozens of perky young 20-something staff whose jobs are to engage you in activities, chat you up and get you involved), and DH and I joked frequently that it's a resort designed for extroverts. Seriously, you have to like being with other people to really enjoy this place. Since we do, it was perfect. And, oh yes, if you like alcohol it's a huge plus since the booze is included in the price. This was one aspect of the place we didn't take advantage of, since neither of us drinks anything other than wine.

Did as planned last night. Greek low fat yogurt and fruit. I didn't realize that the greek yogurt has way more protein than most other yogurts. Very satisfying.

I'm going to go and buy a small chest freezer this morning. DH and I have been talking about it for months. Now it's time to DO it. He can store his frozen fruit and ice cubes upstairs in the fridge freezer for easy access and I will buy meat, poultry, and fish on sale and store it downstairs in the chest.

Good day all!

Dagmar :cool:

Thanks for the info Andrea. That would NOT be the trip for us. I don't drink AT ALL (though dh does) and we are NOT extroverts. When we go on a cruise, we ask to have a table for two because we do NOT like to be sat with people we don't know. Good to know...

I couldn't figure out why I'm so tired :faint:, now that I'm back from the dogsit. I was hoping I could muster the willpower to not eat in the evenings and start getting back down to under 135 lbs. :goodscale:. I realized the reason yesterday afternoon as I was trudging through the new 6-8 inches of snow that had fallen.

Last Monday we were at the point where walking almost felt like walking on bare ground. Sure there was still ice in a lot of places but there was ground showing through. Now we are wading through snow again, drifted in spots, with a lot of the treacherous ice hidden again. That works the body hard and makes me tired in the evening.

Realistically I probably won't be able to do much except keep going until the snow is gone. Then I can switch to shoes and walk more easily. I AM going to quite severely restrict calories on the weekends I'm not working and no beer until I get under 135 lbs.

Dagmar :tired: of :brr:

I have eaten and exercised my way up to 154.3 pounds.

This morning, I overslept and crashed, as I occasionally do on Fridays. I feel profoundly tired, mentally and spiritually, and not motivated to restrict food, which is obviously what I need to do.

The only bright spot is, I'm continually reading about women doing weight training, I'm about to learn & implement a new Friday routine, and I'm still interested in my forthcoming running class.

I have conflicting impulses and expert voices from all my reading chiming in within my head:

"Ease up on yourself and let your weight go whatever way it will."

"Try a cutting phase so you can see the benefits of all the strength training you've been doing."

What I need apparently is a kind of vow renewal with my eating habits.

Still holding steady but at a slightly higher weight than last week. It probably didn't help that DH and I shared a carton of gelato the other night.

Today marks the beginning of houseguests until Tuesday. I'm cooking tonight and Sunday but suggested we go out on Saturday. I'll have to be careful with all my choices.