Exercise makes me feel like I'm more in the "groove" of things. I don't use it as an excuse to eat more. It seems to work the opposite for me. I'll think "that one mile on the treadmill only burns about 100 calories, so I don't want to eat extra and still create a big deficit". It is strange, but the exercise seems to make me even more conscious of making the right food choices if that makes any sense.

Lily, we have a list of books that the maintainers put together here:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50697

Meg, maybe we should sticky that one over in the Maintenance Library. I know I got a few good reads from other people's suggestions.

I'm reading 'YOU on a diet' now (along with the rest of the country, I think), and am getting Mindless Eating soon. I'll do some reviews when I get through them and get a couple minutes.

Anne

Good idea, Anne! I'll get my Scotch tape out and stick it right away. (sorry, I'm tired and feeling a little goofy )

BTW, I just got my copy of YOU also ... just paged through and was pleased that it has a section on excess skin after weight loss.

My mom is in town for her birthday, I hadn't seen her since Mother's Day. I'm already feeling out of control with food - talk me down! I don't think I ate TOO much today, but still feeling "too full" and guilty.

B - 1 whole wheat English muffin, pink grapefruit marmalade, 1/2 cup mixed fruit

L - naked chicken burrito from Qdoba - white rice, chicken, pico de gallo, lettuce, 1/2 serving of guacamole on the side

S - tall non fat latte

S - fruit and nut bar

D - fun dinner at Purple cafe and wine bar. Split goat cheese/honey/cracker appetizer four ways, 2 glasses of wine, salad with blackened salmon, avocado, blue cheese, chickpeas, dressing on side, 2 cups of coffe with cream, a few bites of creme brule, 1/2 huge piece of chocolate cake - ugh.

I know we are going to fancy place for her birthday Sunday night, I hope I can stay relatively "good" the rest of the time. Luckily, we'll be doing a lot of walking around Seattle tomorrow!

I'm usually pretty draconian with eating, but I find it so easy to justify eating more for "special occasions." I wouldn't mind too much if it were ONE birthday meal, but she's here until Monday and I know that I'll probably eat offplan the whole time We're going out for Moroccan food tomorrow night!

Glory, you have achieved awesome success with wt. loss and maintenance. You can handle this weekend. Hang in there. You had a decent day with a little extra at dinner. No biggie. Make sure to drink your water and fit exercise in your schedule for this weekend. Stick to your usual eating during the following days and try to make the best possible choices at the restaurants. If you partake of dessert, share it with someone. You'll come through this just fine. Enjoy the time with your mother, that is something that doesn't happen often and needs to be treasured without guilt over food choices. Try to remember that even if things get rough and your food isn't on program for you this weekend that it's impossible for you to gain much in 1 weekend and you can cut back or exercise more next week and "NIP it in the BUD". We didn't gain our excess lbs. in a weekend, we gained them over yrs.

We're off on a road trip today too. We're taking DS and her husband out to lunch for her birthday and we're taking neices (12 and 10) with us. I guess I'll do my best to be mindful.

Glory, sweetie, just take a deep breath. You're going to make it through the weekend just fine. Remember your birthday week? That ended up not even being a blip on your maintenance radar, though I remember that you were stressed out about that too. This is LIFE ... and we're doing this for life and life happens.

Looking at what you ate, clearly you weren't 'out of control'. Sure, you ate more than you usually do but that's OK every once in a while (back to my point that this is part of life). Most of the day was very much in control and I'm sure the majority of your weekend will be too.

You're one of the most sensible and level headed posters here at 3FC and I bet if someone else was posting this, you'd answer in your usual calm and thoughtful way ... that a few high calorie choices aren't going to make you gain all the weight back. It takes A LOT of bad decisions, day after day after day, to put the weight back on. Come Monday, do you have any doubt that you'll be right back on track? I don't!

Thanks, Meg...sometimes I just need to BREATHE. I may have had wine and dessert, but I still ordered a healthy entree with dressing on the side! I do have good habits

Glory, I wondered why you hadn't posted in a couple of days....you had mentioned being sick and I was worried that you had gotten worse. Good to hear that you're enjoying your time rather than being sick.

I agree with Meg. You are very level headed and once Monday comes you will go right back to your routine. I can't imagine you abandoning everything you've achieved so far after just a couple of meals! It's like I said about being moderate--you can have that dessert because you're only going to have one (not seconds or thirds). It's all a part of being moderate.

I had a friend years ago that had lost a tremendous amount of weight. His way of keeping it off was to eat healthy (lots of steamed veggies and whole wheat bread almost 100% of his meals), but that allowed him to eat a slice of pizza or two on pizza day without him feeling guilty. He knew that the next day he'd go right back to his veggies and ww bread.

Now for me: my parents arrive tomorrow for a 17 day stay. I intend to cook no differently than I have been for the past several months. But I had to buy some sweet breads for them for breakfast. I chose a low fat cranberry orange loaf from Trader Joes as well as some apple cranberry bran muffins. I figure I should allow them their usual breakfast (fruit and sweet bread and cereal) and I'll just have the fruit. I may give in for 1 slice of the cranberry orange loaf, though! Dinner tomorrow will be chicken, spelt and green beans. Monday will be halibut and orzo with spinach and tomatoes. Tuesday we have my DD's concert so we'll go out to eat. After that, who knows, but it will be healthy!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Glory, I think you just said what I was going to tell you. I doubt you will eat off plan the whole time your mother is here. It is obvious to me that you enjoy eating healthy and so I can't imagine you won't be back there every chance you get. Enjoy your time with your mother, and make the best choices you can for your life while she is here. Sometimes that means a comprise between rigidly healthy eating, and eating as a cultural and familial event. Not the same thing as eating cr@p all day every day at all.

Anne

Amen Lily! This is how it works for me, too. Exercise puts me in touch with my whole self. I love that feeling.

Had a narrow escape today ... we decided to go out for a late breakfast/early lunch, and had decided on a Cracker Barrel. I knew exactly what I was going to order. But when we got there, it was swamped, so we went to O'Charley's next door. I don't find O'Charley's a very good option for me, but they have a chicken breast sandwich, which is what I usually order.

But I was starving. I went to water aerobics this morning, and all I'd had was a protein shake beforehand. Well class, what do we know about being too hungry? It's a disaster in the making.

O'Charley's had a new menu item -- sliced chicken on what they called flatbread and what I'd call mediocre pita. Ordered all the sauces on the side, but I fell prey to those stupid rolls they serve beforehand. Result: lunch cost me 600 calories

However, when I got home I found myself thinking what I'd REALLY wanted at O'Charley's was a hamburger. So I looked it up in Calorie King. An O'Charley's hamburger (half a pound) IS MORE THAN 1,000 CALORIES. All of a sudden my 600-calorie actually looked like

Live and learn.

Tonight's dinner, thankfully, is grilled marlin steaks and green beans (I'm trying to copy a meal I had in a restaurant on Thursday).

Sounds like there are lots of family get togethers this weekend ... I hope you all have a wonderful time being with the ones you love because that, in the end, is the best gift of all.

Hugs to everyone.

I'm glad I came over here to read tonight. Like Glory, I feel like I've been having a few celebrations lately and my calories have been somewhat. At the same time, if I think about it, I've actually made decent choices for the most part, and have been mindful of what I've been doing.

It helps me to hear over and over that one meal won't necessarily become 20 and that I HAVE learned good habits and WON'T gain back over 100 pounds in a weekend.

After all, my husband doesn't get his dream job everyday, and that creme brulee was divine (and we split it!)

You ladies give me hope that I CAN do maintenance. Though I guess I should figure out a maintenance weight...

We had a wonderful day with our neices! I did have lunch but didn't have that in betweenie meal Dh and the girls had at McD's!
My calories are OK and I could correct my percentages some if I had the energy to make a shake.
I think I'll do upper body in the morning.

Susan -- That sounds like a great NSV and a lovely day to boot!

It's funny, Heather, sometimes a maintenance weight just kind of finds YOU, rather than the other way around. Sometimes our bodies say 'that's it, that's enough and I'm just not going any lower'. Regardless of whatever number we may have set our hearts on, that's just where we end up maintaining.

The important thing is that the weight is healthy and sustainable. There's nothing wrong with living at a certain weight for a year (for example), practicing mainenance, and THEN going for a lower weight.

Congrats to DH on his dream job! And congrats to both of you for splitting dessert!