Well, I was away over the weekend for my university homecoming (lots of tailgating and being in Chicago with all it's myriad of delicious and fattening foods). When I came home on Sunday, I was up 4 lbs from my Friday weigh in. However, as of this morning, I'm back to just up 1 lb from Friday. By tomorrow, I should have the weekend weight off.

I'm ok with it. I've been really on plan while I'm here at home, but it's just silly for me (everyone is different) to try to stay on plan while on a vacation trip. I did limit my beer intake and tried to stay away from carbs as much as possible. All in all, I'm guessing that much of it was due to more sodium than I'm used to.

Per my fitbit flex, I was very active all three days (over 12,000 steps each day). That obviously helped to mitigate some of my food choices.

Hi faerychic - I am also on meta-balance! I know you can do it! I love to come here and listen to everyone's story. It helps me stay on track and and helps me feel better if I do fall off the wagon.

I will be the first to admit I am an emotional eater - and have fallen off the wagon. But once I do, I hop right back on.

Thanks for the warm welcome back! One day down........losing the weight is not the hard part - it is keeping it off! I cannot tell you how many times I have lost weight only to put it back on. I keep thinking this time will be different. I know what I need to do to keep the weight off - my problem I gradually start eating more & more items I should stay away from. To have success I will always need to watch what I eat. I have spoken to a few friends about how they maintain their weight - seems they continually watch what they eat and exercise.

Thanks for listening - always open to input. Have a great day everyone!

Faerychic, I agree with you keeping it off is the hardest. We just can't go back to our bad habits!

I lost a pound...progress is slow..but at least it is moving down. I am weighing every 3 days at the center right now. I wish I knew what to do to move it along faster. I haven't started exercising yet. I did that one time and gained weight!

cmarty the closer you get to your goal the slower and harder the weight comes off! Hang in there it will happen!:carrot:

I'm the same way, did WW, went to a weight dr, atkins, you name it I've tried it , lost weight, gained it back, but with MRC this is the first time I didn't gain all my weight back before getting back on track. :carrot:

Lady67: I too am an emotional eater so it's very hard for me and I have fallen off plan too many times, but like you I get back on the next day! I've tried to be perfect but I feel that if I do gain a few pounds at least I know what to do to get it back off. We only live once! :cool:

To be honest, I don't exercise at all...yet. ;)

First off, it tracks my steps for me just like a pedometer. You just enter how long your stride length is when you set it up and then it tracks it for you. The thing I hate about traditional pedometers is that they constantly fall off. It also translates that into actual miles traveled.

Next, it tracks your calories burned. It takes into account your Basal Metabolic Rate and the calories you move as you move around during the day, whether it's just walking as you normally do, or full on exercising.

It also links to other apps such as myfitnesspal.com and runkeeper.com, among others. Tracking calories was a shock to me in maintenance. Before, it was just follow the green menu and the weight will come off and while that is true, the calories in one of the selections can be much greater than in another. For example, the calories and fat content in 2 oz. of cheese vs. 4 oz. of chicken. It explained to me why I had a harder time losing weight some times on the green menu even though I was following it. So, by tracking my food and calorie intake now, I'm hoping for a smoother transition back to maintenance. In addition, you can choose what calorie plan you want to be on based on how much weight you want to lose and how fast you want to lose it. At the end of the day, it's about your calorie deficit. I am on the "Kinda hard" plan which is losing 1.5 pounds a week. It calculates that I have to have a 750 calorie deficit between my food calorie intake and the calories I burn throughout the day.

That brings me to the next feature which is the integrated food diary. Although FitBit does have a place for you to log in your foods, I have linked my FitBit to My Fitness Pal since MFPs Food Database is much more extensive. So as I log my foods in...ALL FOODS...every little bite...it deducts it from my calories remaining for the day. This is what I mean by being more mindful of the choices I make. If I don't walk around and get my steps in, my calorie burn goes down and if it goes down, then there goes my calorie deficit if I eat more than I burn. :o

It also has a water tracker. As I drink, it gets logged. It also has "quick icons" so that if I drink a 16.9 oz. bottle of water, I click the pick of it and hit the log it button. Takes the guess work out of trying to remember if I got all my water in.

If I were to start exercising, it can link with several different exercise apps, such as RunKeeper, but you can also directly add your activities into the app or website to track them.

Another cool feature, is it tracks your sleep. As you may have heard, not getting enough sleep can cause you to gain weight. So, before I go to sleep, I tap the band, it vibrates briefly letting me know I'm now in sleep mode. When I wake up, I do the same thing and it puts me back in active mode. It tells me how many times I was restless during the night, if I woke up, how long it took before it sensed I was asleep and how long I sleep. Bottom line, I need to go to bed earlier! LOL :yawn:

And of course, it has a weight tracker.

Since I'm on the app many times a day, it puts my weight loss front and center, and it makes it, dare I say, a little fun. It's like I'm competing with myself. And if you want to compete with others to see who can be more active, there is a free website called myfitnessleague.com that integrates with FitBit.

Ever since getting it, I haven't cheated, consistently lost weight, and have a new found confidence every time I walk into my center. I can't say enough how much I love this little gadget. The new-ness has yet to wear off.

I so agree with you Skelley - I've eaten when I am not even hungry just because I am mad, or sad, or.... whatever.

But then again, I feel that I also need to live my life. If I screw up and gain some weight, now I know I need to behave myself in the following days and get it right back off... I need to stop thinking I can do it tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes. I need to do it today!

that sounds awesome, do you wear it 24/7 or take it off to shower or take a bath?

lady 67: I totally agree!

Same here - I have been thinking about all the $$$$ I spent at MRC to lose the weight and what a waste it would be to put it ALL back on. Sad to say I put on 16 of the 30 pounds I lost:(

Anyway - I wish I could get in my head that food is fuel for my body instead of for pleasure. Growing up everything revolved around food - mmmm.....it's Easter we get easter bread, mmmm.......it's Christmas we get homemade fudge, mmmmm.....we're going to Grandma's - wonder if she has pie or cookies for us? Any get together had food involved. I still think this way - it's such a treat to eat something yummy like chocolate or ice cream. Heck, before I restarted on Monday we went out to dinner and I had my "last supper" of bbq ribs, mac & cheese and corn bread. I have been on so many diets that I really do know how to lose weight. Keeping it off is always the challenge for me.

So, day 2 went well and so far so good today. No cravings and really not too hungry. Drinking a lot of water and no pills this time other than a multi & fish oil. I am also taking ground flax seed - I know it is not on plan but I am doing this instead of the women's oil. I feel like when I rely on the pills to get the weight off, it just comes back on that much faster when I stop taking them.

Sorry for the rant........hope everyone is having a good "on plan" day :)

That's the beauty of it. You wear it 24/7. You can even take a shower, swim, whatever. The charge will last about 5 days, so when the battery starts getting low, I hook up the usb charger in my car and let it charge while I'm driving since I'm not really moving around then.

faerychic: Yes i'm the same way growing up. I started back last week and i'm taking the MRC-6 and Corti-trim with the EFA, Total Woman, And vitamin, the cortitrim does help me with stress. It will be one week tomorrow and yes I've been bad, I had a skinny mocha last night on my way home, but it's got 15gms protein, carbs 18 but 4g fiber and 1.5g fat and I've had fruit on plan that has almost that many carbs. But i'm still down 5lbs and have 10 to go and the last 10 lbs is always the hardest they say. But I will get there:carrot:

JenB72: Well I think i'm going to get one, and I agree with you I move around a lot so who knows if im eating right even on plan, I put my food in myfitnesspal also, I love that sight and depends on what days I eat what on the green menu I get about anywhere from 700 calories to 1100 calories a day so on days I move a lot I might not be getting enough or eating too much, does that makes sense. And OMG I went online to fitbit.com and the have a pink one now for breast cancer, it's on backorder and will take two -three weeks but not sure if I want to wear pink everyday? What are your thoughts and what color do you have?