Sometimes I can stop myself by making and drinking a big pot of mint tea - no sweetener.

Dagmar

I have jumped off the cliff of my red line. None of my clothes fit, I feel terrible, over the last month my waist has increased by 2-3 inches and my weight is higher than when I joined 3FC for my final weight loss push in 2008. Bad bad bad. I'm still smaller today than I was then, and I'm at a better base than I was to start from today but still. Bad bad bad. I have to get things back under control.

I'm up a couple pounds and weaning myself off the carbs too.

I'm off work this week and returning to routine eating is proving difficult. I normally don't eat anything until 1 or 2 in the afternoon and have no problem doing so while at the office, but with lots of free time I start thinking "is it feeding time yet?" well before noon, and it's not because I'm truly hungry for nutrients - it's just boredom/"vacation" eating mindset.

Now of course I am ACTUALLY hungry, sitting at maybe 600 calories thus far for the day, and waiting for my boyfriend to get here so we can eat is HARD!

Let's all give each other a big internet hug.

We will get over this!

Shannon, you can do it . You did it before and you can do it again. I have faith in you. You WILL do it !

Checking in here too. At my parents' apt. in NJ for the week, with the entire family in tow (yes, 5 of us plus 2 of them in a 2 bedroom condo unit). Somewhat stressful to say the least, but the proximity to Manhattan gives us daily incentive to get out of the apt. and do things. So far, my parents took the 3 kids to see Mulan on B'way, we went to the Picasso exhibit at the Guggenheim, saw a German art film at the Angelika in SoHo, spent a pleasant (if wet) afternoon in our old stomping grounds of Park Slope in Brooklyn, and did a highly unpleasant (overcrowded, whiny children, innumerable street hustlers) walk along 5th Avenue on Christmas day.

Weight is currently unknown. Last weigh-in, the morning of the 24th (before we left home) was still 3 pounds over redline (which I've moved down to 122), but I haven't been particularly indulgent since arriving, with several-hour walks each day and one vigorous gym workout yesterday morning. I'm hoping to return home without further damage, by avoiding all indulgences except some alcohol on New Year's eve (easy for me to avoid Christmas gluttony, being Jewish). OTOH, like many others on this board, sweets and carbs call out to me 24/7, not just on special occasions like Christmas. And my mom is not known for her low-carb approach to eating.

Paying for my complacency by seeing a scale reading that's four pounds higher than last Friday. Yes. Four pounds higher.

And yes, I managed this without eating ANY of the following, all of which were mentioned on the board here or available in my home to my mother: eggnog, cookies, cake, chocolate, ice cream, pastries, etc.

No, I had no carby or sugary holiday goodies. At all.

This weight is just from portion creep, and from swapping out staples: Dining on prime rib rather than flank steak, using brown rice in my jambalaya, and ingesting a bit of salt in hummus and slices of ham.

(And probably also due to sore muscles from bench pressing and continuing my weight training, but I don't want to use that as an excuse.)

This is what kills me, how very little deviation it takes to produce a big swing in weight.

I thought I'd come out of the holidays ahead, but not so.

I am up a bit, too, still under goal but on the upside. The thing that is so maddening is I can gain it so quickly and it takes such a long time to take it off. I think I inadvertly gave someone the idea I had a diminished taste for sweets, not so. I still love anything sweet but , most of the time I can avoid them or reduce portions. I would hate to tell you what I ate at a Christmas Brunch, smaller portions but it still caused an increase in weight. My new motto is going to be Eternal Vigilance.

Portion increase is obviously one of my problems.

Second helpings aren't helping either.

Kissed the 150 mark this morning, not even a day after deciding that my 2013 goal is to not see that number for the entire year. It's a needed wakeup - there's been too much junk around and the "holiday" has become the dreaded "holi-week", which always has the potential to not end until the whole project has to be restarted. Not goin' there!

I'm still formulating what I want my 2013 to look like. Looking forward is helping me avoid a complete tailspin of negativity, so I'm occupying all the voices in my head with budget planning and schedule tweaks. I HATE that little traitor who is smugly assuring me that 3 pounds is just the beginning of the next 25 ... baloney!!!

I will go back to what works, immediately.

While I'm not nearly as high as I was at this time last year, I really, really thought I'd be back at 140 by now. Ok. It can be done. Instead of starting at 163 (is that where I was?), I'll be starting at 153. 10 pound loss in one year is not too shabby.

We'll all get through this!

Thanks for the perspective, Allison - I am also nowhere near erasing this year's losses. And hey, it's only the 28th. I have the option to end 2012 on a very positive note. I needed that!

We should resurrect that blog post from about a year ago about "perfection" and the hideous carnage in its wake. I'll have to see if I can find it.

Added: And while waiting for my laptop to finish its backup, I found it. Worth a re-read: http://www.danoah.com/2010/09/diseas...erfection.html

Becky, thanks for sharing this important message.

Got on the scale this morning to see if yesterday's weight had held or if it was a high due to something temporary, like not having gone to the bathroom beforehand.

This morning, I'm 2.3 pounds higher than I was last Friday, not four whole pounds higher. Okay. That seems a little more probable.

Off to the gym and then to errands before our snowstorm hits.

I'm scaling back the eating this weekend - watching my portions and eating mostly soup and salad. I haven't weighed myself since Dec. 17 so this Monday should be interesting. Whatever the number is I know it's temporary from all the deviations from routine over the holidays. I will lose the "holiday weight" in about 2 weeks - my crystal ball prediction for Jan. 2013.

Dagmar