I'm proud of you, Colleen! And Robin, you are the best group cheerleader of the all!!! How did everyone else do on their commitments yesterday?

I did pretty well keeping to mine yesterday (although the house cleanng could have been better ). I walked for 20 minutes before my foot started to really hurt - darn it! I thought that was better. Anyway, I came home and jumped on the eliptical to try to get at least 30 minutes of exercise. After 5 minutes, I was dead, but that's better than nothing and I WILL conquer that evil machine one day!

So for today:
Don't overeat today as I've got both lunch and dinner with friends at restaurants (yay for friends, ugh for restaurants).
I won't have time to exercise as we're going to movies in the park tonight! But I'm walking a lot tomorrow as I'm going to San Francisco.
Stay away from the Diet Coke today. More water and tea.

Best of luck today everybody!

Hi everyone, I'm here with my tail between my legs today. I did everything right until about 6:30pm last night. I had a healthy breakfast, a healthy lunch, a healthy dinner, lots of water and had been pretty active. All day I faught the cravings that I had. Then I lost it about 6:30pm. At first I had just a couple of tastes of something sweet to see if it would satisfy me.... but it didn't. My husband had to stop at the store on his way home from work so I asked him if he would pick up something chocolate for me.... so he did, a chocolate entemmanns cake. I think I'll leave it at that.... the night was not good for me.

Sorry to have let everyone down. I struggled and struggled all day yesterday, and then I snapped. Sometimes I feel like a drug addict!

But, today is a new day. So instead of my mistake being the end of "this diet attempt" like I've done in the past..... I'm just going to put it behind me. I keep telling myself that I just have to make more right decisions than wrong. Yesterday I made a wrong decision, but I have the opportunity to make more right ones today! So, my commitments for today are:

Shake off yesterday.
Remind myself of all the reasons that I want and need to lose the weight
Eat HEALTHY
Drink all of my water
Burn extra calories to make a dent in the cake I inhaled last night
Have a talk with my husband about telling me no when I ask him to get me stuff that will sabotage my diet. I know I will get angy and snippy with him, but he has to tell me No, no, no.... and remind me that there are other ways to handle stress
Come up with a list of alternative ways to handle stress (any suggestions?)
Take my vitamins

Thanks everyone for your support. It's harder to post when you don't have a glowing report to share. But this thread is all about accountability..... and that's what I need!

You can bounce back, Nalynn! Think of all the right things you've done since you started with us, and all the right things you are going to do today, and the cake will just be a blip in the long run. We all just have to work to keep our blips to a minimum.

I'm happy you came back and posted and are ready to move forward. That's what living is all about - acknowledging our mistakes, learning from them, and moving on. And what you are doing is not dieting, it's changing your life. It's not a question of IF you will make mistakes, but WHEN and HOW you will handle it. Good job with making a plan to shake it off! Have a good day!

DramaQueenLucy - Love ya back.

CLCSC great for moving thy butt even with a bad hoof, and then getting on that big scary eucalyptus ( ) thingy. You definitely got a tough one ahead of you what with 2 meals out. Enjoy your friends and enjoy your meals and don't waste your calories on stupid stuff like the bread (unless of course it's delicious garlic bread or something like that, only kidding) And try not to drink your calories, food goes further. But really good luck to you and just enjoy yourself. We've got to learn how to deal in the real world with all these nasty temptations around us. One day at a time, if need be make it one meal at a time. And thanks for the cheerleader comment, I always wanted to be a cheerleader, but you know the skimpy outfit and all. See there really ARE benefits to our on line as opposed to in person chats. You would NOT want to see me in a cheerleaders' outfit. Although it could be quite the appetite supressant. Get rid of those darn cravings in no time at all.

Nalyn darling don't sweat it. It happens and it's gonna happen again. The trick is to put it behind you - quickly and move on. I really don't know what it is about the night time that messes us all up so much. Maybe it's got to do with the moon or something, yeah that's what it must be . But I have made a decision to not eat past 7:00 in the evening except for Saturday nights, cause that's when we go out with friends a lot. It was really difficult, but so far it's been working. For me it was just about making the decision and writing it down. Oh yeah and sticking to it. Am I perfect about it, ummm no. But it has helped dramatically. It's like when I go to reach for something I say to myself, self I say "ummm, you're not allowed to do that, remember you made the decision not to" and that's that (for the most part). Allright, I'll shut up already.

Have a great rest of the day everybody.

Me too!!! I feel like I just can't control the urge for sweets so I hear ya girl but you can do it you can get up and start over today is a new day with new decisions to be made!!! I'm rooting for ya!!!!!

I have said many, many times that I feel like a drug addict. Gotta get my fix. Just totally out of control. That I actually NEEEEEED the darn food. I've often thought it would be easier to be an actual drug addict. It has got to be easier to stop using drugs then to stop using food. There's no going cold turkey with food. Because, umm hello we CAN'T exist without food. So the temptation is always around us. Alcoholics are told to never touch another drink, cause it could trigger a full blown, no turning back spiral downward kind of a thing. Same thing with drugs. And they also say to surround yourself with people who don't do drugs. But we certainly can never not touch food again or hang with people who don't "do" food. No such thing. Sucks for us.

Hi! Won't be able to post tomorrow, so just a recap before bed of today's accomplishments and tomorrow's commitments:

I did pretty well today! For lunch at the restaurant I had something from their light menu: grilled salmon and a small salad with a little balsamic vinaigrette and strawberries (very good!) and iced tea. For dinner I had a teeny bit of hummus and pita (I normally would have raced the group to the bottom of the bowl), vegetable soup, and a big salad with veggies and low fat creamy herb dressing, on the side of course, and diet coke. Woo hoo! Successful navigation of restaurant minefield! I had more diet coke than I planned today, but that is a bigger battle than can be won in one day and one that's the least destructive to my weight loss. Went to the movie in the park tonight (A Christmas Story) and froze my a$$ off. I was ill prepared for how cold you can get outside at night sitting still. Brrrrr. But I avoided the hot chocolate that would have tasted so good and warm, but no doubt loaded with fat and calories.

For tomorrow in SF:
Be SANE with food since I'll be eating out all three meals.
Walk a lot (but be kind to the bad hoof -- hee hee Robin )
Don't stress about the seatbelt on the plane fitting. It'll be okay.
Have fun. That's why I'm doing all this weight/health work; so I can enjoy my life!

Best of luck everyone!! We can all do this!

Oh CLCSC (umm by the way you got a nickname or something we could call you? I always have to keep scrolling down to make sure I'm typing that right, just a thought, if I have to deal with scrolling I'll keep on scrolling, it's worth it to correspond with you. ) I am so proud of you I could cry!!!!! What UNBELEIVABLE choices you made yesterday. Wowzer!!! Just awesome!!!! You must feel marvelous!!! I'll miss you while you're in SF, can't wait to hear how that went - the food and the plane. Have fun and yes, do ENJOY.

My commitments went so/so yesterday. I did really well with the food, exercise not so much. Although I walked enough outside to get me quite the sunburned nose and cheeks and it was all of 30 degrees outside. But I kind of never count walking outside unless I'm intentionally doing it for exercise, whatever.

Today's commitments:

Stay within my calorie allotnment
Exercise at least 30 mins
Drink lots of water
Don't nibble
Throw hubby some slack, he does have A LOT of stress to deal with right now
Remeber that you want to be thin more then you want the stupid, over-before-you-know-it-not-really-worth-it food.

How is everybody else doing? Where is everybody today? Well have a great day ladies, filled with good choices.

I love this. Maybe after enough days of improving from the day before, this will start to feel like a lifestyle and not a diet! I think that's my ultimate goal... to feel like I'm just living, and not obsessing about the food I can and can't have. Maybe some day....

I'm celebrating a 1lb victory today. I still have a long way to go, but it is a pound in the right direction I did pretty well on my commitments yesterday. I did snack on some pretzels late last night when I shouldn't have, but I was up until 2:30 in the morning working... and I needed a little something. But, definitely more right decisions than wrong.... and I'll take it as another vitory. So here is my victory dance for today And here are my commitments for today....

Lots and lots of water
Move, move, move..... burn off that ugly fat
Vitamins
Clean the house... and dance while doing it
Eat more vegetables

Thanks for all of your support. That chocolate cake did not get the best of me! I've had more victory days than non victory days since we started this thread! Good luck everyone!!!!!

Hey everyone! You guys have a great thread going here, I would love to join! You guys are so supportive and lord knows I need that! I have been dieting for about a month now and managed to get 6 pounds off but it wasn't until i found this site on monday that I got really serious and motivated about a new lifestyle! I wasn't going to weigh myself until Sunday, but I took a little peak earlier and was jumping for joy.. I already lost 3 pounds since I started my new whole foods and exercise plan!!! I'm so excited, 160's here I come!!!
Here are my commitments for today:
-No foods with preservatives
-walk/run 2 miles when I get home from school
-eat more veggies
-don't eat after 8 p.m.
-don't forget how good it felt when I looked at the scale and saw that I'm already down 3 pounds!
Good Luck today!

I'm so happy for you, I'm dancing too!!!!

It is next to impossible, no make that impossible to stay up so late and not eat, but since you were up late you also burned more calories!!!

But yes, let's just make everyday better then the one before. I really, truly believe that's what it's about. But I gotta tell you the truth I am DEFINITELY obsessing about the food more then before, which is quite frankly a little scary, (just ask my kids and hubby). I have become obsessed with this stuff. Always planning my food, always talking about it - is this worth the extra calories, is that worth the calories. Always getting in a couple of extra minutes of exercise, I never sit still anymore. And oh yeah 3FC it is definitely my new obsession. Whatever. At least it's a postivie thing I'm obsessing about. I guess.

Hi Caseygail!!! We must have been posting at the same time. I am so glad you're here. The more the merrier!!! You are doing just great!!!!! Looking forward to seeing you around and getting to know you!!!

Hey girls, I'm back. I haven't been able to post since the weekend and the news just isn't good.
I did real well on Sunday while I was baking... I admit I had a taste of one of the cookies but was able to hault myself after that. Monday was a real stressful day...I had to host the first event I've planned (and also do it for my last credits to finish my masters) I planned all my meals and did fine all day but then the actual event happened....a dessert and wine reception. I have to admit I stayed away from all of the food...but the wine on the other hand was my best friend that evening. By the end of it my good judgment was beyond repair and it seemed like a good idea to go with my volunteers next door to the bar for a celebration drink (as if I hadn't had enough all ready). It was all over after that and before I knew it it was 2:30 AM and I had drank away pretty much the same amount of calories that I had eaten. I know that I struggle with alcohol and that that is a topic for a different kind of support group but at the same time it is a huge part of my weight and a major area of my life that I want to change and re-claim. I know that if I don't own up to it then it will own me. I tested my self control in that situation and now that I see how much I failed its back to being out of that situation all together.

Yesterday I did ok though it could have been better. I got up and force fed my hangover a healthy breakfast and then left my healthy packed lunch on my kitchen table when I left for work. I had some healthy choice soup on hand at the office so I opted for that for lunch knowing that I would have to eat out for dinner cause I had a show opening. Before the show was a bar for food and drinks with my boss and our guests. While they all sucked back several drinks and really bad food I didn't have anything to drink except plain old diet coke and kept the food pretty in check. I went in and updated my fitday today and was over in calories for Monday (cause of the booze) and just at my max yesterday. Even though the calories were in check where they were coming from wasn't. I've been way too heavy in carbs and not enough veggies and protein so I need to get that straightened out.

I suppose it could be worse but I feel really terrible about my actions and am trying to move forward instead of letting it set me back so here goes for today.

1. I will not let the past 2 days send me back to ground zero.
2. I will make sure I get plenty of water today.
3. I will make sure that my eating is back on plan (and I'm through lunch so so far so good)
4. I will put together my 'healthy' work food for the rest of the week this evening.
5. I will get in at least 30 minutes of exercise today. I think it will help me re-focus on my goals.
6 Dinner is all about Veggies!

Thanks girls, hopefully it will be a better post tomorrow.

Good morning everybody. How is everyone doing? I had a really good day food and exercise wise yesterday but am having a tough day today. My hubbys been under the weather for a loonng time now and there's work problems too and it is definitely beginning to take a toll, so I am a bit stressed and mopey. But am vowing to not, I repeat not turn to food to comfort me. In fact will turn to eating better and exercising more to DISTRACT me from all the stress. At least that's my plan, I hope to put it into action. We shall certainly give it a real good try. I'm not really feeling very motivating today and in fact don't want to bring you all down so I'll just be quick

Today's commitments:

To drink plenty of water
To stay within 1100-1300 calories
No nibbling
Get in 45 mins of exercise
Get massive quantity of paperwork done
Deep clean this house
Remember that you want to be thin more then you want the food
Get through the day without strangling Hubby, and do throw him some slack
DON'T TURN TO FOOD, in the long run it is of NO COMFORT to you, it is only temporary and will MAKE YOU FEEL EVEN WORSE.

Have a great day everyone.

Oh and just a couple of more things:

Get through the day without strangling Hubby
Get through the day without strangling Hubby