I am back at home..totally enjoying my beloved gourmet coffees, kitties, and my family. I have 3 days here and head off to South Carolina to visit my son.

Thanks to everyone for your support. I am at the low end of my 3% range.. no gain from my trip..My upcoming trip with Southern Barbecues will be a challenge, but much more fun!

New Englander: I laughed with your "nip it in the butt" comment. That is is the way to go..stop gain soon.

Dakin: Great job on entering maintenance. I do a Phase 1 and jump to 4 if needed..no 3.

Ishbel: I am a numbers gal also..It keeps me accountable. I love your quote..especially " I don't want to be what I was, I want to be what I am."

Patns: I hear you on the fruit. Berry season is coming and I love the fresh fruit. I usually keep fruit to early in the day.

Purple Sky: Thanks for your kind words. I think spices are healthy also. I am a chai tea lover. My son and I made some from scratch and it was great. I have not tried it in shakes.

Jenny: I have enjoyed reading about about all the new shake ideas. You are having fun experimenting.

Sunnymae: Great job on losing 4 pounds!

Cap: I am sorry you do not have a supportive coach. It is ridiculous when you have been on this for 10 months to be treated like a new person. Good for you being within 5 pounds!

Cassi: Good luck on your reboot and hope it is going well.

Momto2cs: What is an alive cooler? I am so happy to be back to my gym where I can lift weights..I have missed that.

I have learned something. After a very stressful week, I did not turn to food. I really am not using food for comfort now. I also discovered that you can find ways to stay healthy even, if it is not perfect: ie you have to choose the best option..not a perfect option. One choice might have a slight amount of sugar or be high in fat. When you are traveling..you have got to be flexible.

That said: I brought macadamia nuts home..and stopped at one bite!!!

Wow Maile- you stopped at one bite of macadamia nuts??!! That is awe inspiring. Chips, nuts & cookies are those things where it is so hard for me to stop when I've had one. Think I'm going to avoid the chips and cookies and only partake in the pre packaged 100 calorie bags when back in Phase 4...
It's going to take a whole lot of time to trust myself enough to only have one of those three items. Thanks for showing it can be done though Maile! That'll be a great goal to work toward!

Mom2cs- thanks for the tip about the alive coolers! Will totally be looking for those when the want for a summer time bevvy hits... As it is wont to do when the sun is shining and the weekend arrives

Still plugging away in Phase 1. I'll weigh myself on my home scale Friday to get a clearer idea of where I'm at... It will be the completion of 2 weeks of Phase 1 at that point.... From there will decide whether next week will be phase 1 again or phase 2/3...

One bite. Made my day.

Good news to report.... I weighed in today at home (I've decided Wednesday's number will be the 'official' one I record on my smart phone app and here while in maintenance) and................
......
......

I stayed the same!

Woo hoo!!!

Week one of P4 - check

Excellent!!!!!!

Great job Dakin!

So, I had a bit of an anxiety attack yesterday. I had a close friend say "I love that your passionate and focused about your weight but I can't wait for you to be passionate about something else...like I don't know "softball". (which is random as I don't play ball LOL)

So this created quite the "ack" am I talking about it to much yadda yadda yadda. I ended up calling the VIP and said "you need to talk me off a ledge (put a big sigh in there)". I think he thought I was going to binge on food LOL so I continued "I'm over analysing etc etc etc" and he said "that's why you have your website and TOPS, don't worry about her" etc etc etc. More or less telling me what I'm doing is right and giving me permission to 'just keep swimming' and that it was my job and it's ok if I talk about it a lot and he'll listen etc etc. Then I phoned a friend and she said "asking you to stop talking about such a thing would be like asking me to stop talking about my child, imagine that?" I laughed, who would ask someone excited about their newborn to stop talking about it. LOL

Essentially...I can't stop being who I am and if I happen to talk to much about it...then it is what it is...this is who I am now.

I know she was coming from a place of kindness...and I actually said "it took me a year to take it off, it might take me a year to have faith in the program" (so essentially, sorry I'm not going to stop talking about it).

THEN, my friend (who has a newborn) sent me this little poster via email, I thought I'd share it with you.

Love the Dr. Seuss. Always puts things into perspective. My favorite adult book of his is, Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?

But, I love the newborn analogy. This truly is a new beginning for us. It's exciting and scary at the same time and challenging as well as full of surprises.

Oh look, my baby cooed - Oh look, I lost a pound.

It's not easy to have a baby. But, it's also not easy to lose weight. And it's even harder to raise a child and even harder to keep the weight off.

Great way to start the morning. Java, Dr. Seuss and a "new" way of looking at things.

Thanx.

Oh, the Places You'll Go! My other favorite adult Dr. Seuss book.

I am hanging on by a thread. I teeter on being true to low carb- pretty clean phase 1, to thinking I want to go crazy with carbs- I need to get a couple of true blue weeks under my belt. This was so easy a year ago! Maintenance is torture at times!

Ishbel- I liked your analogy of your new body as a newborn. Because quite truly it is. It needs a lot of love, care & attention. I know your friend's heart was in the right place when she is looking forward to you having other things occupy your head space but you are right where you need to be doing exactly what you should be doing. If you read the National Weight Control Registries list of things successful maintainers do... one of them is keep their weight loss a priority. There is really very little that is natural or innate about losing weight and keeping it off. It is hard work, dedication and focus. It may become innate over a considerable period of time wherein there's set meals and things you eat and that eases up some of the decision making but there is always a need for conscientiousness and you have nothing to apologize for or feel guilty about in recognizing and adhering to that.
Besides, there are two things women will always agonize over and love to talk about. Our weight & men.

Determined- I find when I do 'true blue' phase 1 my carb cravings are reduced. You can do this, you know you can... because you've done it before. Just have to be willing to give yourself over to the process again. And that part is hard. Accepting phase 1 is baaaccckkk is hard. Truly though, it's worth it... just promise yourself you'll strictly adhere to phase 1 protocol for one week. And when that week is done assess and see if you need another week. I re- read the phase 1 protocol. I went back on the daily thread. And I lurk in the 100% thread. It's all in your mind set. If you tell yourself you can do it, you can. Think of all the sacrifices you made to lose the 50 pounds. How many drinks did you turn down? How many events did you have to bring your own food or dressing to? How many people did you have to decline offers of food & desserts? Probably quite a darn few. And you did it. It was worth it then and it's worth it now.

I am forever thankful to myself for not keeping any clothes that were 'bigger'. Because when I was faced with the issue of not having my clothes fit it was a big issue and forced me to deal with it.
In the name of pre planning for my return to weight maintenance I have been scouring the internet for recipes that are low carb family favorites. If I want low carb to be my life it is going to have to be the way for my family as well because if it's good enough for me it has to be good enough for them gosh darn it! So, found a recipe for low carb pasta (6-7 grams per serving vs. 40 in regular pasta) and managed to sell everyone on it except for my older daughter who found it a bit chewy... but I think she'll adjust. Having my husband accept it (he's fairly picky meat & potatoes... nothing 'weird' - which unfortunately is just about everything else ) was a huge score.
Now if I can get the low carb naan bread to turn out as well as the pasta then I am going to be a happy low carb lovin' lady! I'm completely hooked on the coconut curry cauliflower rice and can't wait to make a full Indian meal!

Cap: How do you make your coconut cauliflower rice? Are you going to make a cauliflower nan? I make Indian coconut curry, indian green beans with mustard seed and that baked indian eggplant with green cilantro sauce.
I agree with you, we have got to find low carb recipes that your family will like.
You are braver than I am, I have a larger size of clothes in the basement. Maybe at year 1, I will get rid of them. I am glad Phase 1 is going well for you. I also have to watch the nuts and usually eat the 100 calorie packets.

Ishbel: I like your poster! You are totally right to make food a top priority in your life. We are trying to change our lives into healthy ones and to keep this weight off. This means that planning and mindful eating are now a huge part of our lives. Others may not realize how important this is. You are doing great to stay focused and keep talking about it.

Purple Sky: I love Dr. Seuss also. The one nut was due to the fact that I knew I wasn't hungry and I knew that I was only eating it, because I love macadamia nuts..to say nothing of all the flavored mac nuts available. I like the newborn analogy also. It works..We are definitely impassioned about weight!

Determined: Hang in there. You are right..if you get a few true blue weeks of Phase 1 in..then you will feel better. Hope your week goes well.

Dakin: great job on staying the same. That is always so reassuring in maintenance.

I am off to battle the airport and see my sons. I just wish those barbecue places in the south had more green vegetables!

Tried something today. I broke apart my chocolate peanut butter Simply Bar and dropped it into my almond milk (that I sweetened because I like sweet. Yum. It's a little sticky so I may try adding it to my other cereal to see what it does. I might also try it with my chocolate almond milk.

Am doing better today-so have had 3 great days of phase 1. I guess not everyone would consider my phase 1 perfect since for breakfast I have 3-4 cups of coffee with truvia and a splash of half and half. Love it. Got burnt out on ip rtd for creamer and now that the kids are off for the summer, and I don't have to run around like a mad woman every morning, I like to get up early, and make a pot of coffee and basically bond with myself, good morning America and some great coffee. I had 3 days of good phase 1 before that but then had a day where I went hog wild and pig crazy with carbs.... Why do I do that- makes me feel sooooo rotten. Anyway- here is to a great on plan weekend!

Cap - isn't that the truth - weight and men...of course when I was heavier I remember it being all about men, maybe I was just in denial (not making a funny here, I remember whining about my weight but not A LOT)

maile - glad your home and back at the gym. I'm writing this post drinking some coffee and straping my heart rate monitor on to see how many calories my two lot yard will give me when I mow it.

determined - I would think the second time might be harder because the sense of urgency isn't there anymore. Have you thought about writing down why you wanted to lose weight in the first place, what was better about your life since you lost weight and what were the hard things you did to get there? It might help you wrap your head around it again and help you commit to the time you need. Also, lurking in the 100% thread really helps me just on my Phase 1 day, their sense of focus and determination REALLY jumps off the computer screen.

Just some thoughts

So, I have approval to run, but it looks like I could use a swather on my lawn and then bale it so I'm choosing to mow, sometimes takes me more then 45 minutes...ugh...rather run.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Determined- good for you! 3 perfect days and you're well on your way. That's pretty close to getting over the hump make it through 3-5 and you'll be so darn close to a perfect week you may as well just keep it up! Ishbel offered some sound advice... Do you keep a 'before & after' pic around?... I know you don't have one posted but maybe even taking out a couple pics could help to remind you from whence you came and where you'd like to stay? For me it was my jeans... Not only did they pressure my thighs and waist... They also pressured my head to get back in the game...
That said it's been a rough couple days. Had an extra packet and a half yesterday and extra protein today. We went away to our cabin and I dumbly didn't pack any veggies... And so... Ended up very hungry. Not smart. Planning really is the name of the game...
I WI on my home scale on Friday... 145... Still a couple pounds from where I want to be but I am getting there. Had my follow up Dr.' s appt and the consensus appears to be that I had a severe electrolyte imbalance & combined that with overtraining. I was told to wait another four weeks before resuming exercise and to do so slowly when I do. So, no reason not to phase 1 or 2, I'll keep on keeping on til I get where I want to go...
Maile- I make my 'rice' with coconut oil that I sauté the cauliflower in and add cumin, mild curry, paprika and salt- pretty much all to taste. I'm quite infatuated with it. But returned to my old love- stewed rhubarb- tonight... Yum! I really, really enjoyed it...
Enjoy your trip to your son's! And try to keep us updated when you have time (know it's hard when you're away) but I love your posts... So calm & reassuring...
PurpleSky- you are one very inventive lady! I love sweet and I love almond milk so I'm going to have to try your concoction when I get back to Phase 4...
Ishbel- how did the swathing go?? Cracked me up.. Your description did