Hi everyone,

May I join you? I am brand spanking new to the maintain lane. I reached goal weight on Christmas Day.
I have doing well with food so far. I am making good choices. Keeping track of the calories basically. I did overdo the turkey but felt full to the next day so ate light yesterday.
Still did my daily 10k walk. This is what Stanley Park looked like. As the path shows there were a lot of people on the wall on Christmas Day. The sun shone as I finished. Cool.


Looks like all had a good holiday. Now for New Year's Eve parties!

Cie

Cie--
Welcome to maintaining! I reached my goal last year this time and it is a hard but exciting time to start maintaining!

Goalsuccess-- you and I could be twins except I am dealing with an overweight daughter in college. I know she is jealous of my weight loss and frustrated that she is continuing to gain weight. She isn't ready to do anything about it though. It is causing friction and tension in my house as my husband tries not to say anything and then he does. I try not to say anything and I am pretty successful but I know I am probably making facial expressions, etc. that show! My heart breaks for her but she is happy with the rest of her life-- she has great friends and is doing great in school (she is only a freshman). But she doesn't date and I know she feels she never will. She is an amazing person but she is letting her weight control her. I have tried everything and she has to come to the realization herself that she is ready and I don't know when that will happen. I worry because she seems to still be gaining weight fairly rapidly though..... The worries and frustrations of being a parent never end....

There's nothing like Christmas shopping for myself. I've made a lot of fashionably frivolous purchases since being up here, but they're all fabulous ones and it's about time I started spoiling myself -- see -- I spent 3.5 years spoiling someone else and now it's ME time!

I bought two pairs of pants in a size 2 but somehow refuse to believe that I could possibly be that skinny. Perhaps vanity sizing has reached a new level? They were both from Macy's - one pair Ralph Lauren and the other Calvin Klein. I have had some problems buying shirts and jackets, though - see - all of me will fit into 'em except for my arms!

I have more pictures, too, but they are on my sister's camera and I will post them here when she decides to hand 'em over

to maintenance, cie! You should be commended for reaching goal right on CHRISTMAS DAY no less! I know all about the struggles of staying on plan during the holidays - last year, I passed up an immense amount of goodies to get down to my goal weight by the new year. This year, I have passed on, err, maybe 70% of those goodies Good job on walking your 10K! And Stanley Park looks beautiful... and... COLD! *shivershivershiver*

goalsuccess - stay on plan and those two other pounds that mysteriously packed on will be gone by the new year
Re: your son: he probably sees how much you are going through to keep the weight off and doesn't feel that he can do it. It is an overwhelming thing from the outside looking in, or so I have been told by friends. I tell them about all the exercise I do every single day and they flip out, not to mention watching what I eat VERY CLOSELY and counting EVERYTHING. They just say they don't feel such drastic measures are necessary. Of course, once you become accustomed to it, it feels like nothing until someone else points it out.

That is pretty amazing that you had no health problems at 318 pounds.

fiberlover/Lori - Aww, thanks for the compliment
I have heard that I am photogenic from a lot of people, but they all know me in real life, so I figured that I just must not look as good in person!
Actually... I have done some modeling in the past. As a teenager, I had a fairly successful modeling career, but unfortunately, once I moved away from the DC area and gained 50 pounds, I sort of stopped pursuing it. Now, I would love to start again, but I also know how much modeling screwed up my body image and therefore would mostly just like to do fitness-related stuff.

About a week ago FAT Megan tied up skinny Megan and stuffed her up in my parents' attic. I think I can hear her yelling up there, but then the fat table starts calling and drowns her out.

Yeah... I have always been pretty good about ignoring off plan foods at the grocery store etc. so they never come in my own home. In a controlled environment, I can control my eating. Control in another setting is clearly something I've not yet learned. As soon as I get home I'm making a menu, hitting the grocery store, and gym, and will be on strict plan.

That being said I've been having great fun on my travels. BF & I started with a visit to my DS & BIL in DC and enjoyed being tourists and visiting the Smithsonian and monuments with them. Now at my parents we've been to see the sights in Philly, a brewery tour, and visited a lot of my friends from high school. My parents have actually gone an entire visit w/o telling me how I should be going to grad school and "doing something" w/ my life (I've got 12 hours until we leave, though, so we'll see...). Tomorrow we're driving home and I've got to get cracking to learn my lines for the play! I should have plenty of time on our long travels.

Shane, thanks for sharing the family photos. Way to spoil yourself!

Cie, welcome and congratulations! Wow, reaching goal on Christmas day is quite an accomplishment!

Dagmar, I think "gift" foods are able to make it into our safe zones past our radar since they're gifts (we wouldn't probably buy a bunch of belgian chocolates, etc. after all). Then they're free, and usually gifts are of a somewhat fine quality, so it would be wasteful to let them sit there... yup they sneak right in. Darn it.

Pat, being back at work so quickly after a holiday definitely puts us back in a routine - routine absolutely helps me get back OP! I'm looking forward to getting back to mine.

Hi to everyone else! I'll be back more next week (back at work, so back to my routine ). I hope everyone who has been celebrating holidays has had good ones. We've just got one more, right? I've got to start thinking about any new years resolutions I might want to make...

Cie - on reaching goal. And what a Christmas present to yourself!

Thanks, it is the best present I think I've ever given myself.

NightengaleShane Thanks, I cooked shortbread cookies for my friends and had none myself. I love my skinny jeans more than treats. That may change but I like this feeling now.

raveling michele Thanks, I'm glad I found this thread.

Cie!

for making goal at Christmas!

Your goal weight is the same as mine and I'm still (for months and months now) 2 lbs. away. All the more incentive for me to finally buckle down and get there!

Dagmar

Anyone else feel like they've just survived a war? The holidays are officially over at my house

I'm throwing out everything fattening , pouring out the remaining wine , and so looking forward to being able to deal with just my regular food.

Just one more easy dinner with the "dog folk" and New Year's eve, which I'm celebrating with hubby by cooking us a really healthy dinner, and it's done!

I'm also looking forward to finally, finally, finally making goal early in the new year

Cheers!

Dagmar

It's been a few days--catching up is hard to do!

We had a great holiday, but it continues!!! My eating has been okay--not terrible, though. Weight is only up half a pound, so I guess I'm doing okay. I'll be totally re-committing on January 5th (as soon as the birthday celebrations are over and we're back to work full time).

Friday my MIL and I took DD to the casino for the first time. MIL lost $70, DD lost $77 and I won $39. So I paid for lunch ($47+$7 tip) so I guess I lost in the long run! We had a good time, though!

I'm so happy to see my water weight dropping. Now the scale is where I would have expected from Christmas. Yay!
Been eating very well since Friday. I have to get the sugar monster under control, those cravings came back with a vengeance and I must detox now. That's painful LOL!

It's so beautiful here today. Upper 40s - so I went out for a run! Some people still have not shoveled their sidewalks, so I had to run in and out of the road, not ideal - but I couldn't pass up the good weather.

Lori - we woke up to -7F, and it's now (at 1 pm) -12F. Talk about going in the wrong direction!! We also have several feet of snow on the ground, on the roofs, etc. Looks lovely as long as you're inside.

We have one last party tonight - a retirement party for our city's fire chief, after 40 years! He's 74 and I've often wondered why he's not retired earlier, but I guess if you really love your job.......

After tonight it's back to cleaner eating. I have not - amazingly - gained any weight (not lost any either ). I was going to wait til the new year to weigh, but the gym scale was calling me. Nevertheless, it will much easier to not have all the sweet things around. I went grocery shopping yesterday, and we have plenty of fruit, veggies and salad makings again. We don't usually do anything for New Year's Eve, except make an oyster chowder, which with skim milk and butter added to DH's in the bowl, isn't too bad.

Sounds like everyone had a good holiday.

I feel the same way. Thin Sheila has been unconscious for two weeks while Fat Sheila was loose in the bakery.

Another party, Pat? You've had a lot to get through this holiday season. Sounds like you're doing okay.

Fiberlover, isn't it funny when we think of the 40s as "good weather?" I remarked to my DH that it felt balmy out today because it's 42 after a steady week of 20s.

Cie--congratulations on reaching goal on Christmas day! Outstanding!

Hello to everyone else! It's good to be back on plan.