Saturday afternoon, railway car park waiting to pick someone up from the train. Meals 1, 2, 3, 4 all good. Had to buy M4 as I'm out & about: small apple & 6 yoghurt-covered brazil nuts. Would have been better without yog but there we are. All I have to do is not eat between now & making tea (roast chicken, veg, potatoes) but there's a bit of crazy driving about to be done before we get there. Wish me luck!

Update from another car park. Too late to have roast chicken now so (credit) have bought some broccoli & more bacon to have with boiled potatoes. No, thank you, I do not want a Chinese takeaway, nor any beer (I don't drink) nor anything else. I'm doing well. Next stop: home. I hope.

Excellent job Silverbirch! Great when we make good choices despite our circumstances.

Thanks, Michele! I appreciate your support! I think there will be more posts of this kind from me in the near future. Knowing I was going to post like that for support yesterday made all the difference in what I bought and how I ate it.

Interestingly, little ulcers came up on my tongue from, I think, the apple (I still have them the next day). I eat a lot of apples but usually with something else (often cottage cheese) which must absorb much of the acid. Nuts aren't good enough, it seems, as I've already found with citrus fruit, so back to the drawing board for convenient protein to eat when out and about. I think Shannon may eat beef jerky but I've never seen that here.

Ugh, weight changes around the goal are so very slow. I never lost weight fast (about 3 lbs a month at the beginning, 1 lb a month at the end - with occasional flat months), and it is about 1 lb a month now. I've got a lo carb hi protein virtually no sugar diet that works for me, I don't struggle with it, and a 6x/wk exercise routine that I enjoy, but near goal, it just goes really slow. Never more than a lb a month.

So, it means, I can not fall off the wagon. I've built in a treat time once a week where I stop and get a couple of good chocolates. (This time, my truck broke down right after getting them and I needed a tow! :-( ) And, if I am just dying for something sweet - which doesn't happen often - I'll stop by Dunkin' and get a coffee and 2 munchkins. But, that's it. My personal downfall is ice cream which I've not had since I started my diet in late 2011. I am almost afraid to try it, for fear of unleashing something.

Like ICUwishing, I love swimming. But my workouts are 750 yards. But i have beautiful form, and hope to join our Masters group soon. That's my goal. (I'm 51). I am using a tempo trainer to build speed and stamina. So - ICUwishing - you're my inspiration!

delmarva! Please join us! Bad luck about your truck - nothing too expensive, I hope.

I'm now in the period between M4 and M5. It's very relaxing today, partly because I'm not making the tea. I'm about to light the fire.

I am struggling lately (once again). The one thing I am still doing right is bike commuting to work, even though it's dark going both directions. (Plus I slid out on some ice this morning and banged my knee) If it weren't for the riding, I would have no exercise at all. How do those of you with very long, irregular work hours deal with this in the winter? I suppose a gym membership is the answer. I don't like exercising indoors (apart from yoga), but I could suck it up for a few months. The bigger problem is that on most nights, I end up having to work more once I get home. It's a time management problem, I know. It just feels insurmountable.

Sorry for what ended up being a giant whine. I really hate not exercising for days on end, it makes work feel even more like a prison and I have to make a big effort to not snap at coworkers Maybe the answer is a different career.

Not a giant whine at all, JayZeeJay. I've also just been wondering about how to fit exercise into a busy life with lots of moving parts.

I'm glad to hear you're back on the bike. That's really good. And a different job/career sounds like something to start considering if work is so bad.

JayZee - I have had to stock my house with exercise equipment so I can fit it in when I can on the longer work days. It is hard to balance sometimes.

Birchie - yes, I eat a lot of beef jerky. It is available everywhere here, maybe you could make some if it isn't available? I know someone who makes her own and claims it isn't hard. SHe also makes yogurt and bakes her own bread though, so I'm not sure if her opinion is the best one to follow.

Welcome, Delmarva! I also love ice cream, I understand the fear of unleashing the monster. LOL

I'm getting my feet back under me this week. And as I type that, I realize that I'm almost always getting my feet back under me from something. I run from one crisis to another crisis to another crisis. I need to figure out how to not be so driven by that. Or how to not let everything be a crisis.

JayZeeJay, I manage this by living just two blocks from a gym, which means I can trudge through snowstorms and over icy patches and through the dark of night and early morning to get to the equipment.

It also means that sometimes I feel like all I do is work and work out. And then I get low-spirited and stressed, and eat a little more, and can't quite overcome that by working out.

Typically in this season I gain a couple pounds without EVER indulging in any of the other stuff that people are passing around -- no cookies, no candy, no rich food, just overeating slightly on healthy foods every day.

I'm in low spirits this week and am starting to wonder if there's something to those light box things that people buy and shine on themselves. Or maybe it's simply that I've been indoors too damn much on weekdays.

Saef - I know people who use the light boxes with great results. From a personal standpoint, I can tell you that I was totally bottomed out yesterday after near to three weeks of rain. Sunshine just yesterday afternoon and today has made a huge difference.

silver, I am glad to hear that thinking of us kept you on track. I need to try that.

Delmarva, welcome aboard! I'm really glad to see another swimmer! Our rookie lanes only cover about 750yds in 90 minutes - you might find you're more ready than you think. I'm a miserably slow loser too. Mostly because losing weight is just another one of way too many things I try to do at the same time.

JayZeeJay, I feel ya. When the job sucks, it tends to reach dirty tentacles into everything else - sleep, food, mood, etc. I thought I needed a career change for about 10 years, until I sort of accidently fell into a job within the career that I never considered as a viable option. If you have any options for lateral moves, it might be worth a try. Or, same type of job but just a different industry? Struggle is okay - it means you're still fighting!

Shannon - I am trying to get oriented into accepting change as just change, instead of a crisis. Today I didn't do so hot with it; maybe tomorrow will be a little better. "Life is what happens to you while you're making other plans." It does indeed seem to be the case!

saef, I agree with Shannon. Most of us working stiffs won't see the light for months; right now I arrive in the dark and I leave in low light. It DOES suck and it can wreak havoc on mental stability. The light box is a low-cost, easy thing to try. SAM-e supplements help a lot of people too (buyer beware, there are a lot of subpar versions out there).

Tomorrow is my department potluck. It is a minefield and has become a bit of a competitive thing. My strategy is simply to confine myself to the foods that I haven't tried and can't predict how they will taste. We've had a couple of vegans join the group and they are scheming to bring more of us over to their side. I'm looking forward to what they'll come up with. As for what I'm bringing ... I am not in a position to compete for the home-cooked award this year, so I'm just going to assemble a selection of yummy pickled stuff and some gourmet olives.

Another person who goes to work AND comes home in the dark now, and yeah, it totally s*cks. I just bought a full spectrum light box a month ago, but I'm having a sort of hard time using it because I feel like I should be staring into the light to get the effect, but then I can't do anything else because its sort of blinding, so I get bored and switch it off. Any of you use these things? How do you use it? Does it still work if you just use it like a light to read by?

JayZee, I frequently beat myself up for not getting to the gym on a certain day (I aim for 5 days/week), but with long work hours plus family commitments it's definitely hard. For over a year now, I've listened to podcasts of journal articles while I do cardio, but mostly I am just less productive than my peers who either have no children or don't commit to exercise.

My weight is 132 and climbing. I am now officially back in the overweight BMI range, as predicted a couple of months ago on my sig. I don't know how much longer I can do this pretense that I am "healing" my metabolism by eating the number of calories that a physiology formula claims my body needs. I see no healing taking place, only pounds of fat adhering themselves to my belly and thighs. I can no longer bear to look at myself in the mirror at the gym- I turn away. Every morning, I wake up and immediately start thinking about the scale, my ever-climbing weight, and the fact that 1/3 of the clothes in my closet are now off-limits to me.

Tomorrow morning, I am going to see a sports nutritionist who will measure my resting metabolic rate, so I can see just how far from textbook normal I really am. Then I will hopefully discuss whether I can possibly continue eating 1700 cal/day without regaining every.single.pound I lost 3 years ago.

Oh hugs Andrea! Let us know what you find out tomorrow.

Neurodoc, hmm, I used a TDEE calculator to key in your stats. Based on 120lbs (your target weight), TDEE at sedentary is only 1371 cals/day. How did you come up with 1700 cal/day (unless you're really active)?

And I know how easy it is to under/overestimate how many calories we consume/burn each day...