I would not be able to make myself get up at 4 a.m. to exercise. I wish you luck with it.

My current approach to such things is not to start something I can't realistically keep doing indefinitely.

I'm back from vacation and working on losing the vacation weight gain. It should all be gone by the middle of the week. I've cut back on frequency of eating and on carbohydrates.

Allison, good luck on the early EARLY morning adventures! I'm not wild about our late evening swim practices ... but I'll take that over 4am. Ow!

Sounds like you did well on vacation, JayEll. I'm trying to put any contemplated changes into the context of the next 50 years. Unless it's an acknowledged temporary extreme (well, for me tends not to be very extreme), I try to just make incremental course adjustments.

yoyoma, I'm also not good at sleep. Melatonin helps me too.

Saef, best wishes for a restorative vacation!

I have just a touch of lingering post-nasal drip. Maybe it's allergies? I guess I'll know after the first hard frost, which is now a full two weeks late. Not that I'm complaining - we have had a glorious run of weather and an occasional sniffle does not diminish it in the least! Off to the pool tonight. Weekly average weight is back to early June's level: 155.5. Creeping back down, from the creep up.

Here it is midweek, and the vacation weight gain is gone. So, a week to gain it and a week to lose it. Much of it was water weight, though.

I think I'll continue to watch closely for awhile--my weight is still higher than I would like it to be, even though it's stable.

I check in every day to get my 3FC fix.The grit and determination that you all show gives me inspiration to keep going.Its not easy to maintain but I would rather be working hard to maintain my weight than working hard to lose it.So far I have been doing well and this site has given me a huge amount of help to continue.Thanks for being there girls.

Another member doing a periodic check-in. As I feared, by choosing a higher goal weight on the principle that I could never quite make it all the way down to my "real" goal (120), I just gave myself permission to have a new, higher floating weight. I am now permanently bouncing between 126-129, with occasional glimpses of 125.8 but never, ever 125 or below. With sickening regularity, I stay in control of my eating for a week, drop a pound or two (part or all of it from glycogen stores no doubt), then allow myself to give in to the perpetually-there, hovering carb cravings. In one or two days I am right back to the previous higher weight, which scares me straight, and the cycle starts again. I feel both disgusted with myself and strangely complacent with the process at the same time (rather like I used to feel when I weighed 160+). Not sure what to do next, and mostly just trying to live a life focused less on weight issues and more on family, work and friends.

Andrea You're not alone at maintaining at a higher weight than you'd like. I am fighting to stay under 140 and every time I feel all the extra flab below my navel I tend to be disgusted with myself. But I can't do anything else but hang on right now so that's what I'm doing.

I think,like everything else, we hit a "burn out" in both dieting and maintenance. You are doing well to not regain all the weight you've lost. Let's keep at it - that's all we can do sometimes.

Dagmar

I did not gain weight during my vacation and may even have lost a little. On the scale this morning, I was at 154.8, which is well within my recent range. Is this real? It could go either way. Is it dehydration, lower than usual, or salt and air travel bloat, higher than usual?

Last night while downloading photos onto the computer and finally seeing myself in them was a jolt of reality. I did not like how I looked. But my mother also hated how she looked, which made me sad, because I see her with love and I am not finding fault with her.

Anyway, back to my home gym this morning for 7:30 AM, doing that last Stage 7 of NROLW one more time, an option the book offers. I am guessing I may be a little weaker for this workout as I did not rest well last night due to the jet lag, which told me I had plenty of time before bedtime when I really didn't.

Allison, since I'm a teacher I tend to think of a year as August through May. So last school year I got up everyday at 4:30 to exercise. My goal was to make it through the school year and I did! The only time I skipped was the mornings after I taught at the local college. Don't get to sleep until about midnight because I'm hyper so I couldn't get up at 4:30.
In the summer I exercised at all different times.

So now for this school year I started the couch to 5k -- so I'm running MWF mornings. I discovered 4:30 is too late. I'm totally drenched in sweat and can't shower immediately. Need at least 15 mins to cool down. So now I get up at 4:15 on those days. On TTh I sleep in till 5:30 (whoo hoo), but I go to my new trainer after school those days.

I finished the couch to 5k about a week ago so now I'm just running for approx 30 mins straight and trying to improve speed. I'm not liking not having a program or goal that is set. But I don't want to train for 10k which is the next step up. So I think I need to plot out on a spreadsheet my times so I have a more specific goal. I know it sounds nerdy but I'm a math person.

I am NOT a morning person. So if I can get up this early, anyone can! I can tell you I feel so much better the days I do exercise in the morning. I actually miss it if I can't do it.

Sharon~several years ago I did the C25K with my dog on Tuesday and Thursday early mornings and later Saturday mornings. It worked out well as I only had to get up super early twice a week. I gave that up when my knees started giving me trouble. Now I use a treadmill which is a bit more forgiving to my knees (and I rarely run now). I hear you on being drenched after a workout!

That said I am, and always have been, a morning person. I like the quietness of everything being up early.

Saef, I rarely if ever like how I look in photos. But I've stopped remarking on it in front of my husband. He gets a bit upset whenever I rip myself apart - he sees me just as you see your mother, with love not judgment. But we persist in being our own worst critics. Someone on another thread commented on how image is a language we use to communicate with the world. I want the world to see how tough, hard-working and caring I am. The body image that I feel would convey that is thinner than my own. Isn't that ridiculous? But there it is.

Andrea, a life less focused on weight and more focused on things and people that matter IS the goal right? Not a number on the scale. I'm up a few pounds, I think (I only weigh monthly now) due to my relaxed vigilance. But in return I've had more mental energy to devote to more important matters.

A well-known and respected veterinary colleague took her life a few days ago. It shook everyone who knew her or knew of her (she was a world-famous behaviorist). She was such an inspirational, kind and effective person, and she had done more for animals during her career than probably anyone on the planet. But caring so much has a cost. Take care of yourselves as well as those around you.

JayZeeJay, so sorry to hear about that veterinary specialist. I wonder what her internalized voices were telling her about herself. I wonder whether she was depressed, or if some life event had occurred.

Wow, JayZeeJay.... that's terrible.

Yes, I'd love to be less focused on maintaining my weight, but I'm afraid complacency will lead to total regain so I remain ever vigilant, except for vacations and rare occasions where I "let my hair down".

JZJ, so sorry to hear about your coworker; I''m sure it's very upsetting to you, especially with someone you admired so much.

Andrea, I find that full-time restriction 24/7 is draining. Have you considered periodic changes? Something like lower carb on MWF or skipping lunches on alternate days?

I really like my approach of eating less often. Now that I'm used to it, I don't even think about food most of the day and I find that very liberating. I'm still in the honeymoon period of maintenance, but for now things are going well. One big difference is that I'm much happier with this WOE so I don't end up holding any pity parties for myself. Of course, everything is relative and it's just by comparison with the alternatives reality has offered me over the decades that my current WOE is so attractive. It's possible the warm glow will wear off over time.

I managed to get a couple of nights of good rest in a row. The scale is at 139.4 this morning.

JayZeeJay~so sorry to hear that. Interesting that a Facebook friend from my Lab Chat board suggested I watch some of her YouTube videos to help deal with Bogey's anxiety around other dogs. While I haven't take the time to watch any I have read her contribution to understanding animal behavior and it sounds like she really was a wonderful asset and everyone has suffered a tremendous loss.

I was reviewing my sleep (via my UP band) and noticed that since getting up early to work out my sleep pattern indicates more deep sleep and a lot less tossing and turning. Perhaps it is not my lot in life to get 7+ hours of sleep per night.

JZJ, I'm really sorry to hear about your colleague. It must have really shaken you - I know it would me. Heck, I had a close friend/colleague tell me a few days ago that he has chosen not to seek tenure, and is instead focusing his efforts on facilitating a career change away from a (successful) career in academia, and that was enough to take me aback. It is, I think, always a bit shocking to realize that someone is not feeling the way you think they are.

And, yes, the goal of life is indeed to focus on relationships and other things that matter, more than obsessing over weight. But I feel like Michele: the instant I let down my guard, the weight creeps back on. And I'm so done with being overweight. Yoyoma, I wish I had a good pattern of part-time restriction that would leave me feeling satisfied and in control. The one I've settled on (restrict for a week, overeat for 2 days, restrict for a week, etc) is highly unsatisfying primarily because it's not by choice. I suspect if the pattern worked to keep me maintaining at 122 instead of 128, I'd be a lot more ok with it. The difference between me and the many people who elect a "6 days on, 1 day off" form of dietary maintenance is that I'm not controlling it- the hunger/self-pity is controlling me.