YAY SUE!!!! Welcome to Onederland! I am so happy that your incredible persistence and patience has paid off! And good news on the medical front too. Continued prayers that you get a diagnosis of something easily treatable soon.

Mine too! Just under 3lbs. I've been having a lot more salt lately, more splenda in herbal teas, the Mexican food yesterday, a touch of the nasty C-word and my period is due. Hydration is up so I'm not sweating it.

Back to better eating for me for the next week, too!

Getting caught up on all my little household chores before I leave for England next Wednesday. Top of the list - clipping all three kittens' claws (my boys are going to turn 3 while I'm away) because my husband won't go near their paws. Then dosing them all up with Fortiflora to make sure their little bellies are happy and they don't have loose poops for hubby to scoop (as he invariably cuts through it in the tray). This afternoon I've got to hop out to Walmart and cash in my kitty savings jar (funds going to Merlin's Hope Ragdoll Rescue to help with vet bills for the kitties they rescue from shelters and get rehomed) and sorting out the protein powder packages I've promised, picking up litter bags so there is no excuse for hubby to say he couldn't get hold of them and that's why the trays haven't been replaced.

Finally, time to pull out the sewing machine this afternoon and make a start on altering at least the yoga pants (from 3X down to a 10) so I'm not surviving on a single pair in England. I can get away with my washing machine going on every day here, but water is metered at home and my sister's a little more conscious of any "excessive" consumption.

For those of you who like to do sport but get a lot of blisters, check out the Injinji toe socks. I fell in love with these years ago and my five year old pairs are starting to fall apart, despite my best efforts to reweave and darn them back to life. So, time to pick up some new pairs. They are amazing - keep your feet cool, stop that sweating-between-the-toes feeling that you can get in sneakers and I haven't had a blister since I've had them. Lots and lots of bright colour options to choose from, too! Public Service Announcement for the day!

Figured I'd share a picture of my furbabies as I mentioned them:-

http://s1289.photobucket.com/user/br...tml?sort=3&o=0

Sweet pix Briael! I'm a Scottish Fold fan (especially marmalade colour - my DH's fave) but can't afford one, lol. Ahhh well, we travel a lot so it wouldn't be fair to have a pet right now. We content ourselves with the lovely tuxedo cat next door who is very social and will come when called (Lilly).

Liana

I love your attitude jjtx. You are so even keeled.

Aww, kitties!!

Thanks, I think I don't feel even-keeled, more like the week was just eh - "eat. sleep. repeat" Could be the rainy weather too. I told hubby maybe this is what I need to distract me, or help me focus on something else.

Howdy all - returning from my wedding trip to California -- got in last night after midnight. I am taking a sick day today to catch up on rest and get my act together.

Like you, CenTXChk - I made it thru travel all day to Sacramento and thru a winery visit on Saturday before the wedding. Then at the wedding itself -- could not drive to the event (shuttles from hotel) so I could not take my own little store of food items and water..... the wedding was held out in the vineyard and the reception and dinner was outside on the lawn in front of the family winery home - I was faced with Mexican tamales, a 'salad' of corn, black beans, chopped onion and peppers, and a slaw bathed in a mayo based sauce... not a piece of greenery in sight..... and the only drink other than wine or craft beer was a homemade fruit water with berries. I decided to just go with the flow, hope for minimal damage, and deal with the re-boot the next day.....

And the next day, I was with my family just north of Sacramento - they took me to a Mexican restaurant where I had grilled fish tacos - pretty much staying on program by leaving the tortilla on the plate and just having the fish and the shredded lettuce and cabbage and some salsa.... my niece ordered a pitcher of margaritas, though.... and I did have half a glass....

And the next day, my sorority sister (mother of the bride) drove me over to Sonoma where we had lunch (another place famous for fish tacos)... once again, not too bad on the food, and we managed to get away from there without any dessert hitting the table..... but that evening, she and her daughter treated me to a fabulous dinner at a gourmet restaurant where I had a great pork chop and sautéed spinach.... but they ordered appetizers to die for... Burrata with French baguette toasts.. a fresh Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream. The outer shell is solid mozzarella, while the inside contains both mozzarella and cream. They were right -- it was to die for.... and my barely live grip on OP finally dropped altogether. Not only did I have the cheese on toast, but I also had some flourless chocolate torte and some crème brule for dessert. And 2 glasses of wine.

Yesterday was exactly what you talk about, CenTxChk - the landslide that follows the cheat. At the airport, I had a burger with no bun and some shredded lettuce, but then I thought - this is my last chance before returning to P1 - I got a package of Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies -- a good sized package. And aside from the shrimp over orzo salad meal on the airplane, with pretzel roll and a red velvet cake dessert, I killed off that whole bag of cookies before landing in DC at midnite.

I watched myself wolfing those little cookies down one by one, thinking to myself - Good Grief -- this is auto-pilot! Despite 9 months of no commercial sugary items at all, no fruit, no bread, no dairy -- here I am stuffing it in just as I did before I began IP. That 'no craving' cloud I have been living in while in ketosis just evaporated completely after the first cheating bite, and the heavy-duty attraction to the chocolate and sugary stuff returned full force. I was so aggravated with myself. Moderation was no where in my space-time continuum... I was on auto-hog mode. Disgusting is an understatement.

I got off the plane, collected my luggage, hooked up with my DH who had come to pick me up at the airport, and got home about 1AM. I dragged my bags upstairs and unpacked most of my stuff... noticing throughout that I was feeling increasingly miserable in the gut..... by the time I laid down to go to sleep, my stomach was feeling truly bad. I could tell that I was not going to be able to hold down the stomach contents.... and within a couple of minutes I ran to bathroom to throw up.

I may not feel the same about a chocolate chip cookie in the future - I had never gotten sick from chocolate before, and it was just as horrible as every other bad case of nausea I have ever had. I tried to focus on the misery of the barfing experience so that I can remember it well, and call that awful feeling up the next time chocolate cravings enter my psyche.

This morning I weighed in see that I am up 2.8 lbs from my last home weigh in before leaving town last Friday morning.... I was expecting to be up at least 5 lbs, due to the multiple cheat meals and the wine. I am grateful to be up less than 3 lbs, but I really want to detach the small gain from the big cheats. I am grateful that all of my cheats involved especially good tasting, well prepared food... except for the Famous Amos cookies (faves, but nothing all that special). Overall, I did not waste my cheats on mediocre stuff. But I got onto a very slippery slope and just tumbled all the way into a gully of guilt and misery.

I know this was a pleasure trip, and I hope to take these kind of sojourns often in the future. What I need to do though, is to find a way to enjoy some good food, but to be moderate in the process. Coming back here to you guys is the primary incentive for me to get off the runaway train. I wonder if I could bring myself back into line without this confessional, and without your inevitable support that will help me get back on track.

Very disappointed in myself.

Amanda I love the kitties. My very first kitten was named Zeus.

Oneuh - just saw your post also - nice to hear from you - don't have a lot smart to day other than glad you wrote it out, and be really gentle with yourself however you can. Maybe it's not really all bad, except the anxiety that led to the airport situation and then getting sick.

I saw Liana recently write something like "rebooting isn't anything to worry about, it's not rebooting that is the issue" (she said it better). I think it's the same in these situations. Everyone makes decisions, esp. on vacation, but it's what we do the day or week after that really is the kicker.

Oneuh2 - welcome home!!!
I hope you let yourself enjoy the special foods (I started drooling when you got to the cheese!), and didn't kick yourself the whole time.

I'm sorry you got sick though. Hope your body recovers quickly as you gear back into P-1.

First off - now that I have read the entire Summer 2014 Starters thread for May - everyone seems to be totally engaged in their program!

Sue -- sorry I missed the 'live' descent to One-derland, but I can see that the group has celebrated your accomplishment - -I add my kudos, too. You have shown the patience of Job, hanging in for as long as it has taken to happen. Like you, the day after I reached One-derland, I was still crossing fingers on the scale, hoping I had not slipped backward overnight- LOL!!!
Good news on the likely prognosis for you hubby's rib. Keeping fingers crossed as you go for next steps with the surgeon.

Avalon - your graphs are wonderful, as usual, and the details are informative, but the summarized view shows the very clear downward trend. Thanks for sharing!

Amanda - thanks so much for starting the May thread for us - almost 5 pages of postings already! I love the work you to to help rescued kitties reach safe homes, and I loved the photos! My trip to CA introduced me to two delightful Norwegian Forest kitties - beautiful long hairs with big tails and lovely tufts of fur from their ears that frames their pretty faces. I should have taken pix!

JJTx - so sorry you did not have a downtick this week, but I am confident it was just a pause. Thanks so much to you and Amber for the supportive comments. I am going to try to avoid kicking myself more, and instead try to focus on a nice clean week of P1 to get back on track.

Liana - Thanks, I absolutely adore Folds, too. Haven't seen many of them in the US (used to see a lot in Scotland when I was working up at the navy dockyard near Glasgow though!)

Cheryl - Missed ya, glad you're back safe and sound and I know you'll hop back onto the IP wagon without too much difficulty. Isn't it interesting how poorly your stomach does on all that fatty and sugary food? Bread is absolutely killer for me. Don't think it's the chocolate that made you heave, more likely to be the grain after this long without it.

So glad you had a great time with your family and friends - even if it did derail you a little. It's a once in a blue moon thing so don't be too down on yourself, it's easily recovered from and you know it'll just be restocking the glycogen stores and water weight.

On the subject of watching yourself wolfing down cookies - that's a big step forward, isn't it? Being aware that you're doing it and understanding the consequences? It's not like you were just snarfing them as you once would've done.


Amber - Thanks. My kitties are my babies. They make life complicated (and expensive) but I wouldn't change a single one of them. Trying to find a B&B or hotel near the In-laws that'll let us bring 3 cats without charging us $75 per day for the pleasure. Long term I think we'll just get a trailer that we can take them with us without hassle.


Cheryl - Those Norwegian Forest cats are enormous. They make my 17lb ragdolls look like 6 week old kittens! They weight an absolute ton. My friend has two, and two Maine Coons that are very nearly as big, just not as heavy.

OneUh2 ... dont beat yourself up too much. You can get back on track ... it sounds like you are well on your way.

I had something similar at the end of Feb through mid March -- I marked it on my chart as my "17 Day Cheat Box" -- Actually it wasnt the whole 17 days, but a few isolated incidents in that 17 day period.

It all started with me after staying totally 100% on P1 for nearly 6 months -- just going "crazy" one night and driving to the grocery store close to midnight and buying 3 boxes of cookies (mint milanos, some sort of imported English shortbread and choc cookie, a bag of pecan sandies (sugar free HA) ... and a can of honey roasted mixed nuts -- which I then snarfed down (well lets say about a third of that) in less than half an hour. Sick yes. Of course the next morning all those items were sitting there on my counter, and of course I dug back in ... after that it all went into the trash.

Later that week, I thought I would buy some protein bars (non IP) but they had nuts and chocolate ... and tasted "too good" and I could not stop eating them, so I gave them away

And my final "cheat" at the end of my 17 day cheat period ... was my attempt to make some "healthy pizza" which ended up having too much salt and I gained 3 pounds overnight (mostly water weight I am sure).

Well that was the end of cheating for me!!! I knew that if I did not get back on track, it would be over.

I decided then and there to get back on strict P1 and since then I've lost about 24 pounds in 6 weeks. Maybe it was good that I got some of that out of my system and made me more focused for this 2nd push downwards ... and perhaps my body was shaken out of "starvation mode" a bit and maybe that actually helped me.

Bottom line most of us here have some issues with food addictions -- at least I know that I do. But you just get up ... dust yourself off ... and keep going!

Thanks for sharing your story -- every little bit we hear gives us strength (I believe)

One~ Great to see you back and so glad you had a good time..plenty of time to get those pound off by friday. Sorry that it made you sick...

Woot! One pair of yoga pants done - size 3X down to a 10. They aren't perfect (slightly wonky gather at a knee instead of a straight seam) but they fit and they're wearable once more. Complete with zig zag down the inner seams so they don't unravel.

For the record, I really don't like spandex to sew on. The other two yoga pants are more cotton mix so I'll get round to them another day.