Having trouble committing and sticking to my commitment. I did so well until I picked up another part-time job. The job only took a week, but it completely threw me off.

Tracking food starting today. I hate it, but I will do it. And totally back in the gym as well.

Hello! I have been slacking on posting this weekend. I also tried an experiment, since my weight has been staying put for awhile, to see if adding some grains (no wheat) and eating a little higher calorie would make a difference. Alas, I am up four pounds this morning.

So it's back to super strict, hungry all the time, no grains at all dieting for me. Most of the time I don't really mind, but some days it gets hard. Oh well, nothing to do but keep moving forward. I know some of this four pounds is water retention from adding more carbs to my diet, but history tells me it won't all come off quickly. Less learned!

Triptriptrip: Glad you have a great dress! When you feel good in something, it makes all the difference!

Goal4agirl: Sorry to hear you were so sick! It sounds like you have a great mindset for losing weight though. That's a great thing!

LaurieDawn: You can do it! Just do one day at a time and before too long, you'll be back on track.

thistoo: You know, it was worth a try. I understand why you took the chance. I hope you can rebound quickly. I hate having to learn lessons!!! Why can't this just be easy?

As for me, I lost .4 lbs. I shouldn't be unhappy about that, but jeez! When you work out as much as I have and have tracked all of your calories, it should fall off. I have to remember that my weight loss has never been linear, and I need to keep going with it. Maybe by next week, the weight loss will catch up with my effort!! It just irks me that it isn't lower. I can't see where I might have slipped up with food and I know I went to the gym 5 days. Oh well. I have to take my own advice and take it one day at a time, and keep moving foward. There aren't any other options.

Diane, I totally understand your frustration. .4 *is* a victory, but when you're working so hard, it's hard to make it feel like one.

I'm down 2 pounds this morning, so the water weight is going. Of course TOM is looming, which will further stall things. I'm trying to be patient, but that's never been my strength. Still, I learned the hard way what happens when I don't stick with my plan, and I have no wish to go back up to my highest weight ever again, so I'll stick with it.

LaurieDawn Hey! Glad to see you on here again. Glad to be back myself, actually. I totally understand about life throwing circumstance after circumstance that seems to suck the will to lose weight right out of you. I'm right there with you on that.

I apparently decided to take another week to fully decide that I was ready to get back into this. I restarted Paleo yesterday at 236.8 (gasp, I passed my *You Shall Not Pass* weight) but I'm down to 235.6 again this morning, so it's all good.

I'm feeling the 'Carb Flu' today after only a day of not going nuts with carbs, sugar, and processed crap. Oh and no coffee. That hasn't been fun. Everyone at work is keeping a mile radius away from me, for sure. But I will persevere...mainly because summer is just around the corner and it gets HOT down here. Can't keep wearing my leggings, sweaters, and boots that hide everything.

Hope everyone is doing well today. Hang in there!

Not much going on with me today. Just checking in.

thistoo: Nice loss!!! Good for you!

LebenAlles: Congrats on surviving the first couple of days of recommitment. How you can go without coffee is beyond me. Good for you! I drink it black, so I justify being able to keep it as a part of my life!

Day 1 a success! Undertaking Day 2. In November, December, and January, I took a no-scale, not-completely-strict approach. It worked, and I lost ten pounds. But a few not-plan weeks equaled a ten-pound regain. And I am telling myself that I am just relieved that I didn't spend Nov., Dec., and Jan. eating that way or I would be back up to my starting weight. ;-)

thistoo - I so get that. It's so good to shake things up and try new things. The gain won't last, but the knowledge will. And this is something that you have to figure out for life. So - yay you!

Slashnl - Thanks for the support. That's why I need 3FC.

LebenAlles - Carb flu - YUCK. Glad it's temporary, and you have enough experience to recognize it's temporary. Just get through it, and then you're on the other side of it, right?

Deep breath. I'm ready to make this next month one of determined weight loss. I don't have to do it the following month. I know a more relaxed approach can work. But for now - this is it. I really want to be back down into the 2-teens.

Hi folks.

It's been a rough couple of days, plan-wise. I have managed to avoid veering widely off-plan - no enormous planned binges of the kind I've been struggling against over the past year or so - but, I have been eating more than I'd like to and my weight has bounced back up into the high 170s. I keep thinking my period is coming which would explain a whole lot of things that don't feel right just now. So, any day now.

LaurieDawn, I understand about wanting to buckle down for a little while. For a long chunk of my weight loss process - maybe between 275 and 180 or so, I did not strictly calorie count every day. I did a couple of days every month as a sort of sanity check, and the rest of the time just tried to stick to sensible decisions and portion sizes. It worked pretty well until I got to a low enough weight where the margin for error was very slim.

LebenAlles and slashnl - another black coffee drinker here. I was not for a long, long time. When I first started my weight loss process I thought that whole milk in my coffee was one of those non-negotiables. As I got to lower and lower weights, though, I had to look for places where I could cut calories out of my day, and ditching the milk to save 150 or so was too obvious not to try. It took me a week or two but not longer than that - I came to like the taste of black coffee. It is important, however, that it be quality coffee. Crappy coffee still needs milk to take out the bitterness.

Better day today for me. Yesterday I didn't go to the gym because I just lost so much sleep overnight. I am having a few struggles with my 19 year old daughter. She isn't completely out of control or doing horrible things, but she is having trouble getting back home at a reasonable time. Since she is in college now, she thinks that she doesn't need any restrictions, so we battle. The thing is that I have given her more freedom, but it is still my house, and I need my sleep, so her staying out late does not help me. If I wake up overnight, I have trouble getting back to sleep. I so wish she were in an apartment, but she can't afford it. So, I suffer.

Anyway, I went to Spin class today and had a full night's sleep last night. I might live now.

LaurieDawn: You can do this! One day at a time! You have a good attitude, so keep it up!

Carter: Hang in there. It gets tough some days, doesn't it? But you can do it!! Stay strong!

Hey All,

Day 3 of the wretched carbflu and absence of caffeine. My partner and I are doing this together which is good for the commiseration but also bad because we're both a sad sight, dragging ourselves through our daily business. She was a little more caffeine dependent than I, so that part has had more of a toll on her. I'm busy fighting the sugar monsters in my head. We went to bed at 8:45 last night, completely willingly, and while it helped, I'm still exhausted today. I can't (but can) believe that the things I was consuming had such an effect on my body! It's like I'm coming off of drugs..and that's not downplaying that struggle at all, as I know that ultimately drug addiction is far worse...but it's even been proven in studies that rats addicted to cocaine will switch to sugar water when given the choice between the two. Sugar should be a controlled substance...seriously.

I didn't lose anything this morning but I'm trying to remind myself that it's not going to just all fall off at once. Just gotta keep on keepin on.

Anywho, carter and slashnl, I'm mainly stopping the caffeine because of a recent development of kidney stones. Caffeine is supposed to be a major factor in such things, supposedly. That and I'm trying to train my body to use fat for fuel instead of the 'fake fuels' like caffeine, sugar, and crappy carbs. Bleh. No fun.

Carter I know that my TOM always has me wanting to binge and has me gain either way, so I feel ya on that. Oh the joys of womanhood, aye?

LaurieDawn I'm with you on needing to be strict and committed for at least a month. I know that cheat days can be good but I need some good old fashioned discipline for awhile, for sure. Cheat days turn into weeks for me and I just get that much more behind.

Stay strong and carry on, everyone!

Hey guys, I hope youre all doing well.
I got some full nights of sleep and ate some more protein and higher calories for a few days and my body started to finally let go of some weight. I'm down 11 pounds since 1/20 when I started.
I decided that I'm just going to keep going with this and not get discouraged by my daily ups and downs.

All you can do is to do well today.

AllisonM: Good job on the loss! I think that sometimes you just need to shake things up a little bit. We don't want our bodies to get too comfortable with what we're doing.

I got on the scale this morning for a quick look to see how the week is going. I hope it holds out, because it looked like a good loss to record on Monday's official weigh in. Just have to keep going and stay focused.

I've been really trying hard to keep track of calories with MyFitnessPal, especially during this weight loss challenge I'm in. I don't know if I have a good chance at winning the challenge. There are some women involved who started up their weight loss plan at the same time as the challenge started. So, they've had some good losses, even if it is just the initial burst. I don't know if I can lose enough to have a greater percentage loss than they do. Some are smaller, so their loss doesn't have to be as much for the same percentage. But, it has been a good competition because I am remaining focused.

Overthinking it much? Yep!

Another day. Another day in the books as adhering to the plan. It's such a blessing. And with spring coming, it will get easier.

I keep Miracle noodles around for days when I am just desperate. I don't particularly enjoy them, but zero calories and that full feeling? Sometimes I just need it. I have eaten them two days in a row. This is tough sometimes.

Slashnl - I was invited to do a weight loss challenge, but I would have to wait a week to start. I almost waited because that initial burst would have been so helpful. But I decided that I wanted to strike while the iron was hot. I agree so much - it's not about winning the challenge, but using the challenge as a tool.

Allison - 11 pounds in a month. That's phenomenal! Good work.

LebenAlles - I hear you on the fighting through it. Your physical symptoms sound worse than mine, but by yesterday evening, I was ready to chew my leg off to make that hungry feeling go away. I can't imagine trying to keep it up for life if it doesn't get better. But it always does when we persist, doesn't it? =)

Carter - TOM. Such a mixed blessing. Every month, it's a rush of thoughts. 1 - So glad I'm not pregnant. (Even though it's not biologically possible, given my activities right now.) 2- The absolute starving days are going away. 3 - Looking forward to a loss on the scale (when I weigh daily). 4 - Not to be blasphemous, but is this constant bleeding for days thing really the best design here? Hope yours comes soon.

Terra - Welcome! It's definitely a long-term journey!