So, I came to 3FC a year and a half ago. With consistent effort, after a year I racked up a 70-pound loss. I graphed my weight loss by the week on an Excel spreadsheet, and I counted out one colored paperclip for one pound lost, and created a paper-clip chain. I took a 55-pounds-lost photo.

And then I had some pretty drastic changes in my life, some of which included grief. My way of dealing with this was to hole up in my living room with refined carbs, fats, and sugar ... gaining 30 pounds.

A month or two ago, I figured out how to stop gaining, and just maintain. Now I am losing again. 52 pounds total lost, 10 of which are "relost". Under 100 pounds to lose. It's a little disheartening to not be able to change the paperclip chain yet (I didn't remove pounds as I gained them, too painful). I kept tracking my weekly TOPS weight on a spreadsheet, watching it go up and up, then up/down cycles, and now steady and starting to drop.

I highly recommend keeping your weight tracked in a spreadsheet/graph of some sort. The visual display is helpful. I also keep records, next to each week, of my BMI, what size I'm wearing, and a column for comments about what might have contributed to weight fluctuations that week. For me, it helps to show the correlation between stress, moods, and food. I can almost point and say, "Yep, that's when the relationship ended!" or "That's when I started my new job".

I have about 20 pounds to go before I can add a paperclip to the pounds-lost chain. I really wish I wouldn't have added those 30 pounds, but I am grateful I didn't add back all 70 pounds.

I have never been a yo-yo dieter and I don't plan to become one. So let's hope, now that I've figured out how to be back on this bandwagon, I can remain here and make some permanent changes in this area.

3FC rocks! I've learned so much from people, received and given tons of support, and picked up some cool tricks along the way.

I think you are on to something with tracking your weight/BMI/clothing size in a spreadsheet or graph. I tend to be a "serial weigher" and want to weigh in every single day - not good! Having a spreadsheet to see gradual losses over time can be more encouraging.

Congrats on your weight loss so far! That's incredible!

I agree with keeping good records! Just this morning I was looking over my weight chart that goes back over a year. I'm in a funk myself because these last few pounds aren't going away, so I looked to see how I've been doing. I hit 140 in October, 136 in November, up to 143 in January and have been hovering between 140-142 all of February and March. I'm more in a maintenance mode rather than a losing mode.

Let me tell you, phantastica, you are fantastic! You started the YOU thread--and it's still going today! I hope you can start adding paperclips to your chain very soon. You know exactly what you need to do and it sounds like you've already gotten recommitted to doing it. WTG!

Yes, I agree too. I track my weight weekly, but measurements monthly. Not in a spreadsheet, but in a journal. I also have my best bud take a monthly bathing suit photo. Humbling, but it's a real eye opener - at 7 pounds lost (had a little blip & a few were found again!), I could actually see a difference in the photos, particularly from the side views (I have one of those sticky-out butts). It wasn't dramatic, but it was there! The photos have been excellent motivation.

In addition to the graph that comes with my tracker (which I only tend to use if there's a change--that is, I won't add an entry if I stayed the same), I write my weight on my wall calendar, usually twice or three times a week. LOL, I fluctuate with my interest in the scale. Sometimes I want to step on it several days in a row, sometimes I'll tell myself, nah, wait a couple of days. I also weigh myself on the first and last day of each month so I have a start and end weight each month, in addition to seeing what's happening each week. I've been doing this since January 1 and had totally forgotten about taking any measurements until about 2 weeks ago, although I probably have some old figures somewhere from catalog-clothes shopping. I don't think I'm going to do it again until I'm much further along or at my goal. I want it to be kind of a surprise, lol.

I think the BEST thing you did was that you kept weighing and logging your weight even when you knew you were going up up up. You did not allow yourself to "forget" or hide reality. You allowed yourself to deal with it, even if you weren't in the frame of mind to stop the gaining. That is huge and what makes me believe that you really HAVE changed since you started this 70 pounds ago. Sometimes it takes learning from our mistakes to change. You allowed yourself to mess up due to stress or emotions, and I think next time you will do things differently. Just keep it up and get back into it. You've done great and its OK to slip, AS LONG AS YOU GET UP AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AND TRY AGAIN!