Uuugghhh, I am so agitated with myself. I had been doing so well since the beginning of the year and I dont know what happened. . .well I do but I dont know how it ended me here. I am still a non-smoker (yay!) but am struggling with my weight, of course. So a few weeks ago I got off track, you know tax refund, a little too much shopping and eating out. I hadnt actually weighed myself since the first week in January, and I was 155 at the time, and I guess I had been too scared to weight myself again even though my clothes were fitting better and I felt like I had lost a little bit of weight. Then I got off track for about 2 weeks, because extra money does that to me, I dont know why I feel the need to eat out all the time. I weighed myself yesterday for the first time since January and I weighed 167! How can that be?! my clothes still fit looser than they did when I began all this at the beginning of the year, but I weigh THAT much more? I understand that I have a huge issue with water weight and I can flucuate like 5 pounds on a daily basis and I also know that muscle weighs more and I was doing some strength training but I was under the impression that it took quite a while to actually gain weight from added muscle. I dont know what to say, Ive done an hour long Jillian workout 3 times this week, and it feels good that my muscles are sore again, lol, and we have a new treadmill coming on Monday (I couldnt get to the gym regularly cause of my schedule ) so I am amped up to really get in the cardio, but I am struggling with food again. Im a binger, and I was doing so well controlling it untill I got off track. Now Im kinda depressed and just feel like eating because now I have added another 12 pounds to my weight loss journey. UGH, tell me I am not alone and that some one has been through this and knows how to get out of it. My goal was to be 135 by July 9th, my b-day, I told myself I will not suffer another summer in jeans and t-shirts but I am really concerned I am not going to make my goal now

Resteraunt and fast food is shockingly high calorie SHOCKINGLY! I mean a fast food burger alone can be as many as 1000 calories. If you ate out a ton and ate really high calorie food that whole time it's entirely possible you gained 3-6 pounds. The rest I would assume is water weight.

You enjoyed yourself for a while, were undisciplined, and your clothes fit loser.

Sounds like a win/win to me.

The scale only monitors weight not fat so by all indications sounds like a good little break and you're ready to start dieting again.

You give the absolute best advice!! I love your attitude and look forward to reading your responses!

There are always going to be "distractions":
birthdays
holidays
sad occasions
joyous occasions
tax refund month (although, I'll admit that's a new reason to stop eating the appropriate amount of food...)
etc
etc
etc

It's when those special days and meals turn into weeks and months that we gain weight and get fat in the first place.

Is there something else you can spend money on and use to celebrate besides food?

Glad to be of service.

if it makes you feel better years ago i could get on the scale and weigh in and then after two or three days of binging the scale would be up, i kid you not like 15 to 18 pounds at time after a few days of bad eating. i'd freak out because while i was binging really bad i knew to have really actually have gained 18 lbs in three days i would have had to have eaten an excess 63,000 calories in those three days (3,500 x 18) and i knew that just couldn't be possible. well then when i'd go and get back on plan the scale would go down like 10 lbs the very first day i stopped binging, meaning maybe i only gained 5, still bad and unhealthy but was a huge relief when thinking it was double digits (18). anyway, if your clothes fit still the scale cannot be an accurate number... because if it was your clothes wouldn't fit still.