First off I apologise if this isn't the right place for post like this but I searched and saw similar things posted in the past.

I started my journey last October, on the 24th to be precise. I have been overweight for as long as I can remember but after reaching an all time high of 252lbs and spending a miserable summer feeling thoroughly uncomfortable in my own skin and wishing I was invisible (which I actually did feel like most of the time), I decided to start my weight loss journey. 10 months and 70ish pounds later and I had thoroughly run out of steam.

It was mostly the start of a new job that pushed calorie counting and meal planning into feeling more like a chore and less of a good thing. I was losing control of my appetite and had no energy to plan good meals, so my calorie counts were getting higher by the week.

By August I decided to take a 2 week break from calorie counting and meal planning and restriction. I didn't go wild, I just tried to eat intuitivly. Well I gained 5lbs but also some much needed perspective and resolve that showed me that this journey IS worth it, I'm not happy where I am yet and I can do it. I feel like my mind has been defrag'd, like i've had a half time break and i'm now ready for the second half of my journey

The purpose of this thread is to journal the second half of my journey, post my daily eats, exercise, vent and celebrate my weight loss.

I havent decided 100% on my goal but I think it will be around 130lbs, I may update daily but I hope to update no less that weekly. Feel free to contribute, give advice, share or just read

Today is my first day in a while back on a quite restricted calorie intake. I feel mildly hungry waiting for dinner but definately manageable. I sometimes wonder why I find it so hard to deal with mild hunger, my head has to be determined or mild hunger has me running for the fridge, even if I know a meal is 10 minutes away, is this something I can work to change (self control? lol)

This morning 7.30am 183lbs

Eats
Cous cous 185
2 chicken drumsticks 211
cabbage 20
Ready brek w/ 10g toffee syrup 103
3 egg white omlette w/chicken 154
Baked potato 200
Baked beans 165
Bacon 175
cheese 84
Greek salad 45
plums 60
1318

Fri's summary: Hellish day at work then mandatory dinner which I hate trying to plan for. Great company but a nightmare for counting, I had the stingyist portions, left pretty much starving then filled the void with the tiramasu we left with lol I used to be great at estimating counts but all I can say about last night was that I was over my allowance. I console myself by thinking it doesn't happen often (I wont let it lol)

16/9 7.30am 181.4lbs

yesterday's eats:
Ham & cheese sandwich 316
snack-a-jack 108
Special k bar 80
(awful lunch but i'm lucky I got to have one)
plum 30
porridge 224
egg white & ham omlette 98
Tiny dinner and dessert 600 (I have no idea)
-1456 (rough estimate)

I had quite a well behaved weekend. I made some dodgy decisions such as on Saturday deciding to wait until I got back from town before having lunch (my 1st meal) getting delayed by hours and eating cookies for lunch. I feel like I'm having to relearn everything, lesson number 1: let yourself get starving and you will eat anything in sight. Oh and swapping my dinner calories for beer...

I weighed in at around 181 on both Sat and Sun, I kinda hate weekend weighing because I do it so much later than in the week. I ate 1450 calories which is 100 over my target but not too bad.

Monday I weighed in at 180 and ate 1300 calories but yesterday *shakes head* well I'm pretty sure the scale will be up this morning, I can feel it. You know you've done badly when you stop counting. One thing I like about myself is that when I do badly I mostly know why. When I get back from work I let myself have a few snacks, except they can get out of hand. Half of the time i'm sure i'm eating to wind down/relieve stress and not because I'm actually hungry. These snacks throw off my counts and leave me with very little calories for dinner, which I then don't even feel hungry for due to the snacking. So I Decided from today when I get back from work i'll only drink tea and coffee and have an earlier dinner with my bf around 6.30-7pm. I have a good feeling the ravenous hunger I feel when I get back from work is partly to mostly in my mind and not my stomach. Also it's much easier to count calories when you take away the insane snacking lol

eta: tues 181.6 urgh..

This morning I weighed in at 183lbs after a weekend of birthday celebrations (i know excuses, excuses) I didn't even eat badly I just drank a wee bit (wee=ok i'll have just one more sambuca shot)

I'm quite proud of myself today because it is the first day since I started this job back in June that I haven't come home and eaten everything in sight. I just made myself a nice mug of coffee, avoided the kitchen and kept my mind busy. I think I may have cracked it which makes me super excited because it was really the only thing still standing in my way. I will be thoroughly tested dealing with this job+pms hunger+after work ravenousity but let's take things a day at a time.

I also got back to my old habits of planning goals on a calender. Back when I first started this journey I was planning 5lbs a week losses and was upset when I lost 3 HA! I laugh at the old me lol I'm still going to aim high but no way will I be upset if I miss the mark.

today's eats:
Lunch
2 boiled eggs 170
3 slices og garlic ham 66
apple 47
Dinner Chicken and noodles with peppers
Sausages 190
Chicken 150
black bean sauce 70
noodles 354
peppers 26
=1073 Way under, may snack on some fruit later.

eta: finished off the day at 1153

Just wanted to give you some kudos for getting back on track!!

Thanks!! it's been tough

supergirl, your nick name pretty much says it all...

Hugs to you sweetheart. Tight hugs.

After reading this thread, I think, and its just my opinion of course, but please don't discount it so much......I think you are very hard on yourself.

5 ft 8 in at 180ish isn't terrible. Weight Watchers top of the range for a 5 ft. 7 in. woman is 160. I think it goes up 5 pounds for each inch (I could be wrong). But based on that lets say that at 5 ft. 8 in. Weight Watchers would consider you 15 pounds from goal. You're so close! I understand that you're not happy in the low 180s. While, of course, 130 is achievable, you shouldn't be so rigid in your thinking that even if you eat around 1400 calories....you feel like you didn't succeed for the day, or that you were "bad". I think your menu could be more balanced, but overall you seem to be hitting your target, which may even be too low...others could opine on that.

2ndly, you've lost an amazing amount of weight. 72 pounds. Congratulations. What an achievement!!!! I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!

Next, goodness gracious I can see why you'd want a break from the grind. You've come a very long way. You were tired. 1400 calories is not a lot. 1400 calories is my daily ceiling; my target is 1200...and some days it just isn't enough. I'm shorter than you and I have 20 pounds more to lose to be at a healthy weight for me. When I get there, then I'll decide if I want to try to weigh less.

You know how to do this. You did it. I have every confidence in you that you'll continue to get from Here to There. Here, right now for you, isn't so bad. Here, you're 70 pounds lighter from where you Were. So Were kind of sucked, but Here isn't so bad, and There is gonna be great. Every day that passes, you are reaching There.

You need to have some ready-snacks to carry you over between meals, and you could plan better. Those are my only critiques of your plan. But my dear Supergirl, you've done great, you'll do great, you'll meet your goals and in the meantime, be nicer to YOU.

I hope I've not written anything that hurts you; all of it is with the best intentions.

Tight hugs, Donna

Mild hunger scares me too. I also need some sort of "strategy" to deal with it.

The truth is, if you ignore it, it goes away eventually. Easier said than done.

124chicksinger: thank you so much for your caring and thoroughly sensible post. I'm not stuck on 130, I'll definately stop when I feel comfortable/happy. You are so right about the sensible snacking, it is key.
I have started being hard on myself, maybe too hard but sometimes I feel like it's exactly what I need. If I give myself an inch I take a mile, this is mostly the reason why I try to clamp down on snacking. Thank you for the praise and the perspective it means a lot

Unna: it does so go away! it scares me how much the mind can play up hunger symptoms. If i'm busy between meals i'm like 'What hunger?' if I am bored I can feel hungry within an hour of a meal. I do think a lot of it is thirst with me. I used to think 'pfft I think I know what thirst feels like' when people would say hunger could be thirst, but sometimes drinking can take away the hunger pangs utterly and completely.

182 today

Todays eats:
Chicken breast seasoned with no cal seasonings 94
2 egg whites 36
Dairy lea triangle 20
apple 47
Sour jaw breaker 56 (could have had another apple lol)
Veggie pizza 654
1/2 can of heinz minestone 64
sweetened porridge 150
Raspberry ripple mousse desset 72
=1193

Yesterday I reached the upper limit of my calories 1350 and wasn't very happy about that so early on in the game, so today i'm quite low but happily satisfied

Tommorrow one of the ladies in the office in bringing in lots of cakes, home made and shop bought to try and raise money and support her daughter walking for cancer. Great cause and idea, I'm sure she will make a load but I do feel very nervous about all the tempations.

Of course I will donate but I DO NOT want any cake. Maybe to deflect attention I'll buy and take the cake and say i'll eat it with my lunch I really hope that she doesn't want to see me eat it for some strange weird reason, some people can be like that. Well be what may, eating cake is not on my to-do list tommorrow. My birthday was a only week ago exactly and I ate my weight in chocolate cake.

Today's Eats:
Chicken breast strips seasoned and spiced 147
Hard boiled egg whites 32
1 chocolate finger 31 (damn you chocoholic head teacher)
jawbreaker 28
Dairylea cheese triangle 20
Gnocci 380
Weight watchers sauce 82
chicken 180
mixed vegetables 59
Ice cream pot 72
Toffee sauce 10g 32
=1074

Belated birthday to you supergirl. AND, you're getting through the week food-wise very well. Continued success at meeting around your calories target.

Thank you! Now the for the weekend...

I always forget to drink water when I'm feeling hunger.

And yes, boredom definitely makes one hungry!

One of my theories, which I just came up with (2 seconds ago) is that the obesity epidemic is largely due to boredom (yes, the invention of processed food as well).

I mean, we are trained to act so hectic as a society - to run around like chickens with our head cut off. But in reality, most of it is an act and there are many many time during the day where we are just bored and maybe isolated. Then we start eating.

But, its still not cool to talk about boredom. Boredom is considered a major weakness in our society. It means you aren't as productive as you could be, try to make millions.

Okay back to your thread! I agree, your calorie success is wonderful. Just curious - what are you doing for exercise?