Just starting the thread. I'll be back later after I catch up

Carla – Whew, that is a bit complicated but I’m glad to hear that you are working for someone you respect. Let me know if you make the recipe – I’d love to hear what you think.

Jan – ooooh, a kitchen re-model. I can’t wait until we can do ours. Glad to hear that it is helping you stay OP. Way to go on just taking a sliver of chocolate cake. It sounds like you will see a loss for sure. I think you may be right about getting through food gatherings – I think it may very well be a rest or de-stress period.

I got myself back to my meeting on Saturday and while I gained, it was less than I thought. My sneak peek Saturday morning looked like a 3 pound gain (I know, a lot of it water, but still…) but at the meeting it was only 1.6. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t thrilled, but it was better than I expected and I’ve been able to put it behind me. I had a good day point-wise yesterday. I went over by ˝ pt but I’ll make that up today. I don’t think I’ll be doing quite as much or as intense exercise this week either – I’m going to try to get to the gym for my cardio and get on the elliptical machine – easy on my feet. One thing that we talked about at the meeting on Saturday was imagining yourself doing the opposite of a behavior that hurts your weight loss effort – like running a movie watching yourself doing it. I came up with 2 that I need to work out – eating too fast and too much nighttime snacking. I decided to work on the eating too fast first (the easier one) and imagined myself savoring every bite slowly. I did a little better last night at dinner – that’s going to be my goal for the week.

Have a great Motivated Monday,
Judy
163.6/159.0/135

Hi everyone

Judy - I'm sorry to hear about the gain, but glad that it wasn't as much as your sneak peak led you to expect and glad that you put it behind you. I have to work on exactly the two behaviours you mentioned: eating too quickly and nighttime snacking.

Well my scale showed a maintain again this morning. For the last several days it had been registering a 2 pound loss and then this morning comes and my rings are tight and I'm retaining water and bam - the maintain. I know it's better than a gain and I didn't behave as well over the weekend as I should have, so I'm grateful. Hopefully this week the needle on the scale will move down and stay down!

Have a great day everyone.

Carla
255/252/140

Just time for a quick post tonight. Sara spent too long on the computer and then I wanted to change our motel reservations for Florida.

Judy - Sorry about the gain, but glad to hear it wasn't as bad as the sneak peek. The habit I have to work on is the nighttime snacking.

Carla - We had the same type of week. Showed a loss most of the week (only a pound for me) and then got up this morning with tight rings and a maintain. We will get that loss next week.

I had a maintain this week. I had some chips last night and I'm sure they caused me to retain water.

Talk to you later.
Pat
(178/143/135)

Carla - Way to go on the maintain - it's always better than a gain and you know it's water. I understand how frustrating it is though. I did so-so last night on my two goals - eating slowly and nighttime snacking. I'm going to have to keep working on it!

Pat - Ditto on the maintain. For some reason, I tend to do the same thing the day before weigh -in - have something salty. You'd think I'd know better!

I had an OK day yesterday. I went to the gym and did 40 minutes on the elliptical and reclined bike and did a 20 minute yoga tape in the evening. I was going to be ending the day with points in the bank but the PMS monster was whispering "chocolate…" and I had too much of the Ben & Jerry's lf frozen yogurt. You'd think I would have learned my lesson with the HC ice cream last week but I still bought a container. Even with that slip, I ended up with just a 1 point deficit. I'm going to have to be careful tonight and tomorrow evening with the snacking. My sister and I are meeting for lunch today and I'm going out for sushi tomorrow. My sister is leaving her job and will be working in another part of the city so this is the last time we'll be able to have lunch for a while. We're going to the same place as last week and I plan on having the grilled portobello sandwich again. I don't know what kind of exercise I'll do tonight though - my shoulder is still "twingy" - so I won't have lots of points left for evening snacking.

Judy

Hi everyone -

Pat - Yes - that scale monster will give us our loss next week.

Judy - Sorry to hear that the shoulder is still bothering you. A 1 point deficit isn't too bad - I'm sure you'll make it up soon. I'll send postiive vibes your way to help you chase away the PMS monster. He'll be heading my way in a few days and I want him cowering in fear.

Yesterday was not good. I woke up feeling stressed out to the max and that continued for pretty much the whole day and into the evening. I won't even discuss what I managed to stuff into my face. And no, it didn't solve anything, no it didn't make me feel better, yes it made me feel worse and yucky on top of it. But I just didn't care yesterday. But I'm back to caring today and back on track. Of course, now I have the "day after hungries" because my stomach wants me to keep the food coming. I'll just have to fight through it.

Have a good day everyone.

Carla

Aw gee, Carla, I'm sorry to hear you had such a rough day yesterday. Here's some {{{{{{{HUGS}}}}} because you deserve them! I know you can fight through the "day after the hungries". Just don't give up and try not to give into the "well, I blew it yesterday" junk. Have you tried some deep relaxing breathing when you are stressed to the max? I know it sounds a little too new agey, but since I've been doing a little yoga, I've found that if I take a minute or two and breathe deeply in and out, I can sometimes pull myself out of some craziness. In any case, I hope you have an easier day today.

Take care,
Judy

Judy - Thanks for the hugs, I needed them. I don't know that today is any better, but at least I'm handling it better. I'll be glad when these conversions are done, but that won't be for a few months. And actually, I did deep breathing on the train last night. Figured I had to get myself in a better place before I went home to my sweet little girl. It really helped calm me down.

Carla

Judy - A one point deficit isn't bad, especially considering the frozen yogurt. I know what you mean about keeping it in the house. I've found that I just can't have it here. If I want ice cream I have to go out for a single serving. Sorry to hear the shoulder is still giving you some trouble.

Carla - Sorry you had such a bad day yesterday. Glad the deep breathing helped some. Way to go handling the stress better today.

I gave in to the cravings for a Reese's McFlurry tonight. I have been wanting one for several nights and decided that since I had eaten fairly low point today to have one and get it out of my system. I know it put me over points, but it was so good! I did get out for a walk this afternoon.

Talk to you later.
Pat

Carla - I'm glad to hear that the deep breathing helped last night. Sorry to hear that things are so crazy - I know the feeling especially of the conversion work!

Pat - good for you for having a planned indulgence and getting that craving out of your system. Way to go on getting out for a walk too. It's actually going to be in the 50's today - I can't wait to get outside on weekends. This weekend I'm hoping to prune the roses - not a ton of exercise but at least it's in the fresh air. I think I have to stop buying those pints of ice cream even though it is Healthy Choice - I just can't have one serving these days (I used to be able to).

I should have listened to my own advice last night. I tried to eat slowly at dinner and didn't do badly. It really takes a conscious effort but I'm going to keep at it. Tony has been in the habit recently of getting unshelled peanuts and going into them immediately after dinner. For the last few nights, I've been able to ignore him/them. There were some left in the container when he had finished and even though I wasn't hungry at all, I took them and ate them. That didn't put me over points but it wasn't the way I was planning the evening to go. Rather then forgive myself and pick up my knitting, I let it set me up for a bad evening. I have been very aggravated about our auto insurance - it turns out that we were really ripped off by going with the policy the insurance agent (who I have never liked but Tony did) packaged with our home insurance last year. This year, we did research on our own and this week came up with a policy that is going to save us about $1000. Anyway, every time I think of what I paid last year I get really aggravated and generally pi**ed off (I know, it's water under the bridge) - I'm sure PMS isn't helping the situation. Well, the new insurance company called last night and Tony was giving them some missing details and it made me think of the whole sorry business again. My beat myself up mindset didn't help what came next. Yup, you got it - I ate through it. I knew exactly what I was doing and it didn't make me feel any better but I did it anyway. Damage - 6 point deficit. Not bad but I feel myself slipping into a bad groove this week and it has to stop. I'm expecting TOM any second now which will make my weigh in on Sat. tough enough without having to sabotage myself. I've been thinking this morning of what I can do tonight to be sure I break this bad pattern and came up with a couple of things. First, I'm going to drink a glass of water before having any snack tonight. That will be very helpful since I'm having sushi for lunch. Second, I will pick up my knitting tonight and do at least a couple of rows (once I start I usually continue for a while). Third, if anything upsets me, I'm going to break out a notebook I bought as a journal and write a couple of sentences in it. Wish me luck!

Judy

Hi guys! I've not been able to get on the computer much this last week, and I really missed touching base with all of you. I went to my meeting last night and am reporting a maintain :-P. I am disappointed, but it has made me take a hard look at all of those "BLT's," that I don't count, and the incredible, increasing portions (which magically retain their same point value ;-) ). Bad habits like eating during the middle of the night -- and not counting the pts, or planning for it -- are creeping back also. I guess I also managed not to exercise much, either. Ok, ok...the maintain isn't so surprising ;-)

Judy - Sorry about the gain :-(. I like the idea of imagining yourself doing the opposite of the behavior that hurts your weight loss -- has it helped? I'm going to try that . As for the ice cream -- don't buy it!! I have such a hard time with stuff like that -- low fat or not. Sometimes I can work it in my day, and measure exact servings, but a lot of time I find myself fudging on serving sizes or grabbing uncounted BLT's. Keep up that knitting! It sounds like you have some good strategies in place for dealing with problem times, and you are recognizing when you are sabotaging yourself. You can do this!

Carla - A fellow maintainer! I'm not alone! We didn't gain, and we keep plugging along, but it would sure be nice to see the scale going down, eh?! I totally understand your "day after hungries!" I suspected that that was my problem after the big "off program" weekend I had 2 wks ago. It has taken me a while to adjust back to 27 pts per day. It is almost not worth going off program for a special occassion -- it sabotaged all my efforts by stretching out my stomache! I think Judy's idea of breathing through the hungry attacks is a good one, and I'd add a mental picture of yourself at goal during that breathing. I keep telling myself to "get focused," and the breathing and mental imaging help with that.

Pepper - Ditto my comments to Carla on maintaining -- I hope we all see a bigger loss next week :-) Our Illinois weather is slowly improving which will be nice for your walks :-). Are you located around the city?

Have a great day everyone! Let's all report a loss next week. Summer is getting closer... :-) Holly

hi everyone

Pat - Mmmm the Reese's McFlurry sounds good! Sometimes we just have to give into those cravings. Good for you for getting out for a walk. The weather is so much nicer - makes me crave being outside.

Judy - {{{{Hugs}}} to you. I think you need them now. I hate all things insurance-related to begin with so I completely understand your frustration. Sounds like we're both struggling this week. Your plan of attack sounds like a good one. I'm sending you positive vibes.

Holly - I was wondering where you were. Congrats on having a maintain, not a gain. Yes, the "day after hungries" are a struggle and I'm afraid they're not lasting for just one day for me. And I don't think those bad habits creep back - I think they rush back in. What's a girl to do, but to keep on trying?

I'm still struggling and having Chinese food for lunch today isn't helping. I've got to get my mind back around eating correctly and remember that eating correctly will make me feel better, eating garbage will not. I hope I can salvage the rest of this week.

Have a great day everyone.

Carla

Hi Ho, weighed in this morning with a maintain, again. Now I think that might be 4 straight weeks. And again, I am thankful because we went to some get togethers and I overate. I think someone has to come out with a loss next week to inspire the others and I plan to be that someone!!!

I realize that I am running around crazy, work, parents with health problems, older son - new house, older son - wedding, kitchen remodel, planning shower for future daughter-in-law, finishing afghan for younger son. But that is me, I always have to much going on. So accept it and figure out how to eat while going crazy. Not that I will be able to eat better when such and such is done. How am I going to eat today!!

Monday, I was really feeling like cashing it in. So I went looking through WW at various sites for motivation. I am looking for sites on how to slow the stress eating. Any ideas, let me know.

Still walking - Jan

Holly - Congratulations on the maintain - I know it can be disappointing but it's better than a gain. I know where you are coming from girlfriend - I'm finding those same bad habits creeping back in - yes, BLT's and those expanding portions - we'll stop 'em though because we are aware of what we're doing - that first step is necessary. Yes, imagining myself eating dinner slowly has helped. I haven't gotten the evening snacking movie rolling the right way though. One step at a time. Next step - no pints of ice cream will be purchased this week.

Carla - Thanks for the hugs and {{{{HUGS}}}}} right back to you. Chinese for lunch is a challenge but you listen here girlfriend - you CAN get back on track this weekend because you want to get to your goal or you wouldn't have stuck to the effort to get there for as long as you have. Yes, you WILL feel better when you're not eating garbage - so will I so, how's about it - we're salvaging the week as of RIGHT NOW!

Jan - hang in there girl! You have a TON of stuff going on in your life and you are doing so much for so many people. Here's a couple of suggestions - make a little time for YOU - you deserve it, even if it's a couple of minutes to breathe deeply and try to imagine yourself somewhere quiet and beautiful. How's about a beach in Hawaii? Eating the right things when it's crazy is so hard but it's a little easier if you have the right ingredients in the house so you can throw together a sandwich, grab some little carrots, microwave some low fat soup, toss some Kashi cereal in a bowl. For me that means that I have to take a couple of minutes and make up my shopping list to be sure I have those things in the house that I can grab. Hang in there and don't cash it in!

So far so good today (but it's never during the day that's a problem). I had some yummy sushi and have been guzzling water. I'm planning on doing a new tape tonight (Tony will probably be a little late) and dinner is low point. I printed out my strategy for tonight and plan on reading it through a couple of times on the train.

Have a great (low point) evening everyone!
Judy

Judy - I can understand your frustration with the insurance. We aren't getting anywhere on our claim for Sara's accident. The claims adjuster won't return any calls from our agent. Our agent said today that she recommends just turning the claim in to our company, paying the deductible and letting the companies fight it out. I just hate dealing with them. Would you believe one of the attorneys in our office had a mistrial Monday because someone on the jury pool kept saying she didn't know why they were wasting their time hearing an accident case since the parties probably had insurance and insurance companies always treat people fairly!!! Hope you are able to get outside this weekend. Being able to get outside for walks has helped me a lot.

Holly - Congrats on the maintain. I know you are disappointed, but if it has made you look closer at what you are doing, then its a big help. I've been having trouble with the increasing portion sizes, but finally reminded myself of what I was eating when I was losing and have gone back to eating those portions. I'm in southern Illinois (near St. Louis) so it has been even warmer here. Today we got in the mid 60's and the next few days are supposed to be in the 70's.

Carla - Sorry you're still struggling today. The weather has gotten so much better that I'm actually thinking of when I can work a walk in.

Jan - Congratulations on the maintain. You sure do have a lot going on. Hang in there...Judy has some great suggestions.

I got out for another walk tonight. I can't believe how much just a short walk will put me in the losing mindset. I feel like I'm really getting back into a groove.

Pat