I was expecting to have a nice relaxing stress free holiday, but it turns out I really struggled because I forgot to take BOREDOM into account. So it started out just fine, and then crashed and burned. It ended yesterday with a bizarre episode of major, major housecleaning followed by a huge binge, the likes of which I haven't seen in quite a while. My weight is up enough this week to be out of my comfort zone. I now feel like I'm at the point where if I don't make some changes, things could get very bad, very fast.

Two good things have come out of this: my closets are spotless and this has pushed me over the 'change is coming' edge I've been feeling for a while. Knocked me right out of complacency, perhaps. So I'm feeling very positive and committed after a long buildup, just like when I started losing the weight. But for a little insurance I decided to go public with my goals for the week for some additional support and accountability. The goals fall into the categories of food, exercise, habits, and motivation, and they are all things I can control, hence no weight loss goal. I can only control behavior and the body will adapt as the body will adapt. I also didn't put in any softballs: if it is a no-brainer for me, e.g. logging food/exercise, it's not on the list--all of these, even the easy-sounding ones are things that are either difficult for me, or things I tend to forget (flossing!).

Food: Calorie plan for week: 500 deficit M-Th, even F-M (race again next Sunday). Eat legumes 2x, fish 2x this week. Fruit/veggies 6x/day.

Exercise & Rest: Complete my coach's training plan for the week. Stretch after running. Make 8hr available for sleep (can't control actual sleep time).

Habits: Do not eat any work/coworker provided food. No snacking/desserts during TV/Internet. Brush teeth & floss immediately after supper. Delay any questionable eating (stress/cravings) by at least 15 min.

Motivation: Read 2 chapters in TfL or something similar. Watch 1 episode of Body Challenge or Triathlon. Read 3FC daily.

If any of you need a post-holiday new start, I invite you to join me. If you did well on your plan, congratulations, and please cheer us on.

Anne

Anne, you are such an inspiration with your training schedule and discipline.
You bring up a very good point of anticipating hurdles to maintenance. I need to be more aware of the lurking problems and plan my approach. I think this will alleviate some of the fear of regaining that always accompanies social get-togethers for me.

I also found boredom and the constant availability of food to be a challenge over the past few days. I, too, had not considered the obstacle of boredom. My husband and I were staying with my Mom and Dad in rural Louisiana. When you are in someone else's home, you don't have the daily chores and activities, and it is easy to let Mom do everything for you!

I did make a few changes this year. I took my Dad for a 3 mile walk before Thanksgiving dinner and the next morning before breakfast, and I brought a few fresh vegetables to cook with each meal. Maybe next year I can think of some ways to get Mom (and myself) out of the kitchen.

A tip I picked up from the Lean Plate Club in the Washington Post is to plan and give yourself a non-food reward for sticking to your plan. I tend to buy myself some small item, but a phone call with a good friend or an uninterrupted session of reading fashion mags might suit just as well.

Good luck this week!

Hi Anne and all, congratulations on recognizing when you need to step in and come up with a directed plan for yourself. A self intervention.

I did get thru Thanksgiving and Friday just fine, and while the weekend wasnt an eating catastrophe, my eating direction was fuzzy the past couple days. I did more snacking than eating meals. I was all over the map fortunately eating things such as soup, turkey, veggies and fruits. There is mildly problem stuff in the house but it wasnt calling to me. Directionless grazing was the problem. I do not like unfocused eating. I think boredom was at the root of my situation too. I had no clue where I was hunger-wise much of the day because the weather changed my outdoor plans and I felt both irritated and adrift. And I felt cheated because I knew I was not hungry enough for my main meals other than breakfast, hence I didnt eat meals at mealtimes. I hate that. So count me in on the new start this week.

I am ready to redirect myself and give myself some simple but more specific guidelines for eating. This week daily I will eat 3 distinct 'main' meals plus 3 smaller snacks if needed. And make sure I get my fruits and veggies in. If I want to eat at other times, I will do something else. Countering I think its called.

I will put myself in a position to get more sleep by going to bed by 10pm nightly, and preferably earlier. And daily exercise.

This past week the scale has been very kind to me. The morning of thanksgiving, I was down 4 pounds in 4 days to an even 200, but then I felt the scale owed me for the past few weeks when it wasnt as generous and I knew I had been eating well. I was up a half pound from that this morning. So, OK, I will also make a non-binding weight goal for the week too. I want to be able to shift the weight measures on my old balance scale from 200 plus the slider, to 150 plus the slider. On my scale that means I want to get to at least 199 and 3/4. This is a big one.

I have ordered the new version of thin for life for the group read, and hope it gets here soon. I am currently re-reading my old dog-eared version too. I love that book. EAch time I read it I see little nuggets of truth in a different light.

Thanks for the suggestion for a new start this week Anne.

Jan

Well, it's not post-holiday for me, but it is post fil visit and post-stressful week, so I'd like to join in too. Other than my usual breakfasts, my meals went pretty much out the window. I ate way too much, even when I knew I was eating too much and wasn't hungry. Unfortuately, I guess I have yet to overcome my shove-food-in-mouth response to stress. So I'm now at the top end of what I'd consider my comfortable weight range, but it's a new week and my head is much clearer today. Other than not getting a chance to get out and exercise, I'm on track again today, food wise and mood wise.

So, this week I'll drink lots of water, eat regular meals and snacks of (mostly) healthy food that I've made myself, go running at least 3x and go to yoga on Wednesday night. And I won't beat myself up over last week, but I will look at it as a learning experience so that I can do better next time I'm being overwhelmed by stress.

Hi Laura Leigh, Jan, and Only Me,

Thanks for joining me and your well wishes. I thought about eating work food today, and part of the reason I didn't was I'd have to come back here and report it. It's helping. I hope for you as well.

So far so good. I'm two for two on my daily goals and well on the way to the weekly goals. Today at work was TOUGH--somebody brought in a box of candy bars. It's a good thing I like these people or I might be forced to smack them around some. Geez. The 15 minute delay has been especially helpful for dealing with stress eating.

Also on the plus side, my weight dropped pretty dramatically as my system readjusted itself after the binge. But I still view that as a side effect of behavior and I need to keep working that pretty hard this week.

My history has shown that if I get through day 3 of a plan, I have a 75% chance of making it stick, and if I get through the first week that goes to about 90%. Couple of big days coming up, including a tougher food day tomorrow. It is a rest day on the exercise plan, and that means fewer calories for goal #1.

How are you doing? Looked like you all had some challenging goals as well.

Anne

Anne, it sounds like you're planning well and keeping yourself accountable. Remember that no one's perfect, we all mess up sometimes (like last week) and it's what you do afterwards that matters more. I'm like you--the first 3 days to a week are the hardest part, and then I'll be fine for a while.

It's amazing, isn't it, how eating food that's less than healthy (read--I ate way too much junk food) packs weight on far in excess of the calories consumed. And it's equally amazing how easily most of the extra weight comes off once you start eating well and less again.

I forced myself out of bed to go running this am, had my usual oatmeal breakfast, brought an apple as my snack to the morning playgroup I bring my girls to rather than snacking on cheese and crackers, and took the girls for a short walk after lunch. Last night I wrote out a supper meal plan for the rest of the week, which usually helps me eat better even if I don't end up sticking to it entirely.

I am glad you brought up the starting over, Anne. It made me do something specific for myself too. Sometimes I just dont think about doing the obvious. And its working. Mine was a relatively simple adjustment -- not changing what I ate, but just being sure to eat only at meal/snack times. I have also been getting more sleep, as well as exercising every day too. I am very pleased. Now to continue doing this thru the coming week and beyond.

Jan

Good morning! I'm reading the revised edition of "Thin for Life," and I've found a thought that seems especially pertinent to this discussion. Fletcher says, "Give yourself permission to fail. You will (emphasis hers), from time to time, revert to old habits. But the masters have learned how not to let a 'lapse' become a 'relapse.' They've learned how to pick themselves up after a spill, dust their kneeds off and start again."

In "starting over," you're putting the idea into action. Good job! Keep up the good work!!!

Cheers,

Checking in, morning of day 5. So far I'm doing well on my list of goals. The only one I'm falling short on is the 8 hrs of sleep time, and I'm within 15 min of that most nights--sleep time that is, not necessarily actual sleep unfortunately, although I'm not doing too badly there either.

The hardest goal of them all is not eating work food. Candy, snack food are just everywhere. It's like running the gauntlet, many times every single day. Monday was just excrutiating, Tuesday not as bad. Wednesday (yesterday) I found myself just wanting to take a nibble of everything. Some strange voice kept popping up and telling me, it wouldn't really hurt to take just one chocolate kiss, or one bite of this or that, because after all, I'd been so good this week. I don't know where that voice came from, but while I haven't been able to ignore it, I have refrained from acting on it. The 15 minute delay has been wonderful, in that it keeps me from eating all my own food early in the day, so I still have some left for afternoon to fight off the temptations.

I'm getting to the point where I'm not seeing the work food as available to me. Not quite there yet, but close. It just isn't an option so no need to obsess. I remember when I was losing the weight I felt that way about it, and it wasn't such a hardship.

I'm back in my maintenance weight range now, at the low end even, feeling good about that. I passed day 3 of week, and day 3 at work, so I feel like my odds of success are higher. I'll still have to work these goals pretty hard the rest of the week, but it's getting easier.

You guys have really been great with your support. It has been so helpful to me--I sometimes sneak away from the lab at work and peek in on 3FC for a little boost. Let me know how you are doing with your goals.

Anne

Boy, isn't that the difference between the goal-oriented losing phase and maintenance summed up in a nutshell? So many of of us have had that experience, that when we were really ready to lose the weight, we were single minded and goal oriented- foregoing certain foods or quantities of foods wasn't a hardship because THE GOAL was always out there.

I think this is really hard to to day in and day out without some sort of goal. Karen says LIVING (maintenance itself) is it's own goal. That doesn't keep me on track, maybe I just haven't been at it long enough. Anne, you've just finished and achieved some huge fitness goals. Maybe you're feeling you deserve a little reward for the achievements? Have you treated yourself to some non-food pampering as a well deserved pat on the back?

Mel

Thanks for posting these goals and strategies. Since reaching my weight goal I've known I need to make some new goals in regard to health & fitness. This post has started me thinking about the kind of things I need to work on.

Keep up your great week! You can do it!!!

Brenda

Mel, thanks for the suggestion. I went and got myself a massage after the race, made a very long Christmas list with things I really want and what I don't get, I'm going to buy for myself, and am getting to go visit my family in a couple weeks. When I get to my new goal weight, I'm buying myself a power monitor for my bike!

The biggest reward for me is the racing itself. This is the reason I do the insanity distance racing. It isn't cheap, and the training isn't easy, and way beyond what a person needs for health and fitness. I can't really explain it, but when I do these things, I am simply astounded that I have done this--I am a superwoman. I become my own hero--how often does that happen?? The feeling is just incredible and I usually break out in tears of joy when I reach the point I know I will finish. I'm actually having a hard time with taking a break after the marathon in January. My body needs the break, so it is the right thing in the longer term, but I really really want to be out there. I'm going to have to really treat myself then! I should start working on some ideas...

And a big welcome to Brenda! Thanks for your support! And I'm glad I'm able to help. Just remember what works for me, may not work for you, but please take from it what you can get--I try a lot of things that other people have posted here, and many of them have worked for me, too. I'm not normally quite this regimentented, but I really need to get myself back on the maintainer's wagon, after falling off rather spectacularly last week!

Anne, I know exactly what you mean. I've run 3 marathons, but no longer have the knees for any type of distance, but I sure remember the emotions. What I've substituted are insane gym goals. At least they seem insane to others for a woman "of my age." My first stupid gym trick which I accomplished last year was 5 reps of a 305 pound squat. Won't do it again. But I felt on top of the world when I finally could do it! Now I'm working on bench pressing my weight. It's beginning to look like it might be easier to lose 10 more pounds than try to lift it

Mel

Anne, I'm happy to hear your week is going well. I'm back into the lower end of my weight range too. I really seem to retain water or something when I eat badly. Thanks for this topic thread; it's helped me stay on track this week.