Good morning! How did everyone do with the holiday weekend and family dinners (if you're Easter people)?

We had our Easter dinner on Saturday night due to DH leaving on business yesterday and I gave the guys their Easter baskets yesterday morning. No Easter candy passed my lips! It's funny, but I came here and posted on Saturday night that I wouldn't eat any Easter candy and it really kept me in line when I was tempted yesterday. Accountability -- good stuff!

No matter what happened over the weekend, remember the wise words of our Anne: it's a holiDAY, not days or a week, and the day is over. Leftover Easter candy is nasty (just keep telling yourself that!) And it's NOT a bargain, even if it's marked 50% off! I can understand just having to buy clothes on sale because they're such a bargain, but not Easter candy.

My gym was open yesterday (limited hours) so I got some cardio and abs in, along with a surprising number of other people. Back to the gym when it opens in a few minutes to get the day off on the right foot. Coffee + gym = a good start to the day.

Happy belated birthday, Easter Rabbit!

Lily, how are you feeling today? I agree with the others -- now is the time to get better, not worry about weight. You're a pro and can deal with it when you've recovered.

As always, thinking about our moms-to-be. I think we're in the lower 80s now, Anne?

How's everyone doing this morning?

Quick question for all you FitDay users - how do you enter in custom foods? For example, I made my own soup yesterday and I know what's in it but I don't know how to enter it? Is it simple? I signed up for FitDay but have never used it (seemed like too much work ) but I'm debating between just tracking my own calories (and protein, carbs, fat) for the week or using Fitday. I was going to do it myself but maybe that's silly since this program is just sitting there. I'll look around FitDay but any tips from regular users would be appreciated.

Happy Monday!

Good morning everyone.

I have been around but on a limited basis. I've been SUPER swamped with no let up in sight.

Lily, I've been thinking of you though. I hope you are on the mend.

Happy Belated birthday Rabbit.

I hope you all had a GREAT Easter.

I had a fantastic weekend. I made a fabulous healthy meal on Friday, which my guests thoroughly enjoyed. I made some fantastic food and I will have to post the recipes one of these days. I made the most awesome black bean chili, amongst other things.

I stayed pretty much on plan until my planned splurge meal at my friends party Saturday night. I definitely overdid it, as she is the only one who is crazier then me and served massive, just massive quantities and varieties of food. I must remember when I go to her party (she has it yearly) to not "save it" for my splurge meal. She had 3 different homemade cheesecakes, a chocolate covered custard cake, tiramisu, chocolate covered pretzels, GIGANTIC chocolate chip cookies, white chocolate macademia cookies, chocolate cake, oh and on and on and on. And that was just the desserts, prior to that there was SOOOOOO much food. Whatever. Today is a new day and I am back on plan and feeling good about it. I am a pound over my red line.

The party was so incredible. I used to dread it. Now, being thin I had a blast. What an unbelievable difference for me socially. Sooo many compliments and people who did not recognize me. Though 2 good friends made very snide, unnecessary comments about me, my eating habits and my weight, definitely jealousy related. Then there was this one person, who I hadn't seen in a few months, who said something to the affect that "Hey, you STILL look great, I can't believe it." As in - you're keeping it off, what a shock.

Anyway, I've got to run. Run. Run. Run. I'm not sure when things will slow down for me, but I know it won't be this week.

I hope you all have a fabulous Monday. And a fabulous week ahead.

Elisa, I go to an open date in Fitday (like the next day) and enter all the ingredients for what I'm making. Fitday will give me a total of the calories, fat, protein, and carbs. I then divide those numbers by the number of servings and create a Custom Food for my recipe, entering in calories per serving and grams of fat, protein, and carbs.

Don't forget to delete the entries for the recipe when you're done or your next day will look pretty strange!

Good morning, Robin!

Good morning all,

Friday afternoon BF called me saying his fam was very upset we weren't going to visit (I could have told him "I told you so", but naturally being the gracious woman I am I refrained), and could we still go, so we left Sat AM and came home late last night. Saturday we had Easter dinner with one side of the family, Sunday we had Easter dinner w/ the other side. Food behavior was pretty good - I stuck with small portions of the meat and vegs. I didn't have any Easter candy, only one small piece of sweet potato pie. I did have too much to drink calorie-wise Saturday night (I'm not the GF who gets drunk in front of the family! I swear!) I do feel compelled to confess that 2 weeks ago I had a Snickers Easter egg candy, but since then no Easter candy. And there will be no Easter candy!

It has been approximately 84 hours since I've had peanut butter.

Today I get to start stage 3 of NRLW! I'm very excited!

Elisa, what Meg said about fitday - once you've entered your recipe you can also go to the "reports" and "am I meeting my nutrition requirements" to see more specifics about how many of the various nutrients the recipe contains. Ingredients that I use to cook with a lot I also enter as custom foods so I can just add them to the recipe with each recipe I build them into (e.g. 93% lean ground beef is not in fitday anywhere, so I have it as a custom food). But I am slightly OCD... very concrete sequential personality.

Robin, what horrible things for your friends to say! Well, "looking good is the best revenge". They'll get used to it! Glad you enjoyed the party.

Rabbit, happy belated birthday!

Lily, I'm glad your dr's were able to help. Are you still feeling better today?

DGAdDawg, glad that everything is going well in Memphis. About the curtains - I'd guess the thicker the material, the more sound they will absorb. Or some earplugs. Or a noise maker? I sleep with a fan on b/c the constant fan noise (sort of) drowns out other noises (<cough roommates cough>).

Pat, I hope you're getting everything done on your to do before leaving list.

Have a great day everyone.

Hello everyone. I hope you had a good week-end.

Lily -- I didn't post last week, so I'll say it now: I hope you'll get better soon!

On my side of the world, I am actually glad that Easter is over. I had too much work to do to go back to my family, so basically I ate crap all week-end long between two doses of homework to try to forget that I currently live the life of a lonely loser. Alright, there also was SNOW, cold, no sun, and my body is still severely sunlight-deprived, that's stress facto to the power of ten. And it seems that my back has decided to play the card of "I'm going to hurt just little enough for you to be able to walk and do everyday things normally, but any attempt at running or, God forbid it, lift weights, and you're toast". I'm really tired of always having something come up in between me and my trainings; all I do is always start from scratch, painfully catch up to the level where I was before, and then I'm sick or the gym is closed for three weeks or my back is a goner or whatever else.

I want SUMMER. SUN. Air that is a little hotter than 0°C. Else I'm going to hit rock-bottom and wither for good.

Speaking of food, don't be surprised if you don't see me that often here in weeks or even months to come. I really need to get away for some time from anything that is 'diet-related', or I'll never be able to pick myself up. It used to be that 3FC helped me keep accountable; now it's unfortunately the contrary, well everything that is too focused on losing weight is actually a problem. The fact is, reading about diet stuff (some call it lifestyle change, but I've read enough blogs/posts on the web now to realize that for many, it means 'diet/restriction' all the same) is a no-no when you suffer from an eating disorder, and that what I suffer from, there's no use denying it. All I wanted was to be "normal" regarding food. I guess I got just the contrary. Oh well. And if I see one more post with content along the lines of "I ate ONE COOKIE, I'm such a FAT COW and a FAILURE", or "if I had taken a crap before my weigh-in, would I have been 2 lbs. lighter, I can't believe I didn't even think to pee before"... I'll scream, and probably proceed to down my whole box of Ambien over the misery of the world. (In other words, stop the hate, it's a cookie, not the Antichrist made flour.) That's what I need to avoid. Or maybe I should just hang around the exercise forum, at least when I'm healthy again and not downright frustrated/stressed with being unable to do something else than just walking or climbing on my bike. But no more tickers, no more obsessing about having to lose, it just makes things worse, and I'm going insane over all of this. Stopping "just a little" doesn't cut it, in the end, I need to be more drastic than that.

Now, that's not a drama-queen "I'm going away foreeeeeever" post. I bet I'll even be back sooner than I'd think. I am drawn to this place anyway, so I won't forget it for good. But I'm also aware I have to visit/read less often, too, and work on my issues first, at my own rhythm, without always having the words "weight loss" in mind. Which is something hard to avoid on a board dedicated to weight loss, after all, as much as I like the place.

Kery, I am with you, I want some sun and warmth!! I hope you can get yourself back together soon.

Megan - congrats on 84 hours without PB!!

Robin - why do people have to make crappy comments like that?

Elisa - I do the same as Meg does with Fitday, but now I don't usually bother with fitday, just post on the accountability thread here. My diet is too varied to bother entering custom foods all the time because I'd have to do it pretty much every day. However, my recipes all come from sources that have calorie info listed, so I can still track it without having to deal with custom foods.

Meg - I didn't eat any easter candy! But we found it it was Purim too and DH wanted hamentaschen, so I made some (I'd never made them before). However, I was smart about it, and made only enough for the two of us to have just a couple little ones each. Phew! But I have to say, scaling down recipes can be a pain when you need to put in things like 1/4 of an egg. :P They were fun to make though, even if they didn't turn out great (they were still yummy though).

Things are going pretty well here. We've finally got some sunny days. Our peas, beets, radishes, lettuce, and pak choi have been planted outside, and the tomatoes, peppers, and various flowers are growing inside. Of course, we still don't have anything over 1 inch tall inside. :P Why don't they grow more?? Our bulbs are coming up too, so I'm hoping we'll have blooms in a couple more weeks.

I have to complain about work for a moment. They're doing construction on our building and one of the things is that they're making our main conference room much bigger. This would be fine, but they keep messing with the electrical system, and the lights over my desk keep going out for many hours at a time. I work at a computer so I don't really need the light, but it's depressing to be sitting in the dark all day! I hope they finish soon and give me my lights back!

Hi Meg,

Happy Belated Easter. It's just me checking in from Pittsburgh. Loved the sunshine here yesterday. Have been doing well. Am at the gym about 5 times a week and exercise at home the other two days. I can't believe how much my body has changed in the last 3 months. Feel stronger and look a lot leaner. Lost 20 pounds last year and in the past three months lost another 10. Would like to lose about 20-30 more. The exercising and weight lifting make me feel so much better. Am now fitting into smaller sizes and finding it easy to stay on my food plan. Feels great not to be thinking about food 24 hours a day. Was even able to not eat any Easter candy yesterday and have found my sugar cravings gone and hopefully for good. Anyway, just wanted to check in and say hi and have a good week.

Louise

Hi everyone & Happy belated Easter too.

Just for the heck of it, I gave meat over Lent, so of course I had something with bacon for brunch yesterday -- but the bacon-chicken-cheese-tomato-avocado frittata @ the restaurant turn out overcooked and WAY too large, so I gave quarter of it for my friend to sample & left another 20% on the plate. The brunch also came with a delicious pastry basket, mac 'n cheese, and a help yourself dessert buffet. Asides from the chocolate bread pudding, it was a surprisingly healthy spread, yogurt/granola parfaits & fruit salads.

And I did not feel guilty eating all of that, 'cause I did a 10 to 10.5 miler run earlier that day (training up for the Memorial Day half-marathon). My biggest surprise is that I paced myself the whole time, no powerwalks except to actually drink water, and that I was not sore at all! Not sure if it was the sports drink I had before/after or the stretches I did, but I'm thankful for it.

On a not-so-good note, my jazz dance class ended last week so that leaves with something to do on Mondays. I did 20 minutes toning so far (planning on another 15 after work) -- though I guess one day of rest per week wouldn't be too bad.

Anyhow, hope y'all have a good post-easter week!

Good Morning, Everyone! Well, I made it through the day with NO Easter candy. Like Meg said, it really did help to tell everyone I wasn't going to eat any. I almost popped a chocolate Skittle into my mouth and then stopped because I realized that once I start, I've broken a barrier and there's no stopping me. Sorry to go on and on about that, but it's just something that I'm realizing about myself... I ate pretty well all day, except for a small piece of birthday cake. I'm trying to up my protein intake so I'm not so munchy and I think it's helping, either that or I have my head back in the game. I know that's a big part of how well I do.

Robin, I'm glad that you see those comments for what they are: jealousy and sour grapes. I really think that's one of the worst parts about having lost weight: I feel like now everyone is watching to see when I will put it back on. After all, that's what I always did before. Some people can be so rude...

Megan, you sound like a lovely person and your boyfriend is lucky to have you. I always think that when I read your posts. And way to go on the PB.

Kery, I'm sorry you are having a hard time, and I'm sorry to go on and on about the Easter candy. I hope you start feeling better soon and your body/life/gym cooperates so you can get in your workouts. My gym is 24/7 so I can go anytime and it makes it so much easier. You sound such a hard, conscientious worker at school and I know you are going to be a success at whatever you do, including maintaining. I think I border on having an eating disorder and am going to start reading up on it.

Have a great day everyone. There are 3 Easter baskets on my kitchen counter chock full of jelly beans, peanut butter eggs, Snickers eggs, you name it and I am NOT tempted one bit. Why is that? Some days I can't concentrate because I want to eat everything in sight. Other days, I have willpower to no end...

Pam

Hi everyone,

I am feeling a little better. I saw my regular Dr. again this morning and he too is worried that I'm gaining weight rapidly. It's scaring me to death. He suggested I might want to try Jenny Craig or Nutrisystem for the structured routine of it until I get back to my goal. I'm not 100% convinced yet, but I did make an appt. with JC for 4PM today. Right now I'm 10 lbs. above my red line! I feel desperate and am willing to do whatever it takes to stop the regain. I know my steroids are part of the problem, but my eating is so out of control. I haven't been able to go to the gym in about 4 weeks. I feel unbelievably bloated and round. Lacy thinks me going to JC is a waste of money and I'm sure DH would agree. But, it's my body and I can't deal with gaining this weight back. Mainly I just want to get back to goal and hopefully I can be a part of JC's maintenance program to help keep me there. I'll let you all know what I have decided.

It was nice seeing my son this weekend. He left again this morning. He's gone now to Ft. McCoy, Wisconsin. My Easter Sunday was spent doing a ton of his military laundry. I really didn't mind though. They had issued him a ton more gear and I had to have him lift all 4 of his duffle bags and carry them to the laundry room.

Last night I finally got the energy to put the second coat of paint on my hallway and front entryway. If I have another burst of energy , I'll paint the trim tonite.

Good morning everyone! Happy belated birthday to rabbit!!

Saturday we had our annual "March Madness" birthday party (there are over a dozen friends and family who have birthdays in or very close to March). There was too much drink and not enough food (and what there was was pretty greasy). Usually I control my drinking in these situations (because I designate myself as the driver), but FIL said he'd drive, so I guess I had too much as I spent most of Sunday in bed nursing a hangover. Wow, I haven't had a hangover in years, it seems. I was better by mid afternoon (thankfully).

I did indulge in Easter candy, but not too much. This was the first year we didn't have an Easter egg hunt (although the last 5 years or so, I've hidden plastic eggs with money--no candy). This year I bought several See's eggs and after dinner last night, I cut each one into forths and we each had 1/4 of a peanut butter egg and 1/4 of a Bordeaux egg. That was all--and dinner was healthy.

I'm back on track today for sure, although my tummy started hurting this morning after my yogurt and berry breakfast so I ran to the deli and picked up an egg salad sandwich on whole wheat. I wasn't hungry at all, but the pain in my tummy required some solid food--water just wasn't going to cut it and I didn't think my salad for lunch would be enough, either. I feel much better now, but I'm sure the deli used full fat mayo in the sandwich, so I have no idea the calories I consumed.

I have another full week ahead of me with a trip to San Diego on Saturday and a 5k race on Sunday morning (this one I've entered with my dog).

Hi everyone. For the first time since I starting trying to lose weight I am consciously trying to maintain instead of losing (or accidentally maintaining). I've been lurking in this forum for a while (so I feel like I know you all even if you don't know me) and I thought I'd finally join the weekly chat.

We are heathens here in my house, so Easter was just another day for us. My SO doesn't really have much family and my family is 2,000 miles away, so we don't really celebrate many holidays other than the big ones like Christmas and Thanksgiving. I did at least remember that it was Easter and that stores and the gym would have limited hours.

Robin: I occasionally get somewhat snide comments as well. I don't notice them that much, but my SO says that he has definitely noticed it. And the comments tend to be from men more than women, which seems odd. The husband of one of my good friends, in particular, seems really threatened by my weight loss. We were at a party recently and he made an annoying comment about me eating a cookie (ok--so I ate a lot of cookies at that party --it was just one evening and the cookies were good). I'm perfectly capable of watching what I eat on my own; I don't need his help.

Lilybelle and Kery: I'm sorry you are both struggling so much.

paperclippy: Wow! You are in Indiana and you already have your garden in? I'm in sunny CA and I refuse to even think about it until April. I'm not even getting the stuff that has be started indoors going until April.

I'm just popping in to say thanks for the Fitday tips!

I logged my food for the day and was at exactly 1200 calories, although my protein was too low and the carbs were too high. Oh well, it's a learning curve. I'm not sure I can get up to the protein levels I'm looking for without having a protein shake everyday but we'll see. It's only 6:30 but I've had dinner and a little treat and Fitday tells me I'm done eating for the day.

It's too soon to say whether or not I'll be able to keep it up but I think I might enjoy the accountability of Fitday for a little while.

Hi guys!
My name is Dena. I've lost 45 lbs. a few years ago, had surgery several months ago, regained 20+ lbs. due to the meds they put me on and have been working really hard to try to get back to my goal weight. My doctor is amazed at my progress. But even though I was quite perfect these last few months, yesterday (I guess because of the Easter celebration and the many stresses in my life) I started relapsing into my old overeating habits. I did ok today, but started this behavior again an hour before dinner tonight. This kinda scares me! I've worked too hard to get into this mode again.

I've been reading your messages lately, impressed with everyone's success and hoped that one day (when I reached my goal) I could join you. Well, I see I need to be with my peers now and not wait anymore. So, do you mind if I join you?

I realize getting to my goal and staying there needs constant attention. And having support in this area would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much.
Hugs, Dena (It's nice and sunny here in the Las Vegas area today.)