Banananutmuffin - welcome!! I also kinda of do IF, it works really well for me. Congrats on getting rid of the toxic friend, I understand how painful that can be.

Tyla- you're welcome! Congrats on being down a pound.

I am also down a pound for the first time in forever!! I'm at 134, which puts me 9 lbs away from goal. Then I'm going to up my calories and start lifting. I got New Weight Lifting Rules for Women in the mail today

I ate out last night and i'm going out tonight and tomorrow morning for brunch. I've been able to eat small portions though and that is working for me. I also only had 2 coors lights which I plan on doing again tonight.

Well done on losing that pound Lisa, sounds like you deserve it too!
And thanks for starting this thread, it was perfect for me to get me motivated again.

Good work from everyone else here too - some good sensible sustainable efforts going on.

Day 4 = "Good"

That's 4 days of "good" and i was rewarded with 118.4lb on the scales this morning which was 2lb down on the start of the week and would mean i'm at target, but it'll be a few weeks before i'm consistently there i reckon and before i start maintenance proper. And i'll wait to see it a few more times on the scale before i adjust my ticker! I'm enjoying getting back to the discipline though and eating healthily.

Yesterday was easy to stay on target - we didn't go out anywhere! I did a spin class at the gym, worked at home and made a stash of ratatouille for some future meals!

Congrats on your pound loss Lisa. Yesterday was dreadful, I had a chocolate bar, fries and cocktails (rest was healthy). Today, some chocolate and two smallish pieces of cake. I haven't had my supper yet but hopefully I will not succumb to any other junky foods.

I ended up with 1325 cals & 35 minutes of exercise today.

Sounds like everyone is doing a great job!

Went out to dinner with friends last night. Aside from some red wine (my one vice), I stayed on plan. Had a filet mignon (OMG! So tender and delish), saurkraut and a green salad. I avoided the bread basket (two types of herbed butter), the potato snow (mmmmm....) and the corn side dish. Also didn't indulge in dessert (although my friends did). Overall, a very successful night with no real splurge except the wine. I felt very in control and was only slightly tempted by the bread.

Sorry if i'm being boring and posting too much here, but i wanted to be accountable daily for the first 7 days of getting back into my diet and making sure that i got back into a routine. So here goes..

Day 5 = "averge/bad"
The problem here was i didn't do any exercise AND i had 1.5 glasses of wine!
Foodwise i was good, although certainly didn't starve myself, and the scales are back up to 119.1!

I tried to exercise! I took the car to where i wanted to start running from yesterday and sat in it for 30 minutes hoping that a thunderstorm would clear. It didnt'. It was also chucking it down with rain ALL DAY which i don't mind so much, but heading off into the wilderness in a thunderstorm probably wasn't a great idea!

Great discipline banananutmuffin - keep it up!

I'm proud to say that in spite of it being a Saturday, I only had 1375 cals. That's a big deal for me on a weekend. I also exercised!

Wow - congrats to all of you for doing so well!!
Me..not so much, I had 1600 calories yesterday!!
B= Banana bread and coffee
S= cookie
D= 2 light beers and a gin and tonic, 2 chicken wings and some fries, garden salad.

Terrible!!! One of my closest friends broke up with her boyfriend so we were 'consoling' her with food and alcohol. I did pretty well with portion control I think..but it was still crappy food.

You guys are inspiring me to get it together, I have an especially hard time on the weekend.

I have a hard time on the weekends, too. That's because whenever I go out with friends, we go to a restaurant. Seriously, I wish we'd take a walk or something...but it's winter and icy here.

Overall, I don't think I did too badly, considering it was a weekend. But now it's TTOM and I've got that water weight thing going, so it's hard to tell.

It's a new week, everybody! Let's stay on plan together.

Days 6 and 7 = "Good" and completes the week i intended to report daily on, with a tally of 6 'good's and 1 'bad'.

I feel like i'm back into good habits after my 4 weeks off (or more like 6 actually!) and have seen 118.4lb on scales 4 days now so have changed my ticker. I've also changed my ticker bar to indicate a maintenance range instead of a weight history - big day!!!!

Now all i need to do is to stay on plan for the rest of my life........

Wow Ange, you must be so slim! We are the same height and I am already afraid 120 is gonna look thin. It's a pretty big range you have there. Do you feel you need it? I am imagining that 125 would be easiest to maintain for me and anything below might be a constant paying attention. How is that for you?

Tyla and Lisa: Nice job staying within calories over the weekend!

Pixie: I hear you about going out to restaurants. Most of my friends are guys, and all they ever want to do is eat!

Ange: Way to go on the ticker change!

The numbers on my scale have been steadily creeping up for the past few days. I am attributing it to too much red wine. Also, I have had a massive headache for DAYS. I am thinking that I need to add some type of carb back into my diet, so I had a pear for breakfast. I think I'm going to try to just have something carby/starchy for breakfast every day, even if it's just some sweet potato or some berries.

Hi guys. I had a good day today (so far). Tea with soymilk and honey, a small handful of almonds and raisins, and a small banana for breakfast. Half of a Kashi roasted veggie pizza for lunch. You can eat an entire half a pizza for like 375 calories! The crust is thin, there isn't that much cheese and there's veggies. What a great way to sneak in some pizza.

I know. I don't know. I don't know how i'm going to go basically!!

I've set the high level at 126 because that is the highest weight i've been happy with historically, so i know i can be ok at that number without bemoaning how awful i feel.

And the low end is sort of where i am now and i don't want to put weight on really when i've only just got here and i'm loving being at this weight, but i'm concerned that i won't always be able to keep at this weight, so i don't want to set a range and fail, i want to set a range and be absolutely well within it.

If i can stick to this low end of the range easily then i'll adjust the upper range in a bit, hopefully.

What i want to avoid at all costs of course is going back up to the high 130's where i came from!! And in order to do that i have to pay attention. I have to pay attention whether i want to stick at this weight or if i gained and wanted to stick at something higher, so 'paying attention' is a given anyway! And in some ways it's easier to pay more attention to being a lower weight than it is to have more leeway and maintain at a higher weight. It all depends where my head is, and it's pretty good at the moment, but who knows how long it will last. And i don't know how to maintain anyway really, i'm just about to start learning!!!

Well, I blew it last night. Complete and total binge. Almost an entire box of Papa Johns breadsticks (my crack) and 2 pieces of pizza. Needless to say, I feel like crap today.

I was kind of hoping that the carbs would make my headache go away. No dice. Still got it.

I was up two pounds this morning (water weight, I hope) and overall feeling like crud.

Ah well, today is a new day, right?