Originally Posted by Kilketay:

And may I say that I think this "wait til I get the food started and joing a gym next month" stuff is bull hockey? Screw the gym! Get out your sneakers and go walk - today! And tomorrow! You need to make it a habit to incorporate movement into your life nearly every day. It will help weight loss and improve your health AND make you feel better. Go for it!

I just wanted to clarify that I really do plan on getting to the gym next month, haha :dizzy: . Life is crazy lately because of my schedule and my husband's, but our daughter will be back in school in very early August, so I will be back at the gym! It's not an excuse, for sure. I would definitely walk, but I really can't.. the heat index is 100+ here everyday and the humidity is above 80%.. it's honestly unbearable. I am just going to take it easy food-wise today and drink a ton of water. Thank you so much everyone for all of the support!

Originally Posted by lumifan4ever:
Mama....I have to agree with everyone else. Don't beat yourself up. But I think i really agree with JayEll...if chinese food is your downfall...you're better off skipping it. Maybe not forever, but definately until YOU start to see some improvements in your pants size and can handle sharing an entree with someone. I know you say you only went down in your waist and hips so many inches, but are you measuring everywhere?? You have to look at your body as a whole. We don't just gain weight in our belly's and hips. We gain in our face, our necks, our upper arms, our chest, our upper belly, our mid-belly, our hips, our thighs, our calves. Do you measure all of those places?? I do. Well...not my face obviously. lol. But my neck. I really did, no lie, i measured my neck. I measure all of those places, I compare and subtract and get a grand number of inches lost. I might have only lost half an inch in my waist and hips, but when I lose a half an inch in all of those places, i get a grand number of 6 inches lost. And that sounds great to me and keeps me motivated to keep going. So, please don't get discouraged. 30 pounds so far is awesome. And about the pants size. I do believe that the larger you are, the longer it takes to drop a size because they make it bigger at the larger sizes so more people can wear them. Does that make sense??? If a pants size went up every inch, pants would have to go up to like size 50. Can you imagine having to be a store that has to stock from size 0 to size 50??? That would be like 25 different size pants!!!!! Notice that some clothes go from 1xm 2x, 3x instead of numbers. Anyways, i'm just rambling. Let me stop.

Just please don't get discouraged. You are doing good. Just stay out of chinese restraunts. :-)

I do measure other places.. and everything except my hips and waist is the same :(

Actually, P. F. Chang's is one of my favorite places to go to eat. All of their nutritional info is online - the good and the bad. Yeah, the bad is REALLY bad, but the good options are low cat, low fat and very very tasty.

http://www.pfchangs.com/cuisine/menu_main.jsp

I always get brown rice, Cantonese scallops and sauteed spinach. It makes enough for more than 2 meals.

Ultimately - real life includes birthdays and all the food rituals associated. Your lifestyle needs to be flexible enough to bend and not break when confronted with surprise treats, birthday dinners, ice cream cake and vacations.

Forgive yourself immediately, get right back on track. You said you are going to "take it easy." In my experience, it is a very bad thing to binge/restrict. Restricting always led me to more binging. Just treat today like a NORMAL day.

Weight loss is a SLOW process. It took me almost 18 months to reach my goal weight - I'm glad I didn't get discouraged and stop!!!

:hug: Everything I wanted to say has been said already ;)

I just wanted to let you know that these are low-fat and healthy PF Chang's options (and they will accommodate special requests too):

CHANG'S VEGETARIAN LETTUCE WRAPS, VEGETABLE DUMPLINGS (Steamed), GARLIC SNAP PEAS, BUDDHA' S FEAST (Steamed), SHANGHAI CUCUMBERS and BROWN RICE

I just meant take it easy as in literally, light foods.. nothing 'heavy'.. because I still find sick-ish. I didn't mean take it easy as in eat less or not eat at all :).

Originally Posted by SoulBliss:
:hug: Everything I wanted to say has been said already ;)

I just wanted to let you know that these are low-fat and healthy PF Chang's options (and they will accommodate special requests too):

CHANG'S VEGETARIAN LETTUCE WRAPS, VEGETABLE DUMPLINGS (Steamed), GARLIC SNAP PEAS, BUDDHA' S FEAST (Steamed), SHANGHAI CUCUMBERS and BROWN RICE

I love the Shanghai cucumbers!

I was going to add more, but it's all been said. I whole heartily agree with Glory, special events are going to be a part of life and we all need to learn to allow for them to be there.

I hope you start to feel better soon (tummy and otherwise!) :hug:

Okay, one more thing!

I don't know where I heard this visual, but, it's a good one.

Imagine your body as a toilet paper roll. Each little sheet is a few lbs. You take off one little sheet... the toilet paper roll doesn't look much different. But, you take off one sheet, then one sheet again, then one sheet again and again and again, and pretty soon you'll be able to notice it. Also, once the toilet paper roll is smaller... taking off just one sheet makes a much bigger difference than taking off one sheet when it's larger.

Originally Posted by JayEll:
Second, I'm going to go against the flow of "don't beat yourself up" a little bit. Jay

You're right, we differ. Half of the problem with people getting discouraged is instead of planning ahead of time for such things or simply adjusting their calorie intake for the rest of the week and perhaps walking off the excess calories, they go out, eat a little, feel guilty, then eat some more and get discouraged. Instead of just enjoying what they ate, and then forgetting about it, they upset themselves so much over an extra 400 calories, that they binge. I know all too well what that is like- once I stopped feeling bad for having an occasional treat once in awhile, guess what? I stopped binging! I gave myself permission to enjoy that treat, then got back on track. It's working for me- I've now lost 24 pounds in five weeks, and had a birthday, a BBQ and my oldest daughter's Home Ec project to adjust for- she had to cook a family meal with five courses, and we had to eat it and give our opinion on it. Two events were planned, the BBQ was not- but I found a way to take care of the excessive calories, enjoy what I ate, and then get back on track as soon as each event was over. No guilt about it, no beating myself up over it- and I feel better about myself than if I cried over how many calories I took in over one little treat.

Originally Posted by JayEll:
I have to disagree with Steelslady in this regard. I don't think of my program as "dieting," I think of it as how I eat, and there isn't any "day off." That's just a recipe for weight gain.[/B]Jay

Ok, dieting, way of eating, what is the difference? If it makes you feel better, sure, than it is a way of eating. To me, it's dieting- you follow a healthy diet to make you feel better. Once you've lost all the weight you need to lose, then you're following a "way of eating". So, we differ again. Whatever makes one successful, they should follow.

Originally Posted by lovelypurple:
Okay, one more thing!

I don't know where I heard this visual, but, it's a good one.

Imagine your body as a toilet paper roll. Each little sheet is a few lbs. You take off one little sheet... the toilet paper roll doesn't look much different. But, you take off one sheet, then one sheet again, then one sheet again and again and again, and pretty soon you'll be able to notice it. Also, once the toilet paper roll is smaller... taking off just one sheet makes a much bigger difference than taking off one sheet when it's larger.

Excellent comparison and very true. Little by little that roll goes down just like weight loss. You won't see immediate results, but gradual ones.

I remember years ago, when I had lost a lot of weight, but I couldn't get the last ten pounds off. I was feeling really down about it, and told my doctor. He told me to take 40 pounds of weights or can goods, tie them up in a pillow case, and carry them on my back for the rest of the day. Next time I saw him, I started to laugh and told him I didn't last longer than 20 minutes, as I was exhausted from carrying it around. He said to me- don't you feel better now about the weight you already lost? Just think of how exhausted you were before, carrying that weight around made you everyday when you had it on you.

His point was, anything that helps improve your health is a wonderful thing! Be proud of the loss you have, and keep going. Everyday, we're getting healthier and healthier by losing this weight. The cosmetic part of it will come along, but be encouraged by the health benefits for the time being. :)

I really miss my old doctor. He was so full of wisdom in his now 80 years of age. He still practices medicine, and if I didn't move two hours away, I'd still be going to him.