Hi Everyone

Last night I returned home from being on vacation for 11 long and very miserable days. While I should have been having fun and relaxing, I spend every single day stressing about my weight and how I knew I was going to gain because it was 'Vacation' I even brought my scale from home so I could weigh in daily, sometimes 3 times a day.

Before leaving I told myself this year would be different, I'd track and workout every single day. That never happened and my weight began to pile on EVERY DAY. When I got there I was 159 and a couple days before leaving, the scale said I'd hit 177.6! I started crying because I'd worked so hard to get out of the 160's and was almost to goal but I have only myself to blame.

I binged every day while on vacation and felt so sick and ashamed of myself. I'd say the only good thing I did to try and control my weight was working out 3 days the entire time I was there. Usually I workout every day but it just didn't seem to happen.

I fear going back to where I was 19 months ago, it absolutely terrifies me..

Don't beat yourself up over it. It's over. You can start over. Put it behind you and start fresh. You can do it.

I think now that it is over you can't dwell on the past. Best intentions and all. I think that even though you may feel this is a slide back to the old you, it doesn't have to be. You have worked very hard these last 18 months and you have a ton to show for it. Even though you gained back over ten pounds I thinkj that if you get back into your routine those will melt off very quickly. I will be praying for you!

Dear KimberlyP, the most important thing is to get back on track...you succeeded before, so you can do it again...one day at a time...read the introduction booklet...write down everything...get back to your exercise routine...never ever give up !!!! Yesturday is gone, tomorrow is too far, you have now...like my mom use to tell me : pick yourself up, brush the dust off, stand tall, put on a smile, and get going You,ve come this far...you can do it...Take care

And don't forget, a lot of those pounds are probably water weight! When you start eating lots of foods you normally wouldn't (especially if they are not the healthiest choices) you will start to retain a lot of water. Give it a few days of clean foods and water to see where you're really at!

Hi Kim,
I wonder if some of that is water weight. Either way, don't panic. You WILL be okay. You have the right tools and know exactly what to do to get back on track.

Kimberly: I am so sorry to hear about about how you felt during vacation and how you struggled...to even take your scale. I'm assuming you are doing WW. In the future and even now, remember to avoid the all or nothing mentality. If you eat healthy most of the time, you will lose weight. I say this because, in order to maintain you have to adopt a healthy way of eating that you are committed to for life. Even thin individuals make certain choices...they are just used to it and it does not cause a lot of stress...they pig out once in a while...they do some damage control...and they make healthy choices MOST of the time....hang in there....you can do it...based on your ticker...you are not where you want to be....but you are definitely NOT where you used to be

Feeling as though "I've blown it, so I might as well keep eating," is a very powerful diet tradition/ritual. We do it, because we learned to - because 's the way we've all been taught to diet. We don't even realize it's a pattern that has become so ingrained that it's hard to act and feel any differently. The second part of the ritual is to feel immense guilt for having blown it, and to eat even more, then feel even more guilty, and then eat even more - until we've gained back ALL of the weight and then some before we "start fresh."

You've got to break with the tradition. You have to do what most people don't do, and stop the ritual before you regain all of the weight.

We aren't helpless victims of our culture's traditions, but we aren't fully to blame either (there's more than enough blame to go around, you don't have to shoulder all of it).

I look at the destructive diet patterns as my "auto-pilot" setting. If I'm not consciously fighting them, I will revert to them, because it's how I was taught to diet. Just like children, all of us learn what we see much more than what we hear. We can hear all the common sense in the world, but if we see almost everyone else acting foolishly, we're going to follow what we see more than what we hear - and what we see about weight loss isn't very encouraging. Most people regain, and they do it because that's the most common pattern they see in others.

Learning to be a rebel, isn't as easy as it sounds. You have to recognize that there will always be the urge to conform to the traditions. To do it the way everyone else is doing it.

The "normal" reaction to your situation is to keep eating until you regain all the weight, all the while heaping guilt and shame upon yourself. Do you want to be normal, or do you want to be successful? If so, ditch the guilt and recriminations and move forward not backward.

Of course it's easier said than done, but you can do it by focusing on the success rather than the failure. Even with the temporary gain, you're still leading the pack on this one. Most people gain it all back. Just by not gaining it back, you're still a success, not a failure. And since you are such a raging success, you can continue to be successful. In fact, just "staying in the race," is success that most people don't accomplish.

...and here you are now, home again, and getting into damage control mode.... bravo for you.

Looking at your weight slide on the bottom of your post, you've lost 108 lbs? On WW? Wowsers that is so fantastic. Yet another inspiration to me. If you can do that, I can lose 30 (maybe more).

You know how to do it; you just have to get back to doing it, and here you are. You'll get this back under control in no time. Thank you for inspiring me and good luck.

Did you type that right, you went from 159 to 178? 19 lbs in 11 days? I think that maybe you need to talk to a counselor or maybe you have. I couldn't gain 19 lbs in 11 days if I tried and I gain easily. Maybe your doctor could help? I am sorry this happened to you, it just seems crazy!

Thankyou That's exactly what I plan to do and today has started off great thankfully.

You're absolutely right! Today I got right back on track and so far so good. I feel more in control when I'm home because I can weigh and measure my foods. Thankyou so much for the support

Thanks so much for all the wonderful replies, reading them really helped me put things back in perspective. Today I got right back on track and am finally feeling 'Normal' again, probably because I have my food scale, measuring cups, etc. I even went through my cupboards and refrigerator, got rid of a LOT of stuff, and felt so much better after doing so. This morning I went to the fruit market, bought tons of fresh fruits and veggies, then headed to the regular grocery store and picked up everything else. I'm feeling pretty positive thankfully.

Most of what I gained is probably due to water retention but it's still discouraging to see a gain. I'm hoping it comes off quickly..

I agree that that amount of weight gain seems impossible in that time frame. That's about 65,000 extre calories. Don't panic - there must be a good amount of water retention there. But bellamack is right it would do no harm getting this checked out by your doctor.

You will lose it again - just get back into your routine.

I'm glad you're working on getting right back to normal. You can do this. That weight WILL come off.