The Daily Diary Thread

Today has been a busy day for me what with having appointments to keep ... and am not much happy about the snow storm we are supposed to get. The news reported it would start about 8 PM, but it was snowing and I had to brush the car when I got out of one stop at 4PM. ... Then I came home and made a vegetable soup. This one had cabbage and I decided to stew the cabbage with the flavorful vegetables instead of steaming it in the soup. Now I'm just waiting for it to mellow for it's half hour and then I can gobble up a bowl!

So, I kind of fell off the wagon this week. I went way over on calories at least twice, and one of those two occasions I just gave up counting. Been sick, and dealing with an excessive amount of stress. We are taking the day tomorrow to go to Raleigh and get out of the house for a bit. Hopefully I can keep the calories down and take the day out to decompress and get back on the right path again. I hope you all fared better this week than I have.

I fell off the wagon over the weekend as well. But as long as we dust ourselves off and get back to it is what counts! (as well as identifying why you fell off the habit and learn better for next time). The snow is melting. No snow or rain in the forecast for this week so far. I may have some jogging /long walks this week. I haven't been active at all and I really need to move around!

I was lucky this week ... lucky to have not ruined my weight loss for the week with the over-calories I consumed on Saturday. It was definitely in the "way over" category. Still was able to show a loss in each of the three different challenges I'm in.

@j_trea1 ... Thank you.

I just love "hump day" ... it got me through many a bad week back in the days when I was still a working gal.
You know ... If you can make it through Wednesday, Friday is just a skip away! And then it's TGIF ****

Glad to read, @NoAnalHere that you also weigh in daily and look at your trend. I do the same thing ... and here's something else I do that really has helped ... I participate in weigh-in challenges. This quarter I am in 4 of them.

For each challenge I report on a different day ... Monday's weight for one, Sunday's weight for another. Then I report the weekly average for a third one, and the average weight of MTW for the last one ... IS that overkill? Maybe for some folks, but for me it helps to even out the dissappointment when one reporting day happens to see an uptick, because my weight bounces around a lot.

I read an interesting article that came into my email this morning.

It talked about the circadian rhythm; not of our sleep (although that was touched on), but of our metabolism. The gist of was that we would do better nutritionally, and weight management-wise, if we limit eating to a regular part of our day ... like only when the light is shining if we are night sleepers, and only vice versa. It has something to do with allowing our bodies to follow their natural ebb and flow of hormones and nutrient metabolism rather than throwing 'fuel in the furnace' on an erratic pattern, like we do when we eat at odd hours of the day and night.

@Nikion901 hey! Where do you participate in weigh in challenges? Is it like a dietbet thing or a MFP sub or between friends irl? That sounds like some good accountability! I have alot of weight to lose and being obese it wouldn't be uncommon to lose 3 pounds per week. But I'm so (interject not consistent) that it'd lose . 5 pounds a week and count it as a win because I'm not worsening my health but I could definitely use something for further encouragement lol.

My weight fluctuates alot as well and I woke up this morning 3 pounds down from just yesterday, I know it's a fluctuation, thank god for trend apps which keeps me a little more realistic lol.

How's everyone doing today!

@Nikion901 thank you for sharing that link. I found the article fascinating and it actually makes sense. I guess I have a better idea on how to lose weight now.

@Nikion901 oh i see what your talking about! It seems like alot of them are already in the middle of a challenge. Do you participate with the challenge daily on the board or personally by yourself ( like you saw a challenge and it inspired you). Thanks for the link! I'm looking through it and liking it. ( usually i'm mobile and sort by recent) so I don't click in the different groups boards just whatever is one top!

Reporting in today! This week has been going great. I'm eating within my calories and not feeling like I'm starving. Also mental health is improving because I'm dealing better with stress and how I respond to it! How's everyone Friday going?

And questions for all! :
1. Does your diet flop on the weekends?
2. What ways do you try to stay on track?
3. How do you deal with social outing revolving around food?
4. Do you have a support system? ( weather online or not)
5. Are you hard on yourselves when you don't reach a goal in a specific time? ( like 1 pound a week)
6. Is anyone paying attention to their mental health? And what are you doing to improve it?

@NoAnalHere ... glad you found the challenge thread ... if you want to join one, that's where most of the announcements are ... just keep an eye out and you'll eventually see one that about to start that you can join in on. Also ... most of the one that are running for the entire year usually want new members as the year goes on ... because the drop out rate is pretty high on challenges, at least that's been the case with the ones I've been/am in.

Nice questions for all ... I'll answer some of them at another time.

irish1139 wrote: »

In the diary, how do you change something you have already typed. How can I delete something that has shown up three times. Help someone. I don't know how you can reply to me. Tell me what to do please. H-e-l-p.

I don't know if my answer will help you because I don't know if you use a smartphone or a computer. However, for me, on a comuter ... in my food diary, every line of food I have entered has a button at the end of the line ... a red button with a white dash through it's middle. Click that one to delete the item. To edit ow much, click the line entry of the food description itself, it would open up the "how much" dialogue box. ... just change how much or the meal and press save.

NoAnalHere wrote: »

And questions for all! :
1. Does your diet flop on the weekends?
2. What ways do you try to stay on track?
3. How do you deal with social outing revolving around food?
4. Do you have a support system? ( weather online or not)
5. Are you hard on yourselves when you don't reach a goal in a specific time? ( like 1 pound a week)
6. Is anyone paying attention to their mental health? And what are you doing to improve it?

I've been lurking since the thread started, but I'll throw in my 2 cents.
1. Most of the time, no, but every other weekend or so I'll go over.
2. Meal planning, meal planning and more meal planning. Some days I have not only the whole day but the whole next day planned. Also: lots of water. Keeps me too full to be hungry outside of mealtime.
3. Like my niece's birthday party this past Saturday? Well, the plan was to bring my own food and explain that I was "on a diet" (hate using that phrase but it helps people not shove food into your face), but that didn't happen, so I just limited what I ate and tried to mitigate the damage as much as possible (and only went over my limit by 66 cals).
4. This site, my mom, sometimes my husband (when he's not waving fast food in my face).
5. This week I'm stalled on my loss (probably water weight); I'm trying to tell myself it's ok, but I am kicking myself a bit for it.
6. With a history of mental health issues, I have to pay attention to it to avoid a relapse. When I'm feeling less than ok, I put in my headphones and turn up the volume. Helps most of the time.

@NoAnalHere ... I was checking out the challenge listing and spotted one that is starting up this week ... thought of you .... here's the link ...
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10534299/fat-2-fit-weight-loss-challenge-april#latest

Here are my answers to @NoAnalHere questions.
1. Does my diet flop on the weekends, heck it flops sometimes in the middle of the week, but I don't worry about it too much as long as I don't go to far over because with my allowed calories per day of 2250 plus riding my bike 2 or 3 times a week, when I do my long rides I burn over 1000 calories. On most days I do well to get to 2250 so I can't imagine I can actually eat back 1000 calories on top of that.
2. The ways I try to stay on track is to eat things that are filling, meet my goals and low on calories. In addition I lift weights 3 times a week and ride my bike 2-3 times a week. On the bike rides I go for two shorter rides one is an hour and the other 30 minutes and the middle of the week ride I go for 20 plus miles regardless of time. Between the weight lifting and the riding it pretty much helps. They also help with my stress load.
3. Luckily right now we don't have to many social outings because my wonderful better half is in school going for her third bachelors degree and she spends most of her time in school, or studying so there isn't much time as I am also taking classes on line and running the house being mister mom so not a lot of free time. By the way I never realized how much house work there really is to do in a single day.
4. My support team is me, this app/website, and seeing what is going on with my dad from not taking better care of himself and not wanting to turn out that way.
5. I am not overly hard on myself about anything because I am basically lifting weights very light now due to injuries I have basically had to reteach myself how to lift properly. I literally went from being in probably the best shape of my life to being able to lift half of what I could before. So I have learned to cut myself some slack.
6. I pay attention to my mental health on a daily basis. I do what I need to so I can stay as low stress as possible. The odd thing, the things that stress me out are things that don't really bother most people, but I have kind of habituated to odd stressers so everything I just take in stride and take things as they come and adjust accordingly.