Motivation, Success and Frustration Sharing!

I just did something foolish and discouraged myself. We got a new digital scale, and I weighed myself on it yesterday morning for the first time - 170.6 - a 2.4 lb weight loss since I started tracking calories on 11/4. I meant to wait until Friday to weigh myself again-my last weigh-in before a week of travel for Thanksgiving. But I just couldn't resist hopping on the shiny new scale...and I was 171. Even worse, it tracks on my phone, so I couldn't just ignore it. I got on again a minute later and it was 170.6, but the damn phone thinks I gained weight. I feel silly for being so easily discouraged, but these are early days & I've struggled so much with my weight for the past 4 years. Sigh.

Yeah, @Evamutt , I planned to weigh myself just once a week, but I think I got seduced by the shiny new scale and wanted to step on it again. I will weigh myself one more time before we head out on our Thanksgiving trip. Thanks for the reinforcement.

I was at our local surplus & salvage store today looking for wool socks, and I found a couple of really nice lightweight polyester/merino wool running shirts for $9.99! They're even purple- my favorite color. They fit me well, but quite snugly, which is not good for my ego right now, but I'm going to concentrate on how great they'll look next year. I've looked and looked for synthetic longsleeve exercise tops and haven't found them in my cheapo stores (I shop almost exclusively at Goodwill), but Land's End had a 50% off one item sale tonight and I just ordered a nice shirt- and it's also purple! I feel like rewarding myself for my effort with some clothes that actually work...I've been running and sweating in cotton and then getting cold (we're in the low 40's and getting colder).

I had a rest day from running (as ordered by my friend who's training me). I took a long walk, but I look forward to running again tomorrow.

Thank you, guys!

So, I'm the queen of extremes. Binged today. Ashamed to write it here, but we are all in this in the good, the bad and the ugly. right? I tracked it all, which is both good and bad, cause I know what it will take me to fix this set back, but then it was a binge after all, and it cost me 3 day progress. I do binge less and less, and I know what are the triggers. This time it was PMS, bad mood and just feeling a bit ill, so skipped the gym, did groceries and then somewhere in the middle zoned out and bought everything I shouldn't have eaten.

Trying not to beat myself up about it, calculated the damages and made a plan of extra cardio to still finish the week with -1kg as planned. Just wish the bloat and feeling like an elephant would go away faster.

Thought I ought to do some good to my body as an apology, so bought a lot of vitamins.


@Rachel0778 I've never had this problem. I need a lot of me time, people drain me, so I often cancel or leave saying yes to any social activity to the last moment,to see if I will be up for it. Was supposed to go for drinks tonight with girl friends, clearly not feeling it, so just said no. I'm quite upfront and blunt already, but since I read the book "The life changing magic of not giving a *kitten*" , I never feel guilty for flaking out, saying no, and when I do show up, my friends appreciate it more than if I came not being in the mood for it

@JannaFowler1 welcome! Good job on 20pounds lost and I wish you patience, determination, strength and optimism for the 150, cause luck has nothing to do with weightloss haha

For me personally, I only have 2 friends who get the relationship I have with food/fat loss/body image,etc. to the core of it, everyone else either can't relate at all or I feel like that's too much for them, therefore MFP is the perfect place, cause one way or the other, people get where you're coming from, give constructive advice and sometimes criticism.

@JannaFowler1 20 lbs is impressive in only a month and a half! I'm a stay at home mom of 2, and my kids have been motivating me to run. On weekends, we often run together, and when we aren't running, we're hiking.

I'm glad you're here! I've found it helpful to talk here, as not everyone in the rest of my life understands my struggle.

@JannaFowler1 Welcome! Glad to have you as a part of the group. I am also an emotional and stress eater so I can totally relate to that struggle!

@gymprincess1234 Sorry to hear about your binge. I hope you're able to reflect on what lead up to it and move past it without too many feelings of shame and guilt. As far as social stuff goes, a lot of my events are for professional and community development for my career so many of them are not optional to cancel on as you can with close friends. Honestly, you're making me miss being in grad school when I did have a more flexible social schedule

@SusanDSME It's so cool that your kids are such a big part of your active lifestyle!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!! I am seriously so excited that I only have one day of work left before the weekend. It's gearing up to be a slower day at work today (thank goodness!). I had a great time out with the humane society dogs and ended up knowing one of the employees and my fellow dog walker so I already have built in friends there! There was a 12 year old dog there that absolutely broke my heart. Once I'm retired, one of my dreams is to rescue older abandoned dogs and give them a good quality of life before they pass away.

@Rachel0778 Thanks for the welcome! If any of you want to add me as a friend feel free, seeing as I don't have any! lol

I've been really good this week, the hubbs brought home fudge from his work yesterday and I had 0 pieces of it. As much as I would have loved to have some, I want to be healthy more. I hope everyone has an awesome weekend.

@gymprincess1234 That's so awesome about your dress! Let us know how it fits/looks. I'm so glad you aren't being too hard on yourself about a mess up, they happen. I love the idea of rewarding yourself for meeting your goals, I never thought of that.

So impressive about your traveling eating & exercise SusanDSME. Welcome JannaFowler1. I'm an introvert myself & have acquaintances at dog park & church but have very few friends, 2 actually & feel uncomfortable in gatherings so I tend to avoid them. My best friend whom I'm seeing today has been annoying with all her "diet" advice from ww & other sources. she was in weight watchers years ago. I know she's trying to be helpful with all her pointers, but I'm not in weight watchers nor am interested. she's lost 60lbs 3 times she reminds me, so she has a lot of knowledge about losing wt (she gained it all back) & she thinks I'm obsessed with calories. When she asks me why don't I want to eat this or that, I tell her it's too many calories & won't fill me up. She asks so I tell her. so I'm going to try to avoid the subject. I gave her all my clothes that got too big, which she appreciates. She says she's happy being a size 16, but my old pants were size 18-20 & they fit her for the most part, some are a little snug. I don't tell her she ought to lose wt or give her tips except I encourage her to try to eat more often, she doesn't eat till near dinner time & by that time she feels weak. Anyway I didn't know I was going to vent till I got started. I didn't know I was so frustrated with her till I started to share. I'm glad I can share here. I can't think of anyone else I can share with, as I don't want to say anything to anyone I know among ppl her & I know of course.

Hi!
So, life is a handful at the moment,and PMS is a *kitten*, so I sadly have to admit I ate my emotions again. I know this chat is for support, but in my head it's more about being accountable. I have failed myself, the expectations I've set, so now two messups seem like I've lost (and probably have) all progress I had made in the first 1,5week. I will take a break from here again, cause I did go too crazy with the counting, tracking and obsessively trying to get a maximum caloric deficit. I so wish I could go 1 year back when I just ate intuitively and worked out and the weight was falling off so easily. It's hard when you know you know what to do, you have done it, but don't know what's missing, why I'm in this rut now ?! I'm not giving up, just maybe need a new strategy? Like I did working out and intuitive eating for 3 months, then it stopped working and I did 4 months of working out and tracking calories and it worked. 25kg lost. Now it's been 5 months of up and down 2kg all the time. Don't know how to get out of this to the next phase.

I do believe I have the motivation and mojo back to lose the weight and it's a struggle to do it now, cause I'm very unhappy in my current education/living situation, which triggers emotional eating and binging. I need a stragy, a new plan. Luckily in 1 month it will change. I keep tracking, I know 2 messups set me back to 7kg still to lose, and I will do my best to reach my Christmas goal as close as possible, but in the mean time have to strongly consider quitting tracking and finding a new method of fat loss ASAP.
ohh, what a mess I am

p.s. to make me better and my bank account worse, I have retreated to retail therapy, I seriously need a shrink or something

@gymprincess1234 I'm sorry to hear you're going through a rough patch. Please be kind to yourself. Hopefully you can find a more moderate way of eating again like what you were doing before the extreme micromanaging of food.

@SusanDSME Visiting family is so hard! I'm going to my in-laws on Wednesday and I usually run into the same problems that you are. Hopefully both of us can stay on track as much as possible. Progress over perfection!

@Evamutt Friends with diet advice drive me nuts too, especially when they clearly aren't being successful. Keep doing what works for you!

@JannaFowler1 Way to ignore the fudge, that is impressive!

I think I may be in PMS mode, because I was suuuuuper moody this weekend. Friday I went to crossfit but sadly pinched a nerve in my back (ouch!). After that we stayed in and started to watch The Punisher (great show if you like superhero shows). Saturday was extremely busy! I did 4 loads of laundry, grocery shopping, volunteered at the animal rescue, took my own dog for a walk, and then drove 1.5 hours to meet up with friends for a game night.

Sunday was where the crabbiness came in since my SO had to go to the old place to clean the oven and paint over holes where I was stuck at the new place once again cleaning the whole thing by myself. I hate cleaning and I resent that his procrastination at the old place means I have to do ALL the cleaning at the new place. I did as much as I could but some things just didn't get done (i.e. dusting blinds and ceiling fans). He promised me we can look into how much a cleaning person would cost since I hate wasting my free time scrubbing floors.

I did put up new to me Christmas tree and it looks beautiful. After all the work I did this weekend it was nice to curl up by the tree and finish my book. I also got the good news we'll actually have furniture delivered next week so I can actually start to put away the rest of the boxes then!

SusanDSME, I don't eat exactly the same thing every day, but I do eat about the same handful of things to choose from. I don't like to veer too much off the path of my foods. When I eat too much, I eat too much of my regular foods, lol. Beautiful Tree Rachel0778. I don't spend nearly as much cleaning as I did when the kids lived at home. I'd much rather spend my time doing something else. I do alot of maintenance & do projects of things like dusting, or scrubbing the counters occasionally.

@gymprincess1234 This plan sounds much better for your overall health and sanity

@Evamutt Glad you and your friend were able to connect without talking about food. And I'm glad you listened to your body and fed it when it was hungry

We're heading to my SO's family tomorrow so I'll be out for the rest of the week. I'm still a pile of raging hormones and I already snapped at my SO this morning over something stupid, I'm truly a joy to be around right now *sigh*. I apologized, but I feel like my emotions just aren't settling down. Yesterday I had 5 meetings in a row which did not help my mood at all. I was so glad once I got home from Crossfit to just curl up on the couch with my dinner and the Great British Bake Off. My dog has been extra cuddly lately so I think he's sensing my emotions. Wish me luck on mellowing out before we get to my in-laws!

Also, they mentioned menstrual cycle. I never lost mine, actually once I started weight loss, it got more regular and a lot easier to handle - working out provided happiness hormones, so PMS got easier, and as I was working my *kitten* off on spin bikes, never felt any stomach pain.

Help! We're going to an Italian restaurant tonight.. looked at the menu to prepare myself. Do I get the pancetta wrapped pork tenderloin, which will be yummy, or go crazy and get the manicotti which I really want, which will torpedo my calories for the day? Willpower, where are you?