ahoy_m8 Member

God, trail mix is the WORST! It's my kryptonite. OP, I think you nailed it with fatigue and stress. No kind of willpower can match ghrelin and leptin. They are powerful hormones. Also trying to maintain a deficit that is too aggressive is a binge waiting to happen. For me, anyway. Habits, though, that's more nuanced…

Agree with all of this! So admire you, @nay0m3

Love the vacation and pet photos! And @siberiantarragon omg the paintball exploding bread... who does that? @joans1976 understanding that the job is toxic, still, firing someone as they start cancer treatment is pretty low. (One of the many ways tying healthcare to employment doesn't work for so, so many people in this…

Have fun in Vegas. Happy Friday, all. AF so far this week. More importantly, did ST M-Th. Trying to ease back into my previous weights. Not much DOMS so probably too much ease, too little lift. :D Will have drinks this weekend, hopefully not too many. No big plans. The interns plan a Superbowl party here with their cohort…

@MissMay aaahhhh.... so beautiful. Thank you for sharing. Sweet. @itladyee I stumbled upon an entire AF shop in NYC West Village, and it opened my eyes to the huge market out there. Had no idea before that, and TBH, the vast array was a little overwhelming. Read bunches of reviews and tried a couple things. Generally…

To piggyback on this line of thinking... have you tried "diet breaks" (eating at maintenance calories for a couple weeks) along the way? It can help you practice maintenance and gives you a little hormonal recharge if you're feeling deficit weary. Also, do you decrease your deficit as you lose? The slimmer you get, the…

Ha! I needed a straight edge shovel. Love the hockey stick! @zensome the festival and family time sounds super fun. Had a moderate weekend (by my standards)… 2 wine Fri (one before dinner, one after), 2 wine Sat with dinner (had stepdad over) and a cocktail tonight=5 for the week.

Always value seeing your thought process, @dawnbgethealthy , so thanks for sharing. I aspire to be more like you with respect to my present tense self respecting my future self. And ice skating. Awesome job holding strong, @itladyee . That's some willpower, there. It is those situations, exactly, when I find it so helpful…

Yes! They were ranchers and it was a fine saddle, her favorite over her lifetime. A little tip you can share since I know you have sons: engagement rings are much easier to pass down to future generations.

Another thumbs up for bitters. My favorites are Angostura and rhubarb. I also like peach bitters, but it's pretty weak. I've tried making my own ginger bitters and did something wrong -- waaaay to much alcohol. Instructions say everclear, but don't! It's terrible! And it dominates everything. Vodka is at least color and…

Hello newcomers and regulars alike. I am Stephanie and I live in Texas. My goal is: M-Th AF F-Su<2 Weeknight abstinence is easier for me than weekend moderation. Once weeknight abstinence became a habit, it became sooo much easier because it doesn't take up any space in my brain, no arguing with myself whether I have…

OP, I definitely hear your frustration! It is very, very common to have logging mistakes. I have been logging calories daily 10 years (sometimes even on vacation but sometimes not on vacation, 1-2 vacations per year) and maintaining my weight almost 40 years. I use the same database entries over and over for the stuff I…

I’m inspired by you quarterly purgers. @joans1976 you’re a sweet daughter to give your mom that relief. In my mom’s last week of life, she panicked about stuff she wanted my to have for family posterity that honestly I didn’t know anything about. Just detailing it seemed to help. I offered to dig it out on the spot but she…

Glad you feel fantastic and that it worked for you. I'll echo the others who say do what's easiest/calmest for you. I did 5:2 for a few months when I had a crazy schedule change that made a proper dinner impossible 2 days/wk so those were my fast days. I felt mentally more calm about it because I didn't have to fight the…

About NA wine... I have to be honest I have not tried much but I have read tons of reviews and they're all bad (leading to not trying much). The market there is certainly expanding, though. I'm in @globalhiker 's camp with a citrus-y soda as a wine replacement. I too find them super satisfying because of their tart edge. I…

@siberiantarragon Hugs to you for what sounds like a complex situation. I admire your no nonsense approach to cutting alcohol for the medication. You make a lot of sense, not only with respect to that but also how you describe it all. FWIW, DH also took Lexapro for anxiety/panic attacks for a time. He didn't have…

Oooohhh.... you're good.

Did you watch GOT? Cersei, maybe? Dramaryllis somehow sounds more benign than Cersei.

I really enjoyed The Crown seasons 1-2. I should have binged the rest of that this weekend when DH was away. Didn't think of that! @MissMay glad you settled into a better work setting, and kudos for doing it all AF. Your experience shows me it's worth testing my culturally programmed beliefs about alcohol (i.e. that it's a…

This is such a good post. What if you tried eating most of your calories at the time of day when you're typically most hungry? (I'm hungriest around 3pm and always just plan on a really big nutritious snack then. Although not super hungry early, I get into trouble when I eat too little early because I overcompensate later…

You are beautiful and have a contagious smile. I am terrible at the guess my weight game. I'm your height and I have no idea.

@Sinisterbarbie1 Love those bartenders! Sounds so creative. I relished my solitude and 2 drinks last night. Tonight the interns are eating here then going out to socialize. I'm starting to feel like the short order cook and a little uninspired for dinner ideas. I grocery shop on Friday, and damn me, I did not put 2 things…

Happy Friday, AF friends. Awesome about the no chemo @joans1976 . Love your attitude about the radiation, too. I think radiation is one of those things that keeps getting more finely tuned over time, so that is more effective on the bad cells with less impact on the rest of your body. I hope it's that way, at least. I'm…

OMG. Sounds like she is actually illustrating the exact behavior in the criticism. So lame. ETA: @mfowler883 I found your morning after post most poignant. Hang in there. Your dirty chai sounds killer! @dawnbgethealthy I'm vicariously skating through you so I, too, am really really hoping the ankle pain is unrelated and…

Good first post, @dcabalo1. Kudos to you for finding a routine that keeps your motivation high for a month. Give yourself credit for that. Motivation comes and goes. It's great when your motivation is high, but you can't always count on that. When motivation inevitably ebbs, what you have are your habits -- good and bad.…

Hello, @DawnCumm and @lloydrt. Welcome. @globalhiker definitely being a little hungry if I'm just starting out on a deficit will make me a little cranky, too. Hopefully you will settle into the deficit and feel better soon. The alcohol abstaining around other drinkers can go either way for me. On weeknights when I'm not…

Happy MLK to those of you in the US. Such an inspiring orator and writer. A human being with flaws, like all of us, but with extraordinary gifts as well. @joans1976 What a relief for the clear scans! Honestly, please don't dwell on how you caused your own cancer. I've noticed when someone is diagnosed, people tend to ask…

I like all those cat names! Y’all are good. 2 glasses wine last night—one while making dinner which took a while and one after dinner. We don’t have a plan for tonight.

@forestdweller1 Thank you for sharing, not "rambling" at all. I really appreciated your perspective. The part where abstinence and moderation are working for a while and then out of nowhere a whole bottle of wine... I recognize myself in that. TBH I'm not sure if it is the definition of insanity or not. I put a lot of…

Ha! I hope the group proves to be every bit of the buildup! Hang in there for the scans. Hope they turn up "nothing interesting." (That's what my doctor says.) [ETA punctuation]