Kathy - Thank you for letting me know.
I'll keep you in at a 0 for this week. Enjoy the sabbatical!
Anna - Wooooohoo! I am so pleased for you too. Did you do anything differently this week? Or is this just an example of the cumulative effect of close adherence to the guidelines?
DocHCLFvegan - I'm sorry to hear that your past few weeks have been frustrating. What do you think is going on? Could it be the Pleasure Trap? Or maybe your expectations are not being met? All the best this week.
Qwerty988 - Wow. Salt free looks good on you!
Jeannine - I am so excited for you! Congratulations on your "new" mobility and your excellent loss this week!! Your temptation scenario is so similar to my experience and so many other people that I have interacted with. I am so happy that you got through it, that must have been tough and you should be very proud of yourself.
I was just talking about this with my husband the other night because I did slip up recently.
l had been using willpower all day to get through a tricky food environment (junk food everywhere and me in charge of cleaning up the area after the tornado of kids had rolled on through it). I did get through it... until I was home and everyone was in bed and it was just me and my book and the tension leftover from being challenged all day. That night time eating can be very tricky.
Chelsea - I'm sorry to hear how you're feeling. Mood and motivation, motivation and mood, I personally find it to be a chicken and egg scenario. It's great that you have your mom there for support and girl talk! Sustainable weight loss is a slow process and it's only natural to have your motivation wane, especially if you have a nagging little feeling in the back of your mind saying it should be faster, or occur by a certain date. Please take heart, you are down around 27 pounds in the past 10 months and 13 since joining MWL. So even with a bunch of struggling weeks you are still way ahead! You haven't yo-yo'd back up. That is what I love about eating this way. Even "bad" weeks aren't "bad" weeks like they used to be. So do your best and tread water for awhile if you need to until a new burst of motivation occurs! XO
Loralei - Wonderful news. Best wishes for this coming week.
Chris - I'm surprised and delighted for you too!
ForestGoddess - You've got it! Time and adherence is key. I'm stuck again too, so I feel your pain. That darn Pleasure Trap. What kind of strategies have you been using? You are quite close to your goal, with about 10 more pounds to go, so just keep at it. For me, when in the grips of the craving period, I need a number of days of eating really clean and then the cravings start to fade. For those 3-4 days I eat the whole time, practically. All whole foods, mostly chopped veggies and whole starches like potatoes and oatmeal. A craving comes, I pop some food in my mouth. If I think I want more, in more food goes! If in doubt whether I'm still hungry, well I just eat a bit more food. Just no highly palatable food (even if it's WFPB). I don't lose weight during those few days, but I do lose much of the craving feelings and thus can continue back to a more calorie dilute version once I've got all that back under control. That's one of my strategies. Are you the type of person who will go out and get junk food, even if it's not in the house? (I am - so no judgements here...lol)
kirstykay - I'm happy to hear that even though your losses have stalled, you're not gaining it back. So you are still doing all kinds of things right!
My sister and I have (had) an unspoken pact much like what you are describing with yourself and (unknowingly to them) your guests. Whenever we got together, if one of us doesn't specifically say we are dieting or following such and such a plan it is just assumed that we would be just taking it easy and relaxing our standards in order to enjoy our get together (which can be read as getting take out and lamenting about our weight loss struggles -I'm not saying you specifically do this with your guests...lol). It still trips me up sometimes, because we've had been doing it for so many years. When I'm not stuck in the Pleasure Trap, I am able to stop and decide that I will focus on the get together with her and paying attention to her and not to the potential excitement of off plan food. I have so many years as that being a big reason for enjoying getting together with people...the hyper-palatable food was what I mostly wanted. So, I totally get what you are going through.
You can get this under control! Will you be entertaining this week? Would you ever consider making compliant type food for them, or would they not go for that?
Corky - Congratulations for this week!
Heyjudi - I'm glad to hear that you've had a productive week.You will do it again!
Polly - Yay yay yay! So many things to be happy about this week. I'm glad to hear your husband is joining you for a bit.
