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A hint of summer for my 3.3-mile walk today...humidity is back. :( At least we had a nice breeze and for most of the walk it was cloudy with the low clouds/fog that hadn't burned off yet.
My weight stayed in the 170-171 range again today, so I was pleasantly surprised and happy with that. I think I may faint when a 16X number shows up.
Before I got all fired up about this budget crisis, I was having a melancholy kind of day. I took some time last night and went through my buddy list. For anyone who's been on site for more than a month or two, you already know what I mean.
My list of buddies is moderate; I don't send out a lot of requests but I accept pretty much every one that comes my way. But after 10 months on this site, there's a growing number of people/buddies who've fallen by the wayside.
I went through the list and remembered quite a bit about most of them...how they had high expectations of weight loss and were thrilled when the pounds began to drop. A few are struggling seriously right now and there's not a lot anyone can do to help them. They have to make some conscious decisions to take that first step out of the spiral they're caught in.
Others began and had some success, but pretty soon life intruded. They got too busy, it became too difficult, there was a holiday or birthday or work crisis, one slip led to another and another, or whatever happened, they stopped being accountable to this WOE. A few came back, heavier and vowing to "get back on track" - seriously, this time. Some are still working on this journey but most have left yet again, after a day, or a week. Was the weight loss too little? Was it not fast enough? Or, did life intrude again? Hard to say.
But what I have seen are a number of red flags that come up before a person is completely off the path, and often, off the site.
Before a person seems to abandon this WOE, they skip logging a meal....or maybe two. Sometimes, if they go off plan for a meal, willingly or not, they skip logging the rest of the day. Then, maybe breakfast gets logged the next day (to "make up for" the indiscretion of the prior day), but then the cravings take them off course, so more meals are not logged.
Then, a person who usually weighs in regularly, skips a weigh-in, believing that the increase they're seeing on the scale will be gone in just a few days, so they'll wait to record their weigh-in then. But one extra day turns into 2, or 3, and before they know it, it's been a week or more since they've logged their true weight. And the weight may be going up.
When these patterns begin to develop, I'm pretty sure, they'll be gone from the site - at least for awhile - before too much longer. And it's sad. Sad because they had the momentum going to make this work. They WERE making this work! Sad, because I've been there before, when I realized that I had drifted off a diet and I was afraid to even look at where my weight was going. It's easier to not think about weight at all and banish all dietary thoughts from one's mind.
So, I guess, if there's anything I want to say here, after all these thoughts, is that if anyone finds themselves thinking of not logging a meal, even an atrocious one(!), log it anyway. If you think that your weight is too high and you don't want to log it because you think it's embarassing, or will ruin the look of your graph (gasp!), log it anyway.
Keep yourself accountable. Don't go hide. Work your way through whatever it is that's going on. We learn from everything, even the missteps of this journey.
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1472 kcal
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Fat: 102.80g | Prot: 102.86g | Carbs: 41.47g.
Breakfast: Brown Sugar & Honey Breakfast Sausage, Kraft/Borden/Cooper shredded colby/Mexican cheese, Pieces & Stems Mushrooms, scrambled eggs. Lunch: Hershey's sugar free syrup, Planters Virginia peanuts, Endulge Peanut Caramel Cluster Bar. Dinner: broccolini, NY strip steak. Snacks/Other: Land O' Lakes Sugar Free Whipped Heavy Cream (pressurized), Jello Mousse Temptations - Dark Chocolate Indulgence, Dove sugar free raspberry creme silky smooth dark chocolates. more...
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2089 kcal
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Exercise:
Sleeping - 8 hours, Walking (exercise) - 3.5/mph - 36 minutes, Walking (moderate) - 3/mph - 24 minutes, Resting - 15 hours. more...
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 Comments
Amen to that sista. But I am sooo guilty of all the above. Thanks for sharing this as it is important to keep tabs on your self.. Have a good
weedend buddy........Bren
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Very wise words indeed! I was going on a few journal entries back about being honest with myself - no matter what I would put it down for what it was. I was doing some research & kinda looking for some recipe inspiration, gave up on that & hit the journals & looky what I found! Your words are just what I needed. I think at some point we all come to places in our journey where it hard to stay on track, as you said, first you wander a bit, then a bit farther - till finally too far to see your way back. I was worried that perhaps I was heading in that direction & for that reason my research pertained to calorie requirements & I need to do some talking to myself on that (that will be for my journal - LOL) Anyway I sure to agree that sharing is a good way to keep yourself accountable! Happy doggie trails!!!
08 Apr 11 by member: gg-girl
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Good reminder for self - do not develop any of the above bad habits. Sandy is watching!
08 Apr 11 by member: BuffyBear
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Bren, GG-girl, & BuffyBear...I found myself facing a dilemma back in January when my new scale put me 2 pounds heavier than the old. I actually considered logging a false weight (NOT reflecting the "increase") and waiting until my loss would catch up with that logged weight. Can you believe that? I was actually considering how my loss would look to others if I logged that 2-pound increase! What I had to come to grips with, was that it didn't matter to others....what I was considering was really lying to myself. If I fudged that number, what was to prevent me from not logging off-plan foods, skipping the logging of other meals, etc.? I realized then, that brutal honesty was what I had to maintain on this journey. Any other behavior is part of the deception and hiding that characterized my weight gains.
08 Apr 11 by member: Sandy701
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Sandy - I had the same "new scale dilemma" back in January only mine was a 10 lb heavier difference, what the hay...I recorded it anyway but yes I did think about how I could fudge it a little. I then thought WHY, the purpose of the journals and logs is so you can use them as tools to look reflect back at where you were most successful and maybe reinstitute some of those good old habits again. I also think it is important to see where maybe you went a little crazy and not repeat those days. I know what you mean about the buddies, I review and refine all the time.
08 Apr 11 by member: HealthyBabs
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Although I have not been on fs that long there are a couple of buddies that have not been recording anything. I have sent pm's as a friendly check up and have not received replies. Over the last day or two I have been wondering how long to keep up the pm's and encouragement. I wanted to ask people who had been on the site for a while how to handle this. I happened to come upon your journal entry while checking to see what was happening with my buddies. Thank you for your insightful comments. You have answered a lot of questions I had. I refuse to give up on anyone, but they are ultimately the captain of their ship.
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@Mysterious SL...You've asked a very good question about how and how often to follow up with inactive buddies. You might want to post it on one of the Atkins forums to see what opinions are out there. Personally, I don't send anything to remind people to do anything; log food or weigh in. Maybe they'd want that, but maybe not. In any event, unless I'm absolutely certain that someone wants even a friendly prod here or there, I don't do it. But that's just me. I know that someone - forgot who - suggested sending a friendly note to any buddy who hadn't been active in awhile, just to say that we all missed them and hoped they'd return. I think it's a nice idea, but I have not done that. I know some of my buddies haven't been on site in months! A handful of other HAVE been logged in but have posted no activity....no food, no journals, no posts. I'm sure they're just checking out a few things here or there. If they finally DO log something, I try to leave an encouraging entry of my own and hope that it spurs them on to a more active role again. You're right, everyone is ultimately the captain of their own ship.
09 Apr 11 by member: Sandy701
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I agree with that! I believe you can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped. I haven't been on FS that very long either...and to date have sent one such person a PM - Only since she was bidding good bye (too much to do...too little time), to say I wished her luck & hoped that when she did return she would look me up. What else can you do? People are who they are, and are in their own separate phase of their own personal journey. FS is for sharing...everything...the ups & downs, the goods & bads & everything in between! LOL. So far I have logged everything food & excercise wise that is. Time management can get critical at times so I didn't always have the time to look in on buddies or record a journal entry...but I do the best I can, when I can. For me, it always means so much when people take the time to comment for me - it really does mean a lot. See what happens when I do have time; I get realllllyyyy long winded - HAHA; the short story is I think we should just do the best with what we have at the time and try to set a good example.
PS - I am learning to like being my own captain!!! (Even starting to like my ship - (no longer a yacht))
10 Apr 11 by member: gg-girl
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OOPS - ps; make sure the next time you hop on that scale you have a backup in case you do faint! I can feel a 16X coming on for both of us! So exciting...! Have a great day!!
10 Apr 11 by member: gg-girl
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Hi GG-Girl. I too am beginning to like my own ship (my previous one was a barge!). Can't wait for us both to plow on into the 160's!!!
10 Apr 11 by member: Sandy701
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Sandy701's Weight History
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