Posted by Mel:
This week I worked really hard to stay in my points each day and exercise ( 4x this week). However when I stepped on the scale this morning all my high hopes and hard work seemed to be for not as I gained 2 lbs. This is so frustrating to me because I feel like I have been doing all the right things, and I gained weight. It drives me crazy. The only things I can think of that I need to change are the weekends, when I generally dont count points and give myself more free range of what I eat, but I also try to get plenty of exercise to compensate for my indulgence. This apparently isnt working and I need to more careful about what I eat on the weekends. They other thing is maybe I haven't been counting my snacks for the right amount of points. I thought I had been doing pretty well in this area, but maybe not? I always write down everything i eat and at the end of the day I am never over my points, in fact many days I am under. I just really want to get to my goal weight and days like today make me feel like I will never make it happen. :(

Posted by Raf

Today I was watching a show on TLC called "Too Young To Be So Fat". It chronicled the life of a 13 year old that was extremely overweight. The thing that got me was the fact that the mother felt that she did not have any responsibility in the situation. I guess what I don't understand is that when I was 13, I didn't have a job and I didn't have control of what I ate. I ate what was in the house and what was in the house was only what my parents bought. My parents bought very little junk food, and encouraged me to eat healthy. Because of them I was really healthy during my high school years. When I first started to stray from healthy eating was when I went to college. I got the freshman 15 (or 30 but who's counting). I got them because it was the first time that I was completely responsible for my own diet. I would go to the school cafeteria and there would just buffets of pizza and chicken nuggets and ice cream. I went crazy. Now I know that I am the one that is responsible for what I put in my mouth. I know what is healthy and what is not. I know that when I choose to have a few slices of pizza for lunch instead of a salad I am not helping myself lose weight. I guess I realized how much personal responsibility I have over this. If I don't succeed I have no one to blame but myself.

Posted by Raf.

Croissants are my worst enemy. I love them so much. I don't really like candy or cakes or anything sweet, but I do love bread and one of my favorites types of breads is a croissant. The other is dutch crunch rolls. I could just eat those rolls all day everyday. Whenever I want to have something that is not healthy for me the first thing that I think is man, I should go to the cafe and get a croissant. It has been hard in the last couple of days to now just fall into that same old habit. Today I did. I had a fairly healthy lunch, it was a portebello mushroom stuffed with vegetables which was really good. I wasn't even hungry but I still went to the cafe here at work and got myself a croissant.

This brings up a bigger issue then delicious pastries and bread. It is a clear example of using food to make myself feel better / not be bored. Many times I use food as a way to stop boredom. If I am bored with work and I want to take a break, instead of walking around for a but I go to the cafe and get something to eat even if I am not hungry. I think that this is going to be something that I really need to work on. Being able stop myself from eating when I'm not hungry will be one of the top things on my weight loss priorities.

Poseted by Raf:

So we've been doing this whole diet thing on and off for a while with some success. The problem is keeping the motivation to keep going. I personally got to my ideal weight over the summer and since then I've gained a good 30 lbs. I got lazy and I lost my motivation. So now I want to get back to my ideal weight and this whole "tracking the progress through MSN Spaces" thing to me is just a form of motivation. So that's where I am.

I decided to eat a healthy meal today for lunch. I have a small salad with no dressing or cheese. It does have tofu on it, that isn't that great for you but its not too bad. I am worried about being hungry later on in the day, but I was planning on having a yogurt. That was one of the things that I found necessary when I was doing this earlier. Making a plan for the future so that you are not in a situation where you don't have healthy options to eat.

Oh yeah and water. Lots and lots of water. I got a new water bottle and I really like it. It is a Sigg bottle and I have to say that I am really happy with it. I am going to try and post a photo of it but I haven't done that before in this spaces thing so we'll see how it turns out.