kajajo

Sounds like you had a great night and made some really good choices. You must be getting really excited for your trip, thats a really long flight, bring plenty to keep you occupied on the plane, if your partner is anything like my hubby he will sleep most of the way. Is Hurricane Irene going to affect your flight, I flew through a hurricane to England once and it was horrible, she is down to a tropical storm now but after leaving the east coast she will be heading out across the Atlantic.

Lizards13

Hi Dee, I'm hopeful that Irene will be spent by tomorrow morning. Yes I'm getting excited now, been finishing my packing, laying out my travel clothes and cleaning my house. My son is coming for dinner, he will look after Henri the cat while I'm away. Have been pretty good on the packing front, not stuffing too much in, I got used to packing light when I used to tour on a motorcycle. There is space in there if I do see anything I might like to buy but I'm not one for spending a lot of time shopping on holidays unlike some of my friends who go to the US and seem to hunt out malls to visit.
I'll have my ereader and I might take my DS Lite as well, haven't decided yet. I don't mind sitting at airports as I love to people watch and I'm quite good at napping on planes.
I'm setting myself a goal of not putting on more than 4 lbs on this trip, I know from past experience that I could hit 7-8 but I don't want to have to start and lose that much when I get home.
Changed my weigh in day to Monday so as of today I am sitting at 147.
Have a good few weeks everyone, I'll be right back on soon as I get home ( think my partner may be taking his iPad and if so I might be able to sneak on sometimes).

kajajo

Hey Girlfriend, all I can say at the moment is have a great vacation, I plan to stick with the program while you are gone even if you aren't here to kick my ass. I know you will do great. You know where to find me if you can get the iPad away from your other half. Message me on facebook if you get a chance and tell me you are having a fantastic time.

Lizards13

Well I'm back and I had a fantastic holiday but I don't think I did too well on the eating and drinking front. I will be back on the scales tomorrow morning and I am dreading it. I am off to a function in two weeks so desperately need to get cracking on getting back to my healthy eating plan. Our road trip went well and we saw many interesting places. The one thing that stunned me was the size of the portions we were served. In most restaurants I could only manage to eat half of my meal and I felt bad at wasting the rest.
We did a lot of walking so I'm hoping that helped to balance things a little.
That's another thing I need to focus on - exercise. I felt quite unfit the first few days but gradually improved and I want to get way fitter. It was also lovely to feel the sun on my skin, I seriously need more sunshine in my life.

Lizards13

I got on the scales yesterday and OMGCB I had only put on 1/2lb. The walking has obviously been the big factor here so all I need to do now is give up work, stay permanently on holiday, travel to new places and sightsee all day on foot. Failing that I need an exercise plan that I can stick to, a massive dose of motivation and a good kick up the rear every day to keep me at it. I've been pretty good since Sunday food wise but not an iota of physical exertion beyond the normal housekeeping stuff. I don't really understand it, I thought I was just lazy but I had no problem hoofing around everywhere over the last couple of weeks, even in San Francisco I managed those hills, in fact I enjoyed being out in the air and stretching my legs so why the total turnaround now that I am home? Something has to change.

Lizards13

Things are cr***y at the moment. I got on the scales this morning and there it was- 2lbs more than Monday morning. I've been hunting out comfort food and unfortunately finding it. I'm not sleeping well, it's cold and wet and I hate this cycle that I go through of feeling optimistic and energised for a few weeks and then down I go feeling flat and low and unable to motivate myself. I worrying about everything and then chastise myself because I have a job and a roof over my head so why should I feel depressed when some people have so much less than me. Sorry for the whining and self pity, I will go to bed now and hopefully sleep well, I have a free day tomorrow so I will get up, give myself a good shake and try to get focused on my goal again.
Thanks for listening.

Lizards13

I rarely get my photo taken if I can avoid it but my BF took some when we were on holidays and persuaded me to look. Bad idea, when I look in the mirror I am p,eased at the progress I've made but when I see photos all I can see are my double chin, my jelly belly, my weird side on view, I sometimes don't even recognise myself, and then I start to doubt what I see in the mirror. The only upside is I think how much more horrible the photos would be if I still weighed 26 lbs more.

Lizards13

What a rubbish weekend, I have eaten my weight in food I'm sure. I have got to get a grip on this before everything creeps up again. How can I be so active for two weeks and then suddenly become the opposite again, watching too much telly, sitting around doing nothing much. My sleep pattern is improving but my mood is not. I went shopping today and bought lots of fruit and veg so tomorrow I start again, let's hope this week I can shake off this fugue that I seem to be in and make some progress. I need some new winter clothes but I don't want to buy anything until I know what size I'll be. Trying on my last year trousers should have given me a boost as I can take them off without undoing them, but I just can't see that I look better. I have a large bosom which doesn't reduce by much and so clothes never seem to hang properly.
Ok that's it, no more griping, it's my choice as to whether I succeed or not.

quinnesec

I was just catching up on your thread and it sounds so much like me. I hate having my picture taken as well as I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I can always find fault in how I look. I think that there is some sort of psychological component, as well. Even though I'm down 40+ pounds from my all time high, I still see the "old me" when I look into the mirror. I still go to my old size on the rack when shopping. After 1 1/2 years, I still think people are "just being nice" when they say I look thinner; that they really can't tell. And, like you, even though I can pull off my old jeans without unbuttoning them, I still think I'm the same size. I look at my measurements, before and after, and SEE the difference, but I don't "feel" different. I don't know... I can't explain it.

I had to laugh at your comment about serving sizes in the US. Isn't it disgusting? I live in a fairly rural area and the serving sizes of pasta and steak, in particular, are enough to feed a family. During our tourist season, may meals are offered "all you can eat". I'm always amazed at the quantities that our locals can consume in a single sitting. Aided by walkers, wheelchairs and oxygen, mostly weight related, they eat like pigs at a trough. When traveling outside of the US, a resort worker that I came to know very well, said that he could always tell an American because they were "fat and loud". It's sadly true. During my stay, I watched the behavior of Americans compared to other travelers and it was embarrassing. They were mostly overweight, demanding, drunk and rude. I found myself apologizing for some that I didn't even know. My husband always laughs when I form friendships with resort workers and chefs over the other guests. Maybe it's my culinary background, I don't know. I guess I feel their pain having to deal with unruly clients. lol

Lizards13

Quinn. The Irish and the Brits don't have a great reputation on holiday either. I hate stereotypes but on my travels I have met the stereotypical Brit lager lout, the aloof and rude French, the pushy german, the loud and screechy Yank and the drunken scots and Irish. I have also met some wonderful people from all these countries who are probably much more typical of the majority. In California we did not see the same amount of very obese people that we had seen in Florida, so where do they put all that food? I guess maybe they are more active in SOCAL. Last year we had the pleasure of hosting 3 National Guard members and one of the girls (raised in California) made me laugh with her personality, sometimes the work was hard and she would be standing around sulking and pouting but as soon as a camera was produced she flung her blonde hair back, stuck out her chest and produced a 1000 kilowatt smile, priceless. Lol.
I don't know how we will convince ourselves that we are now different, not having photos to compare is a bummer but we will just have to believe what others and the scales and the loose clothes tell us. I have thought about why I was so disappointed in the photos he took recently and one thing is I expected to look younger, daft I know but I just can't get used to the droopy eyelids and the jowls and I don't think loosing weight will change those areas much. It did also show me that I need to buy some new clothes that fit properly, excuse to shop a little I think.