abasket- It sounds like you are doing it exactly right for you! Where I feel like I fail is when I go to my sister’s house, wind up with desserts and things I choose to not resist, and then just throw up my hands and eat cr&p that I wouldn’t even normally want just because it is sitting there! Sort of like “let’s see how many empty calories I can shove in my mouth over these few days…”. My sister has plenty of good food choices- but lots of bad ones, too.
I know! 
Just as I liked the other stuff in your post - not the wasp stings.
That’s awful about the bee stings, C3B. Glad you didn’t have serious problems.
It’s always tough when you are at an event of some type and the food choices are not healthy. You’re then stuck with the dilemma of either eating stuff you normally wouldn’t or not eating at all. On Saturday, I was at a memorial luncheon for a friend of my parents who had died. There was a buffet lunch: Fried breaded chicken cutlets, baked penne with a ton of cheese and some type of blush sauce, potatoes roasted in butter sauce and high sugar content refined flour deserts. Fortunately, there were some veggies and salad which I combined with Oatmega energy bars my wife always carries for “emergencies” to make a meal!
MOWC - I know Idad and others said you shouldn’t use exercise calories as a way to justify binge or extra calories, BUT you crank out such an enormous number of miles that I wouldn’t think you would have to worry about the occasional lapse?
It seems like every day I have a “special occasion” to eat poorly. Now that I am working again (PT), I am ravenous before my workday ends and that leads to poor decisions. DH and S2 are not interested in healthy eating, either.
After taking four years to lose all this weight, you’d think the habits would be burned in my brain. Nope – and I am really struggling with finding motivation, even as I am sprouting out of almost everything I own. Getting to rehab is very difficult, since there is always more to do at work/errands to run, etc., and once i get there, I am looking at the clock for the next thing I have to do, rather than taking that time to focus on me (or at least this particular part of me).
As much as I like taking the dog for a walk, my pace doubles when I go solo. Just don’t like going out without her late at night.
Am going to Chattanooga for a niece’s wedding this weekend. If I pack carrots, celery and fruit, it will be noticed and snarked about. Healthy options are not in the MOB’s or FOB’s vocabulary.
I’m sorry for your struggles, CountingDown. What can we do / say, or what strategies can we provide, to help you succeed?
I think your plan to pack healthy food for this family occasion is a great one, and don’t let snarkiness deter you from taking care of yourself.
Good plan, countingdown! You have done so well- use your past success as a motivator!
Ohio- Think about it, though. I run 36 miles a week (give or take) which is about 5 miles a day which is 500 calories burned. I can undo that VERY easily! I seem to have a pretty high metabolism at my current weight and can eat a lot of what I want, but I can certainly overdo it, too. I am careful that if my weight creeps up a couple of pounds (I’m not big, so a couple of pounds can matter) I try to avoid the alcohol, desserts and starches for a few days. We have very tempting candy bowls around the office- and I grab something mindlessly when I walk by. Those bit size candies (Milky Ways etc) are a bad thing, in my opinion. I would not even think about going down to the café and buying a full size candy bar- haven’t done so in years- but 2 or 3 pieces of those bit sized dudes seems like nothing!
CountingDown, you KNOW what to do. Don’t let others (who are making worst choices) rule you or your plans. You’re the one who has to live with the results of unhealthy eating, not them. I’ll be you know you feel more confident when you are eating better (doesn’t have to be perfect!) and exercising regularly.
Maybe outline some small steps to progress. Feel free to report the good/bad/ugly here - we will be your support!
CD, shame on those who try to shame you for eating healthy. I know it can be really hard when the shamers are family. Hang in there!
MOWC - I am a Milky Way lover as well. And the candy bowl at work is my supplier (dealer?) At least they finally got rid of the big bags of peanut M&M’s that were everywhere.
I think people who try to shame healthy eaters are really jealous because they can’t control their own eating. So they tear down others in an effort to make themselves feel good. It’s no fun to be the only person at dinner who orders dessert. But if everyone is ordering dessert then it’s all good, so they try make sure everyone is ordering dessert. I wish CD had support from your DH or S2 because it’s a lot easier to stand up to the snarky people if you aren’t on your own. But really, in the end, you can’t care what the snarky people have to say if you know you’re doing what’s right for you.
I’ve found that so many things in life are a lot easier now that I have gotten to a place where I just don’t care what other people think.
CD, if it’s any consolation, I’m doing a serious diet reboot right now. It is hard. Maintenance is the worst! Yes, we’ve both lost a lot of weight but it is not easy to keep it off and even though we know what we should be doing, sometimes I just don’t want to. I really felt lousy this morning and realized it was because of the crap I’d been eating. Nothing really terrible (sorry, guys, not a dozen donuts), but very carb heavy, not enough protein, things like raw honey - can you say sugar? - on my yogurt - because hey, I think I deserve it! Have to get out of that mindset.
So far today I ate: Greek yogurt (measured, instead of glopped in the bowl with half a banana, raspberries and blackberries; hard boiled egg and raw carrots, cukes and radishes. I need to stay away from bread. In a big way. I was stressed all weekend from a bunch of stuff and just ate very badly. Time to get it in gear. We can do it.
I had to edit to add - my mother is the worst about my “diet”. She has a hard time understanding why I don’t eat low fat convenience foods. “I bought you these Lean Cuisines FOR YOUR DIET!” “We can go somewhere you can get a salad FOR YOUR DIET!” Yep, a 1500 calorie salad is just what I need ON MY DIET! So I feel your pain where family’s involved.
My mom is someone who is not satisfied until you’ve had three helpings of everything - including desserts. She is a mixed bag - her mediterranean background and upbringing and then her Americanization when she came over here -convenience foods, meat and potatoes, etc. EVERY meal she will ask “should I put bread on the table?” - mom, you have 2-3 starches already - we don’t need bread!!!
Anyway, my point - based on some of the comments above - I just had to get to the point where I DID say outloud, “mom, I feel better when I don’t overeat”, “I just don’t eat a lot of bread anymore” or “thanks, I might take a piece of dessert home for later, but I can’t eat dessert right after a meal”. I made it known, that this is what works for me and makes me feel good - it’s right for ME .
Everytime you find yourself in “that” position give yourself permission to do what’s right for you and your body - you’re the one who lives with the results - you face a scale, your clothes, your sluggishness daily - but not perhaps NOT your extended family everyday!!!
Just don’t apologize for your choices.
CD–do what you need to do and try to ignore anyone who gets snarky.
Today, I did 75 minutes of cardio work–35 minutes on the Cybex arc, 20 minutes on the stair mill (moving steps), and another 25 on the treadmill.
Congratulations to all the weekend racers.
Sorry about the bee stings–C3. Those hurt–I got a bunch of wasp stings throwing out the trash a few summers ago.
My younger D is visiting and we signed up for a yoga class called “Wine and unWind”. Instructor, beside teaching yoga, is a sommelier at a great, local restaurant. After her vinyasa class, she has a wine tasting–there is a courtyard outside the studio. Will report on the class–it is on Friday.
When I start to feel like I need to get more serious about food choices, I track everything, avoid processed foods, and cut out all sugar. It helps alot.
Congrats on your race, Gertrude! And so exciting about your d’s swim, BB. Ouch to the bee stings, C3B–what a nasty surprise.
Keep in touch here, CD. It is SO easy to lapse into old unhealthy eating patterns, especially when you’re around family in high energy (i.e. stressful) situations. Ask me, I know 
abasket, you get a special round of applause from me for controlling intake at the fried fish feast. I have a tough time resisting fried lake perch, whitefish, walleye as well as the usual companion dishes. After the funeral service I attended last week, the family hosted a luncheon with a table full of desserts including the local specialty of Belgian pies in prune, poppy seed, cherry, raspberry, rice, apricot, and more. It was a sad setting, and I was easily persuaded to cut and eat small slivers, many slivers, in honor of the deceased. Once I start caving in to dietary treats I have a hard time stopping, so I appreciate MoWC’s comment.
I went to the gym this afternoon for a slow run on the treadmill and a few light weights. More walking ahead tonight, unless the pop-up thunderstorms we’re having persist. I was able to fill a sudden opening in the perpetually booked Global Entry interview schedule at the local airport today. Yay! I spent a few hours at the airport, but I’m hopeful I’ll save some time waiting in lines. I’ll never look at the floor in airport security the same way after reading through another thread here.
Edited to add appreciation for Bromfield’s wine and yoga relaxation therapy
Fascinated by the discussion of the challenges of maintaining weight after weight loss. I did very well for April, May, and June… then I was prescribed a very low-dosage antibiotic for July, to prevent another UTI (I’ve had five in the past year, so this is a big deal), and promptly went up (as in over two days) three pounds that seem to be unshakeable. I reminded that antibiotics are given to cattle to fatten them (or were) and am hoping that ending the antibiotic will end the weight gain…
Sometime in the distant past, someone somewhere in this thread said that swimming a mile in an hour was like “strolling” instead of walking briskly, and that’s been in the back of my mind ever since I started swimming seriously again (last September)–when it took me MORE than an hour to crawl through a mile (pun intended). Today, quite suddenly, my half-mile time was down to 25 minutes after being stuck at 30 minutes for months, and I did (in fact) crawl the entire half mile, rather than switching in and out of rest strokes. (I’ve been swimming a half mile four or five times a week, instead of a mile twice a week, since mid-May.)
I’m sure it was probably me that said that about swimming. Unfortunately, for swimming to be a very effective exercise and one that you can do for long enough to have it be of fitness value, you need to be pretty good at it. I did my time in the pool and on a good master’s team back in Dallas, and I liked it- sort of. The master’s team is really the better workout as opposed to swimming laps by yourself, and there are truly all levels in master’s. You get stroke instruction and worthwhile drills. You can certainly get tired flailing around in a pool if you don’t have decent stroke technique, but you usually can’t spend much time at it before wearing out.
dmd- that doesn’t seem to be the case with you. I think it’s good that you built up to that amount of time in the water and now you can focus on moving a little more quickly. SO much of swimming is technique.
Dmd, I remember hearing about a mouse study paper published in Nature where mice fed antibiotics were gaining a lot of weight. Here is a writeup about that study:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antibiotics-linked-weight-gain-mice/
And here is the WSJ article on the subject of antibiotics and kids gaining weight later in life:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/study-links-antibiotics-with-weight-gain-in-children-1445451135
Fingers crossed your extra pounds will lost just as quickly as they were gained. But do take care of the UTI first. Those things are nasty!!!
CountingDown, don’t let the others get to you; I know how tough that can be, particularly at stressful family events. When I’m out to dinner with my parents, they constantly try to push food at me. Even my closest friend tells me I’m like “a 12 year old anorexic girl” when we are out to dinner (his actual words). He says that even though I actually eat quite a bit of food; it’s my constant mindfulness of what I’m eating, questions to wait staff about ingredients and portion sizes and portion control that gets to him I think. And it’s not easy when everyone around you is ordering drinks and desserts. Whether it’s because people want to undermine you, are jealous of your successes, or genuinely believe that having all these dietary “rules” can’t be a fun way to live and they want you to be the same old fun person you were, who knows.
What I find helps me a lot at social events is to have a game plan in advance on how I’m going to eat. I was recently at a wedding where I knew there would be served hors d’oerves, a salad, entree, wedding cake and dessert. Plus an open bar. In advance, I defined my limits for myself. No booze, just seltzer with lime (everyone thought I was drinking vodka, so no pressure to drink), 1 of each hors d’oerve that was not breaded, fried or made with a cream sauce, one forkful of wedding cake (does anyone really think the typical wedding cake is worth eating anyway) and fruit instead of the super rich desserts except for one forkful of my wife’s dessert (with her permission of course). I walked in knowing that would be my game plan. Having it in advance made it easier than making these decisions on the fly as temptation mounted. I did not go hungry at all nor did I feel deprived.