I expect a very large plate of cookies. Chocolate chip, ginger snap, peanut butter, and don't forget all kinds iced and frosted.

any weight this week.

However, I am starting my usual lead up to my period, and am currently typing around my chest. I know I'm retaining water.

My scale hasn't budged from 293. So probably in a couple weeks I'll show downward progress in a sudden three to four pound lurch. We'll see if cutting out HCFS firmly from my diet makes me feel better through this time of the month.

I don't eat much when I'm physically miserable.  I've spent most of today in bed.  In about half an hour, I'm going down the way to be fed again.  Chili did me a fair amount of good yesterday, and there are leftovers.

I have one of the fancy scales that measures body fat, water and muscle as well as weight (I bought it when I moved, so it was way high top of the line when I got it).  According to the schedule I keep, I was supposed to get on it today, but I didn't.  I suspect the trends would have been as encouraging as the previous times, but I just felt too rotten to want to deal with it.  And I am one who doesn't tie my mood for the day to whether the weight number is up or down.

I'm blathering.  It's hard to think when it feels like your brains are coming out your nose.

life.  I cannot handle carbs.  I am definitely a carb addict.  I lost 60 lbs. eating like this--so here we go again.  It is quite easy to follow.  I just cannot spend all my waking hours thinking about food--which is what I do on Weight Watchers or some of the others.  I just don't have time.  It is easy to find what I need doing low carb.  I follow Carb Addicts--the Heller's wrote the books--it is easy and it works FOR me.

(with no medical basis) that my foot is healed enough to be exercising again, except certain Pilates exercises that really put pressure on the toes (like certain weight-lifting exercises where you rise up on your toes as you raise your arms). It still hurts, but it's gotten to the point where I don't care, and I figure it's probably healed enough that I won't do it further damage by using it, even if it takes longer to get the rest of the way to perfectly healed. The problem is I just plain can't stay off it completely with an on-my-feet job, so I figure I might as well exercise.

Ate really badly so far this week; had New Mexican food (which if you're vegetarian means refried beans, fried chiles, and covered in cheese) for the first time since being on WW. Man, it was good. Then went out to lunch with some guys from work and the best I could do was grilled cheese and fries, then had a potluck dinner last night. But like I said, getting back to exercising. I think I'll probably finish at least on par for the week, and I've had three good weeks the last three weeks, so I'm not too concerned.

46.2 pounds in 27 weeks, so far. A friend brought me over a bag of her old suits for me to try—she was a 12 before she got pregnant (and she's planning not to work for awhile after the baby is born, so she won't need them), and I gave away my size 12 suits years ago. But I'm definitely starting to wear 12s more often than 14s, down from 18W-20W when I started.

I lost 40 pounds in about 6 months before the wedding.  Now I've gained about 5-10 back and I don't care!!

Rather than following a strict diet, I've decided (for now - we'll see how well it works out) to NOT diet.  As long as I am exercising regularly, I have 2 rules for myself:  eat breakfast and don't eat after 7:30 p.m.  So far I have only broken the 7:30 rule a couple of times.

I still have about 30 pounds to lose in order to get to my truly desirable weight.  But I'm happy with where I'm at now, even though I have a few extra pounds on me.  My main focus is now on being healthy (by continuing to exercise) and not depriving myself.  Because I can't do that long-term.

The weight gain all started from a bad bout of pneumonia which left me listless for months, and where I didn't exercise and got depressed.  So now that my body can handle it again, I'm just upping the exercise regimen in phases and hoping that this works for me.

to all in their new regimens or sticking to their old ones.

It's great to hear everyone's plans and determination.

Here's a Divine intervention story for you:
I was very upset after taking a stray cat in to my vet. I thought he just had a little cut under his eye. Turns out he's a she, she's pregnant, and she's sick and has to have systemic medicine that will harm the kitties. If she doesn't get the medicine, they'll be born with her illness. And I'm bawling over kittens that are doomed no matter what I decide.

I barely got out of the grocery store without buying and eating a cake. I pulled in the parking lot of a restaurant and thought that maybe a bakery wasn't the best choice. I called a cat-loving OA friend and after her comfort decided that a nearby Vietnamese restaurant would be a better choice. But it was closed.

I saw a sub shop that advertised Tasty Cakes. @$#@! low carb and the horse it swallowed, I said. I'm having a sub and a Tasty Cake. Then when I'm giving my order I noticed they'd make your sub into a salad for no extra charge. So I got that instead, a Diet drink, and---I swear, I would have got that Tasty Cake, but they were out of them.

I laughed, said a silent thank you, and sat down with a perfectly acceptable meal for health & weight loss. And felt much better. The Divine does care about the details.

One of the most popular texts in Buddhist literature is the Dhammapada.  It's an organized list of pithy sayings by the Buddha (Gotama).

Surprisingly, one of the topics that comes up frequently is moderation with regard to food.  Buddha considered restraint around food to be quite important to spiritual growth.  Here, he's talking about monks, but you get the idea:

"Not to speak harshly and not to harm others, self restraint in accordance with the rules of the Order, moderation in food, a secluded dwelling, and the cultivation of the higher levels of consciousness -- this is the teaching of the Buddhas." -D 185

Like most other things with regard to the Buddha's teachings, you can "fake it until you make it."  Whatever you have to do to restrain yourself, do it.  Before too long, you'll have developed enough to restrain yourself with much less effort.