Day 9 - My Most Recent Success (HA!)

I am calling this "Day 9" because I actually started this diet on May 19, and have been doing pretty good so far. I've lost 7 pounds, but don't let that get you too excited, this always happens the first week on a new eating regime.

My most recent weight loss effort, previous to this, took place beginning March 15, 2008, I weighed 161 pounds. By June, I was feeling pretty good. By August, I weighted 127 pounds and I looked amazing. I was on track, things were feeling great. I thought for sure this time I had it all figured out. As I mentioned in my previous post, I accomplished this through calorie counting (I ate about 1200 per day in the first couple of months and then upped it to 1300-1400 until I reached my goal) and lots of calorie burning at the gym.

In September 2008, I went away on a three day business trip by myself. Eating three meals a day in a hotel room with no one to raise their eyebrows at the amount I was eating... and I ate a LOT! It was like I'd never tasted food before, after more than 6 months of super healthy eating. I came home feeling horrible and bloated, with my pants tight at the waist. I was afraid to step on the scale and address the damage.

The following weeks went something like this. Friday night out to a restaurant. Eat something bad. Weekend tailspin of bad eating. Monday morning start fresh and stay good until Friday night... repeat. This routine somehow kept me from gaining a ton of rapid weight, but it also held me back from losing the weight that I gained on my business trip.

Enter Christmas, and three solid weeks of completely senseless pigging out. Again, afraid to weigh myself. After Christmas, I tried at least 3 or 4 times to get myself re-started, but I just couldn't go very long without a relapse. Then we had our annual 2 week family vacation down south (no bikini this year). And here I am. I finally stepped on the scale last week. 168.8!! I nearly died. But there it is. It's a fact, and now I have to deal with it!!

So, I am back to the formula that has worked so well for me in the past, logging my food and counting my calories. I am aiming for 1300 calories per day, I will average my calories over the week, to allow more freedom for example, last week looked like this:













Most days, I will also post my food intake for the previous day, like this: