Today is day 899. As some of you who follow my postings over the last
couple of years now, I lost a lot of weight (45 kg) by mirroring what
is basically a Weight Watchers flex points plan, but counting calories
instead of points and doing it myself (since there is no WW here in
Japan).

But since the beginning of the year, weight has been creeping back,
and over the last few months my will-power for sticking with the plan
has been very erratic - good days and bad days.

Recently I've tried experiments with Core, but I'm sad to report they
have not worked out well. After a couple of weeks on Core, even though
my weight went down a bit originally, it started to creep up again and
I went from 92.8 kg when I started a couple of weeks ago to 93.8 kg
this morning. I think the problem is basically that there are a lot of
relatively high-calorie foods on Core and I just naturally gravitate
towards them. A couple of small examples: When I have to journal
everything I tend to eat the lowest calorie vegies, like broccoli and
carrots and green beans and mushrooms. But on Core, I take advantage
of the fact that even the highest calorie, starchy vegetables allowed
and go more for corn and pea mixes, pumpkin and things like that.
Similarly, when counting calories I almost never eat beef or pork and
tend to have white mean chicken and fish for my protein. But on Core I
eat more lean beef and pork, which is higher calorie. As a result, on
Core I just eat more calories.

<sigh>

So this morning I'm making a resolve to just go back to the plan that
I was on for the first couple of years - 1700 calories per day with
1000 free calories for the week - with exercise calories to help
provide extra little bonuses.

What I need to figure out is this basic, fundamental point: Why was I
able to do this so well for over two years without even thinking of
going off the plan, yet lately it seems all I do is go off the plan?
What has changed?

But there is nothing I can do but try try again. That is the advice I
consistently gave to other people when they were having trouble. So I
will follow my own advice.

What else can I do?

Obviously I have to journal everything I eat - and stick within the
calorie limits - somehow.

doug