Hi Tara,

I'll jump in on this one! I try on pants/shorts/whatever. You know,
the ones you bought years ago and held onto because you wil fit in
them again! I have varying levels of size so I go for the closest fit
first. For instance, I put on a pair of shirts this morning that 2
weeks ago were too tight and today fit fine. That is a great motivator
to keep going! Nothing like the promise of what I *will* be able to
wear to keep me on track. LOL.

Ally
212/196/160

I don't know anything about Dr. Phil's diet... but I sympathize! I
hate eating the exact same thing all the time. Is there any way at all
you can vary them and still stick to the plan? (I'm thinking
preparation, spices, condiments, marinades, that sort of thing...)

Cynthia

Tara,
I'm like you , I mean that I have too may BAD DAYS and I slow myself way
down because I 'give-in' to a binge SOMETIMES! Hey, the reason we ARE
doing this IS BECAUSE we are this kind of person! NOT EASY to lose this
weight ETC!!!! Hang in there!! IT WILL be okay as you find a way to
strengthen yorself! I am better today but Mon. was NOT good. I'm back
plus stronger too!

<HUGS> to you!

glo

It's tough to keep the motivation going 24/7.  Just keep thinking about
those things you want to do when you're at goal.  My biggest motivator has
been keeping my health in my retirement years.  I'll be retiring in a few
years and I want to spend my time doing things with the grandkids, riding
bikes, traveling, etc.  These would be in jepordy if I were in poor health.
Hey....I have a great-grandchild on the way and I want to be around to
teach him/her to ride bikes, too.

Can you substitute some of the foods on the 14 day plan for more variety?
I've semi followed his 14 day plan before but didn't go strictly by the
book.  I simply took the outline of carbs/protein/fats allowed for the day
and inserted by own foods.

Beverly

Minigoals. I keep track of my BMI, which is dropping a full point
every month (my current end goal is a 24.0 BMI, though I won't stop
dieting until I can fit into some old-school 501's that got tight ten
years ago.

Tracking inches on the waistline, fat on the legs.

Graphing (in Excel) my weight loss over time, so I can enjoy a picture
of my progress. It would have been fun to take daily pictures to do
some sort of "morphing" thing, but I'm too lazy for that.

Thinking about where I want to be in 3-4 months, and eating the same
thing every day for a while isn't necessarily a curse.

It's kind of liberating in its way, in that it simplifies calorie
tracking, and in my case leaves more calorie space for variations on
dinner.

Plus I got a LOT hungrier more often on my former non-diet WOE (with
all the sugar and starch bombarding my system). I'd never know I was
on a 1000-kcal day deficit with this WOE, but my 12-week weight drop
doesn't lie (except that I need to exercise more to limit muscle loss,
especially to my upper body).

Heywood

232/208/182

I kept on track by eating pretty low cal during the week, and having a
refeed or "free" day on the weekend.  Usually it wasn't a whole day, but one
good sized meal - usually an Outback steak, creamy onion soup, veggies, a
beer, and a chocolate thunder brownie.  yeah, it was a ton of calories in
one sitting, but it kept me on my eating during the week because I knew if I
was "good" I would get to splurge.  Some people might think this is
unhealthy, but it worked for me.  I survived months of eating tuna, veggies,
cottage cheese and protein powders...  Then again, I still eat that stuff,
but not with the regularity like when i first started out.

det

Hi Tara,

Many of us find our motivation waning. I also find my motivation
waning at times. At those moments, I try to remember that I have no
alternative.

As for Dr Phil plan, are you sure that it is impossible to have
variety?

Also, you lost 30 lbs and you were quite overweight! It is never easy
to lose weight from such starting point. How fast did you lose it? Can
you try to maintain your loss for a little while, and resume losing
weight? Or just eat a bit more? Try to think of solutions.

i

Reading weight loss success stories inspire me a lot.
Weightwatchers.com always has a few.

Steve

For me it boils down to the real issue and asking myself the real
question.

The real issue is - If I quit I gain it all back and then some.  If I
stay on the plan, even *try* to stay on the plan, I keep most of it
off.  If I really adhere to the actual directions, I lose.

The real question is - Do I want today to be the day I decide that I
want to gain it all back and then some?  Or is today I want to try,
and thus to at least keep it off?  Or is tday the day I want to
follow the directions, all of the directions, and lose?

It's a very hard set of questions even when I ask myself that way.
There are days I would really rather have a bag of Fritos and head
back up in weight.  But there are a lot more day I want to try,
enough to keep it off.  And there are enough days I am willing to
follow the directions that I don't keep drifting up.

Sure, loss motivates.  The vast majority of time is NOT spent in
the loss phases.  If you can't find your way to find some other
motivation, you're already in severe danger.

What motivated me was a diet competition we had on the job.

The rules:
1. $50 to get in
2. weekly weigh-ins (first and last weigh-in you must remove shoes, belts,
and stuff from pockets)
3. must lose 2 pounds each week or ante up $5
4. if you miss a weigh-in, you have to lose 4 pounds or pay up $10
5. whoever lose the most weight, based on calculation of of weekly
weigh ins.

We had the contest for about 8 weeks. Thus if you never pay the $5
penalty, you would have lost 16 pounds. I barely won the contest, losing
about 28 pounds. Now I am down to my college weight, I'd like to lose
about 8 more pounds, bringing me down to high skool weight.

Basically I followed the subway (or quiznos) diet. Eating a 6in turkey
or roasted chicken breast with no cheese, *loaded* with veggies, and the
low fat sauces, baked chips, diet pop about twice a day. I'd snack on
fat free pretzels, 94% fat free popcorn, etc. BTW, I did the subway diet
years ago, before jared made it famous ;-)

The contest made it fun for me. My teammates knew that peanut butter was
my weakness: I never touched the peanut butter candy bars on my
monitor. ;-)  

Good luck..you can do it

BTW, what do the numbers below your sig mean? I am a noob here.