I find its easier to be disaplined when you are miles from your goal .. you look in the mirror and see the weight that NEEDS to come off ... you know that eating the wrong things will stop you getting where you ned to be.

However i find sometimes when your closer to the end its harder because i do sort of let myself think oh just a little bit wont hurt im almost there anyway, the motivation is harder to find because you don't look that bad in the mirror...

I know right now im finding it hard because the weight is comming off so slowely and im gaining muscle which is heavier anyway i alsmot justify my naughtiness by saying well im gonig to gain wiehgt from muscle anyway .. and if i eat a few extra cals they will turn to muscle in the gym so what does it matter.

I'm 5'3.

Yeah, you guys are so right.  When I'm close (I'm already there basically) I feel like it's okay to indulge.  And before, I was restricting myself to fruits no cookies, no refined anything.  Then, I let myself have some ice cream and after that day it's been all downhill.  :[

But I've been learning moderation, so I tried to eat candy bars and not try eating anymore..ever since then I've been secretly sneaking to the vending machine in the middle of the night.

Carbs..that's what's getting me.  I can buy a loaf of a bread and eat the entire thing.  Twice this week I ate an entire loaf..no moderation! But I'm like..I'm here I'm here! *EATEAT* And then I won't be there, and before I know it I'll be back at square one.

Thank you for your encouragement.  How on earth do I get back on the wagon though? I want to have my treats, but it seems when I do I go a little nutsy.

your doing really well don't be too hard on yourself we all deserve alittle treat now and again.

Breads a killer at the best of time it comes in such big loaves and it almost seems a waste to let it sit there gonig green and fluffy.

My trick is just not not buy it .. if i don't buy it i can't eat it and when i do let myself have alittle treat (ice cream is my downfall) i buy a single serving tub because i KNOW if i buy a big tub that no matter how much i tell myself i'll just have one bowl ... one bowl leads to the whole damn tub every time.

the real trick is to get back on the wagon tommorrow is a new day ... don't beat yourself up over today and the days before you've come so far .. just don't let tommorrow become another day of indulgance.

Another idea might be to shedual a cheat day ... one day every week where you allow yourself a treat and shedual your calorie intake to be higher that day .. but make sure its just one day and calculate how many calories your gonig to allow yourselve to have of the junk.

for me saturday is cheat day, my friends come over so i allow myself 300 extra calories ... somedays i have icecream, or beer whatever but i keep track of them, and some how knowing how many calories im indulging in helps me to keep them limited... as saying sod it just leads to real excess.

just get back on track asap. and if you have a hard time, be sure to log it so that you have to look at it. That will certainly discourage you.

The same thing happened to me - I lost 15 pounds in preparation for my holiday in Mexico - and the week before we left, since I had reached my goal, I reached for the chips, the beer, etc, and gained 10 back in the past month!  Every day I've said I'll get back on CC wagon and log my foods, but today is the first day I've actually started doing it.  I think if we keep logging and force ourselves back to that healthy lifestyle we'll both be back on track.  Good luck!  You've done it before, the second time should be easy.  :)

I think sometimes people go into the eating healthy thing too quickly. I know for me, I'm taking weeks to weed some things out of my diet and replacing them with healthier alternatives. I didn't start this saying I was going to cut out certain foods at all.

Instead, I know I love cake/icecream/cookies/candy far too much to ever get to the point where I didn't have them about once a week or so. In fact, I've gotten into the habit of buying a cake  for myself, and eating a slice or two a day. Right now, I have chocolate covered strawberries and half of a sweet potato pie sitting in my fridge. When I want a sweet snack or a tiny dessert (may even have one dessert per meal on some days, lol), I grab a strawberry or grab a fork and take a few bites of pie. Learning to have this sort of self-control with food I love to overeat and binge on has helped me greatly--especially on days where I don't consume enough calories. Even if these are filler calories, they at least help me stay at a healthy calorie range.

However, I have added things like salad to my diet, and some fruit (working on eating a banana every day), and changed what I eat on my sandwiches (unfortunately, mayo has been replaced. Poor mayo. =(), and cut some of the oil I used to cook my stirfry in, and switched out two servings of rice with two extra peppers and extra meat. I do need to find ways to add more protein to my diet, but I'm slowly working on that. For me, doing this slowly is going to help me much longer in the long run, and help prevent binge days the closer to my goal weight I get. After all, I'm still losing and still get to enjoy the foods I love practically every day, if I wanted to.

It's weird because I have never restricted carbs before, I usually have a sandwich every day, and eat lots of bread in general.  I just saw it in front of me and thought a few slices wouldn't kill me, and then I overate..like a madwoman. There's just something about bread that makes me eat it.  But I don't think I'm 113 anymore, I weighed myself and I'm about 118. :/

But I'm defiantly not gaining all that weight I lost back, that would be horrible..all those long hours at the gym for nothing?! No way! I don't think I'll be good with keeping a cake in my fridge..I'd eat it all..haha.

I find it helpful to put a restriction on weekly amounts vs daily amounts.  For instance... When I lived alone and no one could see me doing it, I would over do the red wine and Ben and Jerry's chocolate fudge brownie while watching lame tv shows late at night.  I found only allowing myself one bottle and one pint a week worked really well.  A small glass of wine, which is actually good for you some say, and 5-10 bites of really tasty ice cream can be satisfying.  If I "accidentally" have the whole bottle the first night, I have to wait a week before I get more... It works for me.

Another idea... my parents go through bread slowly, so my mom freezes it, two slices per baggie.  If you have to wait for your slices for your sandwich to defrost, or toast, maybe you'd be less likely to have more than the two...  just an idea.

Good Luck!  and Congrats on the 25 lbs, I'm jealous  :)

I find it helpful to put a restriction on weekly amounts vs daily amounts.  For instance... When I lived alone and no one could see me doing it, I would over do the red wine and Ben and Jerry's chocolate fudge brownie while watching lame tv shows late at night.  I found only allowing myself one bottle and one pint a week worked really well.  A small glass of wine, which is actually good for you some say, and 5-10 bites of really tasty ice cream can be satisfying.  If I "accidentally" have the whole bottle the first night, I have to wait a week before I get more... It works for me.

I agree with this. Now, I don't give myself weekly allowances, but I do allow myself to have a few bites a night of either my Ben&Jerry's Cinnamon Buns ice cream, and a few bites of pie, and that's it. Depriving myself doesn't work. I allow myself these foods in small doses daily, so I don't ever miss them. I do, however, say I can't have some tomorrow if I overeat it a bit today.

Today, I also had a meal at IHOP for the first time in a few months. Loved it, ate half of it, probably consumed the amount of calories I had left for the day, and am still full. Which is fine with me, because that just means I won't have to worry about overeating today with my calories, even though I'll probably gain a pound or two tomorrow. Since I weigh myself daily, I know that fluctuations as I rid the extra sodium from my body are to be expected. That scale is still moving steadily down, though, and I don't eat very diet-y. Yes, more fruits and veggies have made their way in, but I still like my ice cream, and I still like my occasional meal at a restaurant that has meals that are worth almost as many calories as I eat a day. =P I just know that I have a yummy omelette to look forward to tomorrow morning. <3