Need a Kick in the Butt

All my life it seems that big events like vacations through me off my well-laid plans.  I'm not sure yelling at you would help, but maybe many of us need to recognize (talking about ME here) that things that disrupt our careful routines may cause difficulties beyond the event itself.  That's certainly been my history.  It's like my brain gets "rebooted" while on vacation or on a longer business trip and it clears out my memory of what I'm supposed to do.

Maybe following the lead of the main character in "Memento" - we need to tattoo our mantras and our routines on our bodies so we can't so easily be distracted.

- Eat Protein

- Drink Water

- Take Vitamins

- Exercise

Pretty simple, really.  But so easy to sweep under the rug.

and don't forget that we should write down our access passwords somewhere because invariably when I get back from vacation I can't log into my computer until someone resets the password for me because I forgot it... duh... 

Look here - if i can get my crazy ass on track, what's wrong with you???

Go get yourself 2 32oz bottles of water or powerade zero or whatever you like, put some vitamins in your pocket, cook a bunch of chicken breast and cut into bite size pieces, and then go about your day - drink the water, take your vitamins, and eat the chicken before you start your meal :) Problem solved. 

Yes! Are you back on track? I hope so, I so want you to succeed. I need you to succeed. Food wise I am good and I wish I could eat chicken. Makes me vomit and I love chicken. I think I am just going to cook a bunch of it and force myself to eat and vomit until I can keep it down. Show my stomach who is boss.

I am not off track though, just need some refinement. The water is the one that has be baffled. I just never feel thirsty even though I know I am retaining water and dehydrated. I just have to start recording the water again, I stopped for some reason and I need to set periodic reminders to check my log.

Thanks for the kick!

Im on a better track...ill say that. Im still playing around trying to find something I can work with for an extended period. The paleo did well for 2 months, but I cant do it now, so gotta find something else. I went back and looked at my 800 days or so of logging and took the foods that I ate when I was losing the most weight and went back to eating those. Seems to be keeping my mind from screaming about food 24/7 lol. 

So it sounds like you are headed in the right direction. I was going to suggest rather than looking for a specific program that you put together a hybrid program. You know you want to to keep carbs lower and nutrition high. I would think for you eating more raw than not might be a good thing given your health issues and the whole let food be your medicine thing and all. Maybe not cut out carbs all together but keep them to a minimum like whole wheats and brown rice kind of thing. Keep sugars to a min, processed food to a min. You know how to lose weight so it was a good idea to look back at your log to see what you were eating when you were dropping. I think to be most successful you need to have a "go to" group of foods that you enjoy and fit your desired profile. Something that you can eat even when you are in a slump. For me that is Thai Shrimp with Chili Paste. I can always eat that no matter what.

I play with my macros depending on what I am doing. Weight lifting days I make sure to get some brown carbs, either a half piece of whole wheat toast with breakfast post workout or some brown rice with lunch post work out. But on light cardio days or rest days I keep the carbs low and protein always high. It does get old eating proteins. I have a few fake treats that I try to get when I get those cravings though. I mix different things with yogurt and if you like cinnamon bran type cakes Jamie Eason has a great cinnamon swirl cake recipe. I cut half the oat flour with flax meal and added a whole egg and one egg white and it cut the carbs, increased the good fats a bit and its really tasty. I also mix **** into my protein shakes to make them more like a treat and less like a chore. 

I know I am not in the same place as you so I probably do not really know what you are feeling, but hopefully you can find something that works for you and if I can be of any help on the nutrition or exercise please do not hesitate to ask.

Keith... AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!$%$%$&*($&^#^@&@*@()!)!!!_ consider that you have been yelled at. Now stop the nonsense and get with it man. It's not like you don't know what is north and what is south and you really don't want to go there again - just have a look at one of your before pictures and that should do it. If it doesn't.. then you need more than yelling or butt kicking.

What I need are two assistants dressed as slave girls with bottles of water to stand behind me while I work and make me drink from time to time.

I'll leave it to the others to continue to provide their sage advice about how to get back on track, but I'd like to offer up an observation that I witness often here. I'm certainly no expert, but I've successfully made it to goal without much difficulty, so I hope you can hear what I'm saying. 

It seems to me that many of the folks who have built 'indulgences' into their weight loss programs have a very difficult time when they get to within striking distance of goal.  The pattern seems to be that the indulgences start taking on a life of their own. They become more frequent, more extreme, and more difficult to dial back from.  Soon, the overall caloric intake goes up and people begin slipping into maintenance mode, which means they may never get to their goal weight.  They get close, but they don't get there.  That's certainly a valid choice to make, but in many cases, it seems that not reaching goal was not a conscious choice, but rather an inevitable outcome of the higher caloric intake.  

So at least for me, my weight loss phase was very straightforward and successful because I did not permit indulgences.  Instead, I focused on getting to goal as quickly as possible.  Now, I'm in maintenance.  That's a formal decision, based on my outcomes, so I get to make different choices. 

Sorry, but that's how I see it.  You wouldn't sugar coat the truth for anyone else, so I'm doing the same for you.  You are a very smart and inspirational person.  You can and will figure this out!

Very wise observation :)