Ask me what I've learned lately and this is what I'll tell you.

Our house is torn apart for ongoing repairs and construction and insurance is paying for us to stay at a hotel with a "full" kitchen.  Ha!  Full kitchen means two burners and no oven, just a microwave.  Much of my planning ahead got abandoned.  They offer free breakfast, little of which is helpful to me, but since my husband goes down there to eat, I have been going, as well.  I have indulged in my guilty pleasure, oatmeal.  I've indulged in other guilty pleasures.  I've not been eating too mu*****uantity but certainly in calories.  And the longer we live this way, the worse it has gotten.

How easy it will be to slip into bad habits if I'm not careful.  Once we're back in our house with our kitchen I also expect to slip back into good habits easily.  BUT I am not waiting.  This morning I ate cottage cheese and blueberries (measured and logged) for breakfast, and then went to the dining room with my husband to drink coffee while he ate his breakfast.  And I immediately felt better, in more control, happier.

To my surprise, I actually LIKE the limits and rules I'm using post-sleeve, and getting back into the groove is a relief.  I've gained a couple or trhee pounds (not sure exactly) which annoys me, and am ready to get back to the straight and narrow.  I am spending my days at the house i the midst of all the construction and nights at the hotel, and it looks like hopefully we'll be back home soon.  It all depends on whether we come home early and put up with the mess or stay at the hotel until it's finished.  I haven't figured out which I want to do, because the mess really is depressing, but we've turned a corner and now they're on the "paint" and "tile" and "make things pretty" phase so I may find myself willing to move back into it sooner.

I think part of the life style change we have to make is learning to adapt to these curve balls - sounds like you are figuring out your game plan. That's great!

Dont beat yourself up over what is done - as long as you recognize that it's not what you want to do on a daily basis when you have everythingin order - it's just a temporary situation. I think you've used it as a learning opportunity which you should celebrate :) 

I can certainly tell you that I feel MUCH better about everything today than I did before I took the bull by the horns and tackled it.  So yes, I'm celebrating that!

Thanks!

 Congrats on choosing to make better choices.  I completely empathize.  I have not had a real kitchen for about 2 months.  We just got the cabinets yesterday; hope to get them installed over the weekend.  Once they are in the countertop guys take measurements and then it is just 2 more weeks until I have a real honest to goodness kitchen again. 

Hang in there.  

We still have to have our kitchen redone, but that won't be for awhile longer.

Another Dallas person!  Where did you get your sleeve done?

You know, the monkey tells me how deprived I'll feel if I don't eat X, or how I deserve X because things have been so hard, or that X would really make me feel better.  I'm serious.  I hear that voice every day.  But it's a lie!  And I'm always surprised.  Always.  There is *nothing* more comforting that eating on my plan.  The relief is enormous, and I feel like a million bucks.  But those lies before-hand, they're heartbreaking, really.

I have to come here and work on these things every day so I can keep recognizing the monkey's voice.  If I don't keep on my game, it starts sounding just like *my* voice, which I have a much much much harder time not listening to.

Sounds like you did great!  The committment to stay on plan is so important, but we all need the committment to get *back* on plan, too.  None of us are perfect, and success goes to the persistent.  IMHO.

Coming here really does make a difference.  I find it's hard to come when I'm making bad choices, although that's never the reason I give myself.  "Too busy," too distracted," "can't handle that right now..." which really means, "don't want to face the truth!"

Oh, I hear you on that!  But it's false pride for me, that's for sure.  And like eating on plan, I'm always glad to be back.

I can relate.  I took a two week vacation out of the country and I vacationed from everything, including my eating plan.  I ate my protein and didn't drink with meals, but I also ate pastry, ice cream, some rice, a little potato - things that I don't ordinarily touch.  Enjoyed the heck out of it and didn't have a bad reaction to a thing, AND came home weighing exactly what I weighed when I left!

But at the end of the two weeks, I was so ready to get back into my now-normal eating schedule and foods.  It was a relief to come home to the old stand-bys.  And I was thrilled to know that I could do it - go off plan and get right back on - without a hiccup.

That's like our stay in Hawaii.  I ate protein, stayed in plan a lot of time, but also ate out of it.  Came back weighing the same.  I call that a good thing.

This is different because my reaction to it is different.  I have let myself lose control of what I eat, and instead eat what is available (even when I could have chosen on plan with only a bit more effort). 

Congrats on your trip, your weight-stability, and returning to normal!