I am hoping to hoist myself back onto the saddle, man, I have had a rough ride ... I am going to weigh myself tomorrow and will see what the actual damage is after two months of "letting go"

I am so glad to see you back. I have missed you! I hope all is well in your life. Talk to you soon. Tina

I am back, I look at my thread and I cannot believe I was doing so well and I let myself down.

I have now started back on the program as of the 5th of January. I will weigh myself every week and take it from there.

This is it, if I fail again, well, what can I say...

I am so glad you are back. It is a new start and I know you can do this! I have been away for awhile but am back on track. Wow I am really glad to see your name. We can do this! It is a new year and a new attitude and here we go! Take care Tina

Thank you Tina. Glad to be here again.

Since my last post - I have lost 1.4kgs as on 16 January 2009. I know this is not a lot, but I am happy about it. At least I am moving and this time I intend to keep moving until I hit goal weight - no matter how long it takes for me to get there.

I am a stressful eater. I am so stressed at work and I can see with all the things that I am eating.

I do not want to sound defeated but I do not know how to control myself against stressful eating. I may do very well during the weekday but come evening or weekend, all control and self-respect is out the window.

If there is anyone who has dealt with this and can help, I am all ears.

Cheers

HI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am a stressful eater too!!!! any problem I have I'm stuffing my mouth with something just to deal... I don't know why...

I have really healthy snacks around now and water to try to help with my eating issues... I guess the easiest way to stop is by just doing it... I know much easier said than done..

I'm wonderign about this Cohen diet... Do you like it?? How is it?? is it real hard??

I love the rapid weight loss.. What's really been helping me lately truly is this forum... Whenever I am stressed or something I just log on and write it in my diary...

Wow!!! Good luck this year!!! The best is yet to come.. I know you can do it... Wooooooooooohooooooooooooooooooo

Another thing that really helps is writing down everything you eat and looking back on it.. Well good luck and if you ever need anything let me know...

Hi Gjeans... I am a second timer too... You can do it... Keep up the good work...

Okay it was few years between my attempts and i now have a new program... its a real shame i didnt get a new one straight off, it has made a huge difference to my abilities to with stand temptation.. I failed the first time around because i wouldnt change my ways.. i could have, but i just chose to take the good old lets eat our way out....it worked but i ended up at 116-118 kg by 2006.... and yes i took another two years for me to accept my problems and bad habbits..

When i am stressed or upset, Nervous or angry.. I first decide ( with the help of cohens) why and who? then i take check, what was my instinct: Usually to grab the most sugary or fatty and salty thing i have in the house or if there is nothing i want i go buy.... (tut tut 4 me).. I still have this instinct, i also found out if i am tired i do the same thing also... even now if the kids stress me or frustrate me the first thing i want is some bad food... it seems to be my escape from everything and now i cannot, sorry, i choose not to use that path.. it has opened my eyes, i am really seeing exactly what i have been doing, and so much boredom eating.... its almost as if a light bulb has turned on..

When i want something i tell myself it will come again, there is always another event or birthday.. nothing i cant put off , dont get me wrong i attend i just take my food and fizzy drink...christmas was hard but once again i told myself.. what bad habbits you have chelle..ha ha ha... and again it will be here in the blink of an eye, it seems that way every christmas doesnt it?..... The other tactic is reminding myself exactly how much longer i shall remain on the program if i deviate.. I know cohens changes everything and it is a life change not a temporary thing, i remind myself when i have completed refeed, i will have broken many bad habbits, found the old/new me and i will be able to eat lots of yummy things but i must use the word yes with caution..lots of caution...

I think the road to your recovery is within you.. You have all the answers and the strength......

Sorry to ramble its just so hard to keep these sorts of things short.. well i find it hard...

But just as a note my mother and i both got a new program, if you find your cravings are still there, your program may no longer be for you, it really isnt a story they tell us about old programs... we were both amazed how easy things went after we got our new programs.. BTW that might also be another incentive for me not to deviate , the price of my new program was $750.00 thats a huge incentive.. there will be no third time..ha ha ha

Anyway apologies again for turning this posting into a novella... Good luck, be strong and be kind to yourself... You have already taken such a huge step... pat yourself on the back..

Dont be shy come and visit us,in the cohens section... lots of activity in there these days...

"May the water be with you"
TTFN
Chelle

Thank you so much to you both Ivette8uNOmore and Fifty2drop.

Ivette, I find that Cohen is the only programme that I have been on that has worked for me. I have been on a few in my time and I just lost very little and gained it all back and more. I know having fallen off the rail, it is a little embarrasing to still admit that it works, but the truth is that it does, only thing is my willpower. I guess at the crux of it, every diet works when one has the right frame of mind.

Talking about frame of mind, well, I guess I have still not gotten it right. I have just gone and did myself in again. Having started, I backtracked and I am back to where I was in December .

But standing on the scale this morning (I don't own one, i go to the chemist close to my house - I don't want to buy a scale just as yet, I may weigh myself everyday - what do you think?) I decided enough has to be enough. I cannot do this to myself. My intention, and I want to put it down here, is to be 100% today. Drink my water, eat my portions and take it one day at a time. I will also enter an account of myself in my diary every day - that way, I have to be honest with myself.

So, here is the bad news, I am now 87.7 - whew, that sucks even just typing it in.

Fifty2Drop, thank you so much for the encouragement, you have said everything that makes sense and that I know but that I just do not do. I will check out the Cohen section, maybe start another diary there too, that way I can be accountable to others who are on the same programme. I will be checking your entries as well.

Will be back tomorrow.

Hey Gjeans
You will figure it all out just take one day at a time. This is possible for us all. We just have to lean on each other now and then for support. I had a bad weekend of eating and not exercising so I feel really bad. To make it worst I did not even make it to the gym today. I planned to but got really busy here at home and did not make it. I hate letting myself down but I can't let it eat at me and hit it really hard tomorrow. Just one day at a time. We will win this battle. Take care Tina

It's ok!!!!!!!!!!! you will be fine.. stop getting unmotivated and just do it.. I know you can. So basically on cohen you can never come off it again cuz you regain it.. how long do you have to cheat for and then regain it.. wow it seems pretty hard... but life is hard so who cares.. just do it....

Hey Tina, keep on keeping on girl - you know you are my inspiration and my hero.

Ivette - Cohen is strict relatively speaking - i dont think other people gain as quickly as I do, thing is when I get bad, i get reeeeaaaaally baaaaaad. Its almost like saying now that the 1 tyre is flat, throw caution to the wind - DEFLATE THEM ALL. I have no middle-ground that is my problem.

But that was then, for now all is good - not perfect, just good, my head is above water.

I am starting a slow shuffle in the evening just around the block - I have been thinking one cannot run without walking and not to make a fool of myself in front of all the svelte and healthy people at the gym, I am going to try to gain momentum on my own at first.

I find that evenings are really a knock but today I am hoping that after breaking some sweat, I will feel too tired to open my mouth to temptation.

I have decided I am going to weigh myself on Thursday morning. At least 2x a week should help me to keep focused.

This is it for now.

Cheers

I am doubly happy - I started walking yesterday morning - did 25 minutes. I came back and even through my chest was tight and wheezy I told myself that I am doing it again today. Mornings seem easier for me than afternoons, I can wake up early and can do my thing and come back and my whole day is ahead of me.

Today I went for my walk, 35 minutes I did this morning - I was stiff when I started but I am fine now. I could feel as I am walking that my calves are starting to burn as well as my thighs. Yesterday it was all weird, I felt not a burn but almost like an itchy tickly sensation. And also now that I used the inhaler before the walk I dont feel the tight wheeziness in the chest. So indeed, so far so good.

I took a detour and went to weigh myself at the chemist as well. I am now 85.5kg. I guess it must have been water retention. But I am still happy all the same.

I am now putting myself on a 3-day no deviation challenge. I am going to record every night before I sleep starting tonight whether I deviated or not.

I can do this thing.

I did it, I have not deviated off the plan today, the whole day - 1 know it is only 1 day, but it is a big deal to me. Keeping to this for a day makes me regain hope that I will get the discipline back.

It was a bit difficult in the afternoon especially because I had the yoghurt meal in the morning, but I held on. I have had a lot of water and when it really became almost impossible around 4pm I made myself a cup of coffee and it helped. I am not a coffee person at all, but I guess until I get my rhythm back it is the best thing.

Today is exactly a year since I got my plan and my blood tests from the clinic last year. It is rather sad that 1 year later I am still here, but it also motivates me to really stick to it this time around.

I took pictures today and I am really big, its funny how fat seems to creep up on you and before you know it you have little pockets of fat hanging at awkward angles. What I do know though is that a month from now, there will definitely be change for the better.

Because I gave away my old fat clothes when I was losing last year, I am now in the uncomfortable situation of the new clothes that I got not fitting me. Although I was not going to buy anything new, in December I had to get myself a pair of jeans (wearing them now) as well as a pair of smart black pants (from the Chinese shop though so not expensive but still good quality) for work and church. I am not going to buy much until the clothes that I have are falling off. I still have to lose at least 16 kgs before I get there.

I cannot wear the black pants all week, so I have had to wear things that are out of style (old stuff that i was not prepared to give other people because they are so unattractive) and that really makes me feel fat, they make me look wobbly and even my colleague told me that they were not flattering. This is the price I have to pay for losing control. I do not like the way I look, I remind myself of the old fat me - well, I guess I have gone back to being the fat old me, so I have to get this right this time around

Tomorrow morning I am joining a friend for light taebo (I have never done taebo before so I dont know if I will enjoy it), I know I should not overdo it as yet, but I think exercise will help me get into a better frame of mind. So I will hold off the gym for a while until my body is ready for real action.

So until tomorrow,

What a thing! I feel sore all over - I thought they had a beginners dvd and they had advanced. I didnt back out because it was raining outside so I wouldnt be able to take my walk. Well, i must say it is enjoyable, you sweat profusely and you really work. The 22 minutes that I lasted were worth it though.

But now I am sore from my shoulders down

I am going again tomorrow -yeehaaa!

Yesterday was another victorious day - I had no deviation, I was so busy at work, I only had my meal 2 around 4:30.

Today is the 3rd day of my challenge and weekends are generally terrible for me, but coming back now from my Taebo session with the girls i cannot think of putting anything undesirable in this body. Not after seeing how good it can get. It is such a motivation.

My 2nd day of Taebo, and I did the full dvd - even though not at the level of Billy Blanks. So I am sore, specially my arms after the work-out but I am not hating how my body feels. I even see that I can get to love this. And this is me, Ms No Sweat Please!

Anyhow, there are lots of errands to run today - gotta go.

Cheers