I'm approaching my third year here on CK and haven't met my goal weight yet because I have taken a year off from losing. As I sign up for another year, I guess it will be a good time to look at my goals and determine if I am really going to want lose those last 25 pounds or so. This year I took time off to spend time with my inner self to get to understand the whys I over eat and binge. I'm glad I did because I don't think I could have gone onto the next level of dieting without doing so.

I had reached burn out bad after a year and a half on a reduced caloric intake. I had set myself up for some big mental pity parties that unless I dealt with them, I would have trouble keeping this weight loss off. I needed to really exam the my stress factors, my emotional triggers, my negative thought patterns, the things I kept doing over and over that I had trouble stopping that would hinder my success. This year as I discovered and wrote these things down, I tackled each one of these mental weaknesses and asked others how they dealt with them.

I have a little list for food addicts piling up in my notebook. Some are practical like : keep junk food out of the house to stop eating sugar and wheat products if you want to stop cravings, to the more spiritual such as develop a daily prayer and Bible study in order to know God. ( This by far has been the most helpful to me in over coming my binge eating along with giving up TV )

With all this said, I feel this third year I will have a better chance in putting food know how, exercise, discipline, desire to finish my task, and patience to see it though. SO, with a renewal of membership, comes a renewal in heart. Till I can write some more... I'll be off line a while as I must have some more back surgeries this month. Same old stuff I get done to my back every three or four months !!!! Still, it wipes me out because I have to be put under ! Talk to you all when it's all over and I'm rested up again.

Weight is holding steady. Food is normal !!!!!!!!