Hi. Im Tara... I am 25 years old.
This is Part II to my journal.
When I was 24 I logged onto Diettalk and had some success so I wanted to try it again.
I winded up getting down from 169 - 145... I stayed on diettalk through the first half of the pounds and it just kept coming off at a pretty fast pace afterwards.
Now unfortunetly I am back at the same weight that I started at, however, if you reads through my original journal you may notice I had a horrible sense of self. Thankfully now I am not in isolation due to embarrassment of my body... but I still would like to lose some weight.
My previous goal was to get down to 130 lbs. Now I will set my goal to be 145 lbs. because honestly at that weight I felt good... I could fit into my clothes and buy some that did not "just fit."
I am diagnosed as a manic depressive and at this time are on "good meds" meaning I feel like I can get out of bed AND not worry about engaging in high risk behaviors.

Today I ate pretty sensibly. I am logging my daily calories on Fitday.com. But so far I had about 500 calories and it is 6pm (yeah I like leaving some room for later on in the night... thats when I tend to be really hungry. This is a cycle I would like to break but for now I will just focus on cutting calories and exercizing).

I will set my caloric intake of 1200-1700 calories a day.
I will exercise at least 3 x a week to start:
-20 min 3x a week to start
and gradually increase.

P.S. Soon I will set up a link to my Fitday.com log.:)

Peace.

Welcome Tara! I have a piece of advice, if you're interested! if you want to break out of eatting at night. Make some goals. for example, this week I will stop eatting after 10pm, week 2 I will stop eatting after 9pm, week 3 stop eatting after 8pm, see about getting yourself to stop eatting by 7pm. I eat only between the hours of 7am-7pm. (12 hour diet.. hee hee hee) Try it! you might find success there!

thanks amanda ((thanks for visiting)).... yeah... definetly goal setting is a great way to keep on track.
im not too hungry tonight (and its 10 pm now) but i only had 800 calories today... so the question is:
to eat or not to eat???
that's what i always got stuck on when i dieted before.
i dont want to just FORCE myself to eat if im under calories.
but i dont want my body to go into starvation mode.

(amanda... i saw your photo. do you have a "before" picture?)

anyway, my plan for tomorrow:
get up early and exercise
i find that going to the gym at the crack of dawn tricks me into exercising longer... maybe im still half asleep and dont know any better haha

Today I woke up early and went to the gym... I did not have an impressive workout but i did work out for 20 minutes.
I did the elliptical machine for 15 min and walked the track for 5.
It is the beginning of my dieting plan so i decided not to beat myself up. it is just harder than i thought to start exercising.
soon i am sure i will be able to go further with my workout.
i just want to first get in the habit of visiting the gym frequently.

so far i ate good today... a pretty well balanced diet of carbs, fat and mostly protein.
had a big dinner.
calories count for the day: 1417

Well yesterday I wound up having 1633 calories... Thankfully it was still under my 1700 cal limit... but I REALLY wanted to overeat in the WORST way. I modifies the cal range this time (last time I dieted I had a 1200 cal limit) because previously, if i went over my 1200 cal limit I would see it as "all hope being lost." I would wind up eating and eating and eating because there was no turning back what I consumed.

Last night I saw The Grudge II. Now I did not see the first, but whatever, I am game for ANY horror movie... especially on Friday the 13th :)
Anyway, I jumped a bit but in no way did it do the job. The characters were not developed enough and the story line was weak.
I am more excited about Saw III anyway. Those movies are BRILLiant.
I went to a diner afterwards because my friend got spooked and did not want to go home... so I had an "early" breakfast and 2:30 am... turkey burger on whole wheat toast, some cole slaw (I could not resist) and a pickel.
I figured sometimes I eat breakfast at 5am so a few hours earlier would be ok.
I didn't wake up hungry... so far I had a yogurt and some coffee.
I am going out for sushi later (woohoo) and seeing my brother's girlfriend in a play.

I have to start working on lowering my fat content... today I am already up to 34 g [shivers]. On thing at a time though... I don't want to jump in full tilt. Instead I want to see myself making the changes and applauding myself for my small successes... because, seriously, cutting down my calories is HUGE for me.

i havent really been traking my calories lately... i had a couple of "bad days" eating too much... but i lost 4 lbs.