Weight Management: Figuring it all out

**Scroll to bottom for update**

I cannot sleep. I was showered and in the bed at 8:15pm. I checked my email, surfed for a few moments, and shut down the computer at 8:30pm. As I was about to rest my head on the pillow, I saw a news story that made me decide to call my mom to chat with her about it for 2 or 3 minutes. We talked for a solid hour. :-)

At 9:30, I laid my head on my pillow to go to sleep. Never happened. Let's go back...waaay back.

Back in May of 2006, my hubby and I went on a cruise to the Bahamas. I had begun exercising pretty regularly for about a month or so prior and I was feeling very fit at the time of the vacation. I wore lots of cutesy outfits because I felt great and I was very confident. I weighed 180 lbs.

By the end of the following summer, I had lost another 15 lbs or so and was down to 165 lbs. By the time Christmas rolled around, we began planning for our Spring 2007 trip to Orlando. I wanted to get down to 155lbs by the time the Orlando trip rolled around; I know that I can fit into my size 8 pants and shorts at that weight. So 2007 rolls in, and I decide to kick it into high gear. I began taking fat burners and working out everyday. Why the fat burners? They suppress my appetite, and I get to the point where I'm only eating because I know that I should. This means that I wasn't craving anything in particular, and was fine with eating fruit for breakfast and bland skinless chicken breasts and broccoli spears for lunch and dinner everyday. I do not endorse fat burners for everyone; you have to be very careful and be sure that you know what's good and what's bad for your body.

I hit 155 by the beginning of February! There were still about three pair of my skinny size-6 pants that I couldn't fit into comfortably. So I decided why not lose another 7 or 8 lbs or so? By the time March 1 rolled around, I was down to 143! When I look back at pictures from the Disney trip earlier this year, I just love how skinny I look.

So now it's October of 2007. Seven months later. And I have managed to gain 24 lbs back. I currently weight 167 lbs. How do you gain 24 lbs in seven months? You have a good friend give you the best chocolate chip cookie recipe on earth. And you bake said cookies "for your kids" every other day for 3 solid months. Oh, and you also abandon the gym, and instead, eat a burger and fries from Wendy's for lunch everyday. Yep, that'll pretty much do it. Not to mention the fact that when you're 5'9, you can carry a lot of weight before it starts to become obvious that you've gained too much.

HERE'S THE QUESTION: At what point am I making the switch from working out everyday and eating healthy to eating like a pig and skipping the gym? That's what I need to figure out. That's why it's really good to keep a journal or a blog. I can go back and look through my posts over this past year and determine what my mindset was, what my actions were, and hopefully I can get an idea of where exactly I keep crossing the line from fit to fat.

More on this later...

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Update - 10:20am

It was just brought to my attention that I never explained how this all ties in to my insomnia last night. The fat burners that I mentioned above have high amounts of caffeine (which ties in to the loss of appetite). Therefore, when you take them for the first time (or the first time in over a year) your body and mind have to resynchronize themselves, so to speak, due to the sudden boost to your metabolism. This makes it difficult to feel tired enough to sleep during this adjustment period. Don't worry, my body will be adjusted by tomorrow at this time I'm sure. Crash and burn much?