Hi Angela. Congrats on both of your anniversaries!

You took the words right out of my mouth... er... or the post right out of my fingers, I guess. I was thinking of starting a thread on realistic vs unrealistic goals, because there are the occasional "I'm determined to lose 20 lbs in four weeks" posts.

You are absolutely correct when you say that you can only make a goal out of the part you have control over. You don't have control over the number on the scale. You only have control over the decisions you make about your eating and exercise. If you'd like to lose x amount of pounds before someone's wedding, that's cool - but you can't make that a goal. That would be like making a nice, sunny 70 degree day a goal. It would be nice, but you can only *hope* for it: you can't force it to happen.

Unrealistic:
"I want to lose at least 15 lbs by the end of induction"

Realistic:
"I want to successfully complete two weeks of induction, and get x amount of exercise."

Unrealistic:
"I want to be a size x before my vacation"

Realistic:
"I want to be as slim and healthy as possible before my vacation"

Unrealistic time limits only lead to disappointment and frustration.

On dealing with life and LCing? How would you have dealt with all that misfortune on a sudden diet turnaround to hospital vending machine chips and chocolate bars? It's easy to use life stress as an excuse to bow out. After all, don't you 'deserve it'; don't you 'need a break'? NO: what you need and *deserve* is to take care of yourself so that you can be 100% when others need you. If you cease taking care of yourself, you're going to fall apart.