{{{Lori}}}

No *smack* here!

I think you need to find a bit of time to play - we can't always be the grown-up, tending to everyone else's needs. If you keep giving there will eventually be nothing left - for you, or your commitments.

With your dedication to making LC work for you, I'm sure you'll be racking up the days on your Cheat Free monitor soon ... but I'm also hoping you'll be selfish from time to time, too!

Take Care ...

Lori...sry that your week-end didn't turn out like you had hoped for. It's hard enough dealing with one thing going wrong in your life let alone a whole multitude. Sometimes under the circumstances you have to give yourself a break. Plan some time for yourself, even if its only a little while each day. I don't look at it as being selfish. I look at it as self-preservation. You aren't good to anyone else if you're all stressed out and rundown yourself! So, take care of yourself! You deserve it!

You definitely need some *YOU* time...I'm glad you still have your sense of humor...thanks for the chuckle!! lol

At least you started back on program with the start of a new week. I too have a child (?24) who has a head pointed in the wrong direction. I don't know what happened to her but this one causes me much greif and stress. I cry for about three days every time I have to deal with her, but alas , She is the one who has to live with her mess. I hope your Mom will be doing better soon. Will you have to take care of her while she heals? These are things that will drive us to "comfort"ourselves with food which in the long run is not comfort at all, but none the less is a temporary fix. This too shall pass one way or the other. I would be eatting ALL the time if I had to deal with teaching in todays schools, or I would be in Jail for killing half the class. So hats off to you Teacher You certainly deserve more than you make.

It sounds like you are dealing with a lot. I hope things ease up for you soon.

It also sounds like you are very self aware with regard to how the stress you are dealing with is affecting your eating. I think you have a lot of very important insights. The next step is probably to develop a plan, so that when you are under stress you can ease up on yourself a little, but still maintain your health. You definitely don't want to drink regular PEPSI, but it could be that in periods like this you might want to allow yourself a little more leeway in your eating. Obviously, that is a personal decision. However, IMHO (and it is only my opinion -- I am sure that others disagree), when under a lot of stress it is better to be realistic and make a few eating concessions than to try to be strict and have that lead to an eating binge.

When my stepfather was dying this fall, and I was running up and down the east coast on a weekly basis, I decided that I would go easier on myself in terms of allowing lowcarb treats and fast foods (nuts, lowcarb ice cream, etc.), but that I would not let myself get off plan. I had some days where my food choices were not always ideal (try finding a decent salad in a rest stop on I95!), but they were always relatively low carb and I did not gain any weight. When the stress let up a little and I went back to more strict low carbing, I rapidly droped 7 or 8 pounds.

Lori: You wrote (in part) : "Between my mom, my students, my father-in-law, and my own "idiot" son (the one with his head up his butt), I want to run away from home on a daily basis. I know that's not something I can do, but I'm sooo tired of being the grownup sometimes."

Oh, my God, can I relate to that! I read your message at the end of a truely crappy day -- one that was supposed to be just DH and I having a relaxed day at home, and instead we ended up driving through several hours of rain to pick up kids (not their fault) and came home to listen to two of them have screaming match, followed by the third one yelling at ME because I don't know RIGHT NOW what I'm going to do about his broken glasses! Tomorrow I have to repair a window that an acquaintance of my older daughter broke (and I'm NOT asking him to pay for it, because I want nothing to do with this particular jerk) as well as my son's accidentally broken glasses, and my car is still in the shop with an intermitant electrical problem -- I can't take it home til they fix it, and they can't make it misbehave in the shop.

This is nothing like dealing with hospitals -- I've been there, too -- but if this relatively minor domestic war zone can make me feel like diving into the nearest vat of Death by Chocolate ice cream, I can only imagine the strain of trying to keep yuor eating together while also dealing with hospitals and the traditional head-up-his-butt son. It sounds to me like you did pretty good.

Hang in there. Together, we'll all get through this.

(And our kids will eventually be fine, too.)

Marie H

Oh, I feel for you, you have such a lot going on right now. It's not easy, and as others have said, maybe you just need to give yourself a little compassion and TLC right now. Being extremely focused on losing weight is great, but there will sometimes be periods where it will have to take a backseat the the more important things in life.

I think Liz has a great idea, keep on program as much as possible, but make use of all the fast or convenience foods (and treats) we have available to us to help make it through this period. And go easy on yourself, perfection in your food is not the goal right now, getting through this tough time is.

Take care of yourself and keep coming here to talk about it if it helps.

Valerie

Lori, you certainly have had a rough time and my heart goes out to you and your family. Sometimes doing so much for others means it's hard to do the things we need to do for ourselves. Give yourself some leeway, and do the best you can, knowing that in a few days you can go back to your program successfully.

Take care

Louise