I need a swift kick in the pants!

In 6 mos. I lost 78 lbs. out of 100 needed to lose. In the last 4 mos., I've only lost about 10 lbs. About 10 days ago, I had my stoma dilated because I couldn't keep meat down. Come to find out, the opening to my pouch was so small, the dr. couldn't get the scope down it on his first try! Up until that point, my diet consisted of too many easy-to-get-down carbs and not enough protein. I also haven't exercised consistently. So now that I can eat more, I've gained 3 lbs.! Aaaaahhhhh! My plan is to eat the protein only, eliminate carbs and sugar and exercise. I need some encouragement and help! Carla

Hi Carla, Sounds like you've had a rough start with the small stoma. To tell you the truth, whether we had stoma problems or not, most of us are struggling with the same issues of exercising enough and eating the right foods. I've got the exercise thing down cold. In fact, It's become so routine that I find myself on the way to the gym even when I didn't plan to go. I was out very late Friday night dancing. Before I went to sleep at 3:00 am Saturday morning, I told myself that I wasn't going to the gym for my regular Saturday morning classes because I'd gotten enough exercise dancing and I needed the sleep. I woke up at 7:00, rolled out of bed and was on my way to the gym before I was fully awake and realized that I wasn't planning to go. What I struggle with is my food. I'm not eating too much, but I'm not getting in as much protein as I could be. The thing that got me on track for my exercise was to create a visual record of my progress. I'm a Project Manager so I decided to treat my weight loss as a project since that's what I know how to do well. I got an old fashioned wall calendar and put it in the place where I spend most of my time, my home office. I mark my progress on that calendar so I can see at a glance how I'm doing. I put my weight and fat percentage on it, what work outs I've done each day and any comments I might have. I made a commitment to myself and everyone on this board to be at the gym 5 days a week. Looking at that calendar keeps me on track. I started to do this in an electronic format, after all, I do design internet programs and manage internet projects, but I found that the good old paper calendar works best because you don't have to open any files and everything is there all at once and at a glance. I'm having problems doing the same thing with my food. I do use FITDAY.com, but it's not having the same effect. I'm having a problem with not seeing my progress at a glance. I'm thinking that I might try to come up with something on my PDA so I can jot things down as I go through the day and then transfer the notes to my home computer. I haven't got this figured out yet. I think that as long as I keep trying to get it right, I'll get there sooner or later. So Carla, I don't think you need a kick, I think you just need to find out what's going to work for you. We're all here to encourage and offer any help that we can. Many times it's good just to know there are a bunch of people in the same boat. Hugs, Connie