Problem was, I wasn't talking to myself. I was wagging my finger at others.

The assignment that we were given at FitBloggin' 14 was to call ourselves out for our own nonsense (and yeah, I do believe that Mercury in retrograde stuff is nonsense).

#justtrollin

What does that snarky #justtrollin hashtag mean? That's one of the "love taps" our Tough Love for Fitbloggers group came up with, the other being the much more snuggly #tribelove. Trolls are part and parcel of blogging and especially nasty if you write a weight-loss blog, cuz what's more hilarious than a "Hey, Fatty!" comment, huh?

But we liked the #justtrollin tag as a tongue-in-cheek way of saying "let's not be all full of head pats and sympathy." Sometimes we need to be called out on our cupcake dinners food choices.

But back to that assignment. I mentioned a post I did a couple years ago, which I called A Strongly Worded Letter to My Metabolic Processes and Hormones. I reread the last sentence to my friends in the FitBloggin' session:

I will be checking in with you on a weekly basis to see how you’re doing, and I hope you take this criticism the right way because I love and respect you and want you to do better. I’d also like to keep you around as long as humanly possible.

That's how the "self call-out" assignment came about.

So I decided to revisit my first call-out.

Back in 2012, I totally put the onus on my body's chemistry lab. Total excuse making right there. Sure I have a slow metabolism -- always have. I've been popping a daily Synthroid since 1988. Why did I not call out my love of late-night ham slices? The errant handfuls of nuts? 

But there are upsides to the last post. I did break that plateau -- now I'm on a brand-new, lower plateau! I'm definitely working out more -- at least 5 days a week -- and I have added strength training three times a week. I'm tracking like a BOSS, using My Fitness Pal and the Pact app.

As for the late-night eating and eating less, they go hand in hand. And while I am MUCH better at cutting out the late-night food trawling, I still have work to do because that's the only "eating less" that I need to do. I have learned since that last post that constantly cutting your calories lower and lower will only slow your metabolism even lower and leave you a hungry, cranky monster. 

So I'm calling myself out again. Get out of your comfort zone, and by comfort zone I mean the kitchen.

• Read a book.
• Organize your workspace.
• Write a DVD review.
• Go to sleep.
• Brush your teeth.
• Brush the dog.
• Plan the next day's menu.
• Meditate on how awesome you are. 

I'll end this post the same way I did the first one:

I hope you take this criticism the right way because I love and respect you and want you to do better. I’d also like to keep you around as long as humanly possible.

XOXO,

The Management

Want to read other tough-love call-outs? Here are some from:

• Steve Gray
• Fit Dawn
• Mrs. Fatass
• Terry Cabeen
• My Thunder Thighs and more My Thunder Thighs
• Nacho Mama's Blog
• Perfect In Our Imperfections
• Kris Gets Healthy
• Athlete at Heart
• Listen Learn Love Mend (she wasn't even there but she felt compelled to chime in -- booyah!)

Please, click over and check out these posts because we're not afraid to dish out the tough love.