NO SISSY! Weight loss contest end and evaluation

Total loss = .8 pounds :/
(just a reminder, first number is Thursday weigh in (official) and the second is Monday)
Dec 21 Week 12: 169.1 
Dec 14 Week 11: 168.7/169.5
Dec  7 Week 10: 168/168.4
Nov 30 Week  9: 167.1/167.6
Nov 23 Week  8: 166.2/169.1
Nov 16 Week  7: 165.1
Nov  9 Week  6: 166.4/164.5
Nov  2 Week  5: 164.2 (1.4 lb loss)/164.0 (1.3 lb loss)
Oct 26 Week  4: 165.6 (.4 lb loss)/ 165.3 (0 loss)
Oct 19 Week  3: 166.0 (.9 lb loss)/165.3 (.5 lb loss)
Oct 12 Week  2: 166.9 (.2 lb loss)/165.8 (1.8 lb loss)
Oct  5  Week  1: 167.1 (2.7 lb loss)/167.6 (3.3 lb loss)
Sep 29 Start: 169.8/170.9

As you can see, about mid-Nov I started losing my momentum and started gaining. It was the beginning of an unraveling that culminated at the end of the year. As I look at the numbers, it felt like more than it really was. I had tried to follow the THM principles, but always hanging over my head was the idea of needing to go dairy free. It is really hard to do THM dairy free (at least, using the recipes in the book and all over the internet). It is a lot of work to cut dairy out of your diet if you aren't trying to separate your carbs and fats. But the anxiety of thinking about dairy free bled into other areas of my life. Once I was kicked out of the contest, all shreds of motivation were gone and by Christmas I was pretty much where I started. 

At the beginning of the contest, we were exercising as a family. By the end of Oct, Matthew's PT test was passed and no longer a motivation for working out. Our family exercise challenge fell away and that was the end of my physical output too. My left heel has been bothering me for a few months, but it was getting worse. By mid-December my knees started aching as well as all my other joints (like arthritic), and between my foot and joints it hurt to move.  I began feeling depressed as well. Sugary Christmas treats were in abundance in my belly at that point, and I don't know if it was the sudden increase of sugar or just general lack of good nutrition that started causing problems. Circular reasoning is hard to find the beginning in. I'm not sure if hormone fluctuations were causing mental issues or if the not eating right was causing me to not feel right or if they were just feeding each other. 

As I write this today, the knee pains are pretty much gone and I can walk a bit easier. I tried some plantar fascia inserts and they worked for about a week and then I started getting the knee pain. I took the inserts out and things started improving again (so maybe that was the cause of the knee problems), but I also stopped eating as much sugar to see if I could detox from it and get better. Again, who knows where the cause and effect truly lie. I still have not done any official exercising, but I am back on the THM wagon and trying to do dairy sparingly. It still haunts me and I'm tempted to cut the whole family off from dairy instead of just me and P, but I'm trying not to let that thought become debilitating. We've started a new contest as of last week - Work your Adipose Off (or something to that effect). So far I've been able to follow THM like I'd like, but also give myself grace.