yoyoma - Thank you! What do you have planned for Mother's Day? My Mom has work but my Brother and I decided to surprise her with flowers. If you exercised and ate carby foods then you are definitely retaining water. I hope you get a nice whoosh soon!

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Dentist said I could definitely go back to the gym, yay! DH and I are gonna go tomorrow at our usual time (8pm) and you can't even imagine how excited I am! I haven't worked out in 13 days and I am so ready!
141.8 lbs this morning. I'm expecting to see a gain tomorrow as I'm bloated and waiting for TOM.

We are planning on going out to dinner with my brother's family. However, yesterday he called and we all decided to bump it out a week (his wife didn't want to fight the crowds).

That's fine by me. It will give me more time to recover from my experimentation with a higher carb diet, lol. Yesterday, exercise was good but eating was carby (too much brown rice) and today the scale is at 144.0. I didn't go crazy, but I did feel less in control, so I'm going to rein that back in.

And today the scale is back down to 142.2. Well into ticker territory.

Yay yoyoma!! Ticker territory sounds so funny

I had a great workout at the gym last night and boy am I sore! To my surprise, I weighed-in at 141.8 lbs. I thought it was gonna be higher, maybe tomorrow? (I wouldn't mind if NOT ) TOM got here yesterday, too, so hmm..we'll see what the next few days bring weight-wise.

My TOM started today too Hoopty....so far so good, no stomach pains at least but oh man, was I emotional last week!! Luckily for me that doesn't mean food, I'm more of an emotional shopper thankfully, and I was on the verge of tears all day on Friday, then went on a massive splurge on Saturday but did actually buy sensible things like a blender - been on the forest fruits smoothies ever since! Yum!

When you say one meal a day Yoyoma, you don't eat anything at all before? Or just small snacks to keep you going?

And Yes, to whoever asked me, 135 is my goal weight. I may adjust depending on if I can get there and what maintenance is like but for now 135 seems a good number

vix - Ugh, you're lucky! Well, being an emotional shopper is probably not that great either but definitely better than an emotional eater, like me. What kind of blender did you get? DH and I had to leave our blender behind when we moved and we haven't bought a new one yet. We have one of those little hand mixer thingies. It works but it would be so nice to have an actual blender. What exactly is a forest fruit smoothie? I mean, what do you put in it? It sounds healthy

I did 33 minutes on the treadmill (what a weird number...I always do a 3 min warm-up, 27 min HIIT run and then a 3 min cool down) followed by strength training where I mostly did my back and chest. I am so! sore! But it feels great. Tomorrow will be a rest day because I have to work late and won't make it to the gym (it closes at 10pm ) But at least that'll give my muscles some time to recover.

I hope you guys had a great day!

Hoopty, that sounds like a great workout... you go, girl!

Vix, sorry to hear you had a tough day Friday. Great save, turning your shopping splurge into diet support equipment! Enjoy your smoothies!

I missed a weigh-in but yesterday I wasn't as hungry as usual for some reason and today I am down to 141.0 (I know it's just from having less bulk).

Vix, I do eat just one meal a day (actually, it's an eating window from 6PM to 8:30 PM, and I usually just eat a meal at 6:00 but I can top off later if I want). During the day, I drink coffee freely (hitest in AM, decaf in PM) which I drink with NFPM and a few drops of stevia. I also drink a lot of tea. If I really want something salty, I drink a mug of reduced sodium broth.

I'm used to it, and I don't have a lot of problems with hunger during the day (when I do feel hungry, I drink something and it passes). I am pretty surprised at how well I've adjusted. I also don't seem to have any problem with energy, but I don't do any tough workouts.

Hey everyone!!

FINALLY broke into the 130s, just!

My blender is pretty basic, just three settings and nothing fancy but it does the job. I was reading yesterday online that you can make your own peanut butter with a blender but I'm not sure the blades on mine would be strong enough. Might give it a try though! Forest fruits smoothie is just frozen berries like raspberries, cherries, blueberries, strawberries (I just get a pack of mixed ones) and a sweet juice, like pineapple or peach. I don't measure it, just chuck it all in and see how it goes. I tried orange today with greek yogurt, orange juice and cinnamon, it was nice but I think one of the oranges was a little old and tasted a bit off.

That's pretty interesting about your eating plan yoyoma. Do you eat a lot during your window? I think you said you don't count calories but do you have a rough idea of how many you eat in a day? How was the transition period, of going to meals throughout the day to just one, was it tough or have you always been less hungry in the day?

Hello everyone!

vix - CONGRATS Uh, I'm so jealous!! I wanna reach the 130s so bad. The smoothie recipe sounds good! I love berries.

yoyoma - Are you doing that for now or do you plan on keeping it that way? How much do you eat when you do eat and how many calories? I am surprised that your body doesn't feel weak or overwhelmed. You must have trained it very well

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The scale jumped from 141.4 lbs yesterday to 142.6 lbs this morning. I was a little shocked (well...only because I was stuck at 141ish for a few days now) but I know, and I can feel, that my muscles are retaining water. I've been super thirsty, my mouth has been dry (ew..lol), and I've been drinking sooooo much! To reassure myself that I am not doing anything wrong (or gaining "real" weight) I read a few articles on muscle water retention. From what I read, I can probably expect the number to stay where it is right now and then I should see a drop in a few days once my body knows that we're back on the workout routine.
Today was my 3rd day back at the gym. I did a 45min spinning class that totally kicked my arse and I did a few exercises for my biceps and triceps afterwards. I kept the calories farily low today (for my standards) because DH and I are having our "date day" tomorrow and that means: Lots of bad food! Croissants, french toast, bacon & eggs for breakfast, sandwiches with sweet potato fries for lunch, a pint of Ben&Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup (I totally freaked out when I found it here in Germany, it's one of my FAVORITE B&J flavors!) and I'm also gonna make a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (my first try :fingerscrossed. I am still gonna count calories but I am definitely expecting to end the day at around 2500-3000. I'm so excited though! I haven't "cheated" in a while and I will enjoy every single bite

Hello! So glad to have found this thread. I ignored "featherweights" thinking that is not for me..I am at 147 and been so stuck. I can only seem to lose 1-2 lbs a month now. Anyone else experience that ? I am still exercising almost daily. I probably need to get more strict on food tracking. I am trying the 5:2 fasting so well see how that goes. Goal seems soooo close.....

Welcome, Sassy, you are absolutely a featherweight! Weight loss is usually a lot slower near goal, unfortunately. Good things are worth waiting for!

Hoopty, that bump up isn't surprising given your workout. You know you didn't gain that much real weight overnight. You date day sounds awesome; hope you have lots of fun! How long have you been in Germany?

Congratulations, Vix! Sorry to see you leave the thread, but way to go!

My WOE was designed for maintenance, and I definitely plan on keeping on with it. The transition period was a bit tough, and I wasn't sure I was headed for one meal a day when I started out. I knew I wanted to try a smaller eating window. My first window was 10AM until 10PM and I just kept shrinking it until I found the window that worked best for me. During the transition I had a window that was "committed" and a smaller window that was "attempting," and when I was reliably within the "attempting" window, it became the "committed" window and I picked a new "attempting" window.

I do eat a lot for my meal. I retroactively counted my calories for a day recently, and it totaled 1400.

Here are some of the things I love about my approach which weren't working for me as I attempted to maintain in the past:

+I don't have to think about food trade-offs during the day (such a big feature for me after decades of worrying about this!).
+I get to eat whatever I want for dinner (after eating fresh veg, and as long as I keep the starchy carbs limited).
+I get to eat as much as I want at some point in the day (another important point, because even in maintenance I was pretty much always unsatisfied).
+Eating out (for dinner) is compatible with my plan (after decades of being the wet blanket in the family).
+Because I can eat whatever I want for dinner, eating out doesn't cause any angst going "back on plan" the next day.
+My lip stain stays fresh all day! (lol)

Yesterday was a normal good day (exercise and eating) and today the scale was down to 140.6! I guess I'll move the ticker down to 142 today.

Hello everyone!

Sassyblonde - Welcome! Wow, you've lost so much already,congrats! It's only natural that your weight loss is slowing down now but the last 10 lbs are always the hardest to get rid of (so I heard). Try playing with your calories a little or try different workouts/exercises. Maybe that'll help!

yoyoma - It sounds like it's definitely working for you, both physically and mentally. Keep up with it! 140.6 lbs!! That's awesome! You're so close to the 130s! I am German actually. I was born and raised here, lived here up until I was 19, then moved to the US for a year and met my now DH, we came back to Germany for a year, then went back to the US for a year and now we're back in Germany again

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Our date day was awesome! I woke up early and started making the carrot cake before preparing breakfast. I measured every single thing and counted calories - boy oh boy! The cake, together with the cream cheese frosting, had a total of 2908 calories I thought DH was gonna have some but he ended up not liking it (he isn't a cake person, or dessert person...or sweets person at all so he's very picky) so I ended up eating almost all of it. I have about 2 pieces left which I'm gonna have today. I don't have anyone I can give the cake to and I'm most certainly not throwing it out. I already cut the original recipe in half but it was still a lot.
Then we had to run a few errands and were out and about for 1.5 hours. I was so full from breakfast and the carrot cake that I didn't make any sandwiches for myself, nor did I buy the Ben&Jerry's that I had been looking forward to buying. I didn't wanna stuff myself, just because I had "allowed" myself to. I was actually craving fresh, healthy food so I had some cucumber when we came back.
Then we relaxed for a while before heading out to the gym where I had a pretty intense workout. First, I ran the treadmill for 34min (interval run with sprints every 5min), then I did leg exercises followed by a 15min stretching session. I felt like a beast So then later that night I made myself a huge salad. I was pleasantly surprised that I was craving healthy food.
So this is what my day looked like:

Breakfast (784 calories): 1 croissant, 3.5 slices of bacon, French toast (3 slices of toast, 1.5 eggs, 30 ml vanilla soy milk, 1 teaspoon brown sugar) plus honey and organic raspberry jam
Snack (155 calories): Corn bits BBQ flavor
Throughout the day (2425 calories): Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting
Snack (-): Cucumber with sea salt
Dinner (57 calories): Big salad (romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, green onions, homemade ranch dressing)

Phew!

Joining the 140's today! Still waiting to see how low I'll need to go to get that flat stomach I dream about! It's getting really close. 10-15lbs to go at the maximum maybe? But my body always surprises me, for better or worse, in how it chooses to lose fat.

Hi, Arwen, and Welcome! You've done such a great job already. Hope you get that flat stomach here!

Hoopty, your English is fantastic. It must be interesting to live alternately on two continents. Your cheat day sounds awesome. I love carrot cake too . Maybe in the future if you wanted to eat less cake, you could freeze half? That way you don't have to worry about what to do with it if DH doesn't like it.

I had a day of high exercise and normal (good) eating yesterday and the scale nudged down to 140.4.

At the last minute we decided to go to a Chinese buffet for Mother's Day. Today the scale reads 141.6, which is up from where I was but still in ticker territory.