noname - I had a friend who did that same fast program, and she really saw results! But she didn't stick with it for too long.

MarliQQ - I don't recognize any of those workouts, but it sounds like you know what you're doing!

ARGH, I woke up this morning totally swollen from the humidity and STILL sore from TRX and the scale showed a 1.6 pound GAIN. I know I haven't gained 1.6 pounds and that it's just water retention. I drink a TON of water - seriously, over 100 oz. per day. My husband says I just need to be patient until my body adjusts to both the humidity and the new workout. But I'm not a patient person! If I don't see the scale moving, or moving in the wrong direction, I get really anxious and it can derail my plan.

MarliQQ Looks like I'm stuck in the 196s a little longer with you! My official weigh-in today was 196.2, so .2 loss from last week. Ah, well! It was an odd week with feeling ill and all. Hopefully we'll unstick this soon! I've never heard of any of those workouts except Insanity! Are they all videos or other sorts of programs?

Frances123 I've been doing 5:2 since August! It's the only thing I've stuck with. I know how you feel with the water retention. Even if logically you know the cause, it's still really frustrating to see the number on the scale go up. It will even out eventually. Just try not to let it derail you and keep doing what you're doing! It will pay off!

Wedding tonight which means I get to take my first before/during picture Also, I fit into Size 14s and a few large size tops last night! Woohoo! I didn't buy anything, but it felt good to know they fit. I think it's time for another Goodwill trip.

I am an avid baker but I don't like sweets much. I might eat an occasional cookie. On holidays, I bake a lot, but here's a trick I started to do recently for DH, who LOVES cookies. I make a batch of oatmeal cookie dough and bake 1 dozen cookies. The rest of the dough goes on a baking sheet lined with parchment and put in the freezer. After the little balls of dough freeze I put them in a plastic bag in the freezer. They don't stick together if they are already frozen, and I put them in bags of 12. When he wants cookies I take out a bag and bake a dozen for him. You just put them on the cookie sheet frozen and bake! Then there's not so many cookies I don't know what to do with them. You could probably do this with choc chip, sugar, or any other drop cookie.

Of course, recently my DH realized that after all these years I was right...low carb DOES help you lose weight, and he hasn't been eating as many sweets as before. His weight is just dropping off! Go figure!

Argh! Weighed in again after my super sweaty workout (and drinking 46 oz of water) and had gone from 198.6 to 197.4. That was all water retention, and I still feel like I'm retaining. Well, I'm going to just keep working through it!

Noname - hooray for before/after pics!! And congrats on the 14s!!

Oh, Wannabehealthy, I have done that trick with freezing the dough or cake slices or brownies...turns out I like them just as much frozen. It sounds crazy, but I would love to buy a deep freeze and put a lock on it, and give my husband the key. That way I could bake, freeze, and meter out treats to myself 2 - 3x per week. I just don't have the willpower to stay out of it on my own!

Wannabehealthy that's a great idea! I'll have to remember that at the holidays.

Frances glad to hear the water is starting to woosh off!

Marli I've never done insanity, just heard of it, but those workouts sound great!

Weighed in at 196 this morning. I was surprised to see even that small loss after going to that wedding last night! The food wasn't very good so I actually didn't end up eating much but I did have a few drinks.

MarliQQ - Woooo at 195! So what kind of changes are you thinking of making?

I'm thinking the same thing myself. I feel like I've been stalled for the past month. So I'm going to reduce my carbs from 150 to 100 g per day and up my protein. This is going to kill me because I *love* carbs and 150 per day is already a major reduction. But hey, sometimes you have to make sacrifices, right?

noname - do you have your dress pics? Hope you had a good time!

If I keep going the way I'm going I'm going to end up back in the 200s.....

Hello, I'm new to the 190s thread. I use to be a fairly active member on 3FC and then school, work, and life got in the way. I gained a lot and now I'm back. I'm officially in the 190s this morning. This is the heaviest I've been, and I'm sad I let myself go this far. I've lost weight before and I want to do it again. I'm hoping to never see 200lbs, so I'm here, and I'm going to try to drop weight healthy, as fast as I can (which will be 1-2 lbs a week if I do this correctly), and make it stay off this time. No more excuses, no more time wasting, just time to start and actually drop weight!

MarliQQ: Congrats for leaving the Obese category! That's a big milestone, and it is indeed a scary word! For my height and age, I still have 25lbs to go to leave it, which is really sad that I got that far into it, but I'll get there! Congrats on making it!

Wannabehealthy: You have a while before you hit the 200lbs! We're both scared of the same thing, if we stick to calories and trying our hardest, we won't hit it! I'm determined to not see that number, I bet you are as well.

Wannabehealthy - is your ticker accurate? Are you just at a plateau or has your weight been creeping up? If so, I think the important thing is that you caught it before it gets out of hand! You've come too far to let it get the upper hand!

MarliQQ - I'm a carb addict too. On my first day "low carb", I made it 'til supper before making myself a peanut butter sandwich. I just can't go whole hog. I *am* committing to keeping my carbs under 125, which is lower than they've ever been IN MY LIFE, and I'm going "sugar free" (except for my morning tablespoon of honey!) until 4th of July weekend! I'm hoping that lower carbs and no sweet treats (whimper) will jump start my losing again. I know what you mean about the exercise, too. That's why I switch up my routine every 6 months, to keep from getting bored! I hope you find something you like soon! About the guilt - I just feel guilty for being heavy, not for losing. I got a lot of 'family guilt' about it growing up, and I heap plenty of it on myself now. It feels good to be nicer to myself about it.

Kurisitaru - Welcome! Glad you came back!

Frances123: Thank you! I switch up my work out as well, I also discovered that when I can afford a gym, it's really helpful because it motivates me to USE my membership and actually go to the gym. I also feel good when I get to say "I just got back from the gym." I like seeing people of all sizes there, thin I tell myself soon I'll look like that, fat I'll let myself know that if they can be here, I belong here too! Also, I like to see the bigger ones shrink as I go, motivational!

As for other exercise, I prefer FUN work outs. Zumba, sports, swimming. I hate running, I hate the same video every night, and I despise stationary bikes. If I find a meetup.com group that does something sporty, I love those. Hiking, biking, volley ball groups. All fun motivation to go to!

Wannabehealthy, I truly believe you can do what it takes to continue in the right direction. Just take a step back and re-evaluate if you need to but keep at it. You got this!

Marli, I know how you feel about your friend. My best friend is in that position now and she's trying to lose weight in order to get pregnant. My heart hurts for her, but I can only hope I inspire her in some way. I don't know what else to do for her. Congrats on your milestone!

Frances I didn't get a good pic from the wedding but using a different pic I put a before/during comparison up in the Minigoal forum!

Welcome back kurisitaru!

Hope everyone had a good weekend. We went on a nice hike today followed by a yummy dinner at our fave TexMex place. I restrained myself but still feel overfull!

Oh, also wanted to add! I dropped off two huge bags of clothes at Goodwill this weekend and then went shopping. I think our local Target has a deal with the Goodwills in our state, as they always have brand new items for sale there. I got two tank tops, one blouse and one pair of pants, brand new, for $25! The pants are size 14 and a bit snug, but I could tell that when they fit they will look great and for $8 I couldn't turn that down. It's nice to have something to look forward to, anyway

I also picked up pants and a shirt for my bf as he's lost weight as well, but seems that from now on I'll have to look for clothing for tall men. The size L shirt fit great but the sleeves were too short!