:cloud9: I bet you will be all smiles for the rest of the week! :cloud9:

MADAME SOUZA...Thanks for the suggestion. In some areas, I'm doing great but my late night snacking is BAD. I'm not very creative but I do like puzzles. I will definitely try it and let you know how it goes. No, on second thought, I'll let you know how great it went :)

woooohooooo GreatPerhaps!!!!!


:dancer::cheer2::cheer3::congrat:

Aww, thank you! I'm super excited. :)

Free 1- Try the puzzles. I think they would work good because they would stimulate your mind and keep your hands busy. Let us know how it goes. Just don't do a food puzzle:D
Great Perhaps- I think you are great definitely. I am happy for you for reaching under 200! What a great milestone. And thank you for starting this thread.

I am trying to use ankle weights to spice up my workout. I tried them today and liked how they made me feel. They made me feel like this :carrot:

GreatPerhaps - now you have to change your name to GreatForSure! I knew it was a matter of days before you entered Onederland - You've been sooo close! It is such a motivator to see the 1 instead of a 2. I hope you never see it again.

Lin

about 35 minutes on the Wii including 3200+ steps in 30 minutes.

I kept saying that once I finished my 30/30 days of exercise in Sept, I'd take a rest day but I don't want to stop! I did, I definitely could have talked myself into a rest day but once I got going, I felt really good and so glad I did!

Thank you all for the kind words. :) Lin, I hope I never see those numbers again either...this has definitely given me an extra bit of motivation to keep losing!

AprilSnow- Glad to hear the exercise is going well! If you don't feel like your body needs the rest, I think it's perfectly okay to keep going, haha.

Hope everyone's having an excellent Tuesday!

The ankle weights are really helping my exercise. I notice them and it gives me an extra challenge. It feels good.

MadameSouza- What kind of exercises do while you wear them?

I think my next big hurdle in weight loss is going to be obsessing over calories less. I've been freaking myself out all night about having eaten a little over 1400...this should not be a big deal. Do any of you have any strategies for fixating on numbers less?

I do Leslie Sansone's walk away the pounds work out dvds. When I start to feel like they are getting old, I have to do something. I think my body is telling me that it wants more of a challenge.
Today we went to Costco and I went over and looked for a big bag of dog food that was as much as the weight I lost. I can't figure out where it went on my body...
My boyfriend hugged me from the side and could put his arm around me. He said he hadn't been able to do that for awhile.

30 minutes of Wii steps (while watching Biggest Loser!). That was on top of going on my son's field trip today with lots of walking in that too. So a good activity day.

GreatPerhaps - try to keep things in perspective. We are all on a mission to lose weight, and we want to see the scale go down every day. That would be wonderful if it worked out that way. But some days are better than others - for everyone, including people who don't have extra weight to lose. Thin people go over sometimes, too. They just compensate the next few days to even things out.

It's easier said than done, but remember that a few extra calories on one day can't matter in the long run. Just think of it like a thin person would and make up for it tomorrow. We set such a high standard for ourselves that sometimes it feels like failure if we don't stay perfectly on plan. That's one of the reasons I decided not to follow a set diet plan and just eat sensibly. I never strictly counted calories for a couple reasons. Too much trouble for one. And probably most importantly, it's too hard to be 100% accurate. I didn't want to obsess about every calorie and I knew that's what I would do if I counted strictly.

You know what you should eat. If you eat what you know is good most of the time with just a rare slip-up, you'll be fine. The more you lose the easier this will be, I think.

I was so obsessed with the idea of losing 100 pounds by Christmas that I lost focus on other things. I'm 60 and have been over 250 pounds for over 20 years. I don't snap back as easily as a younger person might. And while I don't want to be completely vain about this, because it really is about overall health, I decided that I have to slow down now or I won't look good. I am starting to get baggy. I managed to lose 80 pounds and not notice too much. Now at almost 90 pounds, there is a big difference from 80 pounds in the loose skin. I struggled with this because I see it as quitting, but it isn't. I set that goal without knowing what it would look like at this age. I know what 152 pounds looked like when I was 30, but it isn't the same at 60 and I was silly to think it might be. I'm not changing my ticker or signature yet, but I might just stop at 162 - 160 pounds. That means I have to stop obsessing about 100 pounds. You have to stop obsessing about a few extra calories.

I say all that because I know how you feel to get spazzy about a few extra calories. I do, too, but I try to keep it all in perspective now. Focus on the fact that you recognize the "miscalculation" of your needs for the day and move on. Day by day it will get easier. Just don't get so laid back about it that you don't pay attention to total calories at all!

Lin

LinJber, you are very wise to slow down the weight loss at this point. Thanks for letting us know when the dreaded loose skin starts to crop up.
So far I have kept my weight loss at a very slow pace, 1 pound/week, trying to stop any baggy skin from forming.
So far it is working.

Have you ever visited the obesityhelp.com site?
They have a lot of Before/After pages. Over 4,000 members there have gone through weight loss surgery. I have read a lot of their stories.
http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobe...647058&Count=1

These brave people deal with a lot of baggy skin issues because they lose over 100 pounds/year. That is a really fast loss. Plus they have to deal with malnutrition because their stomach pouch is so small. Some have a lot of awful complications. Gall bladder surgery, kidney stones, ulcers, fissures.
Most get plastic surgery, which is extremely painful, to remove the saggy skin. Ouch! They get the surgery ASAP.

I want to avoid all these issue by taking my weight loss slowly, although it is so very frustrating at my pace.

I often wish I had a magic wand and just go **poof** and have all the weight disappear in an instant.

:wizard:

good morning , I really enjoy reading all the post on here. I am up early to set out for the gym. I need some kinda of motivation to help me with my eating right NOW ! I have gotten out of control ! Why ? I don't know . Alot of my friends notice that I have lost weight but that just don't seem to be inspiring me right now. I am 50 yrs old and just want to be under 200 . I am serious, that will be good for me. I will wear a size 14 jeans and I will be happy with that. I have been there before. I had rather be chunky and real flabby. That goodness my man likes me chunky ! LOL Good Luck Friends !