Vladadog: I see what you mean! Things I would normally be too lazy to do I'm now motivated for because I'm trying to get those few extra steps in on the fitbit. Mine tracks my sleep, as well...it's the Charge HR? I used to utilize MFP but I haven't in a long time...I'm thinking the trifecta of MFP, FB, and 3FC sounds like a pretty solid tracking support system.
Laurie: Generally, I get embarrassed if I take the stairs and end up all out of breath and trying to talk to someone. I think for now, I'm going to take the stairs when I'm not gonna have to talk to someone immediately after lol. At least until my body stops panicking at the sight of them. My fitbit tracks flights of stairs too! I'm so glad the counseling is doing y'all good. Getting to the root of the fear is always the first step to resolving it. Good luck with your runs!
Slash: Hope work goes well and you get a break!
So today was a pretty decent day. Since I stayed late and closed last night, I didn't come in to work until about 1pm and got a great night's sleep last night AND a relaxing morning! Work was kind of crazy, but it always is. Had banana/walnut steel cut oats for breakfast and two chicken fajita tacos with cheese for dinner. Skipped lunch since I went like two hours after I got to work and wasn't hungry. Work tomorrow at 7am and I'm definitely not sleepy right now. Gonna regret this in the morning. -_-
Woke up this morning to my new low: 263.2! I knew I had a good feeling yesterday. I have a good feeling about tomorrow too, but I'll be too sleepy in the morning to weigh myself. I'll probably wait until Monday morning to weigh myself again. I'm officially setting my first mini-goal: under 260 by the end of next week. My body is starting to feel a little better already, less bloated and just blah (although that definitely might be a placebo effect). I'm drinking what feels like a crazy amount of water, although I still feel dehydrated most of the time and I know the actual amount is still only about half of what I should be drinking. I still have some bad habits, like drinking Red Bulls and continuing to smoke cigarettes; however, I've completely cut out sodas and sweet tea. Baby steps, guys. I can do this.
Laurie - I decided to use the fitbit footstep tracking to do the Eowyn Challenge (http://home.insightbb.com/~eowynchallenge/). There's a google spreadsheet where you can track your miles and you can compare your miles to a chart that shows where the Fellowship was at the same mileage. Very LotR nerdy but i've been a LotR nerd for over 40 years and its fun to pretend... It's 458 miles from Bag End to Rivendell so I'm not even a quarter of the way there yet. But it's been an eventful winter for me. I hope in another couple weeks to really start getting some miles in on a more regular basis.
Dread - congrats on the new low! You can link your fitbit app to MFP so it knows how far you've walked. I don't let MFP delete exercise calories from my daily goal but i like seeing how my exercise *could* count against my daily calories. And the fact the two apps "talk" to each other makes it super easy. I think mine is also a Charge HR - I got it free last Fall from work for managing to last there for 15 years... I was kinda doubtful at first and I'm not keen on wearing things on my wrist but I've gotten used to it and it really does motivate me. For me, tracking calories is the only way I can stay accountable. I cheat if I'm just tracking in my head but if I'm writing it down I'm pretty honest (but not insane about figuring it down to the very last calorie... ). And MFP update my 3FC tracker automagically too....
Hey, everyone! Went to work today; had a fruit shake for breakfast, more chicken fajita bowl for lunch, and a little more just now that I got home. Got into our first "Food ****" fight today over breakfasts. Boyfriend wants me to continue just having a shake for breakfast, but with my birth control making me nauseous in the mornings, I told him I want to have a small portion of banana/walnut steel cut oats instead since it settles my stomach and makes me more full for a longer period of time. We fought, I cried, and we made up. Our compromise is the oats in the morning but a smaller portion than what I've been having, taking the brown sugar out, and using almond milk in it instead of the regular milk. Our fights tend to be rare, but when they happen they're short and intense. We always make up within about 10 minutes of the end of them, which is nice. I'm no good at holding grudges and being angry makes me exhausted. I don't take being told what to do easily, but I know the diet he's set up is the right track and I'm doing my best to abide by it and make good choices.
Y'all would not BELIEVE how much free fatty food is offered at my job. It used to be amazing before I started attempting weight loss, and now it's just a constant torture upstairs. Today I turned down Whataburger twice. Ugh.
Anyways, assuming I don't go food crazy for the rest of today, I'll probably weigh myself again tomorrow morning. Results should be promising.
Made it down to 261 as of this morning! That makes 8lbs since 03/10. Today's our cheat day (within reason, not going all that crazy), and Shark Week has officially begun (UGH), so I'll probably hold off on weighing myself again until like Wednesday. It's just gonna make me depressed otherwise lol.
Cheat day is going great. We grocery-shopped for the next two weeks and the house got cleaned a bit. Breakfast was a bowl of banana/walnut steel cut oats, morning snack was some low-fat chocolate milk, lunch was a sushi roll, snack will be some string cheese, and dinner will be steak with onions/mushrooms and mashed potatoes. Tomorrow, it'll be back to strictly on-plan foods. We've also decided to move away from most of the dairy in our diets and substitute almond milk for what we can.
Happy to hear that everyone seems to be doing well! I'm impressed with all of your running and fitbitting and literary references!
Dread Eight pounds! Hooray! And boy do I hear you on the free food. UGH. I work from home now, but I used to absolutely hate the constant free food free-for-alls. I had to either pass by every single thing or EAT every single thing. No middle-way for me. But it is great that you get so many steps in at work.
Laurie Good! Good! Good! You are maintaining, and best of all you are telling the hooker to SHUT UP!!! I really appreciated your little talk through about how you would see an obese person giving a talk. Interesting. I think my usual thought process goes something like this. "Wow, that person is really FAT, and yet, look how confident he/she looks..."
Vlada It is a great feeling to know that you've been eating right and you don't dread going to see the doctor. Having surgery is no fun! But knowing you are on a healthier path is a really great feeling!!
Diane Waving! Hope things have calmed down a bit at work!
Everything going well for me. Am hovering around 282 right now. Felt like I ate a lot yesterday-- went out for dinner and chose a tuna melt and fries-- not exactly low-cal, but what I really like about the way I'm eating now is that when I really try to stick to just two meals plus coffee with milk for breakfast and no snacks, which is quite manageable, I can only do so much damage from a single meal. So yesterday, I had some cut up tomatoes and chicken breast and an orange for lunch, the tuna melt/fries for dinner and weighed in down 0.4. I think that I was JUST SO TERRIFIED when the doc recommended WLS that I'm not having that much trouble sticking to healthy eating-- and because of that, I've lost the first 15 without having to count calories, track on fitday, etc. And I'm finding it a bit freeing, as in the past, I always logged religiously, counted calories, and had a tendency to start to over-restrict to push my weight down when I got impatient with the scale. I'm also managing to stick to the plan without thinking about it 24/7 which is also good. The thing is, right now, my motivation is HIGH (avoid WLS) and my general stress level is LOW. The problem for me is that sometimes the high motivation starts to lag over time, and then when my stress level goes up, that's when I lose it. Working on finding an eating disorder therapist to work with me so that I'll be better equipped when that moment comes. For some reason, I got a horrible leg cramp during my last 2 treadmill sessions, even though I slowed my pace and the incline, so I took two days off. Am hoping it will be better tomorrow.
I just went back through my 3FC blog posts from 2011. I started at 287 then. From around Valentines day to Labor day I went from 265 to 215 and lost 50 pounds through calorie tracking and exercise. That was 6 months of hard work.
This time I did 265-215 in less than 3.5 months. Which is insane.
I have to come to grips with the fact that the next 50 pounds will not be as fast or as effortless (not that the last three months have been easy but the weightloss has not been my focus and in fact I started tracking calories to make sure i got enough...). Last time it took me 3.5 months to get from 215 down to a steady 195. And nearly 3 more months to get down to 180.
I'm hoping to be in Onederland by June. That's 15 pounds in about 9-10 weeks. More than a pound a week but less than 2 pounds. That should be do-able right? I know weightloss happens faster at higher weights and the closer you get to goal the slower it goes. But I'm still feeling like 15 pounds in 10 weeks isn't impossible or unhealthy.
Vladadog - Love the idea of following Frodo's quest! I am a LotR geek, too, so I'm rooting for you! Yes, 15 pounds in 10 weeks is both possible and well within the "healthy" range. Your track record is pretty impressive. If you were able to lose 50 pounds in 3.5 months, then 15 in a little over 2 months is well within your ability to lose. But it's really hard to say if it will happen. So many elements come into play. But it sounds like you do a great job of tracking calories and activity and weight, so you can figure out pretty accurately how to modulate your behavior to achieve the results you want. You may need to adjust your calories down a bit to get there in that amount of time, but unless you have a health issue, the scale blips should even out over 10 weeks to get you where you want to go. I think.
Uber - I LOVE the idea of getting a therapist to help you sort all of this out. I saw a therapist who was also a dietitian from about June to October this year. She was crazy, but she was also helpful. The interesting thing, for me, was that she did not tell me much that a lifetime of reading about weight loss and eating disorders had not already informed me about, but it was still very helpful. It focused me when I needed focusing and gave me a sense of confidence. I didn't quit going to her because I was cured. I just neglected to make appointments. I may go back to her, but for now, my marriage counseling is a priority and is meeting some of that need, and I don't want to have two weekly appointments that take me out of my office.
Diane - Glad to see you here, even if only for a minute.
I had a pretty good weekend. I just did not want to do my long run, and didn't. I quit just short of five miles. I need to get serious about my training again, as my half-marathon is scheduled for a little over a month. I am feeling pretty blase about all of it, actually. I took an "accidental nap" last night (about four hours) before dinner and woke up at about 8:30. I was not hungry when I woke up, but I ate a small portion of chicken, three bags of popcorn (110 calories each) and two pieces of toast as a late, unneeded dinner. I almost never eat bread, and if I eat the popcorn bags, I will typically eat half of one, not three, as I know it's recreational food. I try to save protein for when I am actually hungry. All weekend, I craved sugar, but chose not to buy it and not to bake anything, so my unneeded dinner was not terribly surprising, but still a bit discouraging. But it's Monday, so routine has been reintroduced to my life, and I escaped the weekend far more unscathed than I would have expected, given my blase, unfocused, undisciplined days. I am at 153.8, same as yesterday morning's weigh-in, so I am hoping to drop lower in the coming week to get at the bottom of my 150-155 maintaining range.
I scheduled my "mommy makeover" surgery (tummy tuck, breast lift) for May 10, three days before my birthday. Happy birthday to me? I am vacillating a bit on it. It's so much money, and I worry that I will become addicted to plastic surgery. I sort of want a face lift now, as the weight loss has made my neck look wrinkled. I know I have lots of extra skin on my arms and upper legs. But even at my thinnest, my calves are disproportionately large, and plastic surgery can't solve that, so a "Vogue-perfect body" will never happen for me, and I have never really hoped for one anyway. When did vanity become such a huge part of my life? But I am going to read everything I can about tummy tucks, including all the potential side effects and the things I need to do as a patient to minimize the dangers and be able to recover well, and I think I will go through with the surgery, but promise myself not to even consider any additional surgery for at least six months, if not a year. Some of this will resolve itself, and I know I need some time to become more chill with extra skin.
Today's plan: I am volunteering after work from about 5:30 to 8:30, so I will make sure to plan my meals and run accordingly. I am looking at trying to do six miles outside today -- on streets and sidewalks, like a "real" runner -- so I will go after my 1:00 meeting this afternoon. I will just do protein shakes and fruit/veggies for snacks today, as I don't want to take the time to get dinner before my volunteer activity. Also going to avoid the candy jar. Interestingly, I am not really interested in sugar today, but I don't need to press my luck.
Laurie: Hope you can get your mojo back on the running. I am not a fan of running in scheduled races, so I can't really help with that part. I can understand what you're talking about with the surgery. I am sure it isn't cheap! I really hate doing stuff like surgery or taking medications, etc, but I really think you'll love it when you get it done. I also hear you on the wrinkly neck. I have that and I'm sure it will get worse. So fun.
Vladadog: I don't think that 1.5 pounds a week is too much. It may be difficult, but I don't think it is unhealthy. It would be awesome to reach onederland by June!!
Uber: I think that is smart to prepare for the time when motivation isn't high, and finding the help you need now. You're doing so well and you definitely have a good reason to keep going! But, we all know it is not easy!
Dread: Glad you made it through the disagreement. My husband and I are like that. We really never fight, but when we do it is intense, but ends quickly. You should definitely wait to weigh!! No one needs that negativity in their life!!
For me, I had to step back a little bit from workouts for a few days due to a sore foot. That is irritating. But, back at it today with Spin. I did some yardwork over the weekend, and I could tell that I'm not in as good shape as I was last summer. I didn't like seeing that, but it is what it is. I just will keep working to get back to what I had. Staying on plan with food is still challenging, but working through that.
Hi everybody! I have a few minutes to check in before I have to pick up my kid at school.
Diane Those aches and pains are a pain, aren't they? And so frustrating. I took three days off due to travel, and then had two bad workouts due to a leg muscle that sometimes cramps if I don't warm up slowly enough and ended up taking two more days off. I'm going back to my normal workout today and I'm hoping my leg won't start cramping this time. It's so frustrating to have the general stamina for something and yet have one body part screaming NO!!!! I really hope your foot is better. It's so much harder to focus on NOT eating which is sort of the absence of doing something, as opposed to exercise, which is a positive action.
Vlada I love looking back at my old stats and comparing! My first time around, back in 2009-2010 I dropped the first 50 really quick! Being in ONEDERLAND by June sounds totally doable and I think 1.5 per week is achievable even if, as you know, it will probably be 2.5 then stall, then 35 then whoosh... etc! It seems like weight loss always feels so irregular unless you look at big chunks of time.
Laurie the unplanned dinner, the bags of popcorn... ugh, and ugh again. I'm always so vulnerable in those moments when I don't exactly have a plan or am delayed, or don't quite start with the right things or.... oh, well.... anything. Any decision that is food-related is always worse than no decision for me. As far as the TT is confirmed, I think it's a personal decision, but I really think in my own case, I wish to heavens I had looked into when I was maintaining because it messed with my head. In my case, my legs, arms, butt, neck, face, etc were all completely normal sized-- even thin-- but in profiled, my stomach stuck out like I was nursing a little pregnancy. The roundedness got smaller and smaller but it never changed shape. Probably 4 kids and being obese through all 4 pregnancies was enough to do it. I think just acknowledging that the "fat phase" of your life is over and that you can move on as a normal-sized person is probably a great idea! We'll never stop being post-fatties in our minds, but we don't have to be reminded at every turn.
Dread I hear you about the oatmeal breakfast. I have never found it equally satisfying to drink my meals, and one thing that always helps me A LOT is to eat volume at meals-- that's why, for me, lots of little snacks is never the best way to go. Somethings are just more satisfying than others and it helps to stick with what leaves you feeling good. Glad that the fight was quickly resolved!!! It's awesome that your boyfriend is supporting, but it can be such a fine line between support and feeling food policed. Seems as if you guys are striking a balance.
I'm a bit worried that today is going to be a challenge because I waited a little too long to eat lunch, was over-hungry, and used up more than half of my calorie allotment. I need to plan for a satisfying dinner that won't push me over the edge. I finally logged my weight into FITDAY and realized that I was down 10 since 2/21, so basically ten for the month, fifteen overall. I'm not quite sure when I got started, but I believe it was sometime in January. I'm going to keep going on a fairly loose plan as long as I can until my loss stalls. I'm focusing on getting off the next 20, hopefully by mid-June, although that may be a bit quicker than is realistic.
Uber: Haha, I'm impressed with the lot of us too. It seems like everyone is finding their own personal swing of things! Yeah, dude, my work buys us a stupid amount of food every week. I'm having to just avoid the break room altogether to not binge every day! I'm glad you're looking into therapy to prep for the times ahead. Better to be prepared and recognize the problem right away than to be knee-deep in it before realizing what happened! Hope your cramping gets better too!
Vladadog: 50lbs/3.5 months...that's about 3.5lbs a week? That's AMAZING!!! And 15lbs in 9 weeks is super doable if you just stay on it. Adjustments might have to be made here and there to keep from plateauing, but you can totally do it! I'll be rooting for you ^_^
Laurie: Super glad the fire alarm was apparently nothing lol. Glad your weekend wasn't too crazy food-wise. Congrats on scheduling the surgery! It's smart to give yourself a good amount of time before scheduling more. You'll want to see how your body settles into itself after you healed up before planning on shifting or taking off more. Hope your running motivation makes a come-back! And if it doesn't, hope you can push through it and get it done
Diane: Your "no one needs that negativity" comment made me laugh SO HARD this morning lol. Hope your foot cramps get better!
Last edited by DreadPiratePanda; 03-20-2017 at 06:00 PM.
Soooooo, today went pretty great! Breakfast was a fruit smoothie and a hard-boiled egg (which def seemed to give me the boost I needed to get through till lunch), lunch was a ham and swiss sandwich/banana/string cheese, snack was an orange/hard-boiled egg (I loooooooove eggs), dinner was baked chicken legs with corn/green beans, and dessert was a chocolate greek yogurt popsicle. Reached 10,000 steps, and walked on the treadmill for 30min today. Drank lots of water and after another bottle, I'll hit my water goal for day. I haven't had a redbull in four days. I feel awesome.
And now my thoughts about everything above:
- I joined the LoseIt subreddit on Reddit, and they had a great recommendation that I buy a food scale and start using it religiously. At first, I was kinda iffy on needing it this soon (I mean, obviously whatever I'm doing is working, right?), but thinking about it more and more, I'm warming up to the idea. Right now we're just sort of putting whatever fits into sandwich-size tupperware containers. What with us food-prepping on the weekends, it would be super easy to just measure things out using the measuring cups and using the food scale for the meat. I want to start counting calories and the food scale would make logging everything much more accurate.
- The 10,000 steps doesn't include the 30min on the treadmill.
- The treadmill made me feel pretty ashamed of myself. I mean, I was sweating and out of breath just from WALKING for 30min. Ugh. I feel like such a fattie. I mean, I feel awesome that I went and the soreness is nice, but I still feel kinda bad about myself at how out of shape I am.
- Drinking this much water makes me pee, like all the time. It's annoying.
- I miss redbull, but I felt great today without it. No afternoon crash!
Diane - UGH on the sore foot. The injuries must end! Thank you for your thoughts about the surgery. It is helpful to get some perspective. And I know what you're saying about losing fitness levels you worked so hard to achieve. As I contemplate surgery, I am embracing that as a reality. I'm trying to believe that as long as we keep moving forward, we are winning the battle.
Uber - Thank you for fleshing out your thoughts on the tummy tuck. I'm trying to work through the whole "I buy the expensive shampoo for my daughters and the cheapest for me" mindset and get to the place where I'm willing to dump a huge amount of money into this surgery. Thinking of myself as a "post-fattie" feels really liberating, though. I am actually really fortunate that my stomach itself is pretty flat, despite six pregnancies, but I put on my size 8 skirt this morning and had to wear a longer shirt to hide the pouch of loose skin directly opposite my generous backside. And, of course, the waistband is loose, as it always is, since the challenge in covering the lower half of my body is always in the booty/pannus area. The only way it gets better is with surgery. And I have worked long enough and hard enough--both in terms of the weight loss and making and saving money--to have earned this. Right? Look at you, though. So glad you've taken off the first fifteen! Hope you were able to find something satisfying and delicious for dinner that fit into your decreased calorie budget. Or . . . I hope you enjoyed your extra-calorie day and are even more pumped to be on plan today.
Amanda - I love what you said about the running motivation. There are three choices, right? One is that the running mojo can magically return. Two is that I can quit and fail on this goal that I've had since (roughly) the beginning of time right when I'm knocking at the door of achieving it. Or three - I can just push through and get it done, motivation or no motivation. Hmmm.... Perhaps I'll opt for door number 3. Good for you on quitting Red Bull. I have a Red Bull habit - I drink the sugar free version four or five times a week. I'm not quite ready to give it up, but I think about it. Yay for you! Sounds like everything else is going nicely as well. Interestingly, I purchased a food scale a few days ago for an entirely non-weight-loss-related purpose, but I'm interested to see how your experiment goes. I hate tracking, but may want to do some intermittent tracking as I'm figuring out what I want "maintenance calories" to look like.
Carter and Mandy - Very interested to hear what's going on in your worlds. Huge projects, new treadmills, etc...
Had a good day food-wise yesterday. Ran for about 3 miles. Not ideal, but something. And gained two pounds overnight to be back up to 155.6. I was also really hungry when I woke up, and I had all of the "let's give up" self-pitying thoughts. And then I started contemplating what that would look like. I could stop for fast food, or pick up something from the gas station. But as I considered it, I realized that there was nothing that would give me that "overfull feeling" that I was craving that would not simultaneously make me feel sick. Weird that I had never realized before that the same feeling that makes me finally feel sated is also the feeling that makes me feel unable to physically function. Weird that this far into the process, I'm still having epiphanies for things I should have realized years ago. And again, I conclude that my relationship with food is not, and never will be, "normal." So, I am back on my old reliable routine, and feeling quite blase about it.
Today's plan - Track calories. I hate tracking, but I am going to do it for a few days. I am scheduled for weight lifting this evening, but I may run instead. I am going to get my 11K steps in, and going to be super focused on work today. I will continue to avoid the candy jar.
Uber: How nice to put it in writing, recording in FitDay, and seeing your progress! That's so awesome!!! Thanks, too, for your thoughts on aches and pains, injuries, etc. That's so true that dealing with eating is always a negative in that you're trying to cut out calories, or whatever. Exercise is a good thing if you "go over". Ha! Unless you get injured.......
Dread: Yeah, I'm avoiding the scale for a while, so no negativity for me either. I'll get back on it soon, but just wanted a few days to focus on eating well and exercise, without seeing something I don't want to see. Avoidance at its finest. I also have a food scale and I like it. I should probably use it more often. I think it helps with being realistic on food portions and calories.
Laurie: I don't drink Red Bull, but I have a love for Xyience, cran raspberry. It is 0 calorie, but it also gives me a nice little boost in the afternoon. I am sure it isn't the best thing I could do, but I like it.
For me, I went to Body Pump this morning. It was good and I feel like I'm getting better. I'm still trying to be patient and not push too much. But I think I'll do a little more next week. I plan on running tonight, and then back to spin tomorrow. I am also going to go back to the Body Flow class on Friday (the yoga/tai chi/pilates class). I know that my flexibility is not very good now, so I've been avoiding it. But I need to try to make it better, so I'll give it a go.
Food has been better the last couple of days. Hopefully I can hang on to that!!!
