PB, wow, your scale is really jumping around a lot! Sorry you are unhappy with your loss this week. :( But all those little losses add up!

Ubergirl, maintenance is a victory, seriously! Any time when we get a little bad with our food but don't binge and manage to get back on track is huge. I hope you have a better week this week!

Vladadog, great loss this week! I also eat 1600 calories a day. I met with a nutritionist who told me that with the amount of exercise I do, 1600 calories a day is perfect to lose 1 - 2 lbs/week. I'm not so good with eating less! :smug: Good luck with your steps challenge!

So I weigh daily, but today was my weekly "official" weigh in. Exactly the same as last Tuesday. No loss. I'm not worried about it, though, with PMS bloat and coming off a great loss last week. I have a huge note on my computer: "I lost 95 pounds by losing 1.1 lbs per week." Right now, my 3-week average on the new plan is 1.4 lbs - so hooray! :carrot: Seriously, if I can lose a pound a week, I'll be happy. It all adds up.

Wow Frances, we really are twins! I'm doing pretty good at 1600. I went out for lunch AND dinner on Saturday so that day wasn't under goal but otherwise I do pretty good. Back in January and February I was having to work hard just to try to eat up to 1200 calories a day. So now I've got perspective on both sides of calorie counting. As long as I bring food to work I do okay for now. I am not satisfied with a tiny meal, I want to feel full and satisfied. This time around I've really been focusing on ways to get more veggies into my diet. I can have bigger meals for fewer calories if I eat my veggies. Some days it's okay, some days it's a hard slog up a steep (but very green) hill....

I can lose a pound a week, I'll be happy. It all adds up. Yes! Even a half a pound. As long as I don't regain I'm good.

Pacifica Bee - you crack me up you psycho you! But you aren't alone in talking to (yelling at! swearing at!) your inner saboteur. I don't know how you and Uber survive on 1200 calories a day. I think I'd do a lot more swearing than i already do.

Uber - maintaining is better than regaining! Just hold steady till you get your mojo back.

Slash - congratulations on your loss and on surviving the birthday/mother's day weekend. No small feat, really!

Where's Dread? And Lilion? And Laurie???? I really thought we'd hear from Laurie by now.

I had two meals out on one day this week; for me even one meal out a week is a bit unusual and twice in one day much more so. So I may not see any loss this week but I'm staying on plan otherwise and eating healthy food and it was good to see my friends so it was worth it. I also had a can of local brewed hard cider - my first alcohol since i got sick in December (other than communion wine). I've never been much of a drinker but I could handle a can of beer or cider just fine. Well, lol... I am sooooo out of practice. Good thing I caught a ride to lunch cuz that can knocked me for a loop. I won't be doing that again any time soon.

My dogs are English Shepherds. I am part of an ES rescue group so most of my current pack of 6 miscreants are unadoptable rejects. That's Tristan on my ticker. He bites people (or would if he was given the opportunity) but he's a sweetie to me. My young dog is not a rescue, he's the grandson of my best ever dog and a great times 6 grandson of another great dog I once owned (who is also the grandfather of the dog in my profile photo). Teddy is 3 and very active. Keeping him exercised is the best exercise I get .

Frances: Yep, it looks like you have a good weekly weight loss average, so I think you should be proud!

Vladadog: I am with you on the alcoholic beverages. I think if you stay away from it long enough, you lose all your abilities!! I never drink except very occasionally, so when I do, it doesn't take much!! How nice of you to take in rescue dogs!

For me, I made it to Body Pump this morning. No small feat. It was a little cool in the house, my husband is out of town so I have the whole bed to myself, and it was so quiet. But, I knew I'd be upset if I missed it, so I went. I had the goal of going to work out 5 days this week, so still on track for that. Spin tomorrow.

Missing Laurie, Lilion, Dread, Carter, Mandy. Would especially love to hear how Laurie is doing!!!

Hi Everyone!

I was fully expecting the scale to go back up based on the craziness this week, but nope! Down for two days in a row. What are the odds and how much do we all wish the answer was 100%? :D

I have a water question for ya'll: Do any of you drinks loads of water but still find yourself thirsty, even moments after taking a drink? I mentioned earlier in the thread that I take at least 96-144 oz of water every day during the week while at my office (and that is on top of 1-2 c. of coffee and 2-6 c. herbal tea, not to mention whatever water I also have at home). I just can't seem to slake my thirst. I know that is a sign of diabetes, but my blood tests show that that is not the issue. It might be the amount of sodium I eat - I season my food pretty heavily and this might just the consequence. Just wondering if it is a weight-losing thing, or if I should bring it up to my doc...

Diane: woohoo on the loss, that is good stuff! You are also so good about getting your exercise. I can't wait until my body feels better so that I can start hitting the trail again and be like you

Vlad: surviving on 1200 is easy when you have no sugar or flour in your diet; I'm also technically vegan, so I am not tempted with fatty meat or dairy. The calorie to food ratio of, for example, bread vs. kale is mind blowing to me. The way I see it, I have a choice of 1 slice of bread (not filling, and not satisfying unless I have the whole loaf) or literally 6 cups of kale, steamed in salt and vinegar and loaded up with some hot sauce which takes me 30 minutes to eat and keeps me waaaaay full for hours. And both are 100 calories. As long as my stomach is full, I am pretty happy. I also have the unfortunate happenstance that I have a pretty severe case of hypothyroid, so I pretty much maintain weight at 1600, and gain once I start getting into the 1700 range. Also <3 rescue dogs! All my dogs (3) are rescue mutts and I would never have it any other way :) I love watching them blossom from whatever they came from into little love muffins.

UUUUGGGGGGGH, I completely regret taking over a week off of the gym. This crap is *hard* to get back into after a break. My butt hurts, my thighs hurt, my stomach muscles hurt, my calves hurt. UGH. And it wasn't even a hard workout!!! ARGH. Just had to vent that out. I feel better lol.

So my food has been a little weird but we're changing up my lunches to fix that. I've been taking leftovers from dinner to work, and because we eat the same 6-7 dishes all the time, I'm getting burnt out of eating the same things twice a day, every day. I end up only eating 1/3 of my lunch because of disinterest, and then starving most of the day and eating way too much dinner. We're going to switch it up to more snack-like foods: granola bars, meat and cheese roll-ups, a piece of fruit, and a pickle. Hopefully that'll peak my interest in eating at lunch-time again. I haven't checked my weight, and I don't really wanna check it until I feel a little difference. Whether that's tomorrow morning or two weeks from now, it's whatever. Trying to focus on what my body is telling me than what the scale is.



Bee: Whoop whoop! Congrats on the two-day streak of trending down!!! Dude, I struggle to even make my 64oz of water a day, so kudos on drinking so much! I get thirsty for more, but my job doesn't allow me to keep a bottle of water handy so it's super hard to even get to the 64oz. The thirst could be something, or literally nothing at all. If your doc says you're fine, it might just be the salt? lol If you really feel like it's a true excessive amount of thirst, try cutting back on salt and see if that helps. If it doesn't, try looking at whatever medications you take...and if *that* doesn't help, talk to your doctor again about it. I'm in the habit of thinking of the saboteur in my head as my Hooker voice, compliments of this forum! LOL

Slash: I'm so proud of you for resisting the urge to just stay home and not make it to Body Pump!! Mother's Day and your son's birthday aren't excuses...they're times to enjoy treats with the people you love. :)

Vladadog: We are def going to be Unicorns together! Puppy dates are the best. How amazing that you're part of a rescue group! Miscreants are my favorites. All my babies are rescues. :) You know, I've also noticed that my tolerance for alcohol has gone waaaaayyyyy down since I've started dieting and exercising. I can't tell if it's the detox of all the other crap out of my system, or if it's because I've stopped drinking so much now that I'm focusing on eating right.

Frances: Congrats on the great trending weight loss! Slow and steady wins the long-term maintenance race ;)

Uber: Sometimes just hanging on the progress you've made so far is progress enough. Isn't is just so frustrating, though???? Ugh! But....better to tread water than to sink! And it's perfectly fine to take a moment to get used to the medication and how it makes your body feel before concentrating on losing again. I'm glad it's working out for you. :) Keep trucking along!!!

Laurie, hope your healing is going well!!!! We'd love a check-in, just to know everything went okay during surgery!

Hey, everyone! It's been a while since I managed to do a double post (double tap!). One of my goals is to post here more often...I tend to stay more on track when I'm holding myself accountable to people who get what's going on. Keeping up here will (hopefully) make it easier to not just run and hide when the going gets tough.

Been feeling somewhat...emotionally fragile lately. "I feel like the word 'shatter.'" (The Handmaid's Tale) It's an apt description. Mother's Day was rough and I think the full impact of being without Mom for the first time on that day didn't truly register until Monday. I feel like something delicate and too thin, like a light touch would just make it crumble. I worked customer service for 10 years before becoming a nurse, and getting yelled at by people (customer/patients/donors) has been and is a regular occurrence. I've been getting a stomach-turning anxiety from it this week that I haven't gotten in a looooong time. With any luck, I'll get some of my resilience back soon. Feeling like this is awful. I cried this morning when I got to work, just for a few minutes in the bathroom before clocking in. I let out just enough to stop the fist in my chest and then I washed my face and distracted myself by diving into physicals for patients.

Today slowly got better after that...I didn't start to really perk up until I was almost leaving from work. Worked hard at the gym (everything hurts). Did 30 minutes on the treadmill and then 15 minutes doing situps and planks. Ate mostly on plan (had a little bit of candy after dinner). Going to try and get a good amount of sleep tonight and see if maybe that will help tomorrow be better.

Good morning!

Just skimmed a bit, but haven't really read much. I got two unexpected complications. The first was an infection. The second was hand, foot, and mouth disease, which translated into lots of blisters on the back of my throat that makes eating anything very painful. The surgery itself went well. I look a bit like Frankenstein's monster, with all the pieces stitched together. But the dreaded "front butt" / pannus is gone, and my size eight skirts fit like they should now. I am also down to 151.2, the lowest I have been for a while. I'm eating a lot of broth with protein powder.

The biggest challenge is that I'm told I can't even walk for four-to-six weeks. Yeah, right. I have looked up a lot of different protocols for surgery. The key is to avoid elevating my heart rate. A slow-paced walk does not elevate my heart rate noticeably. I will continue to walk, just a lot less. I will try to keep it around 5500 steps a day.

I am back at work, but I think I am going to go home soon. I am exhausted.

I'm having a fairly hard time this morning dealing with the news of the death of Chris Cornell. It makes the milestone of being back at a 100 lb loss this morning seem so insignificant. I wrote a bit about my feelings on my blog for any other Gen X'ers in this thread that might also be feeling this sadness. What a sh!tty sh!tty day.

Panda: Seems we are alone in the thread this week (spoke too soon - WB Laurie!). Your latest post makes me worried about you. Please take some time to nurture yourself and know that I am sending you internet hugs from San Francisco. Can you find some time to take a nice nature walk (if that is your sort of thing) or some quiet reading time or anything you can do for yourself to do a little rejuvenation? Nursing can be such a thankless job. I work for a university Nursing program, so I am surrounded by nurses and hear quite a few tales. If you are ever feeling down and want someone to chat with, I am happy to give you my gmail address and we can talk via hangouts. :hug:

Laurie: welcome back! Glad to hear that you are doing well-enough after the surgery. Sorry to hear about the complications though...

Well...as the kids say...fml.

I effing hate my scale. Adding 2 lbs today. Not a one time fluctuation, I've been weighing for a week waiting for it to go back down. Should never have even put the big loss down to 291, but it had been a couple weeks since I weighed and I thought it was right. I should have known that was some fluke. Just a couple days later it was back up....but I figured THAT was the fluke. I figured THAT was water. No...I've weighed every day or two for over a week and today's was the lowest it's been, back up to 293.5. Even getting naked didn't make the scale down below that. It thinks my shoes are made of air ... Same dressed or naked. WTF is up with that? :mad:

I've lost only 11.5 lbs in like 3 MONTHS. In the same time, my husband has lost 29.5 lbs. Almost THREE times as much! Oh...and apparently I was fooling myself even with my measurements - because measured waist, hips and thighs today and had to increase THOSE 1/2". I CAN pull the tape to what I had...but I'd be too tight. So not gaining muscle and losing fat - or the measurements would show it!

All in all, it was a crappy morning to start off a crappy day.

But, instead of just feeling sorry for myself - or maybe I should say in addition to feeling sorry for myself, I changed my clothes at lunch and did my walk in the nasty heat. Somewhat annoyed that I misread my Fitbit and thought I was at 1.8 miles when I was at 1.08 miles so I ended up with 1.42 miles total when I thought I had 2. :( But, MORE annoyed by the fact that for my 28.59 minute walk I got 15 minutes of fat burn and NO cardio or peak calorie burn. My heart rate simply does NOT go up. Seriously, this is annoying and I wonder if it's part of the problem. I'm on 3 blood pressure meds and maybe they keep my heart rate depressed? My resting heart rate is like 53 BPM. It's not that I don't work hard. I sweat my butt off and work HARD. But I don't get the burn I should. This is not the first time I noticed this.

Well whatever, life goes on.

Panda - Just wanted to say, I'm so sorry you've had a rough Mother's Day. Mine was too...at least, leading up to it. My own son, my only child, has been "difficult" to raise. He's out of the house, has moved two states away and has an unstable situation at best. So I have been very worried, yet unable to help for lots of reasons. That, plus my own mother has been gone 30 years this year. I hate to say it, because it DOES get better dear, but I still miss her tremendously. So I know how very "shattered" you must be these days. I completely understand. Be kind to yourself. The grief does fade. :hug:

Hi all! Sorry I missed yesterday posting. It has been crazy at work again. Glad to see Laurie back!!!

But, gotta run.......

Just checking in, nothing to report. Grumpy because I'm up a pound (not official weigh-in til Monday). I know it's TOM but it's still incredibly irritating. Just trying to do my best to stay on track mentally. My first instinct is to RESTRICT RESTRICT RESTRICT but I know I'll trigger a binge if I do. I have to just take it slow for once.

Lillion, I totally feel your pain. So sorry about the weigh-in. So frustrating for you! I'm glad that you're getting out and walking. Hoping that scale will move for you soon!

Panda, I'm sorry about your Mother's Day sadness. That's a tough day for me too. My mom left me when I was in elementary school. We later had a very fractured, dysfunctional, and toxic relationship before I finally had to cut her out of my life. Holidays are a little rough. But you know what they say - feel the feelings and, like Lillion says, it does get better with time. Keep checking in with us!

PBee, I was totally shocked to hear about CC too. I was in Seattle in the mid-90s when they really got huge. I never made it to a show, but I kind of have a soft spot for many of those bands. :(

lauriedawn, sorry about your infection! Hope you're feeling better soon!

Vlad - I love dogs too! Although I have to admit that I'm a general animal nut and have a soft spot for cats. My dream - which might come to fruition next year - is to have a small farm where I'll have space for more animals and be able to get into animal fostering, too. :val1: My husband is allergic to cats, which kind of puts a damper on that now. Two is our max!

No updates here since 5/19? Wow. I hope it's cuz we're all busy exercising and making healthy choices and not cuz we've all gone off the rails....

Laurie - Welcome home!!! We missed you. Walk carefully. My surgery was way different from yours but they're both abdominal. I was supposed to walk but no lifting at all. Internal soft tissue takes much longer to heal than external incisions. So treat yourself gently! And get LOTS of rest!!!

Pacifica - I drink LOTS of water. Actually I'll drink lots of almost anything in front of me but I try to make sure it's water so I don't get in trouble... I don't know if it's thirst per se, I've just always liked to drink a lot and I'm perfectly happy with water. If I go out with friends and we all get served a glass of water I'll drink a pitcher's worth before anyone else is half done with their glass. I haven't noticed last time or this that weight loss changes this for me. I'm just a drinker by nature.

Dread - i don't think it really gets easier, losing a beloved parent. But time does help. And remembering is good. Tears are good too.

Lilion - I wish I had some advice, or better yet a magic wand, to help you through this rough patch. I know my April of not losing was discouraging but it was only a couple weeks. It might be worth asking your doctor (or google) if the meds you are on make weight loss harder. (if it is any consolation at all, men generally have an easier time losing weight with much less effort... life is unfair)

Frances - remember, there's almost always a very satisfying little woooosh of weight loss after TOM. So there's something to look forward to!

I'm down a pound and while my fitbit doesn't show much increase in footsteps I've been plenty physical in the garden. I had wood raised beds which have rotted. Removing the wood, raking the remains, and setting up new beds is keeping me plenty busy. I'm thinking I won't actually have much of a garden this year but the space will be in great shape for next year...

Slash - I hope work gets less crazy!

Uber - Where are you?

And it's been over 2 months since we've heard from Mandy or Carter. Time for an intervention?

I'll check in, Vlad! I'm down .6 this week. Kind of a disappointment since I broke even last week. My first month back on track = a loss of 4.8 lbs. Not speedy for sure, but I'll keep plugging along. I wonder if the humidity has something to do with it. Even though I drink TONS of water - I mean TONS - I can barely get my rings off at night. Near 100% humidity and in the 90s here. Anyway, Vlad, glad to hear you're down a pound! Good for you!!

Ubergirl, I wanted to tell you that I found a really interesting podcast called "Brain Over Binge." I've always thought that you had to overcome whatever trauma/etc. that had triggered your binges as a coping mechanism, which make it feel doubly hard to stop. But her theory is that we started bingeing because we started restricting, and the binges became habit. Now we binge simply as a response to the urge to binge. The podcast goes into various ways to ignore that urge. It's been really helpful...you might want to check it out!

So, guys, big "trigger time" ahead for me. We have an 8-hour road trip this Thursday...a couple days away...and another 8-hour road trip home on Sunday. This means: 1) I can't exercise. 2) I can't drink all my water (otherwise we'd be stopping every 15/20 min). 3) I won't be "in control" of my environment or food. 4) I'll be at a wedding, with a big buffet of food/sweets. 5) I'll be anxious, so more likely to want to overeat. I bought tons of water and healthy snacks at the grocery store and I'm going to try to take it one day at a time. I hope I have something positive to report back next week!

Mornin' All,

I have not fallen off of any rails here. I do my check-ins at this forum from my office, so my posts generally will only fall on Mon-Thurs.

I had a good weekend! Went to the movies and brought my own snacks in and went to a friends house who were kind enough to supply me with nibbles I could eat (fresh berries from the farmer's market. So good!). I ended up dropping 3.9 pounds last week despite my complaining about the scale being crazy. Of course, now it is TOM so it shot back up this morning. All good things come to an end I guess heh.

Lilion - way to keep up with the walking despite the heat and feeling down. That is really the only way to go if you want to be successful in the end. Just keep on powering through!

Frances - I am still not over the CC thing. I am feeling really silly about it; I have never been upset by a celebrity death before, but I have literally cried every day at least once since his passing. Soundgarden was and has been huge for me since 1990ish when I discovered them. I saw them live several times and the music still speaks to me to this day. I feel like I lost a friend. I hope I get over it soon. I blame my period as I always get super emotional so hopefully it is just bad timing and these emotions will pass already and I am not a nut-job celebrity-stalker type all of a sudden. PS the weather where you are sounds HORRIBLE. Good luck with your road trips!

Vlad - good to know I am not alone in the never ending quest to quench my thirst!

Thanks Ladies for the empathy.

I am reminded that realistically, I've been at this since March 5. Was a bit before, but that's when I got serious. So that's 11 weeks and so I've lost at 1 lb a week. I'd tell any other human that that's a good loss. It's just soooooooo sslllooooww. You know? As of today, the scale is back down to 291. :mad: It's very annoying to have half my MFP friends telling me to stay off the scale or only weigh once a week at most, but the 2 lb fluctuation was a week apart. If you don't weigh...how will you know you've lost? At my size it takes like 20-30 lbs to make a serious difference in clothing fit. As for med's...Dr. put me on Metformin for prediabetes and told me it would help me lost weight. I gained. Go figure.

So anyway...tantrum over. Life goes on.