Haven't checked in because I'm feeling discouraged.

Week 3: 0 lost
Week 4: .6 lost
Week 5: 0 lost

Feeling a little grim about it, but I haven't had a binge episode, have been making wise choices, exercising, drinking tons of water. I have to just keep moving forward.

LaurieDawn, good to see you back! I like your 'check in daily' + daily weighing idea. It's crazy how quickly things get out of hand when you aren't paying attention! And hooray for 8000 steps!! :D Keep going with those baby (and not so baby) steps!

Hi all. It's that time of year again for the Junior College World Series baseball tournament. So, I've been spending lots of time at the baseball field. Doesn't make for great choices in food and not getting a lot of exercise, but trying to just maintain until it is over on Friday. It goes kind of late, so still trying to get to work the next day is challenging, workouts are out of the question. I'll get back to it when this is done, but I can't miss out on watching some baseball! I'm just trying to keep a little sanity with everything.

Frances: Dang. I hate it when it gets like that. It is so hard to keep going when the scale isn't being helpful. Your attitude is right, though. Just keep moving forward!

Laurie: I guess it just might take a while to get back to feeling good enough to get back the activity you love. Hopefully you'll be feeling much better soon!

Vladadog: Computer issues... ugh!

Dread: Congrats on the weight loss! That's awesome!

Bookmark: So glad to see you back here. I appreciate where you are with everything and I'm glad you're going to move forward now. We all have those times. I'm still working on my recent regain. Keep posting!

Heyhey. I am back at my desk job after a blissful 6 days of staycation. I was away from the forums pretty much the whole time and see that I missed a lot of responses. I'm happy to see so many people checking in. Tomorrow when I weigh in I get to see how much I lost in May. Right now, it is over 11 pounds, and I am hoping that I will hop on the scale tomorrow and be able to shout out that I made it to 12. That would be AMAZING since my goal is 8 pounds per month :) I thought that without exercising that 2 lbs a week was going to be the top end of what I was going to manage, but it looks like I did 3. Crazy.

This months loss is all thanks to following the path of Bright Line Eating, and a Whole Foods, Plant Based diet that is both sugar/sweetener and oil free. To whatever was watching out for me this month lending me strength and empowerment: please don't leave me!! And in the likely reality that my brain is just getting on board with my heart, you two stay in contact. I haven't been this happy with myself in a super long time ;)

Bookmark: glad to see you back and looking forward to watching you progress on your journey! Also happy to hear that your life is moving in positive directions. It is so dang hard to try to stay on track with food and weight loss when the rest of your life isn't cooperating too.

Panda: ugh sinus infections are the worst. Happy to hear that it moved on and that things in general are looking up. Also, you get mad girlfriend props on the comicon tix. What an awesome present!

Frances: unfortunately, my planar fasciitis is not going away. I have orthotics I have to wear 100% of the time (even in the house when I am in my house slippers, I have as set of them in there). I did take the dogs for a nice long walk or two over the past few weeks. My feet did hurt when I got back, so I am making myself wait for now just to be on the safe side! Also, hang in there. When losses look so little, it starts the bad thoughts of "eff this why do I even bother!" Fight that sabeteur and just keep fighting!

Laurie: I totally agree with you that checking in here and commenting really helps! My metabolism is premenantly screwed. I have Hashimoto's Disease (hypothyroid) so I know I am on limited calories forever. When it is maintenance time, I will be able to 1600- MAYBE. I Will have to see when I get there.

Thanks everyone, for the kind words and welcome! It is REALLY hard to shake the feelings of disappointment and the tendency to compare where I am at to where I would have been at if I had kept my **** together this whole time. . . but it's okay to be disappointed, so long as I don't let it take me in an unhealthy direction. LaurieDawn - I put off buying upsized clothes as long as I possibly can! But eventually, I do need pants to wear to work that wont pop open in front of the class :P

I'm trying to look at June as a healing opportunity, and remember the significance to forming new habits of that month-ish time period. If I can be healthy, every day, for the month, I'll be well on my way, regardless of what happens with the weight. And that means DAILY exercise - even if it's only a couple of sun salutations - and no binge foods (chips, candy, pop).

Glad to read so many positives for so many people. Hopefully I'll be joining in with the cheer, soon.

Good news...I've finally figured out what the problem is. I've had a candida flare-up (long story short: body decimated by antibiotics last year, weight loss stopped for months and months until I figured out the problem and started taking tons of supplements and cutting out sugar). As a general rule, I just don't eat much white flour/sugar any more, and this weekend I had a ton of sandwiches (healthy, but with white bread) and some sugar (ice cream, wedding cake) while not taking my probiotics. I'm having all the same symptoms (no appetite, totally bloated, can't lose a single ounce). I'm just going to really hit the probiotics and supplements and eat clean for a while...hopefully it won't take more than 2 weeks to get my system back on track. I hate that I won't be able to lose weight for a while, but I've got to ride this out.

Bookmark, I like your idea of making June a healing month!

PB, congrats on the amazing loss!!! I hear you about the plantar fasciitis. It is no joke! I developed it years ago at my highest weight and had it for at least a year, until I dropped into the 2-teens. I still wear preventative shoes at home and gel insoles in my gym shoes!!

PacificaBee: Glad you enjoyed your time off and congrats on the weight loss!

Bookmark: I know what you mean. I have to fight looking back at where I was and where I could have been by now. It happened, now time to move on. But...... if I had only kept it in sight. UGH!

Frances: Oh boy, what a burden for you! It is so hard to stay diligent with issues like that. Glad you have it figured out and can work on getting it back under control.

As for me, not much to say. Two more days of baseball, then I'll be back to normal. Right now, I'm lacking a little on the sleep side of things, but enjoying the heck out of baseball!!!

Diane - World Series of College Baseball, huh? If I recall correctly, your son was a baseball player? Is that why the baseball love? Glad you're taking the time to enjoy it. We push ourselves so hard all of the time. I agree that it is critical to balance it. Glad you're loving the baseball.

Pacifica Bee - It is so fantastic to be in that place where you are not suffering by adopting new, difficult habits, AND are getting great progress. Three pounds per week without exercise? They say that you can't outexercise bad nutrition habits, but it is great to see someone making such good progress without pounding the gym. I like to hit the gym, and can't wait to get back to it, but it would be irresponsible for me to do it before I'm healed, so I take great comfort in watching such successful weight management without it. Congratulations!

Bookmark - You're a teacher then? College? Secondary? Primary? Regardless of which it is -- no wonder you feel stressed! Teaching is hard work. I love that you're designating June as a month of healing. It is so critical to take care of ourselves. I am particularly guilty of being very hard on myself even when I'm succeeding. I love that you're giving yourself some of the same grace I am sure you give to everyone else in your life.

Frances - It seems like it's always something new to challenge us, yes? I am really glad you figured out this obstacle and have a clear strategy for dealing with it. I'm sorry that it includes the need to consistently avoid cake and ice cream, though. =) Actually, the time periods I have been able to do sugar-free have always been really good for the way I feel, so maybe I should be envying you the additional motivation? I wish you strength in making the changes. I know you'll do it.

As for me - I weighed in at 149.8 this morning. That makes my BMI - dun dun dun! - "normal." If I claim 5'5" when I'm really only 5'4.5". Which I do claim. I feel like I'm at a place where I don't need to lose anything, wouldn't cry too much about gaining back up to 160ish (if I could stay there!), but want to be stronger and more toned. So, I'm just sort of treading water while I slowly build up my strength again. Interestingly enough, I have had no desire to binge for a few days. We went out to eat. I ate as much as I wanted. I went and found the server to get a to-go box because I did not want to be in a position where it was easy to eat just another bite. Maybe I can do this maintenance thing?

Today's goals -
1 - Continue daily weigh-ins for a few days.
2 - Eat reasonably. We are having pizza for the kids, but I think I'll just eat some chicken and raspberries for dinner.
3 - Get in my 8000 steps. I did 7,965 yesterday. I find it interesting that I let that happen, and can't decide if it's good or bad.
4 - Continue to check-in 3FC daily.

Have a great day, everyone!

Well, I didn't make it to 12 pounds in May. An 11.8 loss is close enough to make me a happy camper though! I also checked in with my goals that I keep on my blog. Apparently I crossed the line from morbidly obese into just obese sometime last week. Woohoo go me - I'm only marginally huge now. Only 58 pounds to go 'til overweight *eyeroll*

Glad to see everyone moving forward down your individual paths. Have a healthy day!

Shout outs tomorrow, I'm running on empty tonight. But i wanted to mark the beginning of the month with stats...

I was only down 6 pounds for May. Which is good, it's 6 less pounds. But i did kinda hope to be in Onderland for my Doctor's appointment tomorrow. Oh well, I'm still thinner and waaaay healthier than the last time she saw me.

I walked (according to fitbit) 128 miles in May. My personal goal has been only 8000 steps a day but I'm routinely getting over 10,000 now so I guess for June I'll up my daily goal to 10,000.

Maybe I'll be in Onederland this month!

Having a rough week at work. I'm alive and exhausted. I'm eating 90% on plan and I'm still going hard at the gym. I think I lost another half pound at least.

Hope everyone is well!

Good morning!

Amanda - It's so great how consistent you have been in following your plan despite chaos at work. When you said that you thought you had this figured out, I was hopeful that it would last forever. It hasn't technically been forever, but it's been months. You are rocking this, and I am loving it. Hope work gets better.

Vladadog - It rarely seems to go as fast as we want it to. But I completely agree with you. Losing six pounds is such a challenge. But consistently losing month after month after month is even more of a challenge. So, while eight or ten would have been nicer (probably), the consistency of losing month after month is so much more important than the actual number, I think. And, I will officially trade Fitbit goals with you. Mine used to be 11,000, but I changed it to 8,000 a few days ago, and am not actually hitting that. I have been finishing days above 7500, but not quite to 8,000. I'll get it back, though. And soon, I hope.

PacificaBee - You might only say 11.8 pounds, but I round, and in my mind, you lost TWELVE pounds in May. That is outrageously fantastic. Especially if you're dealing with Hashimoto's. And congratulations, too, on progressing from "morbidly obese" to "obese." Those BMI ratings are kinda dumb, but it is still nice to see progress.

I am in a sort-of honeymoon phase right now. We have twice the baked goods today at work, and I literally have no interest in them. I ended up needing to improvise for dinner last night, but I still easily chose a few scrambled eggs over pizza last night, and when I saw my raspberries had molded, I chose my fake ice cream. And I didn't get snacks at the movies. It's a weird place to be. Usually, when I hit milestones, I get some sort of cravings backlash. It makes sense that it would work the other way, but it never seems to. I officially have a "normal" BMI, and I might keep that for a while.

Goals
1 - Go grocery shopping, for the love of Pete.
2 - Keep progressing--slowly--toward increasing my activity level. It's hard not to push too fast, but I can't be stupid, so I'm being careful.
3 - Get my work space cleaned up. It's making me crazy.
4 - I think I need to get my room and my office cleaned up. I will try to make a little progress in that direction.

Oh! Almost forgot. I saw a former classmate, and she said, "Are you like a third of the size you used to be?" She said it sweetly, and I love her, and her sincerity was evident. But part of me was like - I weigh 150 pounds. Do you really think I used to weigh 450 pounds? It was kinda funny.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Just checking in to say it's day two of my sad, no sugar/no flour/no fruit/low carb life! Made it through day 1...no cessation of symptoms yet...fingers crossed for some progress by Monday!

Really happy to see how well everyone is doing! Vlad and PBee, great losses for you! :carrot: Laurie, great with checking in and cracking the 140s, wow! Pirate, great for eating 90% on track. Slash, great fun with the baseball! Enjoy! :D

P.S. Uber, hope you're doing well!

Just a quick post. The baseball tournament ends tonight, probably. Then I'll get more sleep and have more to say. Just trying to survive work today. :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

LaurieDawn - I teach secondary school special education at the moment. I will be moving to a new job in a new city over the Summer. I'm very excited. But also anxious to be at my best for the big move. I gave my notice early this Spring without a job to go to, which contributed to the stress/depression cycle. Now that I have stability re-instilled, I'm feeling better.

Today has been a bit of a whoopsie. I stuck low-cal and active for Wednesday and Thursday. Today I did not. I had a binge after work, and my stomach is very unhappy with me. Sigh. At least I curbed it much earlier than I could have done. I'm sure my weight will be up again tomorrow and may just skip looking until Sunday. Looking forward to a relaxing, Sunny weekend where I am.