Thanks for all the support regarding my parents and "the cake incident". Oh man, was this a tough shark week. I am on the pill, but still sometimes get REALLY bad pms symptoms. This time it was my extreme moods, then chin zits, cramping for 3 days, and bloating. The crazy thing is I didn't have my little withdrawal bleed till yesterday! Anyway, thanks for the hugs! A big hug right back to you!! :hug: I tried my best to leave my emotional baggage at home when I went to my parents. I did let my mom know how I felt about the cake though without things getting ugly. But as you guys know, it was about a lot more than cake going down that emotional spiral I had.

Martine I'm pretty sure a beaver tail and an elephant ear are the same thing, just a slightly different shape. Elephant ears are round. Maybe it's a mid-west american thing to call them elephant ears.

Ophelia Happy belated birthday!!! Congrats for making it another year! Lemon cream cake sounds amazing. I've never tried making it before. Maybe I'll make that one next time I feel like baking a cake, but NOT for my mom (jk). I admire your discipline to weigh once a week, if I do that I misbehave too much.

Current Status: Maintaining

So I'm back from my parents place. I did not have a scale there to use and was there Friday and left Tuesday morning. Oh god, I ate so much. I can't talk my way around this one. It was so many meals eating out and big delicious breakfasts with Kiolbassa brand bacon and maple sausage links. Shark week didn't help. I buried my head in the sand, and blissed out with glasses of white wine everyday. Now I'm back in town and am 2 lbs over what I need to be for maintaining off of shark week weight. If I am not miraculously 171.2 lbs or less by tomorrow morning the diet is starting again a few days earlier than planned. There is a chance I am quite a bit bloated since my withdrawal bleeds only started yesterday, and I did drink a LOT of diet pop on my trip including last night. Today will be my first day off of caffeine in almost a week and I have a feeling it's going to be ugly. I might have to make a cup of tea to get through it.

Just a quick check in for me today!

SW: 248.9
9/7: 248.4
GW: 240

Week 2:
9/8: 248.8 (+0.4)
9/9: 248.8 (+/-0)
9/10: 247.6 (-1.2)
9/11: 246.9 (-0.7)
9/12:
9/13:
9/14:

:wave:

RunningRedHead Looks like you're having a good week, good job!

I'm here today to start my next dieting period! Today is 9/13 and I'm trying to reach 168.4 lbs by 10/14. I eat about 1300 calories a day spread over 4 small meals. I also try to exercise 1.5 hours a day, but that is not always possible. I'll be updating daily weights with my progress.

In other news I made it though Wednesday without touching any caffeine and felt fine, but this morning have woken up groggy and with a headache. Today is a busy day with class, but I am going to ride my stationary bike 45 minutes around lunch and try to work in a quick walk if I can. I do have a Wedding coming up this Saturday. I do not plan on dieting that day.

1. 173.6
2. 174
9/15 (Wedding No Diet)

Thanks Curvy for starting this thread! Good Luck, Everyone!


SW: 211 CW: 207.2 (- 3.8) GW: 204

1. No weigh in. Out of town.
2. No weigh in. Out of town.
3. No weigh in. Out of town.
4. No weigh in. Out of town.
5. 211
6. No weigh in.
7. No weigh in.
8. 210.6 (- .4)
9. No weigh in.
10. No weigh in.
11. No weigh In.
12. 209.8 (- 1.2)
13. No weigh in.
14. 207.4 (- 3.6)
15. 206 (- 5)
16. 205.4 (- 5.6)
17. 205.4 (- 5.6)
18. 205.4 (- 5.6)
19. 205 (- 6)
20. No Weigh In.
21. 205 (- 6)
22. No Weigh In. Out of Town.
23. No Weigh In. Out of Town.
24. No Weigh In. Out of Town.
25. No Weigh In. Out of Town.
26. No Weigh In. Out of Town.
27. No Weigh In. Out of Town.
28. No Weigh In. Out of Town.
29. 208 (- 3)
30. 207.2 (- 3.8)

TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS:- 3.8 LBS.

Ugh I had typed out a long message and I lost it :(

Anyway, I tried ZZZquill last night and it was not a success. It did not help me fall asleep. And once asleep, it felt like I was sleeping "lightly", aware of my surroundings and my dreams, so it was not a restfull night. Maybe the fact that I was worried about taking the medication hindered its effect. And this morning I felt so groggy, I was in a fog just like it was outside. I'll try it again tonight but I know I would never use it if I was working the next day. Other than that I have nothing to report.

Hope everyone is well and I'm enjoying reading about everyone's progress.

A quick checkin for me again as I seem to be having trouble with my desktop. With that being said, apologies for any formatting issues that result from posting on mobile :lol:

Week 2:
9/8: 248.8 (+0.4)
9/9: 248.8 (+/-0)
9/10: 247.6 (-1.2)
9/11: 246.9 (-0.6)
9/12: 250.5 (+3.6)
9/13: 248.8 (-1.7)
9/14: 246.9 (-1.9)
Total for Week 2: -1.5
Total for September: -2.0

:wave: and happy Friday.

Martine: I'm sorry that good sleep evades you. :hug: Taking meds I'm not familiar with concerns me as well. Have you ever tried Melatonin? I've never tried it but I have a couple of friends who swear by it. Lack of sleep makes everything tougher but hope you've at least enjoyed some of your vacation time.

opheliaphoenix: Thanks for explaining your family dynamics. How beautiful that you're raising your step children as your own. You're setting them up with happy family memories for a lifetime. My sister did much of the same with her stepson. They must dote on your 4 year old son; I still remember that photo of his smiling face and all those curls that you treated us to some time back. Know that we're all pulling for you as you navigate your way through your studies. A big part of my job is working with student-parents and there are no words for how much I admire them. :hug:

bloominbutterflies: Quitting caffeine is hard! What's your poison, :coffee: or soda? Are you trying to cut yourself off completely or just decrease the amount?

RunningRedHead: Glad to see I'm not the only one who does "drive by" check-ins! Take care of yourself. :hug:

:wave: VickieLou!
************************************************** ************************************************** ********
I've been a poor poster as of late but it seems like a lot of us are time challenged this month. Not going to lie, it's been :crazy:. The renovation of the center is almost complete. It's completely painted and what used to be our cold, bleak lobby area has been transformed into a lovely study/lounge space. My ginormous office desk that looks like it dates back to the early 90s was dismantled and carted off this morning, and the carpets will be cleaned tonight. New furniture will be moved in on Monday and Tuesday. The entire center has been painted in a very serene and beautiful blue. My team and I are very excited but I feel like I'm just barely keeping my head above water. Earlier this week it became very clear to me what the lack of quality sleep was doing/has done to me when I snapped at one of my staff for no good reason. I felt awful :(. I decided to start wearing my fitbit to bed in effort to track my sleep. Last night was the first night and I slept 5 hours and 29 minutes. For most folks that may not seem like a lot but for me it was solid. I've had more energy today than I have in a very long time. Of course I know for a fact that I've been running on much, much less. Even though it is a Friday I plan to get to be early again tonight.

CurvyNotLumpy my poison is definitely diet coke. I can't keep it in the house! I get addicted to caffeine so easily. I only drink it when I go out to eat or on vacations. At my parent's place I drank diet coke and diet mountain dew everyday. Just after a mere 5 days I was hooked and felt groggy without it. I also notice pop causes bloating for me. I think this choice is working for me, but if I drink it a few days in a row it's really tough to stop cold turkey at home!

Martine have you tried melatonin? I'm not sure what is in the zzzquil, but I am skeptical off it. If I take two nightquil when I have a cold I feel like I'm high trying to sleep. I have dizzy dreams about flashing lights. So it's sleep, but not good quality sleep.

The last 2 days I've been working hard right back on track! It's a bittersweet moment the morning as I've had a huge whoosh of 2 lbs, finally getting rid of a good chunk of the bloating from my parents place driven by hormones, diet pop, and salt. As life would have it, I am going to a friend's wedding this afternoon. I've decided not to diet today, because picking at food at a wedding just seems like the lamest thing. I'll pick at food on my diet at dinner parties, birthday parties (but not my own), going out to eat, but I think weddings is where I draw the line. I bought a nice dress, an expensive gift, and dammit I'm gonna eat and empty as many champagne flutes as my heart desires. So tomorrow morning I will be bloated again (and will probably gain a little weight, who am I kidding?).

Tomorrow, I'm hanging out with a friend. We will eat together for sure. I'm not sure what we will eat but we usually like to eat out for bad stuff like taco "salad" (mostly greasy cheese and beans rofl), ramen, and bubble drinks. My strategy is to try to take home as much as possible if it looks like we are going on a marathon (more than 1 food place). I also am going to make sugar free jello to eat at dinner to fill me up with almost no calories to make up for the big lunch it looks like I'll be having. I've done this method before a few times. It seems to work pretty well, but is not good more than 1 day in a row. I'm hungry as sin the following morning, and it takes will power to get through the day after before my body hunger levels go back to "normal suffering" of my diet. :lol:


09/15: 172
09/16: 173.6

Martine: Ugh! Sorry to hear about your sleep troubles. I hope that your second time around with the ZZZquil was more productive and this was just nerves about the new medication. Sleeplessness is no fun! :hug:

Casey: I think being aware of your stress level and its effect on your diet/exercise routine is half the battle and you seem like you’re aware of how it’s affecting you. You’re absolutely right that maintaining is better than gaining, and I am sure that with some more time you will strike a balance soon.

Curvy: You’re not the only drive-by poster :lol: I’m still having trouble with bringing up individual threads on my laptop so I have to wait until I’m at my desktop, which is a pain in the butt, or post on mobile. Glad to hear the renovation is almost complete and the blue color sounds lovely; depending on the shade, I find blue paints to be very calming. I love tracking my sleep with my Fitbit, it’s always good to get an idea of how you’re really sleeping. Glad to hear you’re taking care of yourself and getting the rest you need!

Bloominbutterflies: I hope you have a wonderful time at your friend's wedding and out tomorrow with your friends. I’ll have to try your Jell-O method one of these days, it sounds like a good plan for those days that I go just about to my calorie limit before dinner.

VickieLou: :wave:

I am up quite a bit today as I went way, way, way over my calories yesterday. Hopefully, with today and tomorrow being 100% on plan, the gain will be mitigated sooner rather than later. I am done picking up extra shifts for a while, so it’s back to my two nights in a row. Dinner will be cauliflower rice with a nice marinara and roasted peppers. Snacks will be keto-friendly cheesecake filling with blackberries and cocoa roasted almonds. I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend :)

SW: 248.9
9/14: 246.9
GW: 240

Week 3:
9/15: 251.1 (+4.2) :eek:
9/16:
9/17:
9/18:
9/19:
9/20:
9/21:

RunningRedHead it's good that you get a break from extra shifts. Extra money is always good but your time is worth more. Your meal of cauliflower rice sounds delicious. I tired cauliflower rice once and did not like it, but I think it was the recipe itself that could've been better.

bloominbutterflies your description of how you feel when you sleep after you take Nyquil is EXACTLY how I felt taking ZZZquil. I haven't tried it again. People always mention melatonin to me but I worry that my body would not be able to find its normal levels again after using it. It took me more than 2 months to convince myself to try ZZZquil, I'm in no hurry to try any other product for now. Hope you had a fabulous time at the wedding.

curvynotlumpy I can totally relate to you feeling like your lack of sleep is starting to affect you. Your idea to use your Fitbit as a sleep tracker has given me the idea to add an app to my Apple Watch and do the same. How exciting that the renos are almost over at your place of work. I love the colour blue, my favourite colour really, so I'm sure the centre looks great!

opheliaphoenix beautiful story of how you consider your step children as your own. Regarding weight loss, sometimes maintaining is for the best when you face a lot of changes at once.

As I mentionned above, yesterday I downloaded an app to track my sleep. Apparently I had zero hours of deep sleep last night. I'll continue to use it for a while and if I see a pattern there, it will definitely be cause for concern, as I know that deep sleep is the regenerative phase that the body needs most. I really think that my lack of sleep has become a real health problem as it is affecting everything else in my life. Forget about exercising or preparing healthy meals when you're so tired all the time. Other than that, this is my last day off before returning to work on Monday. Not looking forward to it but work is part of life (shrug).

Hope everyone has been enjoying a fantastic weekend!

RunningRedHead Good luck getting back on track! Your snacks sound healthy and delicious.

The wedding went well. I mean I ate, but I didn't go as crazy as I normally would have. I must be spoiled, because I've been to some pretty elaborate weddings. This couple (no offense) was clearly on a tight budget, and we got served a skimpy family style meal with no refills. We got a platter of a couple of different things and passed it around. I kept being the last person the platter reached and I got 1 piece of chicken and 2 pieces of asparagus :lol:. The cake was awful too! And I'm pretty sure the ice cream was "dairy vanilla dessert". The soup tasted canned. Don't worry, I didn't say boo at the wedding I would never be that rude. Still, couldn't help being a little disappointed since I really look forward to wedding receptions. But hey, at least we got an open bar. So I ended up drinking a lot more than eating and still had a good time! My poison of choice was Canadian whiskey that night.

Sunday, me and my friend didn't end up eating lunch until 4 pm. Which worked out great because I could combine my lunch calories with my dinner calories. So I had a light breakfast at 9 a.m and then my "linner" at 4 and didn't eat the rest of the day. We went to a restaurant called pho thai. I had pho with meatballs and brisket. Pho isn't very high calorie, but has a lot of salt. I also had a watermelon bubble drink and part of a bun from the Vietnamese bakery nearby. It was a big bun though. So I'm pretty sure I'm bloated from these days of salt and alcohol again. But hey, keep calm and carry out. I got a week ahead of perfect non-interrupted days to diet.

09/17 173.8
09/18

Usually I post every other day, but I just had to say something. I can't believe the scale this morning! I had to go to the bathroom like a thousand times last night. I just think it's crazy how much I hold onto water from something like drinking, salt, or diet coke. Biggest whoosh I've seen in a very long time. :dunno:

09/18: 171.2
09/19: 171.2
09/20: 171

GW: 168.4 by 10/14

Martine: I agree. It’s why I switched to working weekends in the first place; the extra money isn’t worth the exhaustion and the loss of my sanity :eek::lol: So sorry to hear you’re still having trouble sleeping :hug: I hope it gets better soon. If not, have you mentioned it to your doctor?

Bloominbutterflies: Glad you had a good time at the wedding and enjoying Pho with your friend :) Also, holy woosh! Great job! :cheer:

Yesterday my Aunt was staying with us before flying to Texas for vacation. I always try to make a dessert when I make dinner for family. Last night we had pizza and a nice colorful salad for dinner, dessert was cheesecake brownies. It was really good, but I’m sad and glad to report that my taste buds have changed again and even sweet treats sweetened with Swerve (erythritol) instead of sugar are starting to taste too sweet to me. I think I’ve been retaining some water this week; hoping that works itself out soon. I’m scouring the internet for meal prep and slow cooker freezer meal ideas as I have plans Friday to meal prep with a friend who is interested in starting LCHF eating :cheer: It’s always fun to have people to trade recipes and talk incessantly about your WOE with :lol:

Have a great day!

SW: 248.9
9/14: 246.9
GW: 240

Week 3:
9/15: 251.1 (+4.2)
9/16: 251.9 (+0.8)
9/17: 251.6 (-0.3)
9/18: 250.5 (-1.1)
9/19:
9/20:
9/21:

Hi ladies, I've been very absent from this thread because of the ongoing stressful work situation, and unfortunately now have another major health issue as well probably somewhat work-stress related.

I gained a few pounds from my Aug 31 weigh in during the 1st two weeks of September and then have finally lost those and a tiny bit more so my weigh-in today is 152.6 lbs. I'm still hoping to get to 149 by the end of the month but honestly any loss is good considering 1) more stress, 2) health issue, 3) sleeping problems, 4) working out less, 5) eating intuitively and not tracking b/c of cognitive burden. I will be really happy if I manage to lose anything more by the end of the month, or even just maintain current weight solidly and not tip up again.