Oh, no! Feel better!

Report: forgot to weigh this morning, grr. That's the first time in several weeks though, so not so bad. WW today for the first time in six weeks, as they were remodelling and had temporarily moved to a site that isn't as convenient for me.

Why your dad and not you, just out of curiosity?

And I bet there were many opportunities to eat or drink lots of unplanned stuff!

I keep hearing about "steel-cut" oatmeal. Is that what you eat?

So how was WW? You haven't said anything about that in quite some time. Do you still find it helpful?

I forgot to weigh this morning, too. I went back to bed after calling in sick. By the time I finally got up, weighing was off my radar. Had a good day eating-wise but canceled my training session. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. Hope you had a good one!

I didn't make it -- got held up at the butcher's. But yes, I do find it helpful. It's just one more little nudge each week in the right direction.

Oh, no, a second day sick! Hope you're feeling better!

Report: weighed (1.8 under goal), went to class this morning. Wednesday morning classes right now are the exact same circuit each week, an all-out 30 seconds followed by 30 seconds of rest, 4 rounds of 5 stations, and it kicks my butt. I was out of breath almost from the start. Great workout. Ate reasonably yesterday, still keep forgetting to leave a bite. That is my goal today: rebuild that habit, it's a worthwhile one to keep.

Hope you had a good one and were feeling better!

Have you gone to the same group, with the same lecturer, all along?




When you're out of breath, you know it's working! Isn't it amazing just how LONG 30 seconds can seem when you're working really hard? Sometimes I think my trainer is lying to me about how much time has passed!

I feel so-so. I remembered to weigh this morning and was horrified at the result--up 1.6 from 2 days ago (just when I was feeling that the Evista isn't causing a problem for me). What the.....? So I ate very sparingly today and will until I get back under 130 again. No exercise today. Ate everything very slowly and mindfully and am quite hungry at the moment, but am just going to bed. Tomorrow is one of my early mornings. Hope you had a good day!

Yes, once I found the leader I liked.

Ours uses a preprogrammed music mix that tells us when to start and when to stop and move on, so we know it's accurate! :) Our current Friday series is 60 on/15 off. It's not at top energy for the 60 seconds, though, so while it's hard to do, say, pushups for 60 seconds, I end up more out of strength than out of breath. The 30/30 is supposed to be pushing as hard and fast as you can, and two of the five circuits involve jumping off the ground, so it's pretty aerobic.



It could just be daily fluctuation, though, couldn't it? I'm up today, too, alarmingly AT GOAL. Arg. Low day today.

How often do you go? What feedback do they give you about your weight? Are they still giving you flak about being too light?

Your comment about running out of strength before you run out of breath reminded me of something I heard on TV the other day when I was home sick. A trainer was describing resistance training as exercise that fatigues a localized area of your body, whereas cardio is exercise that fatigues your whole body. I thought that was a great way to describe the difference. I typically run out of breath before I run out of strength, so I guess that means I need more cardio!



So I DID hear you screaming this morning!! LOL!!This is the first time you've actually hit your hard-stop since the first time you went under it, right? What were/are you saying to yourself in response?

And did you hear ME screaming, about 6:15AM? I was up another .4 this morning, even though I KNOW I was under 1200 calories yesterday. That flipped me out and made me wonder about water retention from my medication. My rational self managed to talk my emotional self down off the ledge. But I'm going to stay on the low end of my calorie range for a few days until I drop back where I should be. Today I'm at about 1300 calories. I'm glad I have a training session in the morning!

Hope you had a good day, and that you will be rewarded for it on the scale tomorrow!

Usually I go every week, but I haven't been in about five weeks since they started the remodel and temporarily moved to a hotel conference room. Looking forward to being back on track next week!

I definitely need more cardio! When we do something like scissor jumps or jumping jacks for 60 seconds, I get out of breath.

Nothing very productive, unfortunately. Things like, "I need to eat only veggies today!" and such. But I did eat in a reasonable way with a huge salad of all veggies for dinner, and today I'm back at 1.8 under goal, so I think it must have just been water retention. I'm not feeling great today, so maybe I'm fighting something off. That often seems to affect my weight.

I'm glad you talked yourself off the ledge. It could just be normal daily variation and have little to do with having eaten low the day before -- that does happen. It'll be good to see if a few days of low-end eating will fix whatever it is. If it is just water retention, remember that isn't fat.

Hope you had a good day!

Do you try to do their diet at all, or do you go to the meetings mostly for the accountability?

My trainer frequently has me do a minute of jumping jacks, and they just exhaust me. I'm usually gasping for breath by the time the minute is up. I'm definitely getting better with time, though. Today he had me on the treadmill, running uphill at 5.5 mph, something I've never done before. I alternated 40-sec. intervals of running with 40-sec. intervals of walking (also uphill). I was definitely panting and could hardly talk, but I felt pretty good that I could do it at all!

I often find that, as soon as my weight drops again, I relax. Sounds like you are experiencing the same pattern. Are you bothered at all by that? I think sometimes my relaxation (relief, really) is premature and that I should once again reinforce the basic Beck skills. I feel like I gradually slide on the skills until I gain a little, which makes me feel a little frantic and makes me intensify my behavior and self-control until the scale drops again.....only to repeat the same cycle. I'm not feeling particularly good about that, although I continue to be amazed that I am doing as well as I am, and that I've kept at it for such a long time. I think it has been just about a year now since I joined you in this journey, and you have been at it even longer. I think that's pretty awesome, and I continue to be so grateful to you as well as being proud of myself and of you. YAY US!

Yeah, I know that water retention isn't a "real" gain, but that's little comfort if it is going to be an ongoing problem. I could potentially be on this medication for years.

my report: weight was down a pound (was relieved to at least see the scale go in the right direction), had a great personal training session (burned 258 calories during that hour according to my Exerspy, which is a record burn for me), ate everything sitting down and slowly and mindfully, stayed OP all day, read my cards, saved a bite for Callie, contacted my diet buddy. I'm very hungry and really want something sweet to eat, so it is time to go to bed!

Hope you warded off whatever is ailing you and had a good day!

For accountability, though I do occasionally count points as an easy way to track calories.

I've been thinking about trying to run a little on the treadmill. Not sure. My knees have always kept me from being able to do it, but I've had so much less pain from them with the weight loss that I'm wondering if it might be possible to work up to slowly jogging a mile three times a week, just to get the aerobic benefits.

Totally. Totally. :)

Yay, us! Yes, I'd like to get myself to a point where I actually feel I'm controlling my weight rather than simply reacting to changes.



Yes, BUT: Water retention isn't the same as weight gain in a very, very, very important way. It doesn't accumulate. That is, you aren't going to be retaining a pound of water this week and then two next week and then three the week after that. You're going to retain the amount of water this medication causes you to retain up to some possible maximum. It's not like averaging 100 too many calories every day and gaining a pound every month for years on end. You will NEVER get to the point you're retaining 90 pounds of water. Maybe you'll weigh two or three pounds more than you should for several years...so?

Good day!

Report: didn't frickin' weigh again! Arg! I went to bed hideously early yesterday (like 7:30) because I was falling off my stool in the kitchen. John came to bed at 11 and without thinking had locked the kitchen door to the garage. Jane came home at 11:30 and found herself locked out. (Uh, maybe giving her a key would be a possible solution? LOL!) So she came around front and knocked, then texted John (who had left his phone out in the family room) then finally rang the doorbell hoping her dad would hear it. (She was trying to spare me because she knows my sleep patterns.) But of course it woke me instead of him. :) And then because I'd had four hours of sleep, it was impossible to get back to sleep, so I've been up since. Gave up and started drinking coffee at 4, and didn't remember I hadn't weighed until my third cup. But I had a pretty good eating day yesterday and exercised, so I'm not overworried.

Hope you had a great day! Did you see your match?

Is their point system online somewhere, or do they still make you pay a membership fee in order to get access to their materials?
My knees used to torture me to the point that I would practically scream every time I stood up, but running on the treadmill doesn't bother them at all these days. But I would imagine your knees are in worse shape than mine, and running is definitely not low-impact.

Methinks she is deflecting me--totally!! LOL!

That's a good way to put it. And I agree. But, in the meantime, reacting to changes is WAY better than not reacting, which is what I used to do!



The reason for my concern is that I have seen posts online from people who claim that they gained 20-30 pounds of water weight, that their ankles swelled unbearably, that they had to take additional drugs to counter the water weight, and so forth. But I recognize the limits of anecdotal evidence, and those stories don't necessarily have any credibility. In fact, many of them sound downright implausible. Even if they are true, I am sure those cases are rare. So my concern is excessive and needs to be countered. If I gain 2 or 3 pounds and that's the extent of it, I can definitely deal with that. I think the sudden gain I saw this week was just a temporary, unexplained fluke, though.



Jane doesn't have a house key?? Your night sounds like a comedy of errors. You got up about the time I went to bed! It's not a surprise that you would forget to weigh under those conditions. I hope the scale will reward you tomorrow! And I'm glad you had a good eating/exercise day.

my report: My weight was down .6 this morning, took a walk in the mall, stayed OP all day (and am quite hungry now), ate slowly and mindfully, remembered to save a few bites for Callie, contacted my diet buddy.



Nope. We've talked on the phone a couple of times this week but haven't made any additional plans to get together.

Since I'm lifetime, if I attend a meeting a month I get free access to their online materials. That's a new policy -- they used to charge everyone for online access, but recently they started offering lifetime members an access code at meetings.


Yes, my knees are terrible. My knee issues weren't caused by weight issues -- my first dislocation was when I was probably 13, had reached close to my full height and probably weighed 93 pounds -- but they're made worse by extra weight. So losing definitely helps, but it doesn't solve the problems. How cool that the treadmill doesn't bother you when standing up used to! That must feel pretty amazing.

Yes, I'm trying to see it as a preliminary step in my journey to lifetime weight control.

20 or 30 pounds of water weight? That's a lot, for sure. But I'll bet you're right that it's rare. And I also wonder about what other medical conditions someone might have that might make it more likely in them. Ankles swelling unbearably might be as much a circulation issue as a water retention issue.

I know, crazy. We go in and out our kitchen door, which leads through the garage. The garage door is on an opener, and we leave the door into the kitchen open. Whoever's in last puts the garage door down and locks the door leading into the kitchen. I literally can't remember the last time I used my housekey, but I do have one on my keyring. But because she's never needed one before this, we hadn't really thought about it. I don't think Michael has one on his keyring either, and he's been driving for over four years.

Great day!

Report: weighed (1.4 under goal), ate reasonably, slowly, mindfully, sitting down. Left a bite of almost everything, I'm pretty sure. Didn't get much exercise, though I was actively moving around the house doing all sorts of projects -- wish I'd remembered my pedometer!




Nope. We've talked on the phone a couple of times this week but haven't made any additional plans to get together.[/QUOTE]

So that means I could get free access just by attending a single meeting? Or does the access code keep changing?


Your knees are like my shoulders, except that I don't think my shoulders were made any worse by my weight. I will always have problems with my shoulders, and my range of motion will always be limited, but I am still amazed at how much of an improvement exercise has wrought. And, yes, it does feel pretty amazing not to have that pain in my knees anymore. I do still hear my knees crunching when I use certain machines, though. The sound is like stepping on broken glass. I think my doctor called it chondromilacia, or something like that (I know I'm not spelling it right).



I'm sure some of those stories are pure hyperbole. Others are probably the result of misattributing the weight gain to water when it is really fat due to overeating. And, like you said, some of them have to have circulation problems. So I'm not going to worry about it unless and until it happens, which I think is pretty unlikely based on my experience so far. The only major side effect I have noticed is a great increase in the number of hot flashes I have.

Not so crazy in those circumstances. I do exactly the same thing. I can't remember the last time I used my house key, although I do have one on my keyring and another hidden outside. The only time I ever use the house key is when the electricity goes out or the garage door opener isn't working, which happens frustratingly often.



I heard your sigh of relief all the way over here! Yay you for the reasonable, mindful eating.

My weight was unchanged this morning. Stayed OP. Ate everything sitting down. Saved a few bites for Callie. Did not get any exercise other than doing laundry and cleaning my condo.

Hope you had another good day!

You could get free access for a month (IIRC) but then you have to go back for the new access code.

Yeah, my knees make noise. So far so good with pain and inflammation, though -- I've even been doing some squats and lunges.

Oh, that's a bummer!

Report: weighed (up to .4 under goal, gaaa), ate reasonably until after wine, sigh, left a bite of nearly everything, went to class this morning.

You mean IIRC is the code?

I can do squats like nobody's business, but I still can't do lunges unless I hang on to my trainer's hand in a death grip. I lose my balance otherwise.



Hopefully you had a low calorie day, and that combined with the exercise will get you back into your comfort zone. When are you going on vacation--late March? You wanted to be at 111 by then, right?

my report: This was one of my 16-hour days. I didn't even get home until after 9PM. I had to eat lunch in the car, but there's really no way around it on those days. I did stay OP, and I at least ate everything sitting down, if not always completely mindfully! :) My weight was down .2 this morning. Got no exercise but have a training session tomorrow.

Hope today was a better day for you!