I'm with you on being stuck. I've been gone for a couple of months now, but still counting calories and still working out and still losing weight until recently. I've stalled out also. I think part of it is I'm tired. I'm tired to death of counting and weighing everything. Not sure what I'm going to do about that.

I'm what I consider close to my weight, 10-15 pounds, which looking at how far I've come is darn close. I have an appointment with a nutrionist on Friday to talk about what to do when I am ready to start maintaining. I am thinking I am going to have to talk about what to do to move forward.

Here are a few ideas I've come up with. So far, I've been doing great on 1,600 calories a day. That's what I started out at and I knew eventually I'd have to drop it down and I think it's time. I'm dropping to 1,400 as of today and I'm hungry just thinking about it. I don't think it's real hunger, I think it's just feeling deprived. It's harder now cause I am doing an internship, when I started this I worked from home so controlling my food was easy peasy.

I also am going to switch up my work-out although I'm not sure how. I've been doing an hour on the ellipitical 3 days a week since around October. I'm bored to tears and I think maybe my body has really adapted to the workout. I started out with 90 minute walks outside, switched to 20 mile bike rides 3 days a week and moved into the gym with the cold weather. I guess I'll try the treadmill and the track for a bit? We'll see, but I do think it's time for a workout change.

Any other suggestions? Especially on the just being sick and tired of doing this. I just want to be done already and I'm so close! I think breaking 150 will do wonders for my motivation.

a month ago I quit counting and weighing and measuring veggies (which is the part that takes the longest in meal prep for me). I still count everything else, and starchy veggies if I have them. I am using 1200 as my cut-off point, knowing that I can eat as many veggies beyond that as I want, to fill me up. So I'm probably actually consuming 1400 to 1500 total, but I don't think the veggies ever work against you...they work in your favor.

I've only weighed twice since then, but so far I'm still losing, and it's such a relief not to have to mess with all those veggies. And now when I'm hungry I immediately think...I can eat veggies and not count them, so I'm encouraged to eat more of them. I weigh again in two days and I'm not even worried. I know I'll have lost more weight.

It made my life a lot easier and less obsessive. It might work for you too. I also don't try to hit my mark exactly every day...a little variety keeps your system on it's toes I think, so some days I eat less that has to be counted and more veggies, and some days I let myself eat a tiny bit more that has to be counted...like up to 1300.

Oh, and I always have my miracle cabbage soup on hand for quick snacks. I swear that stuff really does help you lose weight.

Oh, and another thing, I pre-measure and prep food so I don't have to weigh and measure for every meal. If I have meat or cheese in the fridge or freezer, I have it pre-weighed and measured and cut into portion sizes I already know the calorie count of...and if I make something like guacamole, I only count the avocado, so I mix it up, measure it out into portion sizes containing 1 oz of avocado each (which is 50 calories) and freeze it in those portion sizes...then when I want to add some to a meal or salad, I just grab a frozen pkt and thaw it and don't have to prep or measure it. It has saved me a lot of time and stress to do it this way. When ever I make a dish that is multiple servings, I divide it up and store it that way, so I can grab one serving at a time and not have to figure out the calories for it.

I've done so much better and noticed a small decrease in weight, but better still, I got into a smaller skirt this morning than I've been wearing. And I've also stepped up my activity level and have made a firmer commitment to get my heinie to the gym more often.

It's hard to exercise here in the winter time. My hubby and I went to the park a couple of weeks ago when the weather rose to the 50s and had a hard time walking because they hadn't cleared the walking trails; they were knee deep in places with ice and slush. If I didn't belong to a gym, I'd have quite a time trying to exercise outdoors.

This discussion has been very informative for me, because I recently hit a wall. I was working out harder than I had been for 3 week and nothing... not a budge on the scale. Finally, today I saw a difference on the scale. Over the weekend, I ate more calories (still being nutritious) and the timing was different than when I normally eat. I think my body was very used to a routine and needed a little "shake up". Thanks for starting this discussion, because I was really confused when I got on the scale, because I thought for sure I was going to be up a pound or the same.

That's what skiis, snowshoes and ice skates are for!

And for some people, shopping malls.

LOL, I am a klutz on ice! Truly, I tried skiing and ice skating when I was still in my teens/early twenties, and was hopeless, and now at 53 I am NOT about to strap on any apparatus and go out there and put my life in jeopardy!

That's why I had to join a gym.