I haven't gone missing. I'm still here. I feeling a little frustrated because I weighed myself this morning and I had expected to be at goal but noooooo, I still need to loose three pounds...WTH! I'm really glad I didn't start this journey weighing myself because I may have given up. Now that I've been in the game a while I can't help but keep going.

My mom has gotten a little better. Please pray that her appetite increases and she cooperates with the therapist.

Northern - It's just the first day, I promise it will get easier. If I did it when I first started a bunch a weight ago and it got easier...it will for you as well. Level 2...not so much!!!
Megems - 3.2 pounds you go girl!! How did you do that...I got that many to go by Monday.

Northern I totally get what you mean. For me it's boobs and tummy - sports bra helps with the boobs...but do I now need some sort of sports apparatus to keep my stomach in check?? URGH. I feel your frustration.

I am reading everyone's posts, just so you know :) Keeping to my calories but wondering if they're too high - I guess that's something we all go through, wondering wondering wondering...it's not like I've gained or stopped losing though, so I may as well just keep plugging along...

Ate 1900 calories today, another high day, 4th in a row. I just can't seem to get a grip on my eating. Lost 1 oz. don't get it. But I'll see a big gain soon, just know it. These high calories are gonna catch up w/ me. Maybe that's what it will take to scare me. The funny thing is that I'm not even hungry, I just eat for no reason. Craving chocolate, peanut butter & ice cream, everyday. I give in to the chocolate daily, that puts my calories up. Rode the bike for 30min this morning, feel real lazy all the time.

Jiggle and Rainbow: thanks for the feedback. I know I still have a pretty big chunk of weight to lose so I'm trying not to panic yet...but I'm really getting worried about my gut never shrinking back to a managable size?? I don't expect to ever have supermodel airbrushed looking boobs and abs (espeically since I'm approaching middle age), but seriously...am I going to have to save up for skin surgery? I know being fat is more disgusting (and more importantly, more unhealthy) than having sagging skin...but if this doesn't get better, I'm still going to be limited in what I can do physically, even at half my starting weight. I just don't know what it is yet...is it still just fat I need to lose or is this mess NEVER going to go away, no matter what I do?? So confused.

On a brighter note, I did try 30DS yesterday wearing a body shaper cami thing I have (along with my sports bra) and it does help. Still some things I can't quite do exactly like on the video, but it's better.

Had a working breakfast today, so really watching what I eat for lunch. I think I'll do OK on calories for the day if I stick to my plan. Just hard because I had to estimate the breakfast, so no way to be sure. Tomorrow I have a 12 hour day at work (financial aid night). Ordering pizzas for the parents/kids and am planning to have some (no way I'll be able to resist completely after such a long day) but hope to keep it reasonable portion-wise. My only worry is the sodium since Friday is my usual WI day. I suppose I can do another WI on V-day if I don't like Friday's results since it's the end of the challenge, lol.

Later!

Northern - I so feel you about the loose skin situation. I was feeling like that this morning. I looked at my body and was so sad. I began to wonder if these rolls of fat will ever come off. Let's not even talk about this stomach. I leaned over an my skin wrinkled like it was loose and thought to myself...oh I need a savings account for loose skin. I was trying to do my measurements and was having a hard time. It's like the places I measure (waist, lower stomach and hips) aren't budging. I've been doing squats the past couple days hoping those will help. I do the eliptical on the highest work load. Hopefully that doesn't bulk me up.

I've been wondering today if I'm eating enough because I figured my clothes should be more loose with all the workouts I'm doing. I've been keeping my calories in the 1300-1400 area. I was looking online and saw that I should be eating around 1800-2000. What can you do...?

jigglefree- I also have wrinkled and loose skin on my lower stomach, tops on my thighs & other places too embarrassing to mention. I'm in my 40's so I guess I just have to accept it, your skin just can't go back into shape after it's been stretched for so long. Exercise doesn't work either! But losing the weight is worth it to me.

Gained weight from all this over eating, I'm up 4.4lbs since last Friday. I'm back on plan, eating clean for as long as it takes to get back to 108.2lbs. If I eat one thing that is processed, it will stall my weight loss. I am realizing that I just can't give up my favorite sweets forever. I will eat clean to lose the weight, then have a sweet food if I want it. I'm not gonna give up my favorite food. It's a good thing I never want fast food, donuts, starches( bread, potatoes, anything white), red meats, anything fried or pies. I'd be in trouble! Haven't had any of that in over 2 yrs. Cake, cookies, ice cream, chocolate & peanut butter are my thing. 1260 calories today, right on target. Rode the bike for 30min & went 7.5 mi. Good luck to all!

Northern I know due to our differing ages that it could be a completely different situation, but I know my stomach has shrunk a lot...it's still saggy and hangs down (something I lament rather often) but I think the fact that it's smaller has helped make exercise doable? I do have a good pair of workout pants that kind of hold it up and in a bit...maybe you could try some of those? I also worry about it never fully going away...as far as I'm aware I've had this stomach like this from a very young age (sadly) and even though I'm still relatively young, there is only so much resilience in the skin.

~I was pretty much on my calorie target yesterday, which is frustrating as I'd meant it to be a lower day to prepare for a couple of higher days I know will happen tomorrow and Saturday. The most annoying part is that the last 160 calories were from chocolate which I just didn't need to eat! I was craving it though. I've been feeling kind of depressed and for some reason I equate chocolate with feeling better :/
I've made plans to go out with some of my good friends I haven't seen in a while tomorrow night but I'm so stressed out about what to wear. I feel like I have no clothes. I'm considering going shopping for something new.
I'm struggling today with motivation to exercise.

Rainbow Stripe- Go buy yourself something fabulous! You deserve it!

No workout today because I gave blood. I was ticked that I had to use some of my calories to eat so they would let me leave, but I did eat a great cookie that some grandma made:)

Ladies- Everyone on here gives me strength to stay on the path! Thanks! I don't doubt that everyone will be successful!

Have a great night!

Thanks, guys. I guess I will just keep plugging along and see what happens. Maybe my slower weight loss lately is a blessing in disguise...I have read more than once that losing more slowly gives your skin more time to adjust to getting smaller. I also read that drinking lots of water helps, as does strength training. Do what you can, and hope for the best, I guess!

Today is my long day...brought a couple of extra snacks (healthy ones) to get through the day. Hopefully that will also help me from eating too much pizza at financial aid night tonight. Thankfully I will be eating in front of other people, so that will help too, lol.

I don't have a lot of hope for WI tomorrow. Still in the ending stages of TOM, plus the sodium from the pizza tonight isn't going help either. I guess I should just go in expecting a gain, and anything less is a bouns!

Been M.I.A. ~Sorry~Just got hooked on the games on here & Facebook & My daughters drama again ~LOL~I weighed 135.4 today so my maintaining is going well still~I figure I will drop again in the spring because I am active outside alot.(I hope I don't drop to much if so cause I am so happy with where I am at.)~My exercises are toning me up greatly~I wish to GOD I could post My end of summer bikini pics with the ones I took the other day~It's unbelieveable the body change~EXTREME! Anyways No basically naked type pics Will be posted ~me & the hubby agreed.Anyways......Maybe In the warmer weather I can get a half shirt & a pair of shorts on to show how much toning I have managed~Speaking of skin issues~The skin issues are there still but leave with every time I exercise~I am up to 150 In total of crunches(Since I still can not do situps~i am too wimpy) a day(5 days a week) & I can feel major muscle under the loose skin but it is trimming up daily even though the weight is back & forth from usually 134 to 136 now which is fine with me I just didn't wanna gain back a zillion pounds trying to figure out how much to eat ,ect. to maintain.~I think I got it all figured out.Anyways just saying do exercises for the sagging skin problem areas only & u will see a difference eventually~I PROMISE~I notice change everywhere I exercise to tighten up.(eventually)WELL JUST 4 more days~What CC Holiday challenge u all wanna try next any suggestions? Maybe St. patricks day? LET ME KNOW! Sorry for being away so long from all my sweet friends I so adore on 3fc!~HUGS TO ALL~U ALL ROCK!

Hey all

I did go shopping, bought a dress, a skirt and a blousy type top thing. I'm now scared to wear the skirt and blouse because they're so different from what I'd usually wear. I felt great in the shop but kind of not as confident when I got home.
Weighed in at 64kg/141 pounds this morning - down a pound this week...could be more by the end of the weekend.

Rainbow wear those clothes, hold your head up because you look better than you think you do!!
Lori thanks for the encouragement and I'm strength training really hard because I'm a little older and the skin has been stretched out a long time. But there is still hope!!!
Northern we are going to rock these bodies not matter what they decide they want to do. Because we worked so hard to get where we are going. No more lamenting over saggy skin and stubborn fat...we are just going to keep pressing because we will be victorious!!

Okay for me...I've been going over what I've been doing, eating-working out to see what the problem and sure enough I'm the problem. I wasn't eating like I should have to sustain my workouts. So I made the adjustment today and will see what happens. I am really loving the kettle bell workout. I decided to go online to find a good kettle bell workout so I could do my thing at the gym. Well I was doing my thing and one of the trainers came over and grabbed the kettle and did a couple examples for me to incorporate into my little workout and man am I sore. It was a great workout and I was tore down when I finished. I got on the eliptical before I did the kettle bell routine. So I figured if I do both of those and eat more to fuel my body and not to starve/lose weight, I should come out with better results. We'll see.

Lost 1.5lbs. just from 1 day of eating clean. Today ate clean again, calories are 1360, a little higher, but at least it was from healthy food. Rode the bike 30min. & went 7.5mi. I now know why I get bad cravings & want to eat all day sometimes. Since i figured it out 2 days ago, I'm not over eating or craving junk food. Let's see how long this will last!

Up .6 this week.

Kind of depressing - looks like I need to keep my calories really low to maintain a lb/week loss. I averaged 1600 this week - previous weeks it was closer to 1300. I've added running and spinning once a week each to try to shake things up, but it hasn't been enough. Will drop my calories back down for next week and focus a bit more on protein - egg whites instead of oatmeal, grilled chicken salad instead of ww pasta.

fruit, good for you on the clean eating. This is something I struggle with.

jiggle, love the way you go back and analyze - hope you get your results! You're working hard for them!

rainbow, it's good to step out of your comfort zone with fashion! I bet you look great.

lori, you rock!

northern, hope your weigh-in goes well.

k15, thanks for giving blood! You are definitely entitled to some sugar afterward - I always have some juice and cookies. I actually get really dizzy afterward and they tell me some coke is the best thing.

Well, as expected, my weight is up a bit today. I'm not stressing too much about it as I'm sure it's mostly due to TOM/sodium bloat. Not moving my ticker! I will re-weigh in a couple days after some water and cleaner eating and see where I'm at. As long as I'm 189.9 or lower, I will consider this challenge a success :)

Lori: I like a St. Patty's day challenge. Good length--about a month. Long enough to set a good goal, but not so long to lose focus. I think that (St. Patty's) was the first CC challenge I joined last year...can't believe it's been that long already :)

Rainbow: I agree with Jiggle...rock those new clothes!!

Jiggle: Thanks for the encouragement...so nice to know we are all in this together.

Fruit: WTG on the loss and clean eating!

Nat: I feel your pain on the slight gain. We will just keep on trucking!