toobig - I just read your post about coming back to the forum. So heart-wrenching. We are here for support! You rock!!!

Thanks yall. I am still swollen. Off the salt and on to the water. Thanks for the hugs!

How's your cold goingforgold? Are you feeling any better? Cold's suck!

toobig I hope your swelling recedes soon.

Omg. This cold blows! I can't wait to feel "normal" again. Loose quotes lol. I did a 5 mile exercise video today when I should have been working. Now watching a documentary on beer and loving it!

Hope everyone is having a good day.

Hello.
May I join? Looks like many of you are doing really well.
I have been counting calories off and on for many years. Have been a little off plan so am trying to get started back today. I am short (5'1") and old so I try to limit my calories to 1000 - 1200.
I have approx. 20# to lose to get to my goal. I lost around 40# a few years ago doing low carb but just quit working for me. I have a terrible problem with sodium so am really trying to watch that.
I exercise by walking approx. 1 hour a day.
I have been bouncing up and down a lot the past year and just can't seem to get going with getting to goal, so I will appreciate any support and encouragement.
Have a great day.

toobig - thanks for the motivation!!

shabby - OF COURSE! I think we are doing well for the most part. p.s. - love your name and you can do it :-D

My last couple days have sounded like that Beastie Boys song Sabotage :-P Both in food and in work. Just the worst! But that is why we have this forum - to pick each other up when we start to slip. I am eating clean again starting tomorrow, and my new goal is 2 week2 under 1500 calories (w/ salads every day).

I have been more or less keeping up with exercise videos and hope to start running in mid-March so I can do a 5K by the end of April. Running (as much as I hate it) always sheds the pounds fast and makes my belly flatter.

I just joined MFP, so if any of you gals are on there I'm dropitlikeitshot3

I am going to go buy healthy food in the morning. Whenever anyone asks me for diet tips I always say find some low calorie foods that you like and eat them. Time to take my own advice. I hope everyone has a great day!

That's great toobig.

Official weigh in 157.8. Was sick all week (but not loss of appetite sick), and then partied on the weekend when I felt better. It could have been a lot worse. This week it's time to see 156. I'm not letting that # out of my sight.

Welcome Shabby! Sorry I was AWOL, My son's 16th birthday this weekend. Official weigh in today 159.0. *\o/*
Glad your feeling better gold!
I too am very good at giving, but not following advice toobig!

Happy Monday!

Its Monday again and when I get up tonight to go to work I will have the official weigh in. I'm feeling pretty good about it. And its going to be a good week.

Hi all! Sorry I haven't posted in a bit. It looks like everyone is doing alright.
Congrats on the losses and such! As well as just trying to get back on track!!
Welcome new ones such as shabby!

I think I'm finally back on track. I've been working on gaining motivation and I'm tired of losing a little bit of weight and then gaining it back. Besides not fitting in a lot of my clothes! :( this month in focusing on making sure I keep good track of my calories. I seem to do good for a couple of days and then I stop. Plus I just started a little 30-day ab challenge with a friend, so that is helping too. :)

182.5 this morning. Thankfully the water is draining back off. I plan to see 179 by the end of March. I WILL see 179 by the end of March.

Toobig- I like your confidence!! I'm hoping to be around 175 at the beginning of March!!

Welcome back tdiprincess.
Toobig: You WILL see the 170's!!

I'm having a problem with being tired all the time. Does anyone know of a high energy healthy food. I'm tired of being tired.

I was tired all the time a few weeks ago. I started taking an iron supplement and in just a few days started feeling a lot better. Might be something to think about :)

No, my iron is actually too high. I donate blood to regulate it. That's probably the issue not that I think about it, I missed my last donation. I bet my iron is through the roof.

I made a mistake before I was getting my blood work regularly of taking iron supplements. After I found out about my high Iron I was told you feel the same way as if you had low iron.

Time to schedule a donation.

So, my iron is so low, i have been turned away from giving blood. they put a drop of blood in a solution, and it it sinks, you have enough iron. if it stays there or floats to the top, you get turned away. It's so sad to see my blood drop quiver only to go to the surface. :-P

Ok - so here's the deal all. I am ALWAYS hungry these last couple days. What is up? I need some days where I'm not hungry so I feel normal. I fell into despair for about a minute and then was like, no, need to lose weight. I want to get in shape and feel good. Maybe I should start taking baths to get my mind off my insatiable appetite!

My iron is low but the supplements make my stomach hurt

I can't take multivitamins I have to take individual of everything (one big huge handful) If I take the multivitamin I am on the floor writhing in pain. IDK what is in it that causes that, but I just don't do them anymore.

I had a bag of "too small clothes" that I had removed from my closet last summer to go to goodwill but never made it. Today I'm wearing a pair of jeans from that bag!! And no muffin top! Yay

diamond-girl
:)
I love fitting into a smaller size pants!

I'm going with yesterday's weigh in since I obviously didn't get enough water and too much salt because today the scale jumped three pounds up! it had been steadily going down all week so I'm guessing the chips I had yesterday along with not enough water bounced it this am

so, 155.8 (not 158.8) I refused to believe I gained 3 pounds overnight)

I'm changing my weigh in day to Sunday since this is the second week were I went up on Monday even though I had been losing all week previously.

Monday was weigh in for me and I was back up to 184

Okay, weigh in today was 155.2. half pound down. sigh... I'm so depressed I don't know what happened, I've done cardio everyday for at a minimum of 30 minutes can you gain muscle from cardio?? sigh, I hate the last 10 pounds.

Toobig and diamond girl, hang in there!!

I have to say diamond girl, while the last 10 pounds is interesting, I still have 26 lbs to lose, and so many of us are happy for you / slightly jealous lol!!! (big kiss and big)

I weighed in today at 156. I'm waaaay behind my goal trajectory, but it has been one thing or another recently (2 colds have taken me out of my element for about a month). Happy to finally be near 155…can't wait to see the 140s.

Also - I had not been losing weight - was doing a half hour of cardio. I took some days off b/c I was sick and I dropped from 158/159 to 156. I think my body just needed a rest.

My scale bit the dust so I have no idea where I am. Hubby is extremely sick. Life is hectic so maybe a scale break isn't such a bad thing. I hope everyone has a great week!

PS I am crazy jealous of yall's lower scale numbers. I'm going to have to step up my efforts.

Okay, so I've hid the scale (well out of sight) so that I only weigh in on Sunday. I hate seeing it go down down, then shoot back up so that it's only a small loss. grr, so frustrating. I wonder why it does that???

I'm afraid to stop the cardio I'm afraid that that is the only thing keeping me from gaining (even though I log everything I eat and I'm not even near my calories needed to maintain) Sigh, I guess age does slow that metabolism down...

Still haven't bought a new scale. Almost afraid to at this point. :(

Stupid scales said 154.8 that's only a .4lb loss. I've decided to increase my calories to 1500 a day to see if that helps.

At 154.6!! Finally below the 155 mark.

I see everyone has been plugging away at their weight loss efforts - great job!

I need to step up my exercise, which will likely result in slower weight loss, but at least I'll look better.

Toobig - get a new scale and be done with it! It's scary, but we'll be here for support. And once you have a good scale, you never have to go through that pain again.

Diamondgirl - I think increasing calories is a good idea. I was doing 1300 calories the last time I was calorie counting, and while I lost weight, it was less sustainable than the 1500 I'm doing now. Especially if you are doing alot of exercise, feed your body! :-P My take only though.

Hello! I'm back after a long absence too. I gained nearly 30lbs back (UGH!) but I'm catching myself now before more damage is done. This week is detox with lean protein, veggies, and protein smoothies. It's only day 3 and I'm feeling better already!

Welcome back Kristi78!!!! I'm sure you'll do great, and we'll support you through the journey. Which detox are you doing?

I think I need to do a 3 day detox. I want to break through down to the 140s sooner rather than later, and I keep bouncing around the mid-150s.

Thanks GoingForGold82! I'm following a plan from my naturopathic doctor. I drink a rice protein shake with berries, almonds milk and flax (it actually tastes super yummy) for 2 meals and the other is a lean protein, like chicken or fish, and a non starchy vegetable. No dairy, sugar, processed crap, and limited fruits. This is only for 4-7 days to get my body back in balance but I plan to cycle this once a month. The doc does this herself. This is day 4 for me and I've already lost 5lbs! Mind you that is mostly all fluid retention, but it feels good to get that off and be less puffy. It also sets me up for better food choices after my detox week :)

I bought the new scale. :( Yikes

Good morning. Hope all are doing well.

Sorry I have been missing. I joined the thread the first of Feb. and have been following a plan and yesterday morning (my weigh-in) day was at 139.4. I had been in the 140's for so long and was happy to get in the 30's. I am not going to weigh until next Friday because I usually do a lot of bouncing up and down and sometimes get discouraged with that. I had gained 10# from middle of December to first of Feb. Ughh. I guess you could say that I have always been a yo-yo dieter, but don't want to be that way anymore.

I try to keep my calories around 1000-1200 since I am 5'1" tall. I walk an hour a day but am going to start doing exercises with that, too.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

Sorry I have been MIA. Just working lots of OT. Weigh in on Monday may not be too good. Too much stress eating.

Hope everyone is doing great.

Kristi78 - Way to go on the detox!! 5 lbs is no joke, water weight or not. That's awesome stuff. I actually start mine this Friday (Friday-Friday and am SUPER nervous). But I just need to hit the reset button. REEEBBBOOOOOOOT.

I'm too lazy to write everybody's name out, but - I MISS YOU ALL. I definitely fell off the wagon. Goal is to recover by the end of the month. Doing a 7 day detox and then heavy exercising and watching my calories. Then I can go back to normal calorie counting. I need a push. :-D