NightSnacker I feel like "muscle bulk" is one of those catch-all answers that means they don't know but they don't want to put too much effort into finding out. Also Friday nights are iffy for me too. That's usually my husbands only night off from his second job so he usually brings home food. Sometimes it's pizza, McDonalds, or Chinese. I've started asking him what he feels like for dinner and then I plan my day accordingly. Like last night was pizza so I had a lighter lunch and kept my snacks lower as well. Other times I workout extra long or hard to build up a reserve.

__________________________________________________ ______

I've been struggling with working out. My knees have been hurting. It's not the joints but rather the muscles or ligaments around them. I've been working on stretching and icing them. I might give the elliptical a try later but I'm not sure that it will be any better than the treadmill. It may even feel worse since it's not an issue with the joints but the muscles. I don't know. Either way I'll try to give working out a shot and if I think it's doing more harm than good I'll stop for the day and not push it.

I'm okay with the little jump today. I know I'm dehydrated so I'm probably retaining water. I'm sure that also isn't helping with my sore muscles. Also I ate pizza pretty late last night when my husband got home from work so that could be the problem too. Either way I'm still on track. I'm about halfway to my goal and we aren't even half way through the month.

SW: 209.6
GW: 199
2/1 - 209.6
2/2 - 208.2
2/3 - 208.2
2/4 - 208
2/5 - 207.4
2/6 - 207.2
2/7 - 206.2
2/8 - 205.6
2/9 - 204.6
2/10 - 204.5
2/11 - 205.4

sw: 108.7
cw: 105.5
gw: 105.0 Reached 08/02, so now moving it to 103.5.

01: 108.7
02: 108.3
03: 108.0 FAST DAY
04: 106.2 :cb:
05: 107.0
06: 106.6 FAST DAY
07: 105.8
08: 105.0 :o
09: 105.3 FAST DAY
10: 104.5
11: 105.5

Up two pounds, I know I ate a little more than usually but I suspect the most important factor of my shifting up and down so much is my bad habit of not drinking enough. I need to focus on this more.
Warm thank you for all your support here. It's incredible to have you all people to talk to. I share nothing of my weight loss journey with anyone in my real life, except basic stuff I tell to my husband. He's naturally lean person and he keeps telling me he loves me anyway, which is great, but not very supportive, if you know what I mean :)

Night snacker, good news the doctor isn't overly concerned, but I agree.... muscle bulking isn't a very satisfactory diagnosis.

LovelyLeah is swimming an option? I just did my first walk away the pounds session yesterday and found it very low impact and relative enjoyable. It isn't a high intensity workout, but the weather was terrible outside and I just wanted something to get me moving and it ticked that box, not sure if it could help?
Your numbers are doing great overall, well done!

Ronja Don't be disheartened by your mini gain, your numbers have been so so amazing there was always bound to be a bit of a bounce on the graph, your overall loss for the month is still amazing and you will soon be back down again!

Down 0.2 this morning, hoping that is the start of my journey out of 205 and below, pretty please! It is going to take a miracle to find onederland this month, but I will keep going and it will come. TBH I haven't been totally on plan the past couple of days.... the scale not moving demotivates me so I let things slip a little. SO, today and the rest of the week until Friday I will be 100% on plan and hope I can get a jump!

Does anyone have anything nice planned for sunday?

1: 208.2
2: Official weigh in = 206.8
3: 206.8
4: 206.0
5: 205.6
6: 205.2
7: 205.2
8: 205.6
9: Official Weigh in 205.0
10: 205.8
11: 205.8
12: 205.6
13
14:
15:
16: Official Weigh in
17:
18:
19:
20:
21:
22:
23:Official weigh in
24:
25:
26:
27:
28:

Total loss: 2.6
lb to goal: 7.4

sw: 108.7
cw: 105.5
gw: 105.0 Reached 08/02, so now moving it to 103.5.

01: 108.7
02: 108.3
03: 108.0 FAST DAY
04: 106.2 :cb:
05: 107.0
06: 106.6 FAST DAY
07: 105.8
08: 105.0 :o
09: 105.3 FAST DAY
10: 104.5
11: 105.5
12: 105.8

takingcontrol thank you for your kind words. I realize you're completely right. As much as I would love to see a contant every-day drop in weight (oh, wouldn't we all?), this is biology, not mathematics. Things just don't work that way, human body is an incredibly complex system and body weight sometimes moves up or down with no good reason. It's important to look at the bigger picture and for me, the bigger picture has been great this month. Also, I really hope you get out of 205 very soon, I know how frustrated it sometimes gets!

Edit: So I know why I gained weight. My period just arrived a week early (yet again). It's nice to know what's going on.

takingcontrol Swimming isn't much of an option for me. I only workout in my apartment. I think I've been able to get them pretty stretched out. I didn't go to the gym yesterday but I ended up spent most of the day cleaning. It was weird. Once I got going I didn't stop. That's almost never happened. It must be the unusually warm weather we're having and the claustrophobia of a tiny apartment with lots of stuff! I filled 2 Goodwill bags and 2 trash bags.

Ronja The only good thing that comes with a period is knowing that it's the cause for scale fluctuations!

__________________________________________________ _________

Yesterday the Spring cleaning bug bit and I cleaned almost the entire apartment. I spent 10 hours sorting, organizing, trashing, and deep cleaning. I am NOT a cleaner. I'm someone who doesn't mind clutter, my husband is the same way. I only meant to organize my closet. But then after that I knew I had to run the dishwasher since we were running low on cups and silverware. And somehow that snowballed into cleaning the entire kitchen!

I did end up eating a rather large meal late last night. With all my cleaning I forgot to eat almost the entire day. I ate breakfast before I started cleaning and didn't eat again until after I finished.

SW: 209.6
GW: 199
2/1 - 209.6
2/2 - 208.2
2/3 - 208.2
2/4 - 208
2/5 - 207.4
2/6 - 207.2
2/7 - 206.2
2/8 - 205.6
2/9 - 204.6
2/10 - 204.5
2/11 - 205.4
2/12 - 204.6

Nightsnacker: I hear your frustration. I think your calorie intake may be a bit low at 1000 or 1200 especially if your are working out a lot. Your metabolism will slow down if you are not getting enough calories. I lost most of my weight last year and if I felt my weight was stuck and I had been sticking to my food and exercise plan, I would add extra calories (from whole foods) every once and a while. This would usually help to get things moving again. I cut out all sugar from my diet, don't eat processed foods and get a lot of exercise. It was really difficult to cut all the sugar out of my diet but eventually I did lose the cravings for sugar. It's been over a year since I removed the sugar from my diet and I'm glad I did as I feel better.


Feb SW: 120
Feb Goal: 118 (lose 2 lbs)

Feb-01: 120
Feb-04: 119.6
Feb-06: 119.4
Feb-10: 119.0
Feb-12: 118.8

flower1 when you're saying you cut all sugar off your diet, do you mean just "simple" sugar, or also complex sugar as in bread or potatoes? I find living without bread, pasta and rice pretty easy but I still feel like eating something sweet here and there. I would make a tea with teaspoon of honey, or eat dried fruits, but I do realize it's lot of sugar in that form. I'm thinking of cutting that off too, but maybe later in my diet...

Tomorrow is fast day. I'm considering a longer, 36 hours fast, but not sure - I'm still a little worried about my milk supply. I may leave longer fasts for the time my baby has weaned off. I'm just curious if I could do it, that's all. Maybe just this once?

Ronja - I eat fresh fruit. I don't buy bread that has any gluten or any type of sugar in it such as corn syrup, honey, dextrose, cane sugar,etc. The yogurt I eat does not have any sugar in the ingredients -only the natural occurring sugar from the milk. I add fresh fruit and usually some raw pumpkin seeds or chia seeds to my yogurt for a little crunch.

You are doing great on your program - congrats.

sw: 108.7
cw: 105.3
gw: 105.0 Reached 08/02, so now moving it to 103.5.

01: 108.7
02: 108.3
03: 108.0 FAST DAY
04: 106.2 :cb:
05: 107.0
06: 106.6 FAST DAY
07: 105.8
08: 105.0 :o
09: 105.3 FAST DAY
10: 104.5
11: 105.5
12: 105.8
13: 105.3 FAST DAY

Right, I have had a lazy weekend, not enough exercise/movement and yesterday I ate too much. Mainly the right foods, but too much all the same. Today I am back on plan and determined to get past this silly block and move onwards and upwards (at should that be downwards?) with this journey.

1: 208.2
2: Official weigh in = 206.8
3: 206.8
4: 206.0
5: 205.6
6: 205.2
7: 205.2
8: 205.6
9: Official Weigh in 205.0
10: 205.8
11: 205.8
12: 205.6
13 205.2
14:
15:
16: Official Weigh in
17:
18:
19:
20:
21:
22:
23:Official weigh in
24:
25:
26:
27:
28:

Total loss: 3
lb to goal: 7

Over the weekend, I tried to eat a bit more and obsess a bit less. Lots of workout time for my somewhat lazy weekend habits so that was good.

I had a slice of pizza friday night(still stayed in goal but felt evil) and added some healthy snacks, almonds and yogurt and other odds and ends. I actually have no sweet tooth so I have a hard time finding snacky type stuff I enjoy that fits my diet plan, lowish carbs.

The only sweetened thing I have is real sugar in the coffee creamer and over the years I've learned I can't really ditch that or I hate the world, just 2 teaspoons of the pre sweetened creamer a day though, not bad.

I do have some minor results now so maybe the increased calories were key, or maybe more working out is finally shaking things up. Who knows, I'm not going to celebrate until I'm out of the 260s.

Start Feb 1 265.9
Day 7 264.8 Total loss 1.1 lbs

8: 264
9: 265
10: 265.5
11: 265.4
12: 263.4
13 262.8 Not partying unless it's still gone tomorrow!
14:

Just a drive by. I might do personals later but right now if I'm going to stay on schedule I have got to get myself down to the gym.


SW: 209.6
GW: 199
2/1 - 209.6
2/2 - 208.2
2/3 - 208.2
2/4 - 208
2/5 - 207.4
2/6 - 207.2
2/7 - 206.2
2/8 - 205.6
2/9 - 204.6
2/10 - 204.5
2/11 - 205.4
2/12 - 204.6
2/13 - 204.4 - inchin' it!

Nightsnacker: Congrats on your drop. Another tip besides adding more calories every one and awhile that helped me when I was stuck was that I would also change up my workout. I found that I needed to shake up my workout routine or adjust my eating in order to jump start the losses again. Hope it helps.

ok,,,i will try it ,,

flower1 your diet sounds like a very good, healthy one. I'm sure it will get you to your goal weight!

Hi to everyone else.

My first 36 hoiurs fast will be soon over (well, I will go to bed and it will be over in the morning :) ) It was challenging more mentally than physically.