How is everyone doing? I hope you're well and fighting the colder weather!
I finally caved in today and put on the heating We had been holding out to save on our electricity bill, but when it hit 59 F inside we decided to give in.
My body has been feeling creaky these days, I think I'm going to start introducing yoga and Insanity Max 30 into my life again. I'm a bit too big for my outdoor running clothes unfortunately, so I don't have a means to run outside in the winter. Kinda sucks to admit that, but so it goes.
I bought a dress for my friends wedding which is in 2 weeks! I can't believe how fast it's coming and that I'll be travelling to England soon. I bought a XXL based on the size chart on Amazon, but I've order an XL to see if it'll look nicer. It might not arrive in time since it's out of stock right now, but we'll see. Kind of a tough pill to swallow ordering that size after getting away with M's and L's before, but on a similar theme to my last paragraph, this is what happens when one gains weight!! I guess it's those reminders that really make the weight gain "real" if that makes sense.
I'm still not ready to participate in the challenge/weigh myself, just because I've got a lot on my plate with work and with the trip to England coming up I'd rather not deal with the feeling of guilt if I go off plan. But I'm so proud of everyone who's giving this challenge a go and staying accountable!
Rie-I know exactly what you mean about those reminders that make gaining weight "real". I've had to deal with so many of those myself lately. Mostly with having to buy new bras and clothes and realizing I don't fit into most of my clothes anymore. I was in denial for too long wearing just stretchy stuff That's so cool you're going back to England for your friend's wedding! I hope you have a great time and I'm sure you'll look wonderful in your dress. Those amazon sizing charts always give me a headache lol That's smart you got two sizes.
For a New Year's dress I'd like something short and sparkly maybe black mini dress with glitter I have so many cute tights that I'd think go well with something like that.
bg124-I'm almost done with my water loss as well, now I'm preparing myself for a stall.
I wasn't super happy with this week. I kept trying but it was very busy and hectic with this new job I just started. I wasn't prepared for how busy it would be and ended up not exercising almost all week! Eating is good during the day for me bust right before bed is the WORST. I'm seriously considering locking the pantry so I don't snack at night!
How does everyone feel about Thanksgiving? I'm just going to do what I always do and have a small snack in the morning then try and have a normal dinner sized Thanksgiving meal with dessert.
I hope everyone had a good week. It's been a crazy week for me. I live in Northern California, about 100 miles from the Camp Fire that has been raging for the last week or so and destroyed the town of Paradise, CA. I work at a major university and they called off classes all week for the students due to the air quality. On Wednesday our administration realized that staff also suffer in these conditions and canceled classes. Only essential personnel had to report to work. It's been surreal walking around in a literal haze but it is small discomfort compared to everyone who lost everything and many friends and family to the fire. Thankfully, rain is predicted beginning Wednesday through the Thanksgiving holiday.
Last Sunday was my birthday and while my weight is down I still feel bloated as I have been inconsistent with my eating choices. And with the smoke polluting the air it just isn't healthy to be outside for any long periods of time.
Dottington and Rie: Wow, you've painted such a vivid picture of what my own experience of outgrowing clothes feels like. It is so weird when your undergarments get tight and begin to outstretch. There's only so much they withstand and then you have to buy new ones. I have several pairs of cute panties in my drawer and I always ask myself, " who do these belong to ?" And don't get me started on the clothes that would fit nicely in just 10-15 pounds ! No special outfits planned for me for the near future but I do love living vicariously through both of you and hearing about your respective party and wedding attire. What wonderful things to look forward to!
bg124: I'm having similar thoughts about my own weight loss; how much is water and how much is true fat. I know that water is the first thing to go especially if one cuts down on their carbohydrate consumption. I think the next couple of weeks will reveal more. I do hope that your weight has settled out and you can be more confident in your losses.
bg124 and curvynotlumpy: If you drop a lot quickly, most of it is probably water. Same if you gain a lot quickly, especially if you were still at a deficit. Water loss can even make you look noticeably larger or smaller, due to bloat, especially as you near goal weight. But if you stay at a deficit, you'll eventually be able to see the fat loss as you shrink. I know I've had a water loss if I suddenly whoosh more than, say, 0.4 in a single day. Some days, I might be at a 1000+ calorie deficit, and with rounding (my machine is 0.2 increments), I can accept a 0.4 fat loss in a day. But not more. So if I'm suddenly down a pound, most of it had to be water, one way or another. Same if I'm up a pound. I know I didn't eat 3500 calories over maintenance, so it has to be water gain. Now, that DOESN'T mean you didn't lose fat, it just means you didn't lose it all that day. If you suddenly drop a pound, you could easily have lost a little bit of fat each day, but been retaining water, and then lost the water all at once, so the fat loss becomes evident on the scale.
Really, you have to look at the overall trend. If you're averaging 1.5 pounds a week in weight loss, you're probably eating at about a 750 calorie deficit a day, and anything beyond a 0.2 or 0.4 change on the scale is probably water or digestion. Loss during the first month of a new weight loss program is probably mostly water, but there will be some fat loss in there, too. Alternately, if you are tracking your calories eaten accurately and your calories burned (hard to do with true accuracy, but you can get in the ballpark), you can estimate how much fat loss you should have achieved, and anything beyond that is likely water.
curvynotlumpy: I'm sorry to hear you are close to the Camp Fire. What I've seen on the news has been so sad and so scary. Stay safe. Also last week
Dottington: I don't typically go too crazy for holiday meals, even when I'm not watching what I eat. My mom does most of the cooking, and we tend to eat relatively healthy (just too much of it), so I typically just have a light breakfast, then we eat around 1:00, and then I don't eat again for the day. My family does pie for dessert and I actually don't like pie at all, so that is easy to turn down. The dinner itself, though, is some of my favorite foods (mashed potatoes and gravy...yum), so I anticipate going over on my calories, but probably only by 1000 or so. Enough to erase a day or two of deficit, but not enough to derail my progress. And I only do it for just the one meal. I actually don't like the foods the family serves for Christmas as much, so that is much easier to stay on track, so I really just splurge the one day for the whole season, and therefore, feel no guilt for that one day.
I've lapsed on posting, sorry. This computer is starting to give me problems! My weight is staying around 123-124, not sure if I'll get down to 120 by Christmas but honestly, just staying under 125 is fine with me. I have been eating too much chocolate; a little bit each night is my usual but when it ends up being handfuls, that's not good! My birthday is coming up, next Friday, and I plan on having something I don't normally have, maybe some tiramisu or an espresso martini, we'll see. Thanksgiving, being my actual birthday (it only lands on Thursday every once in a while though), is my favorite holiday, but I gave up eating until stuffed several years ago, and I don't like pumpkin pie at all, so it is not really a day of excess for me. We are heading down to San Diego to spend the holiday with our Navy son (YAY!) so that is awesome; hopefully the fires aren't a problem. Curvy, aren't these skies looking weird with all the smoke? I'm glad the university decided to let everyone stay home, this air is really not good. My brother went to the funeral of a friend today, he passed away from the bad air (he was already compromised with other health issues).
Curvy, happy belated birthday! Grats to you and everyone else on your pounds gone. I'm the only one showing a gain so far!
Lacerta, you are going at this with both barrels, nice! Congrats on the new low!
bg, Cajun turkey sounds awesome! And you are so right about all the temptations the grocery store has right now.
Rie, here's hoping your dresses arrive in time and I'm sure you'll look smashing! The exercise will probably help relieve some of your stress as well as limbering you up; I love yoga for that and really need to start doing it again. I'll leave the Insanity to you, because, you know, it's insane.
Hey everyone, it's Thanksgiving week! When did that happen?
The other day curiosity got the better of me and I stepped on the scale. 181 lbs, not as bad as I thought it would be so I was quite pleased with the result! I'm sure with Thanksgiving this week and then my trip it won't stay like that for long . Here's to hoping all the walking around I'll do on vacation will help.
Dott - Congratulations on the new job! What are you doing now? I desperately need a new bra, but with my boobage being annoyingly large I have to drop a lot of cash on good bras and I don't have that kind of income. Last night I actually had to shove my boobs into my extremely old bra because they're too big for it now I know how you feel about wanting to lock up the pantry. I'm definitely a late night snacker these days. I'm feeling ok about Thanksgiving, I'm spending it with my friends and we're doing a Mexican spin on the meal. Should be interesting or a complete disaster who knows! Either way I'm sure it'll be fun.
curvy - So sorry to hear about the fires in California, I can't believe how crazy it's been and how much has been lost. It must feel strange being there. I found it amusing that your University felt like the staff would be fine breathing in smoke while students got the week off...at least they came to their senses and let you guys off too! Hang in there and I pray that the rain is plentiful!
bg - I'm struggling to get into a routine too, but once I'm in one I do quite well. Over the summer I was kicking butt with doing Insanity Max 30, but then I decided to enter a 5K and run instead and that's when it went downhill. Should've stuck with the home workouts!
Cattails - Sounds like you've got some great plans for your birthday, I hope you have a wonderful day! Since I'm originally from the UK, Thanksgiving is quite new to me, but I've never been one for stuffing myself until I'm dying anyway so I'm right there with you on just eating a nice meal. Also, my pretentiousness shined through when I was so happy to see you write "espresso" and not "expresso", it's such a pet peeve of mine
Good luck eating mindfully this week, everyone! I just have the one Thanksgiving meal with family and plan on sticking to turkey and veg, maybe one drink.
I'll keep reminding myself the holiday gathering is really about the people and not the food.
I'm going the wrong direction right now and this wasn't a great end to my week (I got as low as 210.6 one day), but I was still down a pound from last Sunday, and losing a pound over Thanksgiving week is OK in my book. Also, I've been tracking my averages from Sunday to Saturday and I was down 2 pounds this week and 4 pounds from 2 weeks ago. So that's something to celebrate. My last few Mondays have been much better than Sundays, so hoping that trend continues tomorrow. I'd still like to end the month in the single digits, so I'm hoping yesterday and today was just bloat. I've had a bad cold since Friday night, so I don't know whether my current 212s are a reflection of that, or whether the prior 210 was particularly dehydrated, or what. But the next few days should tell.
Lacerta-Losing a pound over Thanksgiving week is great! I've been sick with a cold too, hope you feel better soon!
Rie-How did your Mexican themed Thanksgiving go?! I think doing something like that would be really fun. I'm working at my undergrad university as a pianist to the music majors. Its a lot of work but luckily when I'm practicing so much I forget about eating
I did pretty good with Thanksgiving day. I was so busy I forget to eat all day then had one plate at dinner and a piece of pie. I was still really full! My only downside this weekend was wine T_T I didn't weigh myself this past week since I normally weigh Friday and forgot with everything going on. I'm feeling bloated, I've been sick and therefore haven't been exercising I'm feeling a bit better today though so going to try and get all my steps in! I'm dying to get back into the 150s, I'm really hoping that'll happen either this or next week.
Sorry for the delay everyone! I've been fighting off one **** of a illness + my now usual pre-travel stomach so I've been pretty useless the last 4 days. Here's the chart for week 3!
I'm unsure if I'll have the time to update the thread with charts for the next two weeks as I'll be in England, but I'll try my best. If I don't see you, have a great couple of weeks and keep up the amazing work! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!
We had been holding out to save on our electricity bill, but when it hit 59 F inside we decided to give in. 
That's so cool you're going back to England for your friend's wedding! I hope you have a great time and I'm sure you'll look wonderful in your dress. Those amazon sizing charts always give me a headache lol That's smart you got two sizes.
I have so many cute tights that I'd think go well with something like that. 
! No special outfits planned for me for the near future but I do love living vicariously through both of you and hearing about your respective party and wedding attire. What wonderful things to look forward to!
last week
I'm feeling a bit better today though so going to try and get all my steps in! I'm dying to get back into the 150s, I'm really hoping that'll happen either this or next week.
