Checkin' In
 

No, that was definitely not ramblin' in my books, Susan. You made complete sense.

I remember when I was in my 20s and lost 15 pounds for the first time in my life. I had been 150 for about 5 years and had no idea what 135 pounds would look or feel like. When I got there, I had the opposite reaction to what you described, Mudpie. I was shocked to discover my ribs on my back. It grossed me out some. I stopped the strict diet at that point, but unfortunately, I didn't understand the importance of a maintenance plan. Within 18 months, I was back up to what was old and familiar - 150 pounds.

Now that I have had that experience with 135 pounds, I decided to make 140 pounds my goal weight. After what you said Susan, I may find that I will want to shoot for 135, so I leave room for error. I guess time will tell.

Exactly! I want to weigh 135, but put my goal at 133 so that I'll have a couple pounds of leeway when maintaining. We all know that our weight fluctuates all the time and I expect it will continue to do that when maintaining. So the goal is 133 with a cap of 135 (meaning if I hit 135 I know I need to cut down on something to stay below it).

That was exactly my thought process, SusanB! :idea: My original goal was 135. I started at 150 and even just losing 15 lbs seemed impossible. But when I got to 135, I thought "hmmm, I'm not really as thin as I thought I would be and this hasn't been as hard as I thought, maybe I could lose some more weight." So then I dropped the goal to 125, and when I got to 125, I dropped it to 115. My current goal is to get to 110 in the AM, so that my evening weight is a little under 115. And the reason for this goal is to give me a 5 lb cushion, so that if I do gain a little weight back it's not an immediate disaster! :eek:

We're all snowflakes (yuck!!)
 

I kinda feel like a slouch now. Barbara and I are the same height but my goal is 20 lbs. heavier than hers. Although frame, distribution, and muscle mass all make us very individual little snowflakes :p.

I'm also thinking about 128 as the final goal with a fluctuation of 2 lbs. of real weight (not just water, binge, etc.) to give me a margin. Or maybe 125 or . . .naw, I walk about 300-350 lbs. of dogs at a time so I need some heft to hang on to them :D.

Dagmar (too hot to think)

I'd never thought of us as snowflakes, but thats a great analogy! Especially on such a hot summer day. Sometimes I feel like a goal weight of 130 still makes me heavy...but I always try to remind myself that weight is mostly just a number. I have a pretty muscular frame, so I think that I will always be heavier than somebody who is small boned :) For those reasons, I kind of doubt the validity of BMI sometimes - at 147 pounds I was technically overweight (well borderline), but strong, relatively fit, and wearing about a size 8. Just a thought :)

Kim - My sympathies to you and your husband and families. She sounds like she was a dear woman.

We have company, and I'm having a tough time reigning in the calories. I am not going to enter in fitday today. I did take an hour walk

Mudpie I'm 5'4" too, but my goal weight is 10 lbs more then yours, so compare yourself to me instead and you should feel better. :)

I was in a Dolly Parton look-a-like contest when I was 16 years old, so I have some extra cargo that I am happy to hold on to, if you know what I mean. :o

TOM came for his monthly visit this afternoon. I could tell he was soon to be arriving because my eating program has been out of whack for the past 24 hours. That TOM sure doesn't like the feeling of lightness that is my goal. He much prefers to weigh me down with as few fruits, vegetables and water as possible. I had a hamburger with cheese tonight. Hopefully that should keep him quiet tomorrow. Little bugger!!

I have a headache too! Time for bed!

Thank you all for your kind words. It's so nice to know there are so many good people out there willing to spare a thought for a stranger's loss.

A work deadline, ten million things to do at home for our upcoming cross-country move, and residual grief combined to make me less than excited about going to the gym today. At 6 pm I was on that cusp between sucking it up and going, and just heading home for dinner. The gym won. It wasn't my best workout ever, but it was a workout.

The Boy's here for a story. Off to bed!

Mudpie--You're no slouch! I sit on my butt all day and you walk dogs, for Pete's sake! It's entirely possible that my goal is completely unrealistic. It's been my goal for a year now and I still haven't gotten there (of course, there have been several detours :o). Your goal is well within a healthy BMI range and I'm sure that you will look great when you get to it. I know I was pretty psyched about the way I looked when I got down to 130. You have to set a goal that's right for you, where you are happy with your weight and comfortable with what you have to do to maintain, because no matter what it is, it's going to be hard work. :stress:

Road trip - Yikes!
 

I'm off on a 4 day vacation tomorrow. Visiting my DH's relatives, who make broccoli salad with bacon, sour cream and oil! I am bringing dinner on Saturday - steaks and corn so won't be too bad - but I'm kinda dreading the whole thing. They all are obese and scoff ever time I say I'm on a diet or try to turn down that second helping of pie and ice cream.

You know, I think I'm gonna LIE :devil: to deal with them. I will say my stomach's been upset from the heat and I can't eat any really heavy food :p.
That should work. As for the road part of the trip I'm taking a cooler with bottled water and fruit for myself. I will invite DH to join me in consuming these but I suspect he's going to pretty much live on coffee and donuts.

I'm planning on weighing about the same on Monday when I return as I do tomorrow morning before I leave. I CAN DO THIS!!

Have a great weekend everyone (ours is a long weekend with a civic holiday - ain't the government grand?)

Dagmar (still hiding from the fat fairy) :cool:

Morning!

I also think that as we get closer to goal 'weight' our goals change for other reasons. We become aware of our body composition and our body's capability to do various things.

Let's stick with our same example gal. At 170 lbs ... the scale just simply had to move downward. No ifs, ands or buts. That was just too many pounds.
What if at 137 she can almost wear a fitted T with low rise jeans -or- her body fat percentage is fractions higher than a nice round number -or- she can almost do a complete set of reps at 35 lbs? Her goals no longer have much to do with a scale weight at all.
However ... she has to put something in her ticker or profile. It's almost universally expected that squishy women are interested in 'weight loss'.

hi everyone!
 

thank you for inviting me susan! my name is jessica and i am very new to this! two years ago i weighed 127, and i thought i was fat!!! since then i have gained more than 20 pounds and it is killing me. its not too bad when i look in the mirror, but when i see pictures of myself now i am shocked. i used to wear size 3's in pants and smalls in shirts. well, as of the last time i went shopping i bought some 11's and they are getting tight! my weight gain is definatley starting to hurt my day to day life. i used to be so fun and want to hang out with friends every weekend. i havent been out in over a year now. i make excuses whenever i get invited to go somewhere just because i dont want to be seen by my frineds who remember the old me. i am just miserable. it used to be so easy to keep the weight off i didnt even have to try. can someone please give me some motivational tips on how to stay focused? i am the classic person who when i start feeling fat, i head straight for the icecream. it has also taken a toll on my love life. i never want to be intimate with my boyfriend because i get grossed out at myself so i imagine he does too. even tho he says he loves me no matter what. i cant even get thru this post with out tears streaming down my face. please tell me what your final straw was and your diet and exercise regimine. thank you so much for taking the time to read this.~~~~~~~~ jessica

p.s. can you also explain to me how to get a ticker?

Hi Jessica! Have you had a look at the Introductions forum? (forgive me if you have)

Have you talked to your boyfriend about how you feel? I understand your situation, wow do I understand, when I was 16/17 I was into everything, socialised a lot...and was 140lbs or so. I'm thinner now but I got so deep into depression that I havn't been out in a long time either, and now I'm trying to rebuild slowly.

I think your weight isn't so much to do with how good you are at dieting, its all to do with your selfesteem and depression issues, which sound like two things that are wrecking your life - and you deserve agood time! Everyone does...I thought my therapist was nuts when he said that. But I realized, I'm just screwed up.

Are you in therapy at all/would you consider it?

emily
xxx

hi emily! as far as therapy... no i havent given it any thought. maybe i should. depression does run in my family, my mom has been on medication for years. i dont think im that bad, i really just need some people who are in my same position and can be my support. i did go on the introductions but is there a link for the ticker? or what button to i go to?

just testing to see it i got the ticker to work

Jessica: I think I know how you feel. I was devastated at 135 a few years back and now I would love to weight 135. It is all relative. I'm sure you think worse about your weight and how you look than anyone else does. I also bet your boyfriend still finds you attractive at any weight (within reason haha). It's not too hard to figure out if he does (if you know what I mean)...I'm sure all your concerns will be put to rest.

I am struggling with my weight and moved my ticker back up to 149 just now (from 147)...it is a hard, constant battle. Maybe it is even harder for us gals who used to be naturally thin. I guess I never realized how hard it was to lose weight since I never had to deal with it until recent years.

As for seeing friends you haven't seen in awhile. I get the same anxiety with feelings like they are judging me or saying "she really let herself go"...etc. Just try to feel good about yourself and it will shine through. Confidence is far more attractive than anything else. I think they will envy your ability to remain confident, regardless of weight gain. Just think about how many "after" photos are of women who have reached their goal weight...and it is your current weight! Like I said, it is all relative. Just try to eat healthy and feel good about yourself and everything else will fall in line (eventually). Whenever I start feeling depressed, I just think "it took me 4 years to gain this weight...I can't expect to lose it all in a few months". Hope it helps to know you're not alone.

Welcome Jessica! :wave: My best advice for motivation is to make a plan (food/exercise/goals). Write it down. Take your measurements and write them down and write down goals next to those. Sit down and plan a week's worth of menus and then go shopping for the ingredients. And if you have to, throw away all the junk food in your house. Best of luck to you.

Well, my weight is still at 145.5 (3rd day in a row?). I managed to get through yesterday without a cocktail! That's a major hurdle! Hopefully that will allow me to lose a pound this week. I made a big batch of protein pancakes and cooked one and refrigerated the batter for easy breakfasts for the next few days. I'm thinking I should have eaten two this morning--I'm already hungry!!

Dagmar~have a wonderful holiday!

Kaw~we're not strangers--we're your friends!!!

Susan~I don't know what it is with my weight. The last time I weighed this, my DD said to me "Gawd, Mom, you're skinny" and she was right. I had little to no excess fat around my stomach. So why is it that it's all pooching over my undies now? Perhaps I've gained some muscle (so I weigh more) but still have the fat, so it's what is leaking out over my clothes! So, yes, weight is all relative.

shy~I don't see why lying can be a bad thing in certain situations. If Dagmar doesn't want a confrontation, then I think it's perfectly alright to say she isn't feeling well and can't eat such and such. I do it sometimes myself (although I usually say I'm not hungry or I'm so full I can't manage any dessert). It helps avoid those incriminating looks from people (you know the look--"you're on a diet? why?).

Everyone have a great day!

Mudpie, you don't need to explain your food choices. When I am offered the fattening goodies, pie,cake,ice cream, donuts, etc. I just say "no, I don't feel like it today" and leave it at that, change the subject and move on.I find it best to NOT tell people I am on a diet. Most people really don't care, anyway,BUT once you say you are on a diet the Diet Police and Diet sabotagers will show up and will have something to say about every bite you take or will be offering you mountains of calorie laden food.
i
.

Just popping in to say hi! I'm busy house cleaning. We are having my parents company (aunt, uncle, cousins) for dinner tonight. We are grilling chicken and veggies, so it will be fairly healthy. Hope everyone is having a good day.

Hi,

I feel SO great today! And have some time to post...

Welcome Jessica--looking at that ticker tells us you've already lost 4#. In my world that is a tremendous success! Might I suggest a daily walk to get the exercise in AND to help with the emotional stuff? Just getting outdoors and focussing outward every day can be a sort of therapy!

Kim--my regards to your Grandmother for a long and lovely life. "May Perpetual Light shine upon her" as we old timer Catholics say...

Mudpie--when it comes to those scenes, I feel it's a "No Holds Barred" situation. Do what you gotta do to protect your plan. I don't lie, but I will say "No thanks, it just doesn't appeal to me right now" [which is at least partly true]. When pressed, I say "Really, no thanks." If pressed harder, I give direct eye contact, smile, wrinkle my nose, and shrug my shoulders, saying "Nah". Beyond that, we're talking INTENSE eye contact and a firm "I said no.-- pause-- Thank you." Then you may reach over the table and slap them if need be! :devil: [hasn't happened yet!] Do not hand your dietary fate over to a saboteur! THEY don't have to step on that scale on Weigh In day, dangitt!

I said all that because I am struggling with it too. My DH can and does eat anything [his job is very physical] and he keeps the house chock full of Frito Scoops, Hormel canned Chile, and gallons of ice cream. Probably as tempting as Barbara's Chocolate covered Coffee Beans! He doesn't push it at me, but it's THERE. Calling me. So I'm casting about for ways to deal with it. There's no changing him, it's my MIND I need to change! :yoga:

I too feel a little slouchy about my goal weight. I'm at that point where even THAT seems impossible. And I know it should be 10 pounds lower than that. I figure, if I ever get there, there'll be plenty of time to decide if I want to go lower. What amazes me is how, over the past year, my weight hasn't changed much, but I am flabbier and jiggly-er. Musta replaced the muscle with fat...

That all said, I'm planning on this being a wonderful day. I have some de-cluttering to do in preparation for our move and am home all day so can really focus on eating well.

Have a Great one!! Cuppa

Hi everyone! I'm having quite a good few days and I've even squeezed in the cross trainer today and feel much better for it.

Kim - I'm very sorry for your loss

Mudpie- I often lie in situations like yours. I have a certain friend who's forever pushing food on me and unless I come up with a concrete reason (I don't want it doesn't seem to count) it can lead to scenes. Ridiculous really but lying saves the agro and I have no problem with it.

I too have set my goal weight with a view to a maintaining area. There's no way I'm going to get to 125 and I really don't want to. I'd really like to be 128-130ish with an absolute cut off of 133 which is exactly 9 1/2 stone.

Oh my dears! I had to special a pt who came in seizuring. Don't get me wrong ... I'm glad she stopped but whew ... what a long day. Watch, do vitals, watch some more and document. I'd really much rather be busy with a whole ward-full.

Susan B--

Sometimes I have one patient who occupies all eight hours of my shift in the Blood Bank. I love it when they make it, but what a rough go! Glad you're out there on the "Front Lines"!

cups

Hi All,

I'm having an okay day today...not too great food wise, but I'm feeling a lot better than I have in a few days (I always get really depressed the week before TOM). I went for a slow 5K run yesterday, and it felt really great. I haven't run 5K in a LONG time! I did it in 37 minutes, and I'd like to cut that down to 30 or less before I run the "wiggle waggle run" on Sept. 9th (raises money for the SPCA) and then the Toronto Zoo 10K on Oct. 13th.

Mudpie - I agree that lying in that kind of situation isn't always bad. I hate talking about being on a diet...usually I only tell those closest to me (ie my boyfriend). I guess its like I don't want to jinx myself. Also, because we're "featherweights", I find that a lot of people don't understand why I want to lose weight. They're like "oh, you don't need to lose any weight, just have a cookie"....anyways, so I think its probably easier to make things up rather than deal with all of that.

Jessica - welcome! Four pounds is already a wonderful achievement...good work!

Doughnut and Cuppa - I'm glad you're doing well today!

Susan - sorry you had such a crazy day!! I presume you're a nurse?

I forget how much fun my job is - OT
 

SusanB and Cuppa :bravo:

I really admire that you can do what you do day after day. I play with dogs all day - kinda silly in comparison with what you do. How do you keep from becoming really depressed, particularly if a patient dies?

Dagmar (but they're big rough dogs :p)

Man I gotta get my butt out of facebook and here more often I havn't read all the pages.

Sorry for the loss I know it is a difficult time.

As for family things I just say "I couldn't eat another bite, I am so full", then I get the "oh c'mon you could use it "or "it won't hurt you any" or "you need some meat on those bones". My uncle likes to poke me and his DD in the stomac and call us skinny minis. Boy oh Boy you should see my cousins face since it is her Dad she has to deal with it more than me.

well I am still maintaning but I haven't been watching what I eat so i guess it is a good thing. Have we noticed a patern here I am not completely on the wagon here but I am not too sure I wan to go down anymore. Granted my BMI is not @ 20 yet but I am comfortable right now (well excet for the extra skin thing) I feel like that may be the only thing now but there is not much I can do about it yet. I also still want to build on my strenght thought.

I am looking into school for next year i may be taking the plunge back into it after being home for almost 10 years (I worked @ a Daycare for a bit when I was a single mom of 2). I go see the schol in a couple of weeks then I will see from there.

A very deep poem
 

Good evening ladies!

TOM likes chocolate chip cookie dough.
TOM likes chips.
TOM doesn't care if he bloats.
He doesn't give a sh*t.

Thank you. Thank you very much. GOOD NIGHT!!

Hello friends, I've been gone a long time. Your stories are wonderful, and I look forward to meeting you and/or catching up. I had this crazy, crazy job that took everything and left little time for a personal life. I lost a lot of weight, but now that it's over and I'm not working I'm starting to put it back on. I feel like I ought to have an exclusive membership in the Permanently Thin Club, but I can't find the title! Sigh, I guess it's back to the basics.

Hi Becky
 

Is that a photo of you for your avatar? WOW!!!


:welcome3:

Dagmar :cool:

ughhh
 

blahhhh I feel so gross today. There's two things I can think of that my be contributing to my feeling crappy (my stomach is all angry).
- I went for sushi yesterday, and probably ate too much
- Last night around 7:30 I decided to go for a run...ran about 7K, but I'm stupid and didn't bring any water (nor my cell phone or any money...I wasn't planning on running that far) in 31 degree weather (37 after humidex!)...I came home feeling sick, and that has possibly carried over to today.

Whew. Anyways, I'm glad that its Friday, and a long weekend to boot! Happy long weekend to all those Canadians out there!

Morning. Yup, I'm a nurse. Please tell some folks you know to go into nursing. We need the help :D

I feel sluggish in this heat too. Puffy and sticky. I'm sure the clutter in my house isn't helping. It feels close ya know? But holy too hot for housework!
I think I'll do the WalMart thing this morning and buy a dusting gadget or a new cleanser ... novelty incentive ;)

Back to it!
 

OK, I finished the last of the raw chocolate chip cookie dough this morning. Now, it's time to get back on track eating-wise. Everything else was still on track.

HERE I GO!!!!!!!!!! WHOSE JOINING ME TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:drill::broc:

Me Carolyn ... let's try for a darned near perfect day!
For me that'll be 1300 cals and a nice long walk 3-4K.

Carolyn:

Roses in a vase
Violets in your hand
TOM wants to make you fat
and throw you way off plan!

Don't give in to TOM. He's an A-hole :D:D:D

Good morning! I'm down another pound to 144.5 (11.5 to go) and I decided to change my ticker/profile to match what I really am (so it's easier to tell). I looked back on my weight chart--this day last year I was 144, so I'm within half a pound of what I was last year! That's the good news, the bad news is that I really dipped after that last year (mental note to stay OP!)

I came in at exactly 1200 calories yesterday, despite having a rough afternoon which translated into the need for a martini last night. But I stopped at one small one, had a light dinner and no dessert, so I'm okay. Oh, and yes, I do add those alcohol calories into fitday.

DH has a golf tournament this weekend which means a banquet Saturday night. The food is usually heavy (guy stuff) and there's usually a lot of alcohol. I remember last year having only 2 or 3 drinks all evening, so I'll try to do the same this year. I will not be buying any wine for the weekend when I go to the grocery store--it's just too tempting.

Have a great day everyone!

Who knew?
 

This morning I stepped on the scale first thing, just for a peek, and was delighted to see it register 130. (My scale registers about 13.5 pounds light, at least according to the gym scale, so this is less cause for celebration than you might think based on my ticker.)

I put in my contacts, stepped on the scale again, and it registered 133.

Who knew that contacts weighed 3 pounds? No wonder my eyes get tired by the end of the day! :dizzy:

Have a great day, everyone. I've got a hair appointment this morning, a big 2 pm deadline on a work project, a truckload of boxes to pack, and trip to The City (aka, San Francisco) planned for tonight. Eek!

Kim

Kim~3 pound contacts!!!! Whoa, that's heavy. I think it's time for you to invest in a new scale! :rofl:

Kim, that's funny. Scales are so tempermental. I have the first quality/accurate one I have ever owned (a WW digital scale), but STILL, I can pee, strip down, jump on and be 139. Walk around the house for 5 minutes, jump on again (no coffee, nothing) and be 141! For my own sanity, I can only weigh once a week, hence my Friday weigh ins. Today - 139. Need to get crackin'!!!! Too much entertaining this week!!!

Allison, congrats to you - you seem to be on a roll now! Keep it up. I gain inspiration from all of you who are doing well this week.

I'm off for a very hot, but very intense bike ride. Today will be a good eating day (I'm home and in control), but tomorrow night is dinner at friends' house. Will do my best!!

All - on another note... I'm having a heckuva time picking paint colors, and I would really like to get this done ... I just posted a thread about my indecision on colors under "General Chatter"... if any of you can help or give any advice, please don't hold back! I need help! For more details read my thread...it makes me sound like a bit of a basket case, but I guess that's because I am when it comes to paint! Thanks and have a fantastic day

Claire~I read your post about paint colors. I'm thinking you might get more input if you can post a few pictures of the interior where you want to paint. I had a hard time visualizing it.