[Dianne042425]

Finally had my whoosh! So happy I stuck it out. Went from 137.2 to 134.4!! Yay!! Thanks to everyone for keep my encouraged during this. Anyone else stuck in a plateau, stick it out, its worth it and it WILL work!!

Laurlaur Keep it up, it will work. I was there too and it was driving me nuts. But since you've been dieting and have already lost some weight, maybe mix it up? Have you had one off day yet? I remember last time when I lost weight I never hit a plateau because I had a "cheat day" and it threw my body off and I think it prevented it from getting too comfortable and plateauing. Just a thought..

Turbo I have had days like that too. BUt really, if you aren't going TOO crazy with the calories/fat/carbs/, I highly doubt youll have a gain or at least not a big one. Lots of water helps! Each day is a FRESH NEW day. One or two bad days isnt enough to ruin all of your hard work but a defeated mind can.. Stay strong!

Moviegirl Congrats on the 1.8 loss!

[TurboMammoth]

Awww, thanx for all the nice words, Feathers! I'm not usually the type of person who freak out that much with a gain, but monday, I dont know what happened, being that MUCH up... I lost control! I think the sight of the 150's really scared the crap out of me. This morning I was in the 149's so I'm slowly going down. Thanx again though, you really helped to get back to sanity!

Dorian , my Valentine Day plan is EXACTLY like yours, except for the fact that we are more celebrating our couple anniversary (Feb 13th) that the actual Valentine day LOL. Still, we're planning a nice home made meal and a good bottle of wine

krampus : must have been hard on your bof being the only pat fans! lol

pinkrunner : as least your weight is down lol! good luck getting back on track

Diane : glad you're feeling better and lighter don,t wonder why too much, just enjoy it

moviegrl : winter carnaval sounds fun! have a blast!!

[JoJoP]

Down to 134.5 today! =D

Going over to a friend's house this afternoon and planning to bake up a storm! Mint chocolate fudge, homemade oreo cookies, and buttermilk waffles are on the agenda. Not planning to *eat* anything I make, but I don't care, 'cause the fun for me is all in the baking

[krampus]

Down 2 lbs from yesterday morning, which puts me back at my signature weight. I'm getting callbacks from jobs I'm applying to which always feels good, and no bosses at work today. I cooked and packed my favorite lunch - Japanese sweet potato w/chicken, pepper and spinach in olive oil/dill mix. It's payday, too!

Dianne AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! Look at you go. Hard work paying off etc. I hope TOM burns extra calories, because I sure haven't been! Ha!

TurboMammoth Glad you're out of the scare zone - you'll be just fine. It was really funny for me watching him be the token Pats fan, I don't think he took it too seriously so it was fine.

JoJoP You're a rare breed, for me the joy of baking lies in devouring my creations. Nice job on the scale drop!

moviegrl Winter carnival sounds really fun. I wish we did some more celebrating where I live in the cold months!

laurlaur Plateauing is a PAIN! Hang in there!

pinkrunner I hope you feel better soon and get back to normal...you can always text me if you want someone to listen!

[JoJoP]

Krampus oh my gosh that sounds DELISH!! And congrats on the callbacks!

[laurlaur429]

Dianne: I've considered trying a cheat day but I'm worried because I don't want to get in the mentality that I can just go crazy on that day. I've been trying to switch up my workouts to see if that helps, but we'll see. I can't really cut my calories any lower, but the same workout just doesn't burn as much as it used to

Krampus: Congrats!!!!

[LisaTcan]

Hey everyone! I don't post for 3 days and I miss so much!! Welcome new posted and returners!

I lost my gained weight, I back at 135..I've decided that I going to try really hard to make my goal by April first. I've kept my calories between 1200 - 1400 the past week or so and I signed up for the 24h gym near my house. I'm going tonight with my friend, I am determined to look hot this summer!

I've been watching those "watch me shrink" video's on youtube because I find them motivating. It's amazing how a "normal" weight like 135 at 5'6'' can look so different on different people. There is this blogger who weights 145 at my height but she looks phenomenal! Anyways..my rant is that I'm now feeling motivated to start working out and weight lifting.

Sorry no individual messages - I'm overwhelmed with how many posts there are!!

[TurboMammoth]

Okay I know I posted just like an hour ago, but (watch out, TIM coming in lol) :

TOM showed up! (in freaking advance) so it freaking might explain the massive gain over the weekend (combine with the water retention)

I wasn't thinking about TOM to explain my gain because it was supposed to be in one week from now... My cycle is so irregular since I started training more often that I did NOT see that coming.

YAY for TOM (probably the first time I say that EVER)

[Dorian5]

I got on the scale this morning. I was running late and got on with all my clothes on, but no high heels. 124.4lbs. Sheesh! I think a lot of it is still from salty superbowl snacks (btw, I didn't restrain myself even a little, haha. Oops. ) I imagine without the clothes I'm at 124 even. I'm going to drink lots of water today. Dinner is healthy (but salty) home made chicken noodle soup, I used those no yolk egg noodles and chicken breast and lots of veggies, yum.

I LOVE to cook, and hate using fake butter and crap like that. Last night was panko-breaded chicken breasts (baked!) and steamed lemon broccoli and mashed garlic red potatoes with (butter) carmelized onions -- the mashed potatoes called for skim milk, but... our half and half for coffee was about to expire... so... I put that in instead so it wouldn't be wasted. It was a pretty salt-heavy dinner too. Can I pretend that my weigh in this morning is 4 pounds of water?

I'm still feeling pretty good about how I look, but I know when it comes to be time to wear a bikini I'm going to want to be thinner. I'm hoping this body acceptance I'm feeling right now isn't just because I'm being lackadaisical.

Speaking of lackadaisical, I haven't walked/jogged all this week during lunch. I'm a weenie when it comes to cold weather... 43 degrees is kind of cold, right...? Plus it looks like rain today... /excuses

----

krampus - I like self-love days too. Definitely a warm fuzzy feeling. I feel bad for your man! My beau's dad is a Pats fan too - ouch! At least I'll never have to worry about my Panthers losing a superbowl... they won't ever play in one. I'm stoked to see that you dropped all that water overnight, that's awesome! Hopefully I can manage the same here soon. Your lunch sounds awesome! Congrats on getting call backs on the jobs!

pinkrunner115 - I hate to hear that you've had a hard couple of days. I hope things start looking up for you soon. Thinking of you and sending some e-hugs your way!

Dianne042425 - Eeeee, I'm so glad you had your whoosh! And what a whoosh it was, holy moley! Plateaus are the devil, I know -- I'm proud of you for sticking to it, even when you got frustrated!

laurlaur429 - I'm so sorry to hear that you're at a plateau as well, I know it's awful. I definitely wouldn't recommend cutting any lower, especially if you're at a low number to begin with. I hope switching up your workouts will help! Perhaps instead of a full on cheat day, maybe you can just have a day where you have maintenance calories to trick your system up? That way you won't go overboard.

moviegrl1737 - Hi there! Good luck at the carnival! I am so weak when it comes to being around other people that are drinking and having fun, I love alcohol. The only way I can manage to keep myself from drinking it is if I offer to drive everyone and be DD -- that way I KNOW I won't drink more than one or two, since I have to be responsible. Is that an option for your carnival?

TurboMammoth - Yay! I'm glad to hear that you're heading back down on the scale -- AND congrats on TOM (I think?) - hahaha. TMI-- Mine was never regular either (I'm on the pill now) and it NEVER FREAKING FAILED, I would be wearing my cutest underwear the day it would decide to show up. Ugh. Nice V-Day plans, great minds think alike! Happy anniversary to you and your beau!

JoJoP - Congrats on the low weight!! I love to bake too, but I don't think that I could make all of those delicious things you listed and not at least taste test each one... multiple times... mmm... Haha, I'm impressed by your will power, hope you have fun!

LisaTcan - Congrats on getting back down! I hope I can follow in your steps, phew. I LOVE those types of youtube videos, they are so motivating! I should look some up to see if they can motivate me to getting back on track! Isn't it odd that someone your exact weight and height can look completely different? That's how I KNOW I need to add some muscle.

I'm proud of all of you, keep it up beautiful feathers!

[philana]

I'm gonna do personals in the morning. Right now I am just gonna complain and then sleep. LOL

My loss has been going antognizing slow. Which I thought was unfair because I am paying such good attention and I am not really binging. But I just estimated my caloric deficit for the past 7 days and it's only about a 1200 deficit. At that rate it is gonna take me 3 weeks per pound. I've been sneaking in stuff in the evening and not keeping myself accountable. I had one binge that put me over my daily intake by about 600, so that ruins my modest deficits of about 300 to 500 each day.

So, I am gonna shoot for atleast 700 calories deficit a day. Either through more exercise or less food. Preferably more exercise obviously. Today I had a 900 deficit due to exercise and not so much food because I just didn't feel like eating. I am gonna write down my actual deficit for each day. That means I don't have to log my splurges even though I should, I can just add or subtract them from my daily deficit and not write it down. Sounds silly I know, but I just feel so horrible when my numbers look all nice in MFP and then I have to re-open the log and add in my nightly tablespoon of peanutbutter. UHG.

So yeh. It's my own fault I am barely losing. I've been indulging myself more than I did in the summer and I have been exercising less. Time for a change.

[Petite Powerhouse]

Originally Posted by philana

I'm gonna do personals in the morning. Right now I am just gonna complain and then sleep. LOL

My loss has been going antognizing slow. Which I thought was unfair because I am paying such good attention and I am not really binging. But I just estimated my caloric deficit for the past 7 days and it's only about a 1200 deficit. At that rate it is gonna take me 3 weeks per pound. I've been sneaking in stuff in the evening and not keeping myself accountable. I had one binge that put me over my daily intake by about 600, so that ruins my modest deficits of about 300 to 500 each day.

So, I am gonna shoot for atleast 700 calories deficit a day. Either through more exercise or less food. Preferably more exercise obviously. Today I had a 900 deficit due to exercise and not so much food because I just didn't feel like eating. I am gonna write down my actual deficit for each day. That means I don't have to log my splurges even though I should, I can just add or subtract them from my daily deficit and not write it down. Sounds silly I know, but I just feel so horrible when my numbers look all nice in MFP and then I have to re-open the log and add in my nightly tablespoon of peanutbutter. UHG.

So yeh. It's my own fault I am barely losing. I've been indulging myself more than I did in the summer and I have been exercising less. Time for a change.

This is of course just my experience, but in my experience, the way to lose weight is never through exercising more. Granted, I burn about a pound a week through exercise, but that is because I like to exercise that much. I've done it for 20 years. (There were times in there when I burned more than that, but that was when I got way too obsessed with exercise.) Most people are not going to keep that up. And, honestly, it wasn't until I got my diet under control that I actually lost weight. No amount of exercise ever made that happen.

A lot of people get hungrier when they up their exercise too much, so they eat to compensate. They also get burned out. Or they end up eating more and saying they will burn it off with exercise—which means weight is maintained, not lost, assuming the person actually does burn off everything they ate. Otherwise, weight is actually gained.

Weight loss truly is 80% what you eat and 20% what you do, so just be careful that what you do is really sustainable for you. And, if you don't get your eating where you need it to be, exercise will not get you to your goal.

As I say, this is just my experience. But I have found it to be rock-solid truth over the past 20 years.

[Petite Powerhouse]

That said, exercise definitely gives you a better body than you would have otherwise. I am a huge proponent of exercise. I just don't believe that it is the cure-all for weight surplus that we'd all like it to be. If that were the case, I wouldn't have struggled to drop below 129 for 20 years, because I don't know anyone who works out as much as I do.

[LoveSweetsCA]

Agreed with Petite Powerhouse.

I sometimes I excessively exercise (ex. 2x a day strenuous workouts). However, from my experience when I monitor my eating more then my working out things seem to workout better for me.

I have also noticed that moving towards a low-carb/South Beach style diet really does the trick.

I still exercise 5-6x a week but am trying the low-carb avenue and its working better for me.

[Dianne042425]

Krampus That lunch sounds so good. How many calories are in it?

Turbo I hear ya! I am the same way. The thought of being in the high 130's freaks me out. Too close to 140's for comfort. We all have our comfortable, uncomfortable and then there are the VERY uncomfortable spots. So I understand! Glad its going down..

JOJO hah wow that takes some serious willpower. I dont think I could be around all of that, much less bake it!

Dorian I think youve hit the best nsv of all; feeling good in your own skin! Own it girl! Oh and I LOVE your profile pic. You look so pretty!

Philana Are you doing excessive cardio? I have read in numerous of articles, books, etc. that excessive cardio can actually make you lose muscle and be counterproductive in your fat loss! That only a good 30 -45 minute cardio 3 days a week is plenty! Not sure how accurate it is but it makes sense. I know so many girls who run 8 miles 4-5 days a week and eat super healthy and can't lose weight! Do you lift?

[philana]

PetitePowerhouse: I am quite inactive at the moment because I am writing my final thesis, so with more exercise I mean adding something to my almost-daily run that isn't yet longer than 30mins because I can't go further than 3.5miles yet. But I agree that food is key.

LoveSweetCA: I am seriously considering going low carb. It just is so much food-planning. I've been hovering between 1200-1350 calories already. I admit to going over them to 1500 on occassion. But I can't go much lower.

Dianne: I run almost daily but not longer than 30mins, and on days I have to work I ride my bike 40mins (3 or more times per week). I got a bit fed up with the gym and tried weights at home, but it bores me. I will pick them up again though.

Edit/update: I am gonna try low carb. About 75g of carbs a day, 100g protein and 50g fat. And stay around 1200calories. I had a no-carb breakfast and it's lunchtime now and am not even hungry yet! Is 30% of carbs a day what gets you into the carb flu or not? I don't wanna go Atkins-low or SBD induction phase low, just general low. I am going to try to eat most of my carbs around my run/exercise.