Yesterday was not-so-good. Low on exercise and too carby on dinner. Didn't sleep well to boot, so today will be tough. Scale nudged up to 144.4.

141.4 this morning, down 2.2 pounds this week. Scale is FINALLY moving since I changed my strategy. So close I can taste it!

Hi, Ash. Looks like you new strategy is working well!

Yesterday was good on exercise and eating, and today the scale registered a mini-whoosh down to 142.8. :) I'm hoping to make it stick this time!

Thanks for the welcomes!! My scale isn't budging but at least I haven't gained - going to try and eat lower carb/cal this week (without actually counting). Been good at the gym this week though!

Lisa, I am also avoiding counting calories. It's just too onerous for me to stay with it forever.

Yesterday was good for exercise and eating, but the scale was up to 144.0. Le sigh. I think it's due the usual suspects. Onwards!

Hello guys! :wave:

I'm just gonna jump right in ;)
Got my wisdom teeth taken out on Wednesday. The first 2 days I mainly ate baby food. Then I slowly started mashing potatoes and avocados for lunch/dinner and bananas with peanut butter and I decided to overcook frozen veggies and mashed those too. Obviously, I haven't been working out but I still try to get a slow walk in every day.
My weight for this week:

Wednesday morning, the day of surgery: 150 lbs (resulting from binges after binges + no gym!)
Thursday: 147 lbs
Friday: 144.8 lbs
Saturday: 145.6 lbs
This morning: 144.4 lbs

I am trying very hard to keep my calories at >1200. I don't wanna lose too much weight, then go back to working out and gaining again.
This whole wisdom teeth removal thing has really helped me to stay away from junk food. I was doing so bad for a little while and the situation I'm in now is forcing me to rethink and make a plan. My body is already feeling so much better and I'm super motivated to get out of the 140s for good already! My first mini-goal is to reach 137 lbs, which is the lowest weight I had gotten to on this particular weight loss journey (in August 2013). I've been in the 140s for 8 months now, unbelievable! Time for a change!

LisaTcan - Hi! I remember you from the Featherweighs threads! :)

Hope everyone is having a healthy Sunday!

I am STILL hovering at 147.0... but at least its not going up? Yesterday I started getting serious again about tracking calories and working out, so hopefully soon that will change :)

Welcome, Hoopty! Sorry about your wisdom teeth, but it's great that it can help get your diet on track.

UA, practice maintenance is valuable. Hope the pause is refreshing for you!

Yesterday my exercise was good, but I was a little overstuffed after dinner. However, the scale is back down to 142.8. :)

Thanks yoyoma :) Congrats on the loss! :cheer:

underanalysis - No gain is better than no loss and since you're back on track and ready to do this you should see a drop on the scale soon :)

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I weighed-in at 144.0 lbs this morning :) My jaw still feels tender but it's getting better. I tried eating brown rice pudding yesterday but had to stop because it gave me pain. So - back to eating mashed potatoes with mashed overcooked frozen broccoli and mashed banana with peanut butter.

Have a great day everyone!

Craaaaap! 149.2 today. Crazy considering I maintained somewhat easily in the high 120s-mid 130s for a couple of years.

Nowhere to go but down! I just bought It Starts with Food & plan on starting 100* whole foods for 30 days next Monday-to give myself time to read it & go food shopping. I've been having constant migraines & can't wait to feel better.

I hope you feel better soon Hoopty. I Remember how sucky getting wisdom teeth out is!

Hi, Hoopty, glad your jaw is starting to get better, but it sounds like you'll have to take it slow. Hope you don't get too sick of mashed broccoli!

Welcome, PinkFlower! Sounds like fun exploring all those whole foods!

Yesterday was good for both exercise and food, and today the scale was down to 142.0! The unstable scale has been driving me a bit crazy, but at least this time it was unstable in the right direction, lol. I won't have time to exercise much today, but at least I'll be resting on my laurels. :)

pinkflower - Ugh, migranes :stress: Dealt with those for a while...horrible! Those books sound very interesting. They will definitely give you great ideas and inspire you to get a whole bunch of healthy, nutritious food. Thanks for the well-wishes! I can't wait for this to go away so that I can start going back to the gym :lifter:

yoyoma - Not gonna lie, mashed broccoli kinda sounds gross but mixed with mashed potatoes it's actually pretty good :) I think I have about 3 more days until I'll be able to chew very soft food and I hope I can stick it out. Yay on the loss! You're slowly but surely making your way to the 130s :cheer:

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Weighed-in at 143.6 lbs this morning. I am going back to work tomorrow so I'll have to adjust my calories since I'll be burning more. I ride my bike there and back and I stand/walk the whole time. I am mentally preparing myself to see a stall or even a gain within the next week, just because I'm making that first step back to a normal routine and I don't know how my body will take it. Eating normal will be the next step, then working out. I get my stitches taken out on May 5th and that's when I'll have the dentist tell me whether I can go back to the gym or not. And if I get a go, then I won't lift weights but start with cardio first to ease my way back in. I wouldn't wanna damage my jaw or anything by lifting too heavily.
Anywho, it's beautiful over here and I'm about to go for a short walk. I need to get some of that fresh air :)

Hope everyone has a great day!

Hoopty, sounds like you get some good exercise as part of your normal routine, and I'm glad that you're prepared for whatever the scale will throw at you. I've often wished dieters had a better instrument than the scale to measure progress.

Speaking of which, the scale is making amends to me for ignoring any progress I made last month (it's been over a month since I last moved the ticker!). Today it is down to 141.6! I think that although I'm post-menopausal, there must have been some hormone-related fluctuation going on. Yesterday was adequate but not great exercise and normal (good) eating, at my usual lowish carb level. Nothing to impress the scale short-term.

Since I've been below 143 for three days (and now substantially), I'm moving the ticker down to 143 today! :)

Yesterday was excellent on exercise and good on food. The scale is up to 142.2 but that's still nicely below 143. :)

Still hanging out at 147 XD

I weighed-in at 142.6 lbs this morning!

Hey everyone!!

Hoopty, I know oh too well the pain of having wisdom teeth out - had mine out last year, but I didn't get any days of work for it though. My right bottom one was on its side and it took an hour and a half to get it out, with that one I couldn't eat solids at all for 2 weeks - it was soup, milkshakes and yogurt the whole way. The dentist said I'd be fine to work out the next day though - did they give you a general anesthetic or local? I just had local. The other three they took out on one day and it was so much easier, I was fine the next day and eating normally within a couple days. So glad I NEVER have to go through that again!!

Back to nice things, Spring is definitely in the air!! I love May. It's my boyfriend's birthday on Tuesday so I bought him a paragliding trip as he was saying the other day how he's always wanted to do it - it's from a high point over mountain views. Then he tells me he'd like something we can do together so I booked it for me too - eeek!!!

Diet and exercise is still going fine, hoping to be under 140 tomorrow, just to be under that perfect 10 stones.

vix - Oh holy crap, paragliding?? :eek: Never in my life will I do something like that, I'm waaaaayyyyy too scared :lol: Your boyfriend is gonna be so excited!!! :) As far as the wisdom teeth go...they didn't put me to sleep for it, I had local anesthesia. I got 3 taken out at once. One of them had already broken through so the dentist simply pulled it out. The other two were still under the gum and they came in crooked so it took a little longer to get them out. In fact, one of them had to be split in half because it wouldn't come out. He had to remove some of my jaw bone, too, to make the extraction easier. I just ate my breakfast and I'm able to chew again :) But wow, an hour and a half for just one tooth?? That's crazy!! I was told to not work out for 10 days. When did you go back to exercising? So glad we're done and over with that :D

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I weighed-in at 142.6 lbs yesterday and 143.0 lbs today.

Hi, Hoopty, we are nearly the same weight. I am your weight from yesterday.

Vix, glad you are enjoying nice Spring weather. The paragliding trip sound so exciting!

It's amazing so many people have trouble with wisdom teeth. I had mine out too, but it was so long ago that I honestly don't remember much about it.

Yesterday was good for both exercise and food, but the scale crept up again to 142.6. I'm still good with that.

Today will be a challenge due to lack of sleep. My dog is crazy during T-storms and we had one last night, keeping me awake. This morning she decided she needed to go outside and bark at something at 4:30 AM and she's still barking now.

haha hoopty! I'm kind of scared about it. I did a sky dive from 12,000 feet but that was 10 years ago and they say you get more scared as you get older. I want to buck the trend!!

Ouch to having part of your jaw taken out! That sounds way worse than mine. My friend was having trouble with hers too but they said one was too close to the nerve and if they removed it she might have a droopy jaw after so she just took antibiotics. Wisdom teeth are officially the worst!

So, I've been real good this week working out and eating right, which I find way easier when there is the summery feeling in the air. But, seems that either my body or my scale likes it here at 140 so I'm the same as last week. However, I have been checking my body fat percentage lately and that has improved, so I can reassure myself that I must be building muscle - woohoo!!

yoyoma, hope your dog stops barking soon and you can get some rest, everything is so much harder on no sleep

Hey Vix, great news about the bf%! That's a huge deal, probably more important than the scale at this point.

Yesterday was normal (good for eating and exercise) and I'm happy to report the scale dropped to 141.4! We are planning to eat out tonight, and if that happens I expect it will bump back up, but it was nice to see such a low number. :)

Unfortunately, I lost another night of good sleep to the dog last night (I sleep lightly and intervene so the others don't wake up). Hubby is going to take care of things while I try to catch some makeup z's.

As planned, we ate out at hubby's favorite place (we were in the area for other reasons, including some hiking) last night. I ate an Asian pear and a pint of grape tomatoes before dinner then ate the entree&veg, traded my pasta for a small piece of DH's pizza (roasted veg + bacon + jalepenos!), and had dessert. Worked out well for me. The scale is up to 142.0, but I expect no problems going back to normal today. :)

In the old days, I would squelch the option of our eating out alone with no reason to celebrate (whether I was actively losing weight or not). Meals out would bring inevitable extra calories, the angst of trying to choose tasty food that was low cal, and the difficulty of getting back on track (if I was in a weight loss phase). I may be eating out more often now than at any other time in my life (except vacations) and I'm still managing to (slowly) lose weight.

Yesterday was a very active day for me - went out and did yard work for two or three hours and then skipped most of my exercise because I was SORE. Checked in this morning and... 147.0 XD still. And yes, my scale is working. I had a couple days I fluctuated up a little on it, then back down... my body is just stubborn.

Happy Sunday!

underanalysis - Holy gazoly, I'm sure you burned a lot of calories during the yard work. Good job on being patient!

yoyoma - It's awesome that you manage to lose weight and go out to eat. That's the one thing that most people struggle with because it's so hard to resist the unhealthy, delicious options and most menus also don't give you calories. I hope you got some rest!

vix - 12000 feet? :eek: I'm getting the chills just thinking about it!! Ugh I swear, I hate the 140s. I've been stuck here for so long, well, granted I stopped "caring" about losing fat for a little while. Is 135 lbs your ultimate goal weight? If so, you're almost there!

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I've been doing well. Work has been going great and I've actually been offered a higher position. I have until Monday to think about it but I think I'm gonna take it. I was hesitant at first because I've only worked there for a month but the hours will be the same, the pay a little higher and it's something I can put down on my resume. I will be working this job until this fall because DH and I will be attending university, so I mean, why not take it.
My jaw is feeling so much better. I'm not in pain anymore and I'm able to chew my food, yay! My dentist's appointment is tomorrow, I was actually thinking about going to the gym this afternoon but I don't wanna risk it. I can wait another 2 days.
So I've been calorie counting and while it's not something I wanna do forever it's been helping me a lot. I wanna keep doing this for now. I'm gonna be adding runs and workouts soon and I really wanna see how it's gonna affect my calories and weight.

I weighed-in at 141.4 lbs this morning. I drank 3 liters of water/green tea/camomile tea yesterday and the day before because I've been bloated due to PMS and it aaaallll came out last night :lol: I wasn't even annoyed that I woke up so many times, I was too happy about the fact that the water was coming out.

Hey Hoopty, congrats all around! Great news about your job, jaw, and whoosh!

UA, if your muscles were sore from all that yard work, they are probably retaining some water so the scale may be hiding some progress. Hang in there!

I'm not really avoiding the high calorie selections when I eat out (I'm eating whatever I want, inclining towards less carby selections). Since I only eat one meal a day, I can accommodate a relatively high calorie meal. In addition, my main goal is to find a maintenance lifestyle so my ongoing calorie deficit doesn't need to be large. I do want to lose a little more weight, but I'm willing to go slow.

Yesterday, my exercise was high and my eating was carbier than usual so it's no surprise that I'm up a little to 142.4. That means it's not time to move the ticker yet, but I have no problem with that. I should probably wait until the fallout from Mother's Day anyway. :)

yoyoma - Thank you! :) What do you have planned for Mother's Day? My Mom has work but my Brother and I decided to surprise her with flowers. If you exercised and ate carby foods then you are definitely retaining water. I hope you get a nice whoosh soon!

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Dentist said I could definitely go back to the gym, yay! :cheer: DH and I are gonna go tomorrow at our usual time (8pm) and you can't even imagine how excited I am! I haven't worked out in 13 days and I am so ready!
141.8 lbs this morning. I'm expecting to see a gain tomorrow as I'm bloated and waiting for TOM.

We are planning on going out to dinner with my brother's family. However, yesterday he called and we all decided to bump it out a week (his wife didn't want to fight the crowds).

That's fine by me. It will give me more time to recover from my experimentation with a higher carb diet, lol. Yesterday, exercise was good but eating was carby (too much brown rice) and today the scale is at 144.0. I didn't go crazy, but I did feel less in control, so I'm going to rein that back in.

And today the scale is back down to 142.2. Well into ticker territory. :)

Yay yoyoma!! Ticker territory sounds so funny :D

I had a great workout at the gym last night and boy am I sore! To my surprise, I weighed-in at 141.8 lbs. I thought it was gonna be higher, maybe tomorrow? (I wouldn't mind if NOT :lol:) TOM got here yesterday, too, so hmm..we'll see what the next few days bring weight-wise.

My TOM started today too Hoopty....so far so good, no stomach pains at least but oh man, was I emotional last week!! Luckily for me that doesn't mean food, I'm more of an emotional shopper thankfully, and I was on the verge of tears all day on Friday, then went on a massive splurge on Saturday but did actually buy sensible things like a blender - been on the forest fruits smoothies ever since! Yum!

When you say one meal a day Yoyoma, you don't eat anything at all before? Or just small snacks to keep you going?

And Yes, to whoever asked me, 135 is my goal weight. I may adjust depending on if I can get there and what maintenance is like but for now 135 seems a good number

vix - Ugh, you're lucky! Well, being an emotional shopper is probably not that great either but definitely better than an emotional eater, like me. What kind of blender did you get? DH and I had to leave our blender behind when we moved and we haven't bought a new one yet. We have one of those little hand mixer thingies. It works but it would be so nice to have an actual blender. What exactly is a forest fruit smoothie? I mean, what do you put in it? It sounds healthy :)

I did 33 minutes on the treadmill (what a weird number...I always do a 3 min warm-up, 27 min HIIT run and then a 3 min cool down) followed by strength training where I mostly did my back and chest. I am so! sore! But it feels great. Tomorrow will be a rest day because I have to work late and won't make it to the gym (it closes at 10pm :mad:) But at least that'll give my muscles some time to recover.

I hope you guys had a great day!

Hoopty, that sounds like a great workout... you go, girl!

Vix, sorry to hear you had a tough day Friday. Great save, turning your shopping splurge into diet support equipment! Enjoy your smoothies!

I missed a weigh-in but yesterday I wasn't as hungry as usual for some reason and today I am down to 141.0 (I know it's just from having less bulk).

Vix, I do eat just one meal a day (actually, it's an eating window from 6PM to 8:30 PM, and I usually just eat a meal at 6:00 but I can top off later if I want). During the day, I drink coffee freely (hitest in AM, decaf in PM) which I drink with NFPM and a few drops of stevia. I also drink a lot of tea. If I really want something salty, I drink a mug of reduced sodium broth.

I'm used to it, and I don't have a lot of problems with hunger during the day (when I do feel hungry, I drink something and it passes). I am pretty surprised at how well I've adjusted. I also don't seem to have any problem with energy, but I don't do any tough workouts.

Hey everyone!!

FINALLY broke into the 130s, just!

My blender is pretty basic, just three settings and nothing fancy but it does the job. I was reading yesterday online that you can make your own peanut butter with a blender but I'm not sure the blades on mine would be strong enough. Might give it a try though! Forest fruits smoothie is just frozen berries like raspberries, cherries, blueberries, strawberries (I just get a pack of mixed ones) and a sweet juice, like pineapple or peach. I don't measure it, just chuck it all in and see how it goes. I tried orange today with greek yogurt, orange juice and cinnamon, it was nice but I think one of the oranges was a little old and tasted a bit off.

That's pretty interesting about your eating plan yoyoma. Do you eat a lot during your window? I think you said you don't count calories but do you have a rough idea of how many you eat in a day? How was the transition period, of going to meals throughout the day to just one, was it tough or have you always been less hungry in the day?

Hello everyone!

vix - CONGRATS :cheer: Uh, I'm so jealous!! :D I wanna reach the 130s so bad. The smoothie recipe sounds good! I love berries.

yoyoma - Are you doing that for now or do you plan on keeping it that way? How much do you eat when you do eat and how many calories? I am surprised that your body doesn't feel weak or overwhelmed. You must have trained it very well :)

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The scale jumped from 141.4 lbs yesterday to 142.6 lbs this morning. I was a little shocked (well...only because I was stuck at 141ish for a few days now) but I know, and I can feel, that my muscles are retaining water. I've been super thirsty, my mouth has been dry (ew..lol), and I've been drinking sooooo much! To reassure myself that I am not doing anything wrong (or gaining "real" weight) I read a few articles on muscle water retention. From what I read, I can probably expect the number to stay where it is right now and then I should see a drop in a few days once my body knows that we're back on the workout routine.
Today was my 3rd day back at the gym. I did a 45min spinning class that totally kicked my arse and I did a few exercises for my biceps and triceps afterwards. I kept the calories farily low today (for my standards) because DH and I are having our "date day" tomorrow and that means: Lots of bad food! Croissants, french toast, bacon & eggs for breakfast, sandwiches with sweet potato fries for lunch, a pint of Ben&Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup (I totally freaked out when I found it here in Germany, it's one of my FAVORITE B&J flavors!) and I'm also gonna make a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (my first try :fingerscrossed:). I am still gonna count calories but I am definitely expecting to end the day at around 2500-3000. I'm so excited though! I haven't "cheated" in a while and I will enjoy every single bite :)

Hello! So glad to have found this thread. I ignored "featherweights" thinking that is not for me..I am at 147 and been so stuck. I can only seem to lose 1-2 lbs a month now. Anyone else experience that ? I am still exercising almost daily. I probably need to get more strict on food tracking. I am trying the 5:2 fasting so well see how that goes. Goal seems soooo close.....

Welcome, Sassy, you are absolutely a featherweight! Weight loss is usually a lot slower near goal, unfortunately. Good things are worth waiting for!

Hoopty, that bump up isn't surprising given your workout. You know you didn't gain that much real weight overnight. You date day sounds awesome; hope you have lots of fun! How long have you been in Germany?

Congratulations, Vix! Sorry to see you leave the thread, but way to go! :carrot:

My WOE was designed for maintenance, and I definitely plan on keeping on with it. The transition period was a bit tough, and I wasn't sure I was headed for one meal a day when I started out. I knew I wanted to try a smaller eating window. My first window was 10AM until 10PM and I just kept shrinking it until I found the window that worked best for me. During the transition I had a window that was "committed" and a smaller window that was "attempting," and when I was reliably within the "attempting" window, it became the "committed" window and I picked a new "attempting" window.

I do eat a lot for my meal. I retroactively counted my calories for a day recently, and it totaled 1400.

Here are some of the things I love about my approach which weren't working for me as I attempted to maintain in the past:

+I don't have to think about food trade-offs during the day (such a big feature for me after decades of worrying about this!).
+I get to eat whatever I want for dinner (after eating fresh veg, and as long as I keep the starchy carbs limited).
+I get to eat as much as I want at some point in the day (another important point, because even in maintenance I was pretty much always unsatisfied).
+Eating out (for dinner) is compatible with my plan (after decades of being the wet blanket in the family).
+Because I can eat whatever I want for dinner, eating out doesn't cause any angst going "back on plan" the next day.
+My lip stain stays fresh all day! (lol)

Yesterday was a normal good day (exercise and eating) and today the scale was down to 140.6! I guess I'll move the ticker down to 142 today. :)

Hello everyone!

Sassyblonde - Welcome! :wave: Wow, you've lost so much already,congrats! It's only natural that your weight loss is slowing down now but the last 10 lbs are always the hardest to get rid of (so I heard). Try playing with your calories a little or try different workouts/exercises. Maybe that'll help!

yoyoma - It sounds like it's definitely working for you, both physically and mentally. Keep up with it! 140.6 lbs!! That's awesome! :cheer: You're so close to the 130s! I am German actually. I was born and raised here, lived here up until I was 19, then moved to the US for a year and met my now DH, we came back to Germany for a year, then went back to the US for a year and now we're back in Germany again :lol:

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Our date day was awesome! I woke up early and started making the carrot cake before preparing breakfast. I measured every single thing and counted calories - boy oh boy! The cake, together with the cream cheese frosting, had a total of 2908 calories :eek: I thought DH was gonna have some but he ended up not liking it (he isn't a cake person, or dessert person...or sweets person at all so he's very picky) so I ended up eating almost all of it. I have about 2 pieces left which I'm gonna have today. I don't have anyone I can give the cake to and I'm most certainly not throwing it out. I already cut the original recipe in half but it was still a lot.
Then we had to run a few errands and were out and about for 1.5 hours. I was so full from breakfast and the carrot cake that I didn't make any sandwiches for myself, nor did I buy the Ben&Jerry's that I had been looking forward to buying. I didn't wanna stuff myself, just because I had "allowed" myself to. I was actually craving fresh, healthy food so I had some cucumber when we came back.
Then we relaxed for a while before heading out to the gym where I had a pretty intense workout. First, I ran the treadmill for 34min (interval run with sprints every 5min), then I did leg exercises followed by a 15min stretching session. I felt like a beast :lol: So then later that night I made myself a huge salad. I was pleasantly surprised that I was craving healthy food.
So this is what my day looked like:

Breakfast (784 calories): 1 croissant, 3.5 slices of bacon, French toast (3 slices of toast, 1.5 eggs, 30 ml vanilla soy milk, 1 teaspoon brown sugar) plus honey and organic raspberry jam
Snack (155 calories): Corn bits BBQ flavor
Throughout the day (2425 calories): Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting
Snack (-): Cucumber with sea salt
Dinner (57 calories): Big salad (romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, green onions, homemade ranch dressing)

Phew!

Joining the 140's today! Still waiting to see how low I'll need to go to get that flat stomach I dream about! It's getting really close. 10-15lbs to go at the maximum maybe? But my body always surprises me, for better or worse, in how it chooses to lose fat.

Hi, Arwen, and Welcome! You've done such a great job already. Hope you get that flat stomach here!

Hoopty, your English is fantastic. It must be interesting to live alternately on two continents. Your cheat day sounds awesome. I love carrot cake too :carrot: . Maybe in the future if you wanted to eat less cake, you could freeze half? That way you don't have to worry about what to do with it if DH doesn't like it.

I had a day of high exercise and normal (good) eating yesterday and the scale nudged down to 140.4.

At the last minute we decided to go to a Chinese buffet for Mother's Day. Today the scale reads 141.6, which is up from where I was but still in ticker territory. :)