Great loss megscarles! :)

Wow, Scorbett, and you have TOM too, right? What a great loss, and getting so close to goal! Way to go!!!

That is a great loss scorbett, awesome news

16.2 lbs to go!

Woo-hoo, Hello 40...and good-bye 28!
 

So yesterday I celebrated the big 4-0! I had a good 45-year-old friend tell me that her years from 40 to 45 have been the greatest of her life. I was nervous about turning 40 but she made it sound so appealing that now I'm excited to see what adventures await me.

As for my day, I didn't do anything spectacular but I celebrated being nearly 30 pounds lighter than I was on my 39th birthday. I had more of a phase 2 day, having a pudding cake for breakfast and another for dessert after dinner. In between, I had a celebratory lunch of veggies and sashimi, then a celebratory dinner of filet mignon and veggies. I decided not to have the 3rd packet because I was so stuffed from the rest of the day and thought I had enough protein for lunch and dinner. All in all, a great day :)

I didn't weigh myself yesterday and got a late birthday present from the woosh fairy this morning: 3 unwelcomed pounds gone! I'm so happy. :carrot::carrot::carrot:


I now weigh less than my driver's license weight...which has been 20 pounds under what I actually weighed for about 20 years now.

So I'm happy to say goodbye to my 30's and to the 28 pounds. As a gift to myself, I added my ticker and the weekly progress onto my signature...quite a feat for me since I had no clue what I was doing. I still can't figure out how to do a before and after picture so that will have to wait until I get a bit more computer savvy.


Thank you, Sonya, for the support and birthday wish. Yes, let's do it together :)

[QUOTE=Starshine;4547882]Welcome, ablever! Congrats on your great loss! And Happy Birthday tomorrow! Do show us that ticker and some photos. I bet your look great!

I too worry about maintenance, as this week, I've had two dreams where I was eating candy/cookies. Following the candy dream, I ran into the exact candies sitting on a counter. I thought for a second and walked off. :)

I'm scared too, that I will get back to eating lots of junk chocolate. Hopefully, I won't! [QUOTE]

Thank you, Starshine for the birthday wish! As for the dreams, I say embrace them because they are a safe and fat-free way to enjoy the foods that we shouldn't have when we're awake :) And when we get to maintenance, I think we'll have plenty of support and ideas here :) I'm looking forward to it even though I'm nervous. It'll be such a new way of living that I'm excited to get on with it :)

Congrats to both of you!

Blessings to all!

Tightwad you will be at goal in no time

[QUOTE=ablever;4549680]So yesterday I celebrated the big 4-0! I had a good 45-year-old friend tell me that her years from 40 to 45 have been the greatest of her life. I was nervous about turning 40 but she made it sound so appealing that now I'm excited to see what adventures await me.

As for my day, I didn't do anything spectacular but I celebrated being nearly 30 pounds lighter than I was on my 39th birthday. I had more of a phase 2 day, having a pudding cake for breakfast and another for dessert after dinner. In between, I had a celebratory lunch of veggies and sashimi, then a celebratory dinner of filet mignon and veggies. I decided not to have the 3rd packet because I was so stuffed from the rest of the day and thought I had enough protein for lunch and dinner. All in all, a great day :)

I didn't weigh myself yesterday and got a late birthday present from the woosh fairy this morning: 3 unwelcomed pounds gone! I'm so happy. :carrot::carrot::carrot:


I now weigh less than my driver's license weight...which has been 20 pounds under what I actually weighed for about 20 years now.

So I'm happy to say goodbye to my 30's and to the 28 pounds. As a gift to myself, I added my ticker and the weekly progress onto my signature...quite a feat for me since I had no clue what I was doing. I still can't figure out how to do a before and after picture so that will have to wait until I get a bit more computer savvy.




Thank you, Sonya, for the support and birthday wish. Yes, let's do it together :)

[QUOTE=Starshine;4547882]Welcome, ablever! Congrats on your great loss! And Happy Birthday tomorrow! Do show us that ticker and some photos. I bet your look great!

I too worry about maintenance, as this week, I've had two dreams where I was eating candy/cookies. Following the candy dream, I ran into the exact candies sitting on a counter. I thought for a second and walked off. :)

I'm scared too, that I will get back to eating lots of junk chocolate. Hopefully, I won't! I am 43, these are indeed good years. 30 less than 39 is great.

I'm so close to being able to officially join this group. Officially I have 26lbs to get to my goal of 200 but my home scale is always 3-4lbs lower than the clinics scale.

I should be able to phase off in time to go to the Dominican Republic for my twin brothers wedding in February. He is mad at me because I was always the bigger one. Now I will show him up on his wedding day.

Lovin' IP!

You will be here in no time! :) Wonderful about the Dominican Republic trip to show off your new body! You will show your brother how terrific you look.

I cannot believe it! I weighed in this morning, and I lost 6 pounds last week!:dance::dance::dance: I am really amazed at this. This is my biggest loss since the beginning. I do think I will ultimately lower my goal weight, as I don't think the 16 pounds I have left to lose will take me to where I want to be, but we'll see. And I want to do the cellulite protocol for a few weeks too after hitting goal.

Anyhow, a nice way to start a Sunday. :) Makes me more than ever determined to stay OP. :)

Have a great day, everyone!

Hi all! Sounds like everyone is having a good week and big high five starshine!!! I got on the scale this am... Three days befoe my weigh in (i typicaly only weigh myself once per week!) and am up 4.5lbs from last Tuesday!! I hope it is mainly water - but wanted to ask the rest of you if you find your weight fluctuates during the week like that?

Hi all!

I am 20 'til goal. I think I'm going to start hanging out here more because I'm realizing that there are issues as I get closer to goal that I could use support on. Like weight loss slowing down...and keeping motivation. Happy to be here!

Thank you! :) My weight does fluctuate during the week, so I really try to stay off of it. If I think I may be retaining water, I up my water intake and that seems to take care of things (granted it makes me pee more too).

Congrats and welcome, Nolawhodatchick! :) You will find good support here. Weight does typically slow down as you get closer to goal, and then for me, figuring out what my goal weight should be, etc. And motivation when the weight does slow down.

Great to see you here! :)

Been a different week, crazy busy! I was down 1lb this week so, 14 to goal, but again we will see on that as I get closer.

Definitely need to stay focused on the WHY I want to lose weight, as I can see that I will need to stay stong with the numerous food temptations!! Or I need to blow up a picture of me 30 lbs ago...to remind me of what I really don't want:)

Bigger appetite as you approach goal?
 

Hi, everyone.

Is anyone finding that the closer they are to goal the hungrier they get? I am finding myself so super hungry these days. I remember when I started IP I could not finish all the food as indicated on Phase 1. I called an IP friend on the first day and said, "Do I have to eat all of this because I think I'll throw up if I have to take another bite?" I remember feeling so full.

Now it's the opposite. I can't get enough food. I haven't gone off program as far as eating things that aren't indicated on phase 1 but I have had an additional packet (and a couple of times even more than 1) of IP food. I figure it's better to have an extra packet and stay somewhat OP than have anything else that would mess me up now.

My housemate seems to think it has something to do with losing weight and having it be wintertime. She said that my body is smaller, has less fat to keep me warm and I'm using lots of the calories I take in to keep myself warm so I feel hungrier. She may have a point. And we do keep the house pretty cool (62 degrees F.) to lower energy bills (and have more money for IP). I just layer up like crazy.

In any case, as I get closer to goal, I was expecting a slower weight loss as many on the forum have mentioned, but I didn't expect the intense hunger. Anyone else?

Last but not least, I have read on a couple of threads about previous maintainers gaining all their weight back and more and needing to jump back to Phase 1. With all my maintenance anxieties, that just worries me. What is everyone doing to prepare for maintenance? How do we make this last a lifetime and not just go back to old habits? All these worries are plagueing me these days.

Congrats on the -6! That's awesome!

Yay! Welcome to the Last 25!

I think I'm finally ready to join this group. I have 20.9 pounds to go to my ultimate goal. It feels SO FAR away, yet I've come so far and can't give up now.

I'm phasing off (for my mental health and my budget) at the end of January, so I have 8 weeks left to lose it. I know I can do it, as long as I stay strong and keep pushing through the Holidays on plan.

It's funny, I have been SO much hungrier the last week and a half than I have been in most of Phase 1! I wonder if it's a sign of metabolism kicking in, if our bodies are becoming more efficient as we are getting rid of the excess weight. I have also been dealing with it by having an extra packet or a hard boiled egg, no cheating but I'd rather feel full!!

I've been reading through the maintainers thread and the reboot thread - what seems to be a common theme in people who lost a bunch then gained back, is that either 1) they didn't phase off properly, or 2) they took the "cheat day" in maintenance too far and turned it into a cheat weekend/week...which bled into every day, and led to weight regain. I think the biggest challenge of maintenance is going to be remaining diligent with the "rules" for everyday eating and not letting my cheat day open the door to make excuses for not following the rules during the week. Thank goodness we always have Phase 1 to go back to if things DO get out of hand!