Looks like tummy is our problem area, all my weight is in abs and boobs

I went for a bra refitting I lost a band size but need to lose a bit more, before I can go down a cup size

I am grateful that finally my boobs are letting go of the fat.

I am sure everyone's tummy has reduced just not proportionately, hopefully the last few will all come from the pouch

I lost 2.6 this past week. I wasn't walking as much, as my dog tore her cruciate months back, and she is my walking partner. She started favoring it this week, so she's on limited exercise for a week. So I haven't walked much, but still had a good loss. :)

I got into a size 14 pair of cotton pant type jeans on Friday. That being said, my real 14 jeans don't fit yet. :) I bought them years ago, and they still have tags on. I'm assuming that I was hoping to lose weight to fit back into the jeans, back in the day. Luckily, they're not high waist-ed and tapered legs, so they'll do nicely once I lose a bit more weight.

I think my waist is finally going down some too, but it is no where near what it used to be at this weight either. My chest is larger than it used to be too. I hope both of those things lose some weight in this final 25. Not that this will help with the sagging in the chest, but oh well, that's what good support bras are for, right? :)

Hang in starshine the last few will have no choice but to get rid of the boob and ab fat.

I have been weighing myself daily since last wednesday, when i did not lose any weight. finally after 13 days of no loss, scale moved from 131.6 to 131.

So happy. will try to do limited strength and focus on cardio.

bought a size 10 dress yesterday for the christmas party friday

Thanks, Sonya. :)

Congrats on getting the scale to move! Those losses are great when you don't have much more to lose.

Wonderful on the new dress! You'll look so good for the party on Friday. How exciting!

Hello to all of you wonderful "Last 25 IPeeps!" I just discovered this thread today and am eager to join you if I can. I have 16 more pounds to lose and would love to do it with y'all!

I read every single post in the last nine pages and am so happy for the successes that have been reported in the last three months. I am also appreciative of the struggles because they are a real part of the journey that needs to be acknowledged. I especially love that you have shown how to overcome the temptations and slip-ups and have shown that life goes on after some of the ugliness and one just needs to get back on program and keep going. The results speak volumes to all of your hard work and dedication despite the temptations and struggles. Great job, everyone!

As for me, I am in an emotional state with my weight loss. I started this journey on September 5 with 41 pounds to lose. My motivation was my upcoming 40th birthday, which is tomorrow! I'm a little more than halfway to my goal. My losses have been slow but pretty steady. I am a shorty: 5 feet tall on a good day. I know that given my height, bone structure and my proximity to goal, it may only be slower but I'm okay with that, especially since I receive such wonderful support on this forum.

I have had similar issues as many of you, the incredibly shrinking boobs (they were nothing to brag about to begin with and now my 13 year old daughter and I may be able to swap bras!), the temptations of pre-IP life and going out to eat without worry, the struggle of staying OP through the holidays (Halloween, birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas).

I have had some self-sabotaging, too. I think there's a big part of me that's scared to be the "better me" and I find myself constantly having to remind myself that it's okay to be better than I have been the last 20 years, emotionally, mentally, physically.

I think my biggest fear right now is that I will revert to old habits once I reach goal...which isn't too terribly far away. I remember thinking during Thanksgiving, "Gosh, if I wasn't on IP I'd be stuffing myself and be right back to where I started from." That really scared me....

Anyway, I think that's more than enough about me....just wanted to give everyone a chance to know me a bit since I haven't really posted much.

So, tomorrow's the big 4-0 and for my celebration, I am going to add a ticker to my profile and post some before and now pix!

Thanks for reading this...thanks for the support...thanks for walking this walk with me, albeit virtually!

Blessings to all!

My home scale says I have about 7 lbs to go, WI is tonight. My ISB (incredibly shrinking boobs) have gone from an A to an A without any fat content. Really really weird... But I think the good thing about that is when I do my monthly self breast exam (you all do that don't you??) there isn't fat hiding anything I might find! I've lost my weight from the top down. Face looks pretty good, neck now is crepe-y (need to up the collagen a bit), shoulders and collarbone? Love 'em!!! As you head south the last part I hope to lose fat from is my stomach area. Still a muffin top (that I always hide behind my clothes) and a tummy. I'll see how I like me at 135 and maybe try a bit below that.

I have 22 to lose until my first goal... 150! My ultimate goal is 135, but I think it's unrealistic to get there by February 16th (wedding day). So my wedding day goal is 145-150. I am on track and trucking along! Weigh in is tomorrow and I'm hoping for another 3 lb loss!

I too have 16 pounds to lose, let's do it together. I am a shortie too at 5'2.

Happy birthday to you.

Sorry about the boobs, I am waiting for mine to leave.

I understand your worry on gaining it back, this forum helps a lot, let's be around and stay accountable

Greatdane ooh so excited for you, let us know how it goes tonight. If I could I would give away all my boobs away

Stomach seems to be a problem for all of us

All the best for your wedding, you can do this

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!


Congrats on getting so close, Great Dane! My neck is getting a bit crepe-y too. :( I've been taking collagen twice a day since I started, so i hope that it has helped. I hope I lose all that little fat under my chin, and the skin tightens up.

Good luck on the WI tonight!

Welcome, megscarles! Great losses so far! and good luck on the WI tomorrow!

Just completed Firm's Jiggle free arms, have 13 weeks before my trip with hubby to costa rica, cannot wait to see the difference

Thanks!! Wi this AM- 2.6!

Woo hoo!! Just weighed in, and after NO LOSS last week I am down 3.2 lbs!!! I'm 15lbs to goal!!

Oh, Costa Rica--how wonderful, Sonya! I'll have to check out that exercise program.

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!

It's funny you are all asking these questions about being hungrier. I cannot satisfy my hunger right now and it's making it much harder for me to focus on losing this last 20 pounds.

Scorbett ~ You and I sound quite similar, although I'm sitting at 180.9 today and wanted to get to 160lbs (my coach thinks that may be a little too much and my body may only go as low as 170) but I'm feeling hungry all the time.

I haven't added and extra pkt (I'm already on 4 per day) but I have been munching on Deli Ham, which I know isn't helping me. I just have to get through this Mental game...it's hard!

I'm curious, have any of you heard of anyone phasing off (properly) before goal, then coming back on IP in a few weeks or a month or two to Phase 1 a little later to lose that last 25 or 20 or 10? I wonder if after so long, the body just tries very, very hard to adjust to the lowered caloric intake so it gets much harder to lose. And if phasing off and taking a break just long enough to let the body know you aren't going to starve would help you be able to return and lose that last few pounds more easily? I did talk to one woman who said her clinic didn't recommend staying in Phase 1 for more than 3 months and that shocked me.

I was thinking the same thing, except I have a trip to the Caribbean in march.

It's not so much that I am hungry, not eating anything that will get me out of ketosis, a few cashews a bit more meat.

Today is day 1, 100%,op.

YES YES YES HUNGRY I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong!

The good news is it lasted two weeks but today I feel better. Hopefully I can make the next 20 lbs without going food insane. I actually like leaving out the starchy carb so I might be okay in maintenance but for now I wasn't sure how I was going to cope. Eating extra packets just seemed too expensive. (although I did start to exercise to justify the packet, which probably isn't a bad thing to do)

Thanks for all those posts - I am glad I decided to read this thread! :hug:

I've been hungry lately too. So much that my stomach has been growling lately about an hour before lunch time. Gotta bring some more tea to work. But my home scale said 19 lbs to go. So close I ant wait!!

Have a great day everyone!

So I have been very worried lately because I am 13 pounds from goal and am finding myself constantly famished, anxious about gaining all the weight back once I'm in maintenance and just overwhelmed with all the physical and emotional changes that this journey has brought up.

But I think I found a groove that will get me over this "overly hungry" spell: I am spreading out my food for the day so that I'm eating every 2-3 hours or so instead of every 4. It worked beautifully yesterday. It was the first day since I could remember that I didn't feel like I was starving. Here's what I did:

Breakfast 8:00: Chocolate pudding cake

Snack 10:45: Vanilla pudding smoothie (took the pudding and made 2 smoothies with it. One with ice, WF caramel and 1/2 tsp. instant coffee and the other with ice, WF chocolate and WF peanut butter - AWFUL)

Lunch 1:30: Romaine lettuce with 2 cups roasted veggies (made roasted veggies for the week on Sunday)

Snack 4:00: BBQ ridges

Dinner 6:45: Beef with WF BBQ sauce, romaine lettuce and 2 cups roasted veggies. I was going to split this meal and eat some again later in the evening in case I got hungry again but gobbled it up in one sitting instead.

Snack 8:30: Peppermint tea with WF chocolate

So by doing this, I stayed OP and fought off the hunger that has been plagueing me over the last few days. Hope it continues to work.

Also, I shared this on the daily thread but wanted to include it here, too:

I wanted to share a very motivating and validating documentary that I watched last night on Netflix: Hungry for Change. It is exactly what I needed to stay OP and keep focused on putting myself first during this process. I'm so grateful to have stumbled upon it. When I am feeling particularly challenged, I have tried to watch those food-related documentaries (Forks Over Knives, Food, Inc., Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, etc.) and it really shifts my thoughts so that I am energized and determined to stay OP.

ablever, that is fantastic!! You've got this!!!

Just wanted to share my "I'm in the home stretch" progress picture - we can do this!!!

Holy moly, Scorbett! :carrot:

As of this morning I have 13.4 pounds to goal, happy and nervous at the same time. Am getting hungrier. Will have to eat every 3 hours. Going to talk to coach at weigh in tomorrow.