Casie,
I thought about your post all last night and had to reply today. I TOTALLY understand where you are coming from. I started last year at 275 and I am only 5'5". I know the despair. I did not do LAWL last year and lost a bit doing my own thing and walking almost every day. Was plodding along and gained back some of the weight.

On Dec 1st my schedule cleared up for the first time in my life due to a divorce and a change from employment to business owner. I made the commitment to LAWL and going to the gym and doing whatever it takes. I had about 8 months until my work schedule became insane.

It sounds like you are doing fantastic with the food. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK. If you can keep on track with all the things that come up that is a HUGE accomplishment. One tip I got was try to do your fruits and starches in the morning to mid afternoon, never later than dinner if you can help it. I also try to do the "lesser evil" in food choices when I can such as apples rather than grapes, light bread rather than 1/2 baked potato.

A huge help to me is that I eat very small amounts throughout the day. I eat one thing and an hour or so I will eat one more thing, maybe 2 things. When I travel or eat out and eat a whole meal I notice I get much more hungry throughout the day. I also feel much better when I get a more substantial something for breakfast. I try to include a protein. I eat a slice of light whole wheat bread, 1 1/2 T red fat peanut butter and a little SF jam. A little later I eat a light yogurt like yoplait.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO ME IS MY EXERCISE. I absolutely must do this or my weight loss almost grinds to a halt. I know other people can do it with little or none, I can't. I think I had killed my metabolism going up and down in weight over my lifetime so far. Anyway, in my opinion, you are not doing intense enough exercise most of the week. Your tennis sounds awesome, I could not do that!!! I would be gasping on the court.

I have to do semi-intense exercise almost every day. I have had to increase and increase as I have gotten more fit. I have to get to the point where I sweat, not pouring sweat, but a fair amount. When I was just walking last year, even though it was somewhat intense it only helped a little. I have to change it up throughout the week. I am lucky in that for 8 months I have a pretty open schedule most of the time, very soon my schedule will be crazy and I will have to limit my exercise but I will do the best I can for 4 months.

Anyway this is what I do:
Yogates (Yoga and Pilates) 3x week
Cardio Sculpt (Aerobics and Toning) 2X week
1 hour cardio varying machines and intensity 4X week
weight training - 2 sessions about 45 minutes each

I know this is more than most people have time for, but if you can do that amount of tennis you are capable of doing more intense workouts throughout the week. You don't have to do the gym you can do tapes like Tae Bo or another sport. Just get your heartrate up there and sweat for 1 hour a day for 6 days a week. This will make all the difference in the world!! This is the first time in my life weight loss has come this "easy" and steady for me. I sleep so much better, I feel so much better from the inside out. I am more mentally focused.

One more tip if you take classes from the gym. Don't go with the instructors who just wave there arms around to a beat. I go for the instructor who works me the hardest. My favorite had a realistic body that I admire. People of all levels participate but mostly people who are looking for the intense workout. It is like the strict high school teacher that you learned the most from.

It really helps to enjoy what you are doing, but sometimes I don't. I do love how I feel afterward.

I know I went on and on, but I am passionate about this. I was so depressed, so ashamed, so hating myself. I am still way above where I want to be but I have learned to love my body. I KNOW I will make it to where I want to be and I will be a Knockout, fit and lean.

I hope this helps.

-Deede

Extremely wise words Deede!

I'm the same way with my PT at the gym.. He's not a big muscle-bound roid-boy.. He's got an obviously strong athletic body and knows what I need to do to lose weight, maintain the loss and then define what I have...

Gold is not a lot of food! I couldn't take Gold.
I got put on Blue for exercise, and I thought the exercise was WORTH not being put back on the curse of Gold.

Please, please, please don't hate me. But Casie, you might not be getting enough food on Red. I'm taking a guestimate here and thinking it takes you about 30 minutes to walk those 2 miles 6 days a week plus the 2 hours of tennis on Sundays. Well you're at a higher activity level. Higher activity levels you need more calories to function, not enough calories and your body will think it's starving itself.

I started program at the same weight that your goal is. I'm on Red because of my activity level. If you're 120 pounds heavier than me and have a similar activity level, you're going to need more calories than I do in a single day.

As for getting all the food in, break it up to mini meals. It can be done. Break it up to 6 mini meals, I eat 2 exchanges every 3 hours. The food goes down simpler if it's in smaller increments.

Hang in there, plan, plan, and plan some more, and you'll see the program work for you. I post my food diary most days, hop over to the Daily menu thread if you need any ideas. I have my last 6 weeks of weight loss diaries saved, pm me if you want a copy.

Casie- You are doing a GREAT job! There is a ton of great advice so I won't repeat but did want to let you know that I struggled quite a bit in the beginning and it just took trying out different eating patterns, types of food etc to get in a good grove. You WILL get there, so don't give up.

One thing I do to help get in the food is to combine exchanges and eat often. I use the LA Lite shake and two servings of fruit to make a smoothie. A large salad with lots of veggies can easily become 3 servings of veggies.

Hope this helps!
Deb

I'm in the exact same situation. I was starving to death on gold, and was put on blue for exercise/busy lifestyle a couple of months ago. I'm MUCH happier with the extra food (especially now that I'm on stabilization... just got my fourth starch yesterday! )

I just wanted to thank EVERYONE for the suggestions and encouragement. I just got back from WI and I lost 2 lbs. this week! They also measured me on Monday and I have lost 3.75 inches total. 1 of those came from my boobs though . LOL. I took all of your suggestions to heart and have tried eating more actually. I guess that is what it took! Weird as it may sound. Anyway, I'm completely excited that I'm finally starting to see it come off. I've lost a total of 13.6 pounds since I started May 21st, so just a little over a month. It gave me the oomph I needed to continue because I was really starting to get discouraged. Thanks to everyone again for the great suggestions and advice. I really appreciate it!

Way to go!!! See? You stick to it, you get results!!

That is awesome!!!

Glad to see that you sticking with it. I know it is just mind blowing to realize that you have to eat to lose weight!