I know.... What's wrong with us? Quite a few of us seem to be battling similar situations. Dagmar- I had a weight range. It was 118-120 with a redline of 125. I maintained that for a couple of years. Now I'd just be thrilled to get back to 125. I was 128 earlier this week and it seemed possible, but then my weight started going up again. Yesterday I was 131. Today 130.4 so slightly down but barely. Like Allison, I leave tomorrow to go out of town. Dd and I are flying her to Houston for her move. We are bringing her service dog and her cat on the plane! Plus tons of suitcases. Should be very stressful! We are flying out of SFO and so are likely to be delayed. When we get to Houston, we have to stop to buy a litter box and litter and then drive to my friends house to borrow keys for the place we will stay at until we get the apartment. Not sure how much exercise I will get but we are planning on trying juicing! I'm trying not to worry about my weight but it is hard. I haven't packed yet and I know that will frustrate me when my clothes don't fit.

Peace and serenity to all of us.

I have found in the last year that just about everything I eat that isn't all protein makes me feel bloated, crampy and icky with stomach symptoms raging from serious upset to reflux and heartburn that almost kills me. I was tested for everything and have no allergies to gluten or wheat, no hpylori, no crohn's or celiac. It is making me crazy. I've also wondered about the metabolism thing, Allison. Did I mess myself up with my weird diet and exercise? I read an article by Krista Scott Dixon (I think Seaf shared it here a few weeks ago, too) that talked about some of the damages we could have done to our systems.

Michele - you and I were in the same range for a while. Today I was 145, and thrilled that I was at that weight three days in a row. I kept the lower range for a long time, and I hadn't changed my food when weight started to creep back up. After a while I decided to chuck it all and I know I increased my calories and then stopped exercising. Trying to get back into the groove.

Allison, I don't believe you are broken for life. It may take a little longer to get to your goal but with grit and determination you will make it. I was a yoyo dieter . I can't tell you how many diets I went on. I lost but regained plus more, many times. I did get discouraged and frustrated, but eventually found success and am not bragging because I know maintenance is a fragile thing. It takes just as much grit and determination to keep it off as it is to lose it,. I don't mean to get preachy , just trying to say I know what you are going through and also know it can be done.
You can do it .

:grouphug: I've tried for an hour to come up with something meaningful and motivational. All I can say is that I wish I could trade a part of my responsive metabolism for a tiny fraction of the determination, discipline, and persistence you display day in and day out. I'd say "good luck", but there's no luck involved. :shrug:

Wow, crunchy cereal is like crack isn't it? I just ate two pieces of dry quaker oatmeal squares cereal and I am literally having to sit on my hands when they aren't typing to keep from opening the bag and eating all the rest in there.

This is probably the only reason that the only cereal at our house is Lucky Charms (which I won't eat but DS loves), the only problem being that there are those times when a bowl of rice crispies with a banana on top sounds so wonderful for breakfast.

Oh, goodness, did we just start another food porn?

Quaker Oatmeal Squares slide down without milk and berries.

It's crack.

Here's your mantra for today, Shannon: Cereal is for children and those with a teenage boy's metabolism.

Also, I think Quaker Oatmeal Squares look like they were extruded. I can picture vats in a factory containing a kind of wood pulp in sugar water, which is the very processed "oats" in this cereal, then forced through tiny metal pipettes into the shape they now have. At least with Shredded Wheat, it looks like something in nature. The Quaker Oatmeal Squares look like dog kibble.

Like, like, like. Especially now that I'm living with a teenage boy, who told me recently to quit buying Cheerios because "they only buy me an hour" of non-hungry time. He wants to learn how to hardboil eggs properly. :D

It seems that sometimes the young and old have a lot more wisdom than we do.

I returned a bag of "health food" cereal two weeks ago because it contained 3 types of sugar. They were disguised as other things in the ingredients list but they were sugar. The 2 cereals in our house have one ingredient - wheat. When the store is out of them I will not buy anything else, no matter how healthy it claims to be.

Dagmar :cool:

I love shredded wheat and have been eating it for many years. Have any of you read the list of ingredients for shredded wheat ? It is pretty short, one ingredient, whole grain wheat. I prefer the original big biscuit.

Becky~that's cool that your son wants to learn those kinds of things. I remember when my son went to YMCA cooking camp. I think it was just two weeks long and culminated in all the parents coming for a kid-cooked lunch. They compiled their own cookbook and everyone got a copy to bring home. It was fun and some days when I ask DS to either cook dinner or help and he's always more than happy to do so. A couple years ago I downloaded an app called Paprika and merged all my favorite recipes into it, then had both kids download it as well and sign onto my "cloud" to get all the recipes. It's neat and I add to it constantly. I guess I'm kind of a closet foodie.

Bargoo~I like shredded wheat as well, but prefer the mini ones--frosted. Not as good a choice.

I found a home for a toy my dog won't play with. Because Chico is a fetching fool, a few years back I bought a GoDogGo automatic ball launcher. He refused to run after "those" balls and preferred the one that he just dropped at my feet. Anyway, our local weatherman posted on Facebook that video of the dog using a machine to launch a ball and said "I want that!" So I told him I have something and my dog refuses to use it and he can have it for his three dogs. I'm going to clean it up today and he'll pick it up next week. I'm glad to get rid of it so we have more space under the sink in our BBQ area.

Allison - I've seen you mention the paprika app. I need to try it, my recipes are in no way organized.

Yes, cereal for kids and teenagers is a good mantra. And the extruded image is one I'm going to remember. I love shredded wheat, but haven't bought it in a while. Probably better off that way. :)

Oh, Shannon, I love Paprika. If you find a recipe online, it's really easy to cut and paste it into the app, and you can add a photo to make it more enticing. There is a tab for nutrition info, although most of mine are without that info. You can categorize into many different categories (you can build your own categories), so if you're looking for poultry, just choose that. You can rate your own recipes (five star method) and you can add it to more than one category (Italian, poultry, etc.). You have the option of adding prep time, cook time and number of servings (which can be changed if you need more or less).

I also like ziplist.com so if I see a recipe while at work, I can add it to zip list and then when I'm at home I pull up ziplist and then can add it to Paprika.

Of course, you can also type the recipe as well--something I had to do with a lot of mine.

Well, courtesy of a stomach virus (and it was nasty), I am currently at my lowest weight of the last few months. Sadly, it's STILL nearly 4 pounds over my goal weight, though below "red line" for the first time. And I've been eating 1500 cal/day instead of 1200 and maintaining. Funny, this is the second stomach bug I've had in a month - the first one hit me just as I was flying to Greece (and made the first day and a half of my vaca absolutely miserable).