Don't beat yourself up, Shannon. Everyone is welcome here--including the "non maintainers" (such as myself). Well, okay, so I am maintaining. But at a higher weight than I want to maintain.
It is what it is. We just have to deal with it they way we have to.
I'm also barely maintaining. I'm just waiting for dh and dd to leave (Sunday and Monday) so I can better control my meals and portions. We are taking dd out to dinner Friday night for her February birthday since she'll be back at college then. I'll do my best there but it's very undiet friendly.
Shannon, if the requirement to hang out in this thread is that we maintain our weight loss constantly, within a few pounds or less, then I am getting kicked off this island for sure.
I have been wondering if it would be worthwhile to make another thread for those of us who have large amounts of weight to re-lose. While I appreciate that it is difficult to lose even a few pounds, especially when you weigh less to begin with, to me personally it's kind of depressing to log on and see people talking about being just at their red line or slightly over when I have 30lbs I need to lose.
Which is to say, I don't mean that smaller amounts of weight are not significant, just that on a gut level I feel like "this isn't the same problem as the one I have right now" and that I just can't relate to it at the moment. To me personally, gaining or losing 5lbs over and over is maintenance, so sometimes I don't see the difference between this thread and the weekly chat thread in that respect.
I would like to have a thread like that in the maintainers area because I do feel that there's a difference between losing for the first time (or nth time, if you never maintained) and losing weight that was gained after spending a long time in maintenance.
Anyway, if nobody else is interested that's fine, just thought I would throw the idea out there.
Yes, it was 'Losing 5-10 (or more)', started by midwife.
Back then, there was more discussion about how to get rid of these larger regained amounts of weight in a healthy way. 'Healthy' covering mind, body and all the rest of it. Holistic, if you like.
We also talked about how the way individuals had lost weight originally wasn't necessarily working this time round, and finding another path which worked.
The thread then morphed into a challenge-type one. As these never work for me it lost its relevance for me.
I didn't manage to find another successful path to weight loss. Various injuries intervened which meant my exercise pattern had to change. The upshot is that I'm fatter and heavier than I'd like to be.
Still gorgeous though.
So I'd welcome a revival of the original kind of thread.
Shannon, you and I met on the Ladies Who Lift board, I think. I was focusing on form in a corner of the gymn where it was mostly men with tattoos and singlets and a lot of grunting. I also used to do high intensity interval training on the rower. I went at least three times a week, probably five, and it all seemed to fit in with my work (remember I work for myself) and with my childcare duties (the DB was 7-10ish, possibly 11). I remember that you had quite a lot of equipment at home and would come in from work and really go for it. Your DSS was quite small then, I think, and there didn't seem to be too many challenges in that department.
With regard to food, I ate for weight training. Five or six small meals with serious protein (like cottage cheese or spoonful of peanut butter) and carb of some kind (lots of vegetables, apple). Almost no simple carbs. The way my day was structured, I lost weight as long as I didn't eat anything between about 6pm and bedtime. If I kept the DB company with a bowl of cereal or something, then I'd remain the same or put on weight.
I was in my late 40s / early 50s.
Then my L hip, leg, knee, foot started complaining more. I thought I'd solved this problem earlier with physio but it returned. It meant that I couldn't walk on the treadmill (too regular for my irregular body), definitely couldn't run, didn't like rowing, and weights seemed to aggravate everything. After a long time I found a trainer with whom I've gone through a programme of corrective exercise and am now working on a movement-based flexibility and weights programme. I left the gymn as it had become unsafe, in my opinion. You'll have noticed that cardio is missing. My programme does make me breathless but I'm not as regular in doing it as I was when I went to the gymn. Walking far still makes my foot/knee/hip hurt unless I've been very religious about my programme.
Food has become more troublesome. I live with two men with large appetites. Both accept that I have 'special food requirements' and will help in making sure these are met - but the food environment is different now from how it was back in the glory days.
Work has become more demanding (both finding it and doing it) and I have fewer very regular days when the same things happen. This can easily mess up the exercise schedule. The household and our mobility (one car and I am the only driver, deteriorating bus service, live in the country) seems more difficult to organise and the older members of our families require our help more frequently for more serious matters. I'm good at prioritising and delegating, for the most part, which does help to make the best of things but it's often a bit of a struggle.
And I am older myself, 59 now and 60 in August.
There is my story, in a nutshell. I have many good habits. I have learnt many good things over the years (probably the most important was that sleep is key to the whole caboodle for me). My difficulty is in stringing the whole weightloss/exercise/sleep thing together, day after day, in the context of ever-changing events. And in a tiny house.
Shoot, my redline is so far off in the distance that with the Doppler shift, it's green. Seriously, as someone who's never met goal and whose happy place is somewhere 10 pounds or more down, I too wouldn't mind a more journey (I dislike that word, but it works)-focused thread. I'm not at a spot where this is going to be done in a few weeks, or is dependent on a few low-sodium meals. And featherweight? Nope. I am carrying a fat% of at least 34 and possibly as high as 37%, and just losing 10 pounds is not going to fix that. This beast has several heads.
I like the idea of a more focused thread. I'm thinking that there aren't so many regulars that we could have two threads, though--by which I mean, one thread for maintainers with 5 pounds to lose and one thread for those with more to lose. Maybe we could just all be together, with individual goals--but with the discussion more on current strategies.
I found it very useful recently, Allison, when you said you were going on the treadmill most days and eating salad for lunch most days again - and losing weight. That made me think about how I used to do the same (treadmill or walk, salad) and lose weight. Made me realise how all those 'little' things add up.
Still gorgeous though. 
Seriously, as someone who's never met goal and whose happy place is somewhere 10 pounds or more down, I too wouldn't mind a more journey (I dislike that word, but it works)-focused thread. I'm not at a spot where this is going to be done in a few weeks, or is dependent on a few low-sodium meals. And featherweight? 
Nope. I am carrying a fat% of at least 34 and possibly as high as 37%, and just losing 10 pounds is not going to fix that. This beast has several heads.
