Maintainers - November Chat!
 

Happy first of November and hopefully the Halloween treats are out of the house or well-hidden. But it's not like things are going to get any easier this month or next, I'm afraid! :dizzy: I love the holidays but honestly, I dread the eating challenges - I feel like every time I turn around, I have to say NO to something else. Why, why, why do we have to celebrate everything with massive quantities of unhealthy food???

Oh well, there isn't any answer to that question :lol: ... so how's everyone doing? :)

Good morning Meg and happy November everyone.

I gave in to the evil little Halloween chocolate bars - read the nutritional info on the box and saw they were only a mere 50 cals each...which would have been fine if I had stopped at 2 or 3.
Hmmmph - only myself to blame - luckily the scale didn't let me get away with it so I will be diligently back on track.

Have a great day.
-S

After the chat yesterday, I gave in and ate 1 small PB cup. At least I was happy to have stopped at one. LOL, we all knew someone would end up eating one and it was me. I am back on track this morning and my exercise is up to par for my capabillities at this time.
I'm with you Meg, I hate it that Holidays are so food-centered. I used to love Thanksgiving the most. Because, it was a time for family and socializing and eating tons of junk without the pressure and expense of gift-giving. I still like to get together with family, but the food isn't my favorite part anymore. In my family, several of the women have their "special dish" and are offended if I don't eat it too. Everyone knows my health concerns and know how important it was for me to get the weight off and keep it off. Hopefully this yr. they will cut me some slack, since they can see that I am serious about my health.

I saw a thread on Wt. loss percentage. I don't know how to total mine. I am 5'7 and weighed 234 lbs. to start and 140 lbs. now. Does anyone know how much percent I have lost? Just curious.

IF I'm doing the math right, Lily, you've lost 40 percent of your starting weight.

Lily, 40% is what I get for you too - WTG! :high:

For a while I was trying for 50% of my weight but it's just not going to happen for me (rats!) :p

Meg! I woke up waaay too early again this morning so I went for a walk. The battery in my mp3 died so I slipped home, replaced it and went back out. I felt awesome.
Then I got called to work!
I'm whipped! But I did feel great for most of the day :)

Let me see what time I wake up tomorrow.

40% is amazing BTW!
Let me see .... 20%??? That's not shabby either!

Thanks ladies, I was guesstimating about 35%.

Susan, WTG on the exercise. I am heading to the tredmill now. Bye everyone.

Yup 40% for you Lilly! Susan, 20% is cool too! :bravo:

Mine is 26.5%, so not bad there! (I'm maintaining till Jan :yes: )

I think I'm coming out at 41% (107lb lost, 260lb starting weight). :faint:

Oooh, this makes me want to start a thread ... :chin:

I don't know, sounds like it could turn into a competition. Sometimes the last 20, or the only 20, are the hardest.

Anne

Point taken. :)

:yes: These last 20 or so are HARD HARD HARD! Loads harder then the previous 3 20s...

I agree, the last 20 was very hard. It took me almost as long to lose that as it did the first 70. Sorry guys, I wasn't trying to start a competition, just didn't know how to figure my percentage lost. It would have been nice if I'd only had 20% to lose to start with, but that wasn't the case with me. Everyone who has lost their weight, or are working at losing it is a winner in my book.

All I was thinking was that % is another way to look at it. ya know? pounds, inches, pant sizes, %'s ... sometimes we need a little alternate encouragement.

Susan, that is true. If anybody else wants to calculate your percentage of weight lost take the number of pounds you lost, divide by your starting weight, and multiply by 100. It isn't any new info beyond pounds lost relative to your starting weight, but it is a different way of looking at it.

Truly different measures of success are inches lost from a body part or set of body parts (usually chest, waist, hips) or change in body fat percentage.

Anne

Ya know how some ads say .... I lost 19 inches ... how many places do they measure?

That's what I always wonder too! :lol: I'm sure I could come up with at least 20 sites to measure, if not more, and end up with some truly astounding number of inches lost. :faint:

I don't think there's anything standardized - just be consistent all the way through with what and where you measure. :)

I agree with Anne about changes in BF% - to me that's a more significant number than pounds lost.

Saturday is my day for measuring BF%. I have measured inches in 7 places but I never added them together. I should do that again.

Today I feel like I have my act together. Together enough to post here :) even tho' I'm up about five over max. I did cardio, I lifted, my percentages are good. I still can have a healthy sized snack before bed.
I never had a snoozy woozy spell. It's been a good day!

That is awesome, Susan! Congratulations, and I hope tomorrow's just as good!

Wow, there's alot of math so far in this thread! I'm still not quite believing that it's November! *acckkk* I was reading in another thread that someone started turning off their TV during the week and turned it on only for the weekend. I'm tempted to do the same. I'm half-watching TV now, and in the last 10 minutes I've seen four (!) commercials for fast-food restaurants. No wonder people overeat in the evening! Plus, time is better spent doing other things, IMO. I'll let you know how it goes, I'm expecting fierce resistance from my kids. I'll try and make fun alternatives for them. Wish me luck.

Have a happy November everyone.

Hi everyone, I have been cleaning house like crazy, since my MIL called yesterday to say she is coming to spend the night tonite. (It's my DH's birthday). I have cleaned the kitchen, living room, laundry room, 3 bathrooms, guest bedroom, masterbedroom, computer room, daughter's bedroom, formal dining room, vacuumed the whole house. Mopped all tile floors, swept off ceilings, cleaned ceiling fans, taken trash out, did dishes, did several loads of laundry, changed out all bed linens,cleaned mirrors and sliding glass doors, and even cleaned the fireplace. This huge place is spotless. Her house is always immaculate and it drives me crazy. Anytime she comes to visit, I feel like I am second-class if my house doesn't look perfect. The only thing I haven't done is sweep the outside deck, I'm sure she'll mention that it is messy. Does anyone else go nuts with cleaning if the in-laws are coming? I'm sure I have had my exercise for yesterday and today. The bad thing is, my step-daughter will be here at 2PM with her 2 young children and the house will be messed up by the time, MIL gets here at 3PM. Maybe I should take pictures and show her that it was clean before she got here. LOL. Seriously, I am so stressed that I am having stomach cramps. Sometimes, she has made remarks about my house being messy and how I should "bust my kid's butt's" and make them help clean it. I badly would like to say, that her son causes a lot of the mess. Maybe she should have taught him to help clean when he was growing up and we wouldn't have this problem. I might mention that she lives alone and her house doesn't usually get messy.

After reading all that work you've done, Lilly, I'm sure glad I have a housekeeper!!! She only comes every other week, and I do the basic on the off weeks (mainly sweeping and vacuuming and keeping the kitchen clean). But it's my DD's room that drives me crazy!!! She makes her bed, but that's where it stops. She has piles of clothes everywhere and piles of stuff everywhere else. Frankly, I can't wait until she moves out (1 1/2 years till she starts college). But, back to the subject. I used to fret when MIL came to visit, otherwise she'd start cleaning for me! Once, she even cleaned my washer and dryer (impossible to keep clean because they were located in the garage). It sure made me feel like a 2nd class citizen!

Just relax, Lily. After 10 kids, messy and otherwise, you just do what you can and forget the rest. Surely she shows up sometimes unexpected!!!

Hey Lily, I know it doesn't work for all family situations, but my life sure got a lot easier after I figured out how to tell DD's grandparents to back off when they needed to be told that. I tell them politely of course, but firmly.

Theorizing here: it could also be something like you make her feel like a neat freak and she is uncomfortable about that, and projects her anxiety onto you and yours.

Either way, you swept the ceilings! Geez. I have NEVER in my entire life done that. I didn't know that needed to be done. Of course she'd pass out at my house, with dog hair and baby stuff everywhere, and that is after I clean up all the really nasty stuff. I think you've paid your dues.

Anne

Just have to chime in as a MIL myself. When I visit, I sometimes get bored so I will clean just because it's something to do--not as a reflection of anyone's housekeeping abilities. I'm wondering if that's what your MIL was doing, Allison? My grandmother used to visit a couple of times a year when I was a kid, and wash the windows, take down the curtains, etc. My mother loved it because she worked full-time and it was such a help to her. So I guess I never thought of a MIL cleaning as anything but helpful.

Rude comments certainly are never acceptable. Can't believe that someone would walk into someone else's house and say stuff like Lilly's MIL said.

OMG, I have now taken down the curtains and washed and rehung them. Now, she calls and has a niece that unexpectedly showed up to stay with her for the weekend, so she isn't coming. I even went outside in the cold and washed the windows. This place is so darn clean now.
Allison, I know what you mean about the DD's room. This was my hardest room today that I cleaned. She's at school and will be shocked when she sees it. I must have gotten 5 loads of laundry from her room and tons of towels. She just cleaned that room last week. She uses 3 towels to bathe every single time..
Anne, my MIL freaks that I let our Labrador stay inside. I do clean up a lot of dog hair. But, it's my home and my dog and I like her inside.
Sheila, last summer she said she was going to come "clean and get my house organized and then my kids better darn well keep it that way". I told my DH to tell her that this wasn't happening. She never came.
Anyway, we aren't filthy slobs here. I clean the kitchen , do the dishes, clean the living room ,do laundry and make beds daily. She's just too picky. She gripes that my cabinets aren't organized. I shut the doors on them and could care less if my dishes, towels and silverware junk are in perfect order.
Anyway, I'm done cleaning. I bet I lost a lb. or two. LOL

I wanted to say that I was contacted by Quick and Simple Magazine to tell my Wt. Loss Story. I noticed that Glory, Callystia, RVVMM, and Tani had gotten the same message. Do you ladies know if this is on the up and up? If so, did you agree to do the story?

Lily, I'm not familiar with that magazine and just want to urge you to be cautious. We have a moderator here at 3FC who was contacted by a magazine to tell her weight loss story. She agreed and in the interview, she told them about her healthy eating and exercise plans and all her hard work. She also told them that - as part of her healthy eating plan - she occasionally ate Breakfast Cookies.

Well, I bet you can guess what the article looked like when it came out:

So-and-So Lost XX Pounds On The Cookie Diet! And You Can Lose Weight Eating Cookies Too!

The whole article was about eating cookies, not her healthy diet or exercising. Needless to say, she was furious but there wasn't anything that she could do.

Typically a publisher will ask you to sign a form giving them the right to use your photos and story however they choose to - you wouldn't be able to read the story before it's published and make changes and corrections. Remember that they're in the business to sell magazines and that healthy weight loss usually isn't what sells.

I'm not saying not to do it -- just please be cautious and read everything over very carefully before you sign anything. You've worked so hard and your story is so inspirational that I know it would break your heart if it got distorted. :hug:

Thanks a lot Meg, I had no idea they could do this. I am naive to this type of thing. It makes sense, I guess healthy weight loss isn't real news. I would have been livid if they had made my wt. loss story seem like something that you described.

Hi Gang:

I love the MIL cleaning stories. I can tell my age when I read them. Now I just hand my MIL the laundry to fold. She feels like helping and you know what I need the help. This has taken years of Co-payments to come to this point.

Hi maintainers,

Lilly, I know exactly how you feel. I picked up my entire house before my cleaning help came. And cleaned as well before my mother cam. Now my mother, every time she comes, offers to clean up, and i say every time that i do not find it so dirty. On the other hand, I think she does this to be helpfull, and with my energy problem, I am actually glad if she comes once in a while to help out. After reading your program i was staggering... WINDOW cleaning? washing curtains ? sweeping ceilings??? And what is this stuff about making beds EVERY DAY ??? I was exhausted just reading your post.
It must be awfull if she comes in and comments after all this work. however, she might just say this because she has nothing else to say. What about the response that you find your house fine as it is? Or that as an experiment, you left the housekeeping to her son and he is still in his learning period so you must all be very patient with him?

Good luck, and enjoy the clean house!

Rabbit

Once before my MIL came unexpectedly and stayed for 2 nights. I had just finished working 5 (12hr.) night shifts in a row. Her son was out of town and me and the kids were by ourselves. She did a bunch of laundry, cleaned out my refrigerator, cleaned my silverware drawer, rearranged my kitchen cabinets, swept and mopped. I did appreciate the help. I just didn't appreciate the comments about how messy we were. I had been working and didn't have time to do the deep cleaning. Now that I'm a SAHM, she makes comments that there is no reason for this place to ever be messy. I always tell my DH that this house is too big. I have to clean it in stages. I don't have the energy to do it all everyday. I'm looking forward to when we retire and buy a small 2 bedroom place at the lake. I'm sure I could keep that perfect. I used to have a housekeeper that came once a week, but can't afford it now that I stay home. My DH did tell me last night that the house looked "absolutely beautiful" and that he will help me try to keep it this nice. But, that usually doesn't last long. He works a lot of hours and although I could use the help, I feel guilty asking him to do much. I have to say that I am sore all over this morning, after all the cleaning. My arms and shoulders really hurt from the window washing. I just wish she would understand that the reason I don't work outside the home anymore is that I have an illness that the number one symptom is severe fatigue. I'm not a lazy person.

Sheila--I suppose it could be that my MIL was bored and therefore she cleaned. They spend half the year here now and are over every weekend and she no longer feels the urge to clean (although she always askes what she can do--but that's usually when I'm getting ready to prepare a meal).
Lily--I admire that you did so much work with a fatigue problem. My Mom suffers from fibromyalgia and I know she'd like to be able to do a lot more than she can. They live in a 2 story house and she' hasn't been in the basement for several years. She's gotten to the point where she CAN go downstairs, but opts not to because she's afraid of what she'd see. My Dad is VERY messy. Did I say VERY? I meant VERY, VERY messy.
Meg--that's interesting about the magazine (not that anyone would approach me) but it would be fun to talk to a reporter and deny everything and if they asked if I ate sweets, I could look at them and say "are you putting words in my mouth?" I would be like, eat healthy and exercise--it's the ONLY way!!!
Gina--you're too funny!! I haven't had to deal with any "co-pays" but I have gotten to the point where I don't have to re-do any of her work! My DH and kids know the way I like things done and she doesn't seem to see that, so I'm always re-folding the laundry or re-setting the table, but now I just smile and thank her--I realize now that it isn't that important if it isn't done to my exact specifications!
Anyway, I'm getting closer and closer to maintaining! 2 pounds to goal!
Have a great weekend everyone!

My DH is very messy. Every day, I can count on his glass and dinner plate being next to the computer. An ashtray that is overflowing next to it. His dirty clothes laying NEXT to the bathroom hamper. The bathrooms sink having hair in it from him shaving. Toilet lid up. His dirty socks next to his recliner. Kitchen cabinets left open from his late night snacking. Clothes hangers left in the living room where he changed clothes for work. The list goes on and on. When there is a couple kids that are just as messy, well anyone can see what I face on a daily basis.
After all my cleaning, my dog had a stomach ache the night before last. I ended up having to shampoo carpets in 3 rooms yesterday. My arms and shoulders feel like I have taken a beating.
Anyway, my eating has been terrible this weekend. I'm up 2 lbs. on the scale. I deserve it and deserve to work my butt off exercising. I feel fat and bloated. I 'm back on program today and plan to stay here. The stress finally got the best of me and I went overboard with the darn Birthday cake. I think I'll walk twice on the treadmill today and drink lots of water and see if it helps.

Can anyone recommend any type of abdominal exercises that work slowly and don't require sit-ups? I can't do those due to all my previous hernia repairs. I like my body now, I just wished my stomach area was a lot flatter. I mostly walk all the time and my hips and legs are plenty thin enough, but I have a 32 inch waist which isn't too flattering since it's about the same size as my hips. I am definitely V shaped. I wear a size 4 in jeans that are medium rise cut. I do have some higher waisted shorts and these are a size 8 to fit around my tummy. (complete with muffin top in the high waisted ones). Is it possible that due to my poorly functioning liver that it is not possible for me to flatten my tummy? I also wonder if a good part of it is "loose skin" since I had a 47 inch waist to start with? It doesn't hang down. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I can't afford a personal trainer.

Hi Maintainers,

Lily - Can you do crunches on a stability ball? They support your back if you cannot press your back to the ground. Also they are not expensive.
BTW You did all that cleaning with a fatigue problem? i find that icredible. i also have a fatigue problem, and I split my household chores into 3 portions, spread over 3 days, because I cannot do all in one day. Still, I do not consider my house to be dirty.

have a great day,
Rabbit

Rabbitt, crunches on stability ball is how I ended up with 2 more hernias that I had repaired in May. I just wish there was some way to help tone my stomach without this happening. I'd like to have a flatter stomach.
I also usually clean my house in stages. This past weekend, I did all that because my MIL was supposed to come. It wore me completely out. I hurt all over the rest of the weekend. Most of the time, I wouldn't have even been capable of doing that much, I think the stress/adrenaline had me pumped to get it done.

hi everyone, I just had to share. My DH last night told me "I'm the luckiest man on earth for having such a wonderful wife". It made me feel so good. I know it had nothing to do with weight loss but it's so nice to hear that we are loved. I honestly believe that his feelings for me have never changed regardless of my weight. He has been so incredibly supportive of all that I have had to deal with. I couldnt' have ever hoped for a better spouse.