Nope, not posture! I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I honestly think being so heavy Mmade my frame sag a bit under all the weight. I was a good inch shorter in the months prior to beginning this journey than I am now, halfway through it. There's nothing to explain it but less weight burdening my body. My posture is atrocious and could use some work, but I haven't done any yoga or pilates, I have to be careful with such things as I have hyper flexible joints and can injure myself.

My eating is getting back on track after a killer weekend, and I am pleased to report I am on plan for today and have worked out faithfully this past week! I feel better and those buffer calories help immensely

Yay! I find checking in on threads like this can help me as well . A group goal like this can be very motivating.

I think my shrinking was all because of the weight too. Weight holding me down physically, weight causing low self confidence- in turn causing me to slouch, weight exacerbating my messed up (but controllable) spine issues...
I need to add in more core exercises to strengthen the muscles around my spine so I don't injure it... more.
Mostly I hold myself taller these days, holding in my abs more. Partly because I'm stronger and part because I'm proud of the work I've done.

Today I'm proud that I was able to plan out my meals so that I didn't come home from work at 10pm starving. I rarely get breaks so it was good to claim a little time at 7pm to get a healthy dinner in. Not always as easy as it should be.

I'm glad to see everyone is doing well! I haven't weighed in a couple days, still hovering around 200-202, still eating on plan but sneaking in treats way too often, when will I learn???? Exercise is so-so, need to step it up in that department.

As I thought, the scale moved today:

Down to 251! I started at 262 on April 10, so 11 lbs in 19 days is pretty impressive I think

I'm also only 2 lbs away from my first mini-goal. I should have that one in the bag by next week!

it sure as heck IS impressive!! Way to go!

goodforme, each time I think I'm hungry and want something not planned, I just keep thinking of my commitment here. Without my committing, I could never even stay more than 3 days in a row on plan. each time I 'treated' I was just delaying what I really wanted. Or I was deluding myself that if caved and I had a big cookie (like 300 calories) that would serve as dinner. NO WAY!

We can do this!!

I am going to continue the "committing for one month" here even when it goes beyond one month! This thread has truly helped me. I am down 7 pounds from when I first posted here, I am at 155 for a few days now but I won't change my ticker until there is a 2 pound difference.

I have needed to SEE that for me, the fat loss comes when I restrict my calories to clean foods, with emphasis on lean protein and filling veggies; a little dairy (no-fat yogurt) and small amount of olive oil to cook in. I have to stay away from whole grain carbs, even if I think they are okay, for me to lose they don't fit in.

I also needed to see that I had to stop the bowl of cereal or piece of toast at night, or dinner leftovers; I am not really hungry then and it was just out of boredom, or habit, or seeing my DH eat something.

The exercise I have never had a problem with, I have been a consistent exerciser for 15 years, that helps tremendously with me being able to hide a certain amount of weight but for my height I just can't go above the 158 mark and still feel okay. I have fooled myself thinking that the exercise cancels out alot of calories but it can't cancel out the large number of calories that I had been having.

so THANK YOU ELIANA for starting this almost a month ago, I am going to keep on!!!

(I also got my new-to-me motorcycle yesterday, that is a big incentive for weight control, don't want to be stuffed into my leathers, haha! )

With it being a new month, I'm hoping it's okay if I join in. A 30-day challenge helped me tremendously in Oct/Nov, but then the holidays came and crushed my committment. I've been on plan since this past Wednesday but want to make a committment to staying perfect on plan for the enitre month of May (and beyond of course).

Me too please?

I was just wondering if we were going to start a May thread or commit to May here!
Thank you Eliana, this thread has been so helpful.
For my one month commitment to be on plan; I started April first at 218.6, and can happily say that this morning I am 205.2!!
That's a 13.4 pound loss this month

I still have a long way to go but I just passed my half way mark (62 lost- 60 to go) so that is something special!
I have had a few low days and a few high days but can happily report I have stayed on plan and am quite happy with the results.
I would love to keep this thread going this month!

Hi All - Well I'm in for the month of May! I've been having a hard time staying OP so hopefully this will help. If I make a promise I have to stick to it, right? I need lots of that! Beautiful day here today so I'm outside for the rest of it now! TTYL

I'm in! Had a tremendous shock this weekend, I finally broke the 200 barrier! Don't know how, and don't really care, just hope I can continue the downward trend!

Good Job!!!

I'm glad this thread has helped so many of you. It has not helped me. But that's ok. I'm hanging in there. I took my planned break, gained 6 pounds and promptly lost 4 of those. Unfortunately at that point I had to travel for a funeral and now I'm one of those again, but it'll go down. I need to do some major de-stressing, but it's all good.

Oh, and I too grew an inch through this process. I've been told the excess weight can compress the spine, so some of use grow as the extra pounds disappear.

So, are we staying in this thread for the month? Things are still challenging for me, and I'm still holding steady. They'll continue challenging for another couple of weeks, and then I hope they'll settle down for the summer.

I have continued working out steadily, thank goodness. It is keeping me sane.