Lori, I'm no doc, so it may be a skin condition, like the doc says, but it may be the stress, too, right? I don't know for sure about people, but I do know for sure that stress can cause hair loss in animals, so I bet it's a possibility for people. So, maybe, I'm thinking, when you get past this scary number on the scale where you expect to get stuck (and you won't, if you make yourself get up and do what you've been doing...walk, keep eating right, walk, walk...right?) I think when you see you can get past that, then a lot of that stress will be relieved, and maybe that is what is causing the hair loss right now.

In case it is just a skin problem, though, 2 ideas:

One, my sister has had a similar or maybe the same skin problem, and she got a prescription for a shampoo that is expensive, but it helped her. I can ask her what it is.

Two, call the dermatologist's office, and ask them if they have a list you can get on to be called in on short notice, in case they get a cancellation. Some places do that, and you might be able to get in a lot sooner than December, if you do that. It can't hurt to ask, anyway! Meantime, a big going out to you!

If you need a challenge buddy to get you walking again, let me know, you can PM me, and I will walk with you. Freaks stick together! Or, I will match your walking with yard work... that would be good for me, because I have been putting it off, and it needs attention badly!

Alright - Thanks so much for the welcome! You're doing great - congrats on your loss! Even though I wouldn't wish that diagnosis on anyone, if you're experiencing symptoms, then at least you'll have a plan of care to alleviate some of the discomfort. {{{HUGS}}}

Lori - So glad you're feeling better! Hoping the vitamins help you. I experienced hair loss in the past when I tried to eat a diet that was too low fat. It's such a scary feeling - I got to where I hated to brush my hair, knowing I'd see more and more of it in my brush.

Had a pretty good day today. Back to work. Sticking to my eating plan is always easier for me during the week at work than it is on weekends. Probably because I'm occupied nonstop at work - no down time.

Hope everyone had a great start to the week!

Okay, that last one was just for Lori, since it was practically a novel all by itself. I just realized I haven't checked in for 2 days or something...sorry, peeps!

Sunkisses, welcome to the challenge! You are new, so you don't know, but you get a Highly Coveted Flamey Award, for reaching ONEderland! Congratulations! It's funny, but sometimes a change like that, taking a rest week, or having a higher calorie week, can result in weight loss. I don't totally understand it, but it's great when it happens to somebody!

Linds, welcome! I like the goals. That will be a great start, totally doable, and motivating. Congrats on the baby! We have a couple of munchkins at our gym that are close to that age. After the workout, I always have to get my "baby fix", and carry around somebody's baby (my boy is almost 13, so he's way too cool even for hugs, most of the time, lol).

MrsL, congrats on the weight loss..you are rocking this challenge! I'm so glad to hear that the party went well! Pirate theme sounds like fun to set up. My son has a castle/dragon themed bedroom, and that was a lot of fun to design and put together. He's almost too big for it now, so I suspect we'll have to change it up and make it more teenager-ish soon, but he hasn't mentioned it yet.

Isabella, welcome back! I've missed you on the challenges! You've obviously been doing well with the weight loss, though...so close to goal.. woohoo! Anyway, glad to have you back, and I will look forward to hearing more about what you're up to these days!

Texas, welcome to the challenge! You can go to the User CP, just like you do to edit your signature, and track partial pounds using the "Edit Profile" option. That shows up on the left side, like on mine where it says "S/C/G:" (that is for Start weight/Current weight/Goal weight.) I think there are some tickers available on tickerfactory, too, that will track the tenths of a pound, but I just use the profile for that, and just move the 3FC ticker when I get below the next whole pound, if that makes sense.

Chele, on the buttkicking at the gym! Now, the stubborn scale, I know all about, because with the weightlifting, the scale is all over the place, up 3 lbs, down half a pound, whatever, it's crazy. However, 2 ideas that may help. First, I'd start tracking the weekly average. This has really helped me, to see what my weight is really doing, long term, since the daily numbers can be so crazy. What you do is to weigh daily, same time, same scale, just track that number. I weigh in the morning, first thing, then on my old weekly "weigh in day", I add up the last 7 days of daily weights, take that total and divide by 7, to get the average for the week. Now, if you track that, you can see the trend, whether your weight is going up or down or staying the same. So, first thing, get more data, and find out for sure if you're stuck. If your average goes down, you are losing something, for sure. Either way, you'll know what's going on, and can make a plan from there. Second, take a look at your diet. You may have to tweak the cals, or you may just need to tweak the macros. Some tricks that may work: look at carbs. If they're a high percentage, they could be holding things up, so if you are getting 40 or 50% of daily cals from carbs, you may try dropping that to 30% ish, and see if that helps. Other carb tweaks are to replace some of the grain/pasta/starchy carbs with lower GI carbs from veggies like broccoli, asparagus, spinach, etc. Another carb tweak is to take half your daily carbs, and have them with your post workout meal, or split between your pre-workout and post-workout meals, rather than, say, having half your daily carbs very late in the day, or at a time when you don't really need them. Anyway, if any of that sounds good, I hope it is a help to you!

David, don't make me come over there and ! You can do this, my friend, so vacation is over, and it's time to take control and become the weight loss machine I know you can be!

Amma, thanks for the update. I never can do cheat days without them turning into several days or a week, so I try to avoid them like the plague. I've heard they work great, though, if you can stick to the plan the rest of the time!

Seagirl, glad you mentioned the bike ride. I really need to fit in more time on the bike, so I can build up my endurance there. The bike just is so hard for me, I'm not sure why, but I'm sure I won't get better mileage if I don't ride the thing more than once every two weeks.

Alright, good luck with the doctor's appt. Congrats on the weight loss this week!

----
Phew! That is all the replies, at least up to when I started this novel. If I missed some in the meantime, you get one of these !

My update:
Let's see. I'm having a good week! I got my kipping pull-up Friday, then Saturday I got to learn some strongman lifting, which was fun. Saturday night I went skating, which is normally fun, but I was SO sore from my workouts that it was mostly painful, and took forever to get warmed up and loosened up enough to do any jamskating (dancing). Yesterday was a rest day from exercise, and I was sore all day, because the only thing that really relieves the soreness these days is to keep moving, and I sat too much yesterday, for sure. This morning, I was back at the gym, had a good time and worked out all the kinks in my muscles. Also, I think my trainer is going to let me be one of the weekend "clean the gym" peeps, and if I do get that, then all I have to do is spend 2-3 hours each weekend cleaning up the gym (with one or two other people), and for a trade, I don't have to pay for training, so it's a great deal for me, since coming up with the training fee every month has been a struggle, but I love my gym and don't want to quit!

What else...oh, I hit a new low weight this week, 2 days in a row of 166.8, my lowest since I started last year, and my weekly average was also the lowest ever, so I know I'm headed the right direction, at least! My weight was back up this morning, but that's not unusual after a rest day, and my weight is always up and down on a daily basis, so I've learned not to pay much attention to the daily weights, anyway.

I think that is all my news, and I really need to get off here and get something useful done around the house, and might even get my lazy butt out on the lawn tractor to mow. Just about can't see my little red dog when she's out in the yard, so I guess it's time to cut the grass, lol.

Hello all. I'm down a couple of pounds from the weekend. It's not an official weigh in but I had to see if I was going in the right direction.

JAM~You are my " forever freak friend" The girl that ran inside while I walked inside and made freaks rule!. You so made me smile...You rock!

As far as the dermatologist.....
I am on the waiting list to call if someone cancels which is good.
But I felt more like it was stress related also or a vitamin deficientcy(I hope I spelled that right LOL)
I think maybe I was low on certain vitamins and hopefully I see some change after taking them for awhile.
Sometimes I do not always eat what I should .
I eat within my calories but may skip out on something needed for something more yummy! (I know a bad choice~but sometimes I just cave for some chips instead of fruit or veggies~I know bad choice )
But then again ~ It may be just a certain fear & or stress of getting past cartain number on the scale~That could definetly be it.

I also have an anxiety disorder~But I seem the same with it as far as stress~
I was actually Shocked my doctor was sending me there to the dermatologist. But maybe he is on to something.~Hopefully nothing major.

Anyways~I appreciate everything you said Jam.

I am definetly not giving up.

I did walk some today as I felt a little better.
I walked 35 minutes 1 time and 55 minutes the next time.
(i have been walking 1 hour 2 x's a day so I will get built back up to it)
I Also did 15 leg lifts per each leg (I usually do 50 of them as a new added exercise But I guess 15 is better than none)

I will do as much a day as I can~I am gonna try to get my 2 hours of walking in 2morrow at least and as close as I can back to my 50 leg lifts back in~If I do not feel weak I will do it all.

I am started on the vitamins so hopefully they offer some change for the good.

You do not have to match me ~Unless you wanna for fun reasons~cause girl you already do so dang much....But I do appreciate the offer of help.Your a super hero!
THE JAMINATOR!

HUGS EVERYONE~I hope tommorrow brings us all a day full of happiness and good health.

Hey Gang!

The boys are watching Nemo before bed so I thought I'd pop in to chat.

Lori - Yikes Girl! I hope you feel better soon and figure out what's going on.

Sunkisses - ONEderland! WOOHOO!!!! Figured just a lil more celebration was in order.

Linds - Welcome! Awww....6 months. What a fun age. I have a 4 year old (well, a week from today) and a 2.5 year old. Both boys.

MrsLovett - You are doing Awesome!!! Keep it up!

Retire - Welcome back! I missed you!

Texas - WELCOME! Make yourself at home!

Chele - Great work at the gym! I'm with you on the frustration. We've been stuck about the same amount of time. I guess we just keep on keeping on! We'll get there!

David -

Amma - Enjoy the break from the scale. Keep working hard and hopefully you'll have a nice surprise when you get back on it!

Seagirl - The scales will move! Just keep up the great work!

Alright - YAY on the loss so far!

Jammy - YAY YAY YAY on the new low!

HELLO to anyone I missed!

As for me...all is pretty good. We had a sort of lowkey weekend. Just did stuff around the house. Got in the gym on Sat and a bike ride on Sun. Tonight I had a good weight lifting session. A solo one tonight. I've got to kick back in more cardio this week. I've been doing it, but I can feel myself slacking a lil on the intensity. This is going to be a challenging week....we have friends arriving on Wed and they will be here until Monday. We have lots of activities that involve eating. Luckily most will take place at our house so I have control. We are going to the DE state fair on Sat....fair food scares me!!! I will be packing a snack bag.

This morning I tried on a pair of pants that have been hanging in my closet but the waist hasn't been quite comfy enough to wear...today I could certainly feel a difference in how they fit. So, even though the scale hasn't changed much my body has changed. Tonight the gym owner stopped me and said, "You are looking better and better everyday". It's always nice to hear stuff like that.

Well...I think I've used up my movie time...gotta get the kiddos to bed.

Night Friends!
Barb

Hi All,
Insanely busy this week but I had 2 courses canceled (or rather, postponed until next week, as I got 2 offered for next week ) which helps a little bit. I'm flying out to San Francisco in 2 weeks for a job interview, so things are just very hectic.

I'm still doing fine with the food plan, though. My stats as of today:
Weight: 148
Bust: 39.5
Waist: 39
Hips: 40.5

I've lost some inches even though my weight has stayed the same for 2 days, which is fine with me .

Had to fax something today so I decided instead of driving to FedEx I would walk to another one, which got my walking in today, which was nice, since I haven't walked outside in a while (too darn hot!)

I hope everyone is doing well and surviving the heat.

Tam

did great yesterday...even when its not going well i know if i keep checking in the motivation will come....have a great day everyone

WTG, David!

Everybody else just get a right now. I've got to get out the door to do a yard job before it gets any later, but if there's anything left of me tonight, I'll check in and do replies...otherwise, tomorrow will hopefully be not so rushed.

Today we did some fun stongman stuff at my gym, just trying to lift heavy stuff and carry it across the gym and back. We carried the farmer's walk barbells, some kegs with water in them, atlas stones (big concrete stones), and sandbags. I carried 200# total on the farmer's bars...luckily I didn't ask how much they weighed until after I'd done it, because I can't even deadlift that much on a barbell.

Have a good day, peeps! Oh, and I did get the cleaning job at my gym, for sure, so I will start that in August, and won't have to pay cash for my training anymore. Woot!

Hi, all! Thanks for the welcome, Barb!

Had a good day today staying on plan. But, a coworker brought fresh figs from her tree and I ate a few too many! LOL!

Dinner will be an English Muffin with apricot all fruit. mmmm! )

Am going to hop on the treadmill. Hope everyone had a great "on plan" day!!!!

Hi all,
It's been another crazy day, but achieved a lot. Had a phone interview with the university I'll be going to get an assessment with in San Francisco next week. The associate chair with whom I spoke paid me a complement. She said after the interview that, based on my answers, if it were up to her, she would hire me because I"m exactly what they are looking for . I also got a response from a third university that wants to interview me over the phone this week and, if all goes well, I might get scheduled for a training. This is all bringing me closer to moving to San Francisco, where I want to be. So it's super hectic, but very positive .

Food-wise I've been doing fine, although weight and stats are the same as yesterday. I'm not disappointed in this, though, since I lost 5 pounds last week. I'm not sure that the calorie cycling is working but I'm monitoring it and seeing what's going on. I feel a whole lot better though - less bloated, like my jeans fit better (though not as well as I would like) and I plan on continuing with what I'm doing since I like it and it's working.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Tam

My goals are:
5 days a week-sprinting--HARD

Lose at least 3 more pounds

Like seagirl I also want to keep track of what I eat better. I seriously need to download that application from itunes.

This is the start of a better me! YAY!!!

another really good day!!!

Got out the tape measure, and I've lost 1.5 inches off my waist. Take that, scale!

2 hour yoga workshop tonight!

Great to see everyone keeping up with their goals!

Lori, I've been using Rogaine for 10 years now. I noticed hairloss, doctor did a scalp biopsy and said, yup, you're losing hair. In my case it is "miniaturization of the hair follicle." Dad was bald young, grandma bald too. December is a long time to wait though.

Still just chugging along with the diet. It's not a big deal at this time. It's actually kind of a dull phase. The excitement of the big start is over, yet I have a long way to go.

It just is what it is....a diet. Eat less, exercise more, and track track track so I don't fall off.

Haven't stepped on the scale for a few days.

Doctor said it sounds like I might have fibro, she didn't say anything definite though. I'm treating my body as if I do, and being kind to it.

Wishing a good day to all.