Kirjava, ditto to being simultaneously scared and excited for weighing in. That describes the feeling so well! Volleyball sounds fun. I used to play in high school, but haven't played since then. I have however developed some awesome badminton skills in the meantime. I can't wait for spring so I can play outside!

stargzr, I think you should believe your scale! It has no brain and therefore no reason to lie to you. I always want to not believe my scale, thinking the number it tells me couldn't possibly be as bad/good as it is. Although it may be imperfect, I force myself to believe it- when it says something I don't like and when it says something I love. Just keep rocking it. You'll be well into the 150's in no time.

Nothing much new to report with me. Although being around all those kids, I think I might be getting sick. I'm eating anything with vitamins in it to avoid this. I'm weighing in tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes...

I love badminton, but I haven't played in a year. I keep thinking of sports or activities I want to take up now that I'm in better shape and want to stay that way. I used to live in London, Ontario, where there was a rowing club, which I would love to do.

Did any of you see the thread here about the Appalachian Trail? I saw it yesterday and it set me on fire for hiking. I spent hours last night researching the trail and backpacking equipment. I could never take the 5-7 months it takes to do the whole thing, but I could definitely take a month or two to do a huge section. To be able to say that I hiked 500 miles would be amazing. That's a new goal of mine. It won't be happening for a couple summers yet, but I will do it!

Kids are just little germ factories, aren't they, tuende? I hope eating vitamins helps you stave off the sickness! Good luck on your weigh-in tomorrow, tuende! I hope we both have excellent numbers to report!

Edit: F***! I'm only down 0.2lbs again. I don't know if I should just ditch the low carb plan and go back to my regular calorie counting, or what. I only have a couple pounds to lose to reach 50lbs lost, my lowest weight ever, and get out of the 160s. I feel like I'll never get there.

I did actually see the thread about the Appalachian Trail. It sounds amazing. To be able to do something like that would be a huge accomplishment and you should definitely go for it! Anything you want out of life, you should go for. This is something I have slowly started to learn and I think weight-loss has been a huge part of that. I think that losing weight, working out, getting stronger, etc. has made me feel like I can do so much more. I see things I want and think, well, why not? In fact, I am working on my resume/cover letter to apply to teach in China this summer. Would I have ever considered this even a year ago? Emphatically no. We are all capable of so much more than we think. It's good to dream.
Although, no accomplishment comes without bumps along the way. My weigh-in was less than spectacular, giving me about the same number as earlier this week. But I'm trying not to get discouraged. I'm focusing instead on trying to stay well. And yes, kids really do just manufacture germs !
Kirjava, hope you don't get too frustrated about the small weight-loss. You're so close to 2 big milestones, you have to keep pushing! You'll get there, and maybe making some changes will help. You have to do what feels right for your body.

I was extremely frustrated this morning. I'm still not happy about it, but I feel a bit less upset than I did six hours ago. I made a thread asking for advice in the Carb Counters forum. No replies yet, but I'll see what they say.

Thanks for the boost, tuende, and sorry that your weigh-in wasn't as good as you had hoped, either. But it's great that you feel ready to try new things you wouldn't have done before! I hope you get hired to teach in China and you can let us know about your adventures!

Looking up backpacking and hiking equipment has made me see that not only do I need to be in great shape to reach my goal, I have to shell out a ton of money! The good thing is that camping equipment will last years, so it will only be a one-time expense.

Every one's pretty quiet in here this weekend! What are all of you up to?

Kirjava, that's a bummer about the camping equipment being so expensive. I guess you have some time to save up for it though. It seems like it will definitely be worth the investment. And maybe it will be a good motivator for you to stay in great shape once you get there so you can get a lot of use out of it !

I was thinking the same thing about people being quiet this weekend! I don't think I've seen this thread ever be this dead before. Hopefully that means the others are having exciting weekends out.

tuende, you're right about the price of camping equipment keeping me motivated. If I'm spending that much money, I'm going to get the most out of it!

I got some advice in the Carb Counters forum and I've decided to stick with it for one more week. I suspect that low-carb just isn't for me, because they were suggesting that even going a tiny bit over in carbs can totally stall weight loss, and I don't like the idea of being on such a rigid system. Limited diet choice + small margin of error = yikes!

With calorie counting, I can eat what I want so long as it's in moderation and I stay within calories. Still, they were right to tell me that I could be on a natural plateau that I may have hit even if I wasn't doing low-carb. If I have a bad week this week, I'm going back to regular calorie counting, and crossing my fingers that eating carbs again won't make me balloon up!

I finally get to join you guys here!!! 168.8 this morning!!

Welcome, zephyr! Congratulations on making it into the 160s!

Hi ladies, it looks like everyone is doing pretty good! I'm sorry I was gone all weekend but I'm back!

Welcome zephyr!

stargzr, I know exactly how you feel. Although I'm not quite as close to my overall goal as you are, I just felt like I needed a break. So this weekend I did what you did and didn't count calories at all. I didn't go crazy, but I just got tired of measuring and portioning and everything ya know? I didn't lose or gain which is a good thing I guess. Isn't funny though how we seem to stay away from this site when we are not doing so great? I do the same thing and I'm not sure why. I'm def gonna have to work on that. But here's to getting back on track and seeing some movement on the scale (in the right direction)!

So this morning's WI is 162.3 which is exaclty what it was last week. I gues that's good since I did not count calories or work out all weekend, but I am back on track today and ready to see that 150-something!

Alright! After not even losing a pound my first 3 weeks, I lost 3 on my fourth week, which led me into this forum. This week, I'm down SIX!!! 161! I cut out diet soda, and I must have lost a lot of bloating/water weight. Still it feels great!! I'm down 9 pounds in just over a month. :-) at this rate, I could be at my goal in summer if I work hard enough!!!

Nicole, wow! That's an incredible loss for one week! You're closer to the 150s than I am, and I've been working on it for a month and a half.

I'm glad you had weekends where you got to relax and be less rigid, fashin and stargzr! It's also great that you didn't gain despite being more lax.

I think I was shedding a ton of water weight yesterday. I had two and a half cups of tea and one cup of water, yet I went to the bathroom at least 8 times within 4 fours after, and easily was releasing more water than I had taken in. I feel confident that this will be a better week.

I'm here to join you, because I'm so over the 160s already. I weighed in yesterday and lost 0.2 pounds, which was incredibly frustrating because I felt like I worked exceptionally hard last week.

I have a short term goal of making it out of the 160s by a friend's wedding in two weeks... wish me luck!

Glad to see everyone back today!

Stargzr and fashin, Mondays are a wonderful day for a fresh start! Stargzr, that's good that you decided on a final goal. It always helps to know what you're working toward- that way you can tell how amazingly close you are to reaching it!

Nicole, that is great! We're all getting so close...maybe this will be the week for all of us.

Well, I say that, but I know full well this is going to be a rough week for me. I was almost successful in avoiding getting sick and while I otherwise feel fine, I have a pesky sore throat. Which makes working out more horrible than usual. So I've taken a couple of days off. I've kind of lost track of calories today AND to make things worse, I'm going out of town Friday night for a "girls weekend". This means lots of food and even more wine. Whew. Just typing that is discouraging. And I'm pretty sure my shift key on my keyboard is broken, which is completely irrelevant, but also completely annoying. I only lost about a pound last week (which I am definitely not complaining about)but I am really shooting for 2 a week if I'm going to make my goal by summer. And now I'm even more motivated to make my goal by the time I go to China (which is looking like more of a real possibility)!! Any sore throat and/or surviving "girls weekend" advice would be very much appreciated!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday !

And welcome, zephyr and paja!

Welcome to the thread, paja! I understand how frustrating it can be to expect a good loss and see a tiny one instead. These last two weeks I've had 0.2 lb losses, and I was really expecting to be out of the 160s by now. My goal was March 10. Well, now it's March 9 and I'm still 2 lbs away from that. I really hope you manage to lose those last couple pounds before your friend's wedding!

tuende, I'm sorry you're having such a bad week so far. For your sore throat, have you tried drinking any honey lemon tea? I always find that sooths my throat.

On your girl's weekend, I would suggest limiting yourself to two alcoholic drinks a night. I think you should order healthy menu options, and then ask your friends if you can have a small bite of what they order, if it's something you like. Maybe one french fry, or one spoonful of icecream at dessert. That way you're still indulging, but without the temptation of having the whole dish in front of you. Maybe you can allow yourself to have one meal a day where you have whatever you want, but keep the portions small. I'd make that meal breakfast or lunch, because then you can burn off the extra calories, and take calories away from later meals to offset.

I hope you can still manage to have fun on the girl's weekend without giving into temptation!