BEVERLYJOY ~ it's a personal choice, but keep in mind that your body will hold water (swelling) after a surgery until it has healed a bit. I would give it a bit more time, then maybe start weighing weekly again as you were before; plus, with eating simpler foods, you may not gain anyways. ^Prayers^ continue ...

MANDY ~ I modified all our favorites dishes to make them healthier and lower the calories as much as possible.

CAROLINE ~ I love olives too, but they are salty indeed, so I have them only EOD or so. They say drinking water can wash the salt out of our systems for us. I don't put much salt in my cooking these days; I've cut way back subbing with herbs & spices, which has helped my water retention a lot.

MAHTHA ~ glad the scale is moving in the right direction again; yes, changing scales can set us back a bit. That happened to me once too.

Eating has been very good this week; the cravings have finally lessened, thankfully. Have been eating apples (.5 at at time) and a bit of cheez to help that. Also had tea, cocoa or ovaltine, and water to help cravings. I upped my breakfast a bit, and that may have helped too, I think.

Have a great week everyone ...

Hubby's feeling better but is going to stay home from work tomorrow also. We managed a little fun shopping and went to the grocery store today.



Beverly, glad to hear you are feeling better. Try to take your recovery slowly and not rush yourself! The cheerleaders sound adorable.

Morning all.

Penguin, glad to hear your husband's feeling better and that you were able to get out for some fresh air. I hope you're having as gorgeous a day on that side of the state as we're having over here. I think I'll go for a walk later, or maybe do a little yard work, if the ground isn't too muddy.

Back at 206 this morning, but TOM started a couple days early, so it's possible yesterday's water weight was the result of that. Before I gave up grains I would go up at least three pounds at the start of TOM and feel completely bloated and gross (it never helped that I always used the water weight gain as an excuse to eat my weight in pizza and M&Ms) so holding steady is a big step for me.

I'm looking forward to seeing a loss when it's finally over in eight days or so. :sigh: Sadly, my diet has done nothing to shorten my cycle at all.

Did not check in this weekend because it was crazy busy. Welcome to the new posters.

BeverlyJoy - pleased to hear that your surgery went well!

I did fine staying on track over the week. I am a little frustrated because I have not seen the drop on the scale that I want but I have to remind myself that I often have weight swings because of fluid and other "stuff". If I stay on plan, the weight will drop!

Happy Monday, everyone!

It's beautiful and sunny here and I wish it was a holiday for me so I could go out and play. Did my grocery shopping and prepped my go-to foods last night so I can grab salads/grilled chicken/veggies quickly. I have no excuses for slacking this week!

While the scale was kinder over the weekend, it shows I'm where I was a week ago. It's bumming me out that I didn't make any headway all week, but onward and downward. I have to keep reminding myself I didn't get here overnight...

I know I haven't been posting, but I'm trying to stay focused. A lot of stress in my life right now, but I think I'm doing okay. As of today I am down 10 lbs from the first of the year . . . I have been sick so that has contributed some to the weight loss - hopefully I won't bounce back too far. It felt good to see the 30s again. Now my eyes are focused on the 20s . . . then on to the teens.

Hope everyone has a great week.

Hi relosers/chickies -

First of all, I want to thank all of you for your continued support, good wishes, prayers, wisdom & kind thoughts in regards to my gallbladder & hernia surgeries last week. It means a great deal to me, for sure.

I am starting to get into a rhythm of sorts.. figuring out what I can eat and the best ways to heal and feel better. The literature says to start slowly adding 'regular' food back into your daily plan. Also - keep it very low fat at first. Frankly, these things all 'sound pretty familiar'. It's a work in progress. The main thing is to eat healthy food to heal well. I cannot do any exercise until I get the OK from the surgeon - makes sense.

mamap - so glad to hear of your weightloss... too bad some has been from being sick. Glad you posted.

cheryl - hang in there for the scale to show what you know what you deserve. It WILL in it's own time. Good to have those OP days.

mahtha - kudo's for getting your healthy foods available for the week!

thistoo - darn that TOM - at least you know how your body reacts. Hang in there.

pwpenguin - good to get to the store. Glad dh is feeling a bit better.

justwant2bhealthy - wonderful to have the cravings lessen somewhat... that's wonderful.

Just another quick post. Weekend was fun but a total bust. I ate badly and drank a little too. TOM was here and I just gave in. I didn't weigh this morning as I was up at 4:00 seeing my friends off and I've got a killer head cold. It's set up camp primarily in my right nostril and is driving me batty with congession and pain. Waah, poor me. I can't wait to get some sleep and get back to eating like a normal person--and exercising too, yeah, only four days of working out under my belt and I already miss it--yay! *sniff-sniff* man my nose--I just want to cut it off!! Argh!!!

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend! I'll have to catch up tomorrow when I don't have four kids distracting me. Until then, have a wonderful afternoon/evening!

hey everyone,im a REGAINER
i am an emotional eater and suffer from depression/mood disorder and PMDD.

i was on effexor xr last year starting in APRIL and by JULY i lost 28 lbs!!!!!
that was one of the most incredible moments of my life.
the meds literally CUT OFF THE DEMON inside of me that binged every 10 mins!
i worked out and ate like only twice a day!

but in AUGUST of 2011 ,i guess the meds stopped working and i had a 6 month setback!
i gained 16lbs.

BUT as of 2day,i am officially BACK AND READY 2 ROLL!!!

The only thing I found was some common sense tips that worked.
Stay away from carbs.
Eat smaller portions.
Leave the sweets for someone else.

mmm i eat carbs and sweets and still lose weight.

today i made an effort to attempt strength training. it was awesome. i could easily get addicted to it, especially the leg stuff. looking forward to trying some more new stuff soon.

Mandy, great job on the strength training! I really makes a huge difference in how you look and feel as you lose the weight, and it doesn't hurt that building muscle helps your metabolism along. I complain about it every time, but I do it anyway because I know it's important.

Tohisha77, welcome, you're in the right place! We all know what it's like to regain and go through the frustration of having to take the weight back off again. You'll get there! We all will, as long as we stick to our plans.

iDream, sorry about your cold! I hope you're feeling better soon. Don't beat yourself up too much about the weekend; just get back on track and you'll be fine.

This morning I weighed in at 205.6. The fact that my weight went down on the second day of TOM is nothing short of a miracle. I can't explain it, but I am not looking a gift horse in the mouth! I won't change my ticker until I'm closer to 205 than 206, but wow, was I ever happy to see 205 on the scale this morning! I got on twice just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.

I don't imagine I'll hit onederland by the end of the month, but if I keep going at this rate I'll be pretty close. Just one more reason to stick with what I'm doing.

I did pick up some high quality dark chocolate on Saturday while I was out running errands, with the intention of having a celebratory wine-and-dark-chocolate snack next Saturday when my 30 days is up. The fact that it's been in my house this long and I haven't even thought about cheating and opening it is another miracle. In fact, I don't even care about the chocolate now that I'm not PMSing anymore.

Today is going to be crazy busy at work, so I should go get ready for that. Tomorrow I will spend partly in the dentist's chair, though, so if I can get through today the rest of the week will feel really short, at least.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone!

Good morning, losers! Welcome Toshiba77 and Neutronx57
iDream, I hope your cold passes quickly.
thistoo, congrats on both the loss and the willpower to leave that chocolate alone!

Stayed OP again yesterday, though barely. I really need to be careful of my portion sizes when it comes to carbs. Fortunately I had plenty of points to spare for the extras, but I feel like I'm end-running the rules. Have to keep in mind that it's way better than it used to be, I'm not having carbs with every meal anymore!

I'm torn between working toward some specific goals (5% by 3/1 , 10% by 5/1, 50 lbs by 8/23) and just staying OP and letting my body do its thing. I'm really trying to look at this a lifestyle change so it doesn't really matter when I hit certain marks as long I'm moving in the right direction, right? What has been your experience? Do goals with specific timetables motivate you or are you more successsful without looking at the calendar and scale all the time? Does not having a very specific goal allow you to wander too much? I'm curious to hear your take on this.

Have a great day, everyone!

In the past I've always let deadline-oriented challenges stop me in my tracks. As soon as I set one and said, "Okay, I'm going to do it this time", I stalled. I don't know if it was the result of psychology or the fact that in the past I've never been that good at sticking to my diet. Probably both.

Yet I still made those challenges to myself because having something to work toward really does help me stay focused. In order to lose weight it kind of has to be my hobby; I get obsessed to the exclusion of most other things, which is maybe not that healthy, but it's what works for me. So I have always challenged myself even though in the back of my mind was a voice telling me I was just going to choke again.

Anyway, in the past I've always failed, but this time I'm cautiously optimistic. I haven't stated it aloud until now, but my private challenges are 180 by May 9th, and 165 by my birthday at the end of July. If I'm not right on target that's cool, but now that I've finally (finally!) worked out what works for me, I'm confident that I can at least come close.

Reach for the moon and you'll at least hit the stars, right?

good afternoon ladies!

i mentioned i did a little weight training yesterday... not much, 30 minutes doing various things trying to get a feel for what exercises worked what muscles and such... but lordy! my arms and upper chest are sore today! (i will admit i love free weights)... i think i need to just do a circuit on the all-in-one machine they have in the gym on a regular basis. i think i'm crazy but i like the soreness, it makes me feel like i've done something! (and i'm prepared for the bump on the scale that might happen due to the water retained in healing muscles).