Chub- I LOVE swimming. But I live in Alaska and so they only pools are indoor, heavily chlorinated, and I find the chlorine irritates my skin. I wish we had a saltwater pool near me. The next time I go somewhere warm I will definitely get some swimming in, though!

Good job on jumping back on your exercise!

Thanks princess Roja, chub, and eagle river dee for the welcome!

Dee I think mixing up your workouts is a great idea, nice for your knees and also to shake things up a bit!

I have had some really stressful days at work, and I didn't stick to my calories well. I was down to 144.8 on Monday morning and now am back up to 146.4 as of this morning. It's always crazy to me how hard it is too lose and then how easy it is to gain... we'll see if that higher number sticks or if (hopefully!!) some of it is just water weight. I'm feeling kinda like I should just give up and continue with my bad eating like the last two days, but I know that while in the short term that sounds good, in the long term it will make me unhappy. I just gotta find motivation to pick myself up and not beat myself up too much about it.

I also talked to my sister in law about trying to lose weight and I found out that her highest weight she's ever been (besides when pregnant) is 132. And that is basically the lowest I've ever been in my adult life, which kinda bummed me out. I know that I shouldn't compare, and logically I know part of it is her genetics, but it's weird to think her high weight is my ultimate goal weight, and sometimes it feels like I'll never get there.

Anyway sorry for the bit of a downer post, hope you all are having a good week so far and excited for the weekend

Dee: I enjoy the swimming part but dislike everything else around swimming. I find that i spend more time getting in and out of the bathing suit and drying myself off than being in the pool itself .

Marie: I understand what you mean about having your goal weight being someone else's high weight. But i think it's also important to take into account the body composition. Someone could be lower in weight than you but look the same or bigger due to a lower percentage of lean muscle mass. But ultimately, i think it's best to not compare yourself to others even though it's easier said than done.

I made it to 144.6 this morning. Will try to make it into the 143s by next weekend

Thanks chub! You are right, it is better to not compare to others. Logically, I know we are just different builds. And that's okay! I can just focus on my own goals

Congrats on 144.6 that's great!!

Super quick check in: Was back up to 145.6 today due to the heavy meals over the weekend. But being in the 143s is still very doable if I am good with my food for this upcoming week. I'll up my exercising by 15 minutes per day to see if that'll make any difference.

149.2 for me this morning. Which I'm good with, as weekends is where I usually bounce up (due to having a looser diet) so this bodes well that maybe I'll drop a pound this week. You know how when you KNOW what you need to do but you just don't want to? I need to tweak my diet- a little less carbs, cut the cream in my coffee- and probably my weight would start dropping again. Basically my weight loss has caught up to my current caloric intake and I need to drop it again- but (cue my inner two year old) I don't wanna. LOL. Anyway- I'm going to try and start making some tweaks this week, see if I can kick start this weight loss. I know it's normal for it to get harder as you get closer to goal. But I have 14 lbs to go and want to get this over with, haha.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and let's do this thing this week!

Chub- I like your tweak of adding 15 mins of exercise! Good luck!

Dee: I have the same issues during the weekends and on the days my boyfriend gets home early from work. I tend to eat more and the food I eat are usually terrible. That's the reason why I've been stalling for such a long time. I recognize the issue but I don't regret it since it's a time where I enjoy myself . I simply try to workout harder and eat slightly better the rest of the time to maintain.

Was at 146.2 this morning and I'm sure it will go up more due to the fries and fast food I had for dinner. Will eat cleaner tomorrow to make up for it . There are still 4 days left to make my mini goal of being in the 143s

Dee- I can totally relate to the two year old mentality of 'I don't wanna!!' Haha! How did making those little tweaks go? I need to do the same. I think I need to tweak some meals to more protein so I stay feeling full/satisfied better. I think while the meals I plan are in calories, I need to add more protein so I don't get to 8 pm and still feel starving.

Chub- how did adding 15 min for exercise go? I added an extra 15 to a workout this week, and I was so ravenous the rest of the night, gave into a lot of snacking... I usually try not to eat back much of my 'exercise' calories on MFP, but sometimes in unavoidable.

I'm back up to 146.6. Pretty bummed and I gotta get motivated to kick myself back into gear, cause I'm leaving on a short vacation on Wednesday and I know there will lots of nice food and eating out...

Marie: it's been too short of a period of time for me to be able to tell a difference but I'm 144.4 this morning. This is potentially due to a conscious effort to cut down slightly on the bad food as well as the extra minutes of exercise.
I do get a long hungrier if i kick up my exercise significantly which is why I'm doing a gradual decrease. Tomorrow will consists of roughly 2 hours of cardio for me as I have a 10k in the morning and then a dance class later on. I will also try to not go banana on food as is my MO on the weekends . Hopefully it will help push me into the 143 by sunday or monday.

Marie- I did weigh in at 148.4 this morning, hoping that's a sign that the tweaks are working. I've been trying to eat more mindfully, to deliberately not overeat. I gave up real cream in my coffee for half&half. I'm also going to start reducing carbs because I'm one of those very carb sensitive people, I lose weight much easier if I eat less carbs. As it is I avoid things like pasta and bread but I do eat yams and regular potatoes and rice and so for a while I'm going to cut those way back.

Chub- hope you hit 143 tomorrow!

Hey everyone! How did everyone do over the weekend? Any grand adventures? My husband and I are having a house built and we're doing some of the work ourselves so Friday and Saturday I did work over at the new house. Sunday he left to go to a business meeting in Minneapolis, so I'm on my own until Wednesday. I got some workouts in yesterday, and then this week they're releasing some new workouts on the streaming service I subscribe to so I'm excited to try those. I'm down to 148.0 today, a new low weight for me, at least low in the past 15 years. 3 more lbs and my BMI will 'officially' be in the normal category. I know BMI is subjective but it's a mini-goal for me.

Dee: Great job on the hitting a new low!
While I realize that the BMI is arbitrary, I think it's great to have a number that you want to work toward. I, myself, am also trying to escape the overweight category and it's motivating to know I'm very close to crossing that threshold to the normal category.
I spent a lot of time relaxing with my SO this weekend. It was really nice to just relax and do nothing with him. I did not hit my goal weight of 143 but I did eat cleaner this weekend than most . Maybe that elusive 143 will show itself next weekend

Was 143.8 this morning! I felt so motivated that i even added a short swim onto my 5 mile walk on the treadmill .
Keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be in the 142s by monday although it IS Father's Day this weekend so some heavy eating is expected

Well, I am still alive... lol. I spent another 10 days out of town, during which time I learned I've been accepted to a graduate program (yay!) which requires a lot of details to figure out asap (hrmph), so it's been kind of chaotic.

No weight lost, but I'm at 149.0 today so after being out of town I'm pretty happy with that. I swear my friends are all on a grand mission to feed me ice cream, because you would not *believe* the amount of ice cream on this last trip. :sigh: Very hospitable, but very bad for losing weight, so like I said, I'm pretty happy that I'm only half a pound over where I was when I left. Hopefully I can get right back on track now!

EagleRiverDee and Chub, you guys are doing fantastically!! So glad the scales are moving downward for you two.

Roja: Congrats on your acceptance! What kind of program is it? Great job maintaining your weight during your trip. My vacation always end with at least a 10lbs gain