Hey everyone! I haven't posted on the 240's thread for a while because I actually stopped weighing myself daily. The scale was just way too unreliable for me as it was not always representative of all the hard work I have been doing!

But, cravings have been kicking in and I think I need to start posting again for the accountability. Last time I was at my doctor's office they weighed me and I came in right around 240 (and that was fully clothed with boots on) so I am thinking this thread is where I belong. The scale definitely hasn't been moving as fast as I would like it to, but you know what? I am staying on plan (low carb, less than 20g a day) and I feel really good about that.

Good luck everyone! Stay strong, even with the holidays coming up!

Hi Smiley!... Welcome back... but it sounds like you won't be in this thread long! We'll help you on your way with encouragement!

MARA I am so happy for you!.. You have lost that darn water and are so close to the lowest again! Hooray! Remember.. we are racing to the 230's!

Justa...You are doing great! and January for the 230's sounds just awesome! Saying it outloud - it sounds like a nice low number!

Pam.. Oh I am so glad your DH work has increased! Oh that is just wonderful and what a nice present for alittle less stress this Christmas time as it comes to money. I know how well you did budgeting... and look it has worked out! Making Jewelry is inexpensive too... Great presents!... Ask the local craft store. A friend of mine is buying just a few beads (big and small and maybe a charm) and chain and making cell phone and purse tags... (need lobster claw to hook onto the time)

Also I am so glad you found your perfect match (Beck) for your mind and soul! It is so wonderful to find something that we click with and can live with - without feeling that we are missing out on something and our soul stays happy! (me - atkins)

Pam I am also very glad that your RA pain has deminished! Oh so glad for you!. Just think if you had not lost those 20 lbs and how much more pain you would be feeling! Don't even want to think about it!

Pixikat - You are doing so well this restart!... Be careful in the cold and ice (and snow tho!) Winter injuries are not fun (especially falling on tail bones silly DH) I am so glad to be sharing this journey with you!

Niki... I am thrilled that you are doing well!. I would love to hear about those exercises as I have not heard of them. I am a walker and do the Strength elastic cords for the arms and back.

I had a marvelous start to my day.... I am at my lowest ever on this journey 245.6 this morning... (Old scale - 231.5 oh lovely) and want to skip (almost can without my arse hitting the ground) around the place! I am almost 1/2 almost!!! 5.6 lbs more.. I have a party to go to tonight and need to find some clothes that are not so baggy in my closet.. I hope I can find something from the early 90's that hasn't fallen apart... oh that would be a sight! LOL

Enjoy your day lovely ladies!

I am grinning... I am down to 245.2 and also saw 244.8.. but 245.2 came up 2 times! so Tomorrow should be good too!... I feel lighter.. and will be able to climb that ladder and not be out of breath (putting those gosh darn Icicle lights up )

I hope you all have a safe, warm and Happy Sunday!

Good day everyone

Sue(wannaskip): thanks for the words of encouragement. I really appreciate them. DH and I went to our church's Christmas party Friday night. It turned out so well for me in so many different ways that I was almost floating on the way home. First of all, since I have been up and down the scale over the past 20 years I have hung onto many items of clothing with the hope that someday I would wear them not to mention at one time I spent quite a lot of money on clothes and I just can't bear the thought of getting rid of them because they were 1-2 sizes smaller than what I am. Also, I am a bargain hunter and quite often I have bought things 80-90% off with the idea that maybe some day I could wear them. All of that careful shopping paid off! I wore a black sequined tank top with black crepe dress pants and silver glitter low pumps. I had a semi sheer black shawl to cover my shoulders since it was 70s but lightly raining. The shoes were new but I had bought the top and pants really discounted and I was just waiting to get into them. In fact, I have found buying something one size smaller is a great incentive to keep working on losing weight. You know you are "just that close" so why not push just a little bit harder.

Then, I made sure that I followed my food plan while we ate. I got 1 TB of each food item. I had two bites of a chocolate cheesecake. I had 3 tall glasses of ice water. I actually came home feeling hungry but I was amazed that I handled the food situation so well. The live band was fantastic and everyone danced. Although I can't dance like I used to the highlight of the evening for me was slow dancing with my DH to a great cover of "Knocking on Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan. I truly felt like Cinderella at the ball with her Prince Charming. A very memorable night for me. One that I haven't had in a very long time.

justaloozer First of all congratulations on losing the 65 lbs. thus far. I think we both were close in our top weight and if you are anything like me, you are so glad that you aren't back there. I like your goal of 230s by January 1st and I will join you in that "quest". We have 3 1/2 weeks left of December so I think that is actually doable for all of us here in this 240s thread so I am "challenging" anyone in the 240s to join us.

Having said that, do you have an idea of what you will do specifically to make that happen? I am going to start tomorrow really working harder on my sodium levels as well as keeping my carbs a lot lower since that seems to creep up for me. I have worked out steadily for the past two weeks so I will just continue to do that. Since I have already two holiday meals that I didn't go nuts over under my belt, I am going to aim for a "sane" Christmas and New Year's meal(s). I am not going to bake this year at all and I am not buying a lot of sweets to have around the house to munch on. As for sodium levels, I am taking a moratorium on eating pizza, hot dogs, Chinese and fast foods until I can see my sodium levels at a better rate. These foods have sort of crept back into my food plan and I honestly think they are stalling my weight loss. We'll see if I am right on that.

As for exercising, how much walking do you do with your retail job? Wearing a pedometer (you can get them as cheap as $5 at Wal-mart) can show you that you are actually moving more than you think. Also, if you are getting overly tired, maybe, stepping up on your vitamins will help boost your energy level. I swear by supplements including a protein smoothie or shake.

smileygirlmel Glad to see you back here again. I think weighing daily is an individual thing and like you have noticed so many things affect it from day to day so it is only one piece of information in our weight loss journeys.

Sue(wannaskip): I think many of us are at the half way point in the 240s. I too have two scales with one having a much lower reading. I just wish it were accurate. I don't know about you but I really want to give an extra push to bust out of the 240s. I am just plain ready to move on. Let's see if we all can have a "sane" Christmas this year so that we have the 230s to celebrate the New Year about.

Mara: just wanted to say Hi and hope all is well on your end.

Take care all, Pam

Hey everyone! sorry I haven't written for a few days, I was out of town for that run. It was 27 degrees and I still made myself do it, I am SUPER proud of myself! I skipped some of the obstacles cause I was scared of hurting myself or couldn't jump high enough (hay bales) so I had to go around. I DID, however, do the huge rope V-wall. it was a rope net over a huge metal fram that you climb up, throw your leg over, and climb down. I was scared I would freeze up at the top but I made it. It was not a whole 5k though, once they removed the water obstacles because of the weather it was 2.35 miles. oh well!

Food wise, I did okayish. I tried to make low carb choices but I honestly have NO IDEA how I did because cooks are sneaky with sugar and whatnot! lol I did give in and have 6 bites of my friends pumpkin pancakes and 3 crab rangoons and a fortune cookie when we ordered chinese. But really, thats pretty freaking amazing considering the food I would have eaten in the past so I call it a win.

pam it sounds like you did AMAZING at the party!!! congrats!

sue sounds like you had a preview this morning of what is to come tomorrow or the next day

PAM what an NSV to have bought that outfit ahead of time and WAAA LAAAA it fits and you look GORGEOUS!... That dinner sounds like a magical evening.. the kind to remember for the perfect times in our lives Cool!

PixiKat.. It is sooooo good to see you. I have missed your posts these last few days!. I am glad you had fun!... I wish I could "run"... but never really could and my butt STILL drags on the ground when I even try a few steps. They are having a color run here in a few months and I would love to do it.. Maybe I could "walk fast" instead LOL

Happy Monday all!.. I am up BOO a tick 245.6.. but understandable as I ate salty salty food (bacon and Ham)... tho under 1200 calories.. and worked out with the ladder and walking.. so it will go away! Got lower numbers in my mind's eye for Christmas (2 weeks and 2 days til Christmas eve!) YIKES!

Morning guys! I am hanging in at 245.6 (Sue we are tied up. lol)

Pixicat I am in awe that you did the run in the cold and did the wall. I think I would have been too scared to try.

Pam I am doing much better. Your outfit sounded amazing. And great job handling the food.

Welcome back Smiley!

Good morning!!!

Sue I don't run much of the runs lol I can only run about a minute at a time before I can't breathe. You should totally sign up for the color run, the one I did was super fun and they don't time it so you can run it or walk it or do a mixture of both.

mara I am sure if you set your mind to it you could TOTALLY do it!

I had a nice surprise this morning, I expected to be up after my weekend trip, but I was actually .5 down woot!

Something tells me the next couple of weeks are just plain going to fly.....

In order to save some money, we are going to fall back on our old but reliable artificial tree. I actually prefer it because I am the one who vacuums and vacuuming pine needles in July or having the bigger ones plug up the hose is no picnic either. So, I spent this morning rearranging the furniture in the living room so it will accommodate the tree. I hope this "counts" as cardio because I sure was sweating. Could be the coffee too?

pixiekat on finishing your zombie run in spite of the cold. I would definitely not be able to scale walls since my weakest part of my body has always been my upper body so a major High Five for accomplishing that! A Double Dip of WTG for making good food choices in one of the hardest places to do so: Chinese restaurants. I love crab rangoons....

Sue(wannaskip): Well, I am up a tad myself and, yes, it is the sodium . I am chugging lots of H20 as well as decaf coffee today and I hope that will help move things along...

mara and sue: let's see what we can report by Thursday and see who is the first one to change their ticker, okay? I haven't changed mine since mid-last week and I would really like to see it go down 2 lbs.

pixiekat WTG on the .5 lbs down. Your "swollen" muscles might release some more water in the next couple of days....

Well, I am going to spend this rainy and very cold dreary day putting up our Christmas tree. I just wanted to stop in and say "Hi".

Take care, Pam

Hey pixikat! Yeah, now I’m glad that my doctor prescribed it, I think a lot of people on it use it for the right reasons but then there are those who expect it to do the work for them – I’m on a phentermine forum and you can tell who’s who in that sense. So strange that she shot you down for that but is all for WLS – I’d be scared of all the possibilities of complications and like you say, if you can get down on your own you know it’s within you – well done for how far you’ve come!

Hey Smiley!! Welcome for your (I imagine) brief stay!

Well done to you Sue, glad to hear you’re smiling!

Hey Pam! That's great that you're measuring success by clothes you can get into now that you couldn't before, I love clothes and fashion so I can't wait to be able to enjoy it more and have more choice.

I like Pilates a lot, my instructor is a man - he’s super nice but he does everything with such ease, it’s like he’s teasing us!!

Body pump class was great, very energetic and the instructor for that was very motivating. She was tiny but had good muscles and again, made everything look real easy – grrrr!!!

I weighed today at 239 so that’s another 2 pounds down. I’m gonna stay in this thread a week more as I feel like I just got here and I don’t want to get ahead of myself but if I lose again then I’ll be on my way down I guess.

Pam I forgot you asked, but Body pump and Body Flow are two of the classes designed by Les Mills. Body Flow is a combination of Tai Chi, Yoga, and Pilates.

It not only relaxed me, but was a good way to burn a few calories. The thought is that the other classes help burn calories and build muscles, but body flow helped you increase your flexibility, stamia, and helped to lengthen/stretch muscles.

Morning Guys!

Thanks pixicat. Like FDR said the only thing to fear is fear itself. Should not let that hold us back.

Niki way to go! About to leave us already.

I was very happy to see the scale say 244.8 this morning. Finally back to my ticker weight.

Sue I bet the sore muscle water retention took some extra with it.

Hey Mara! Body flow sounds good, I would like to try that!

Congrats on getting to your ticker weight!

How do y'all get them by the way? I have one on another forum but I can't seem to add it to this one!

niki you can add it to your signature but you have to have 20 posts and be a member for 20 days first.

mara yay for ticker weight!

So i have been doing ok, but I did succumb to my stress-induced bakery craving, I had 3 sugar cookies last night not too horrible but it screwed up my low carb thing and made me feel soooo crappy. I am hoping that the memory of crappiness helps me not do it again.

Well SHOOT and GRRR... No ticker changes yet.... GO EVERYONE!! I am rooting for you!.. I am now doing 3 mile walks at night with a friend that is trying to lose 50 lbs by June first as a wealthy friend of his promised to BankRoll a concert tour for him if he does lose. So he is pumped and its nice that he has a goal to work for (Tho I do hope he learns it is for himself too!).. But he is the last good friend I have and I am so happy to spend time with him walking and getting healthier and lighter together! (He has been very depressed) The walking "extra" will help me too.. as it will burn more calories and hopefully GET ME OUTTA THE 240's!! LOLOLOL. I am at 245.4 this morning BOOOOOOOOO but that is okay... a whoosh will happen in 2 weeks.. but geee.. I would like to have at least 1 or 2 lbs off by Christmas! Please SANTA???!!!!! LOL

Niki.. oh you are so close to getting to the next Thread! WWEEE Keep the door open for us when you get there!

Mara.. I am so glad you are back down YAY!

Pixikat... Those darn cookies are just a response to stress and your little voice urge from times past. Cravings like that will subside over time (you know that already).. Its just hard when you are stressed studying for finals and trying to change your life at the same time! You are still a GREAT roll model!!

Smiley. Hope you are hanging in there and getting close to exiting and going to the lower thread too!

PAM.. I hope your tree is JUST GORGEOUS!... I too have had an artificial tree for years... but.... I burn a tree smelling candle alot and I grab some branch cuttings from the tree stands (free) and intersperce them in the tree and lay them around the bottom... you do get the REAL smell that way too!

HUGS to ALL! and Happy HUMP DAY!... Closer to Friday!! WOOHOOOO