Thank you guys so much! I was pretty pumped when I saw the scale this morning. Of course, my home scale is a good 4lbs diff than the official IP one. But I will take what I can get!

Oneuh2 - thanks so much for your kind words and encouragement. You always say what I am thinking...just a lot more eloquently.

I mentioned AA to my therapist this week. I could find ways to avoid alcohol fairly well but we need food to live. I continue to be amazed at my lack of cravings for carbs and sugar while on IP. But having taken a couple cheat days and the cravings came back like they were never gone. I worry about bringing those things back into my diet and living with those urges. My therapist actually said she was glad to hear I was scared of regaining. She's had clients who were very confident and they tend to be the ones who slip up. My fear may help me when the time comes.

One day at a time I guess. I need to focus on being kinder to myself and celebrate my current victories...not future challenges.

Updating here to bump this thread back to page one.

This weeks WI has me down 3 lbs. for a total of 80! That means only 20lbs left to goal. I picked my goal in late July on a lark as 100 lbs seemed like a nice round number. It never actually seemed real, though. Now it is beginning to feel like an actual goal. Yay!

Congrats loser58 - love that you're 8/10ths of the way. Doesn't it seem amazing to be so close to goal?

Congrats Loser58, huge accomplishment! It must feel amazing to get that close.

So terrific -- and to be 80% of the way through your journey is a huge accomplishment!!

I had a good 3.4 lb loss this week too - and am now Overweight instead of Obese on the BMI scale - it truly does seem unreal to get this far, and yet that goal is only twenty-something lbs away. This is feeling soooooo good!!!

Congrats, loser58!! I wanna be just like you! I started 5 weeks ago, weighed in this morning and down another 4lbs for a total of 28.4. 71.6 to go!!! You inspire me, thank you!!! I KNOW I can do this.

That's great, OneUh2. I have 10 more pounds to go before I go from being obese to "just" overweight. The weight I'd have to get to in order to be "normal weight" is is 40 pounds away. I think I will settle for overweight!

I would have drop 30 more pounds to get to 145 which is the top of the range of Normal for my height per BMI chart...

I weighed 140 for about 6 months about 30 years ago after doing Nutrisystem for about 3 or 4 months and losing 40 lbs.... I could not maintain that weight and within another 4 or 5 months I had gained back most of what I had lost. This tells me that, to maintain at 150 will be a real challenge, altho I have learned a lot over the years and I might find that a commitment to the phased maintenance of IP will give me more chances of success. ( I sure hope it does )

I am going to be satisfied at the lower end of Overweight per the BMI chart if I can find the right balance of eating choices to maintain that weight. Maintaining a healthy weight is the real goal in my mind, regardless of whether its at 150 or 160.... I just hope I can do it!

I am jazzed that we are poised to meet this challenge together!!

Hey everyone.....

Congrats on all our successes....

I had an uptic on the scale this week and was a bit depressed, but I know I am doing the program right ans as Lisa says, it's not a straight line! LOL. So I keep that in mind....instead of eating my way thru the week, I went to Khols with my 30% off coupon and their sales going on and picked myself up 6 pair of work pants size 16! All fit perfect....and a few cute spring tops from the regular woman's department.....that made my day. Something to be said for wearing clothes that fit. So that made me feel better and I can get over this hump....but if that scale does not move on Tuesday, there may be trouble lol.

to you!! You are doing a terrific job - keep up the good work! How fun about the shopping trip

loser58
oneuh2

It's interesting that we are pretty much focused on a weight, rather than a range. I've noticed that the maintainers tend to set a range and work to keep within it. Maybe we should be thinking ahead, too, as part of our planning.

I often look at my target weight and think it's unrealistic. Could I reach it? Yes. Could I maintain it? No, so why am I going to endure a diet to get to it? The health/nutrition tests I've undertaken indicate that my weight would fall somewhere between 160 and 165 (they suggest higher) but that seems too high to me. Of course, the BMI tables don't make any allowance for frame size or muscular build but they are a general guideline that works for the majority of us, so .... I'll just keep going until it's obvious that my body is at a natural rest point (no loss after a month is pretty much the indicator I'm looking for) and work with that. I really don't want to spend the rest of my life fighting to maintain a number that isn't natural. That is the fastest way to feeling miserable.



Sgrealtor1 Congrats on the new work pants, Sue. Don't let the uptick get to you, you've had a super busy week with changes to your routine and it was bound to have an effect on the scales. Hopefully it'll show on next week's WI as the loss you've earned.

Periodically the discussion of goal weights comes up... and I really feel much the same as you do, Amanda -- if I can continue thru to my stated goal of 150 without a lot of struggle, then I am pretty sure I will shift to the next phases then. If that last 10 lbs or so becomes really elusive (3 or 4 weeks of 'stall') then I think I'll adopt that as a natural stopping point, as you describe.

We are not ingénues... a bikini body is not going to happen for me unless I take up and embrace body building, with a vengeance! And even then, I doubt I'll ever feel really hot again in a swimsuit on the beach -- not in this lifetime....

I want to feel good enough about how I look in nice clothing, whether business attire or special occasion or casual in jeans -- to be able to forget about how I look -- to know that I look fit and nice, and be able to focus attention on what's going on around me, rather than being stressed out about how fat I am and whether I am largest figure in the room. To be free of all that - that's the joy I am going for here.

So.... just a few more months -- and we'll see how this plays out.... so glad to have such a fine crowd of IPeeps to share my journey with!!!

loser58, that's just fantastic!!!

WI#6 was Friday. I didn't lose anything last week. Getting frustrated as I am seeing so many people down 20+pound in 5-6 weeks and I'm down 14. Trying to keep my chin up and keep this going.

If there is one thing I have learned from my journey it is that everyone loses at a different rate. Do not compare to others or you will frustrate the heck out of yourself! I had a uptic this week and 2 weeks before so I have basically been the same for 3 weeks I know the program works so I just stick to it....it works different for everyone. Hang in there!

re- goal weight...I too am thinking a range. Right now I am taking baby steps towards little goals. Charts say 145 for me but I remember being that weight when DH and I started dating and seriously I lived on sunflower seeds and water lol...ain't gonna happen at my age... I would be happy 160-170... But I really think clothing size for me will be a good factor to determine my happy place. Not sure that size yet, but I just want to be comfortable in my own body.