Chelsey, I'm glad you are doing so well. I feel the same way about this forum, even though I'm still new here.


I found it took a lot of courage to post how heavy I'd been. I lost fifty pounds in 2001 and 2002 and have been fiddling around between 139 and the low 150's ever since. I realized a couple of months ago, that I deeply want to be the size I was before I gained so much weight. It still baffles me that I tried to take care of myself with hiding in food. Am finding with really working on having a plan for movement and exercises, eating, and all that goes with that, that a lot of memories and feelings are surfacing in a different way than previously. All that is taking some prayerful thought. Letting go of the fifty pounds was very easy compared to these last ones. I'm finding it's requiring much, much diligence.

I'm thankful you all are here. I so appreciate your support.

Bamagirl, hope you are feeling much better today!

Same7, your exercise in the rain sounds delightful. I do grow a few flowers and have herbs and some veggies. I have found that gardening requires a great deal and have been giving plants to neighbors. I was overly ambitious in procuring plants when I moved in. I decided to mow my own lawn, with an old-fashioned reel mower, and doing that is helping me become much stronger. (Saves some money, too.) Congratulations on avoiding the temptations!

Ilene, congratulations on your scale victory!

I did a lot of reading on the Maintenance Forum the last couple of days, which helped clarify the mysterious BMI. I found some posts which confirmed my hunch that the online calculators which ask height, weight, activity level and measurements, can't really "know" what my metabolism rate is. It was a relief to read posts of other women who have to eat many fewer calories and exercise more than those calculators "say".

I never intended to find out about all these things, but I want to know what effects and consequences my choices have.

Sorry for the long post. It's one of those times.

Sending you all best wishes for a very lovely day!

SilverLife, long posts can be good sometimes. I'm a forum novelist, haha. And on the calculator thing, you are so right. Everyone is different. I have really been thinking about going to the nutritionist at my university and letting her do a BMR analysis thing on me. You sit in a closed up little room for a certain amount of time and it does some kind of crazy calculations to figure out what you are burning. I'm not quite sure how it works, but it sounds interesting, and I'm always kind of curious how much I have thrown off my metabolism with all the years of crash diets and eating disorders. It takes a while for your body to "bounce back" from that.

Congrats on your awesomeness, Ilene!

same7, I am so jealous of your rainy workout! I LOVE running in the rain when the weather is warm! I'm so glad you are doing so well!

I'm feeling much, much better. Still not 100%, but I'm hoping to get back to my workouts in a few days. I can eat again, hooray!

Bamagirl This metabolism analyzing thing your nutritionist has is interesting! Can you get it at any doctor? I would be SO curious to find out how much my metabolism burns!

I agree that metabolism analisis sounds very interesting

It is pretty interesting. I'm not sure who has it, but it's called the Bod Pod if you want to look it up. Apparently it's just a really, really accurate body composition measurement which they then use to manipulate the numbers for your BMR.

My gym has something where you breathe into a mask/hose/machine contraption while resting and it give you a BMR. They also have it where you wear the mask while running on a treadmill and it helps calculate your max VO2 and, I think, find your actual target heart rates/training zones (as opposed to using a generic formula). I'm doing that next week.

I bet a university would be a good place to do the BMR measurement b/c they probably have very good equipment if they use it for research. The kind you find at a gym I would imagine is less accurate.

It's an early day today. I'm delighted that I revised my plan. Am feeling healthier and am glad to be making progress.

I saw a beautiful butterfly yesterday, lots of blue on the wings. I was pruning a bush and enjoyed watching the butterfly.

Hope you all have a lovely beginning this Friday morning!

I'm not sure I had a lovely beginning -- I was woken up by an EARTHQUAKE! No kidding. We don't get many of those here in the Maryland suburbs. It scared the heck out of me! We used to live in San Diego and they scared me to death, there, too, even just the tiny trembles. My neighbors (SoCal natives) used to make fun of me because I'd run over to their house all freaked out and they'd say, "We didn't even feel anything!"

We are approaching high season for butterflies here, though! We have a couple large butterfly bushes that attract tons, particularly tiger swallowtails. I also plant lots of dill and parsley to encourage black swallowtails to lay their eggs, and we bring the caterpillars inside and raise them through metamorphosis. I love it! The kids take it for granted. They think everyone has caterpillars living in their kitchens.

I have a very big, important day planned... namely, meeting friends for lunch at Nordstrom and shopping the Anniversary sale. I'm thinking about celebrating goal with a new pair of jeans and some leggings for fall. I've never worn leggings b/c I'm pear-shaped and a lot of my weight is in my thighs -- but this year I'm going to rock them! I found my measurements from the day I started calorie counting, and I've lost about 2 inches from each thigh, and just over 2 from my hips!

Happy Friday, everyone!

Same7, congratulations on your victories! I'm glad the earthquake was a small one. I wouldn't have expected one in Maryland. When I lived in San Francisco, they were rather common.

Hope you have a wonderful day at lunch and Nordstrom's.

Callanetics were easier today. I thought I would have to go easier today as I did so much yesterday, but I added a few more. Have got my gardening done, and am off for a walk.

Hope you all have a lovely Friday morning!

Good Morning everyone!

So, not very happy today; though not as dissapointed as I thought I would be (I think 3fc has kept me motivated no matter what). Stepped on the scale today and I am up .4 pounds; 138.4. I have only been living this healthy lifestyle since Monday but I thought I would have lost weight not gained. I have never been a runner but I have been running all this week. Is it possible my gain is from running? My leg muscles (esp. my calves) have felt tight and sore.

I have never stuck to a calorie counting way of eating EVER for longer than a week. So I really dont know how it all works. Did you all see more weightloss the first two weeks? Or did it at first, not come off and then fell off towards the end of your journey? I am not terribly worried becuase you all here have truly inspired me and shown me that it CAN be done and have convinced me that no matter what; stick with plan, it will come off. I also dont think it is my metabolism becuase with my bad eating habits and lack of exercise, my weight has not changed since I graduated highschool 5 years ago. I do however think I lost muscle and gained fat (did cheerleading for 7 years and stopped exercise altogether after graduating). Anywhoo, my point of this is I am not going to give up but it would be nice to see the scale moving. Is it possible I am doing something wrong? According to FitDay, I have a calorie deficit of 1000 almost every day this week (mon-thurs) between my workouts and my diet. So shouldnt the scale have gone down?

Same7lbs on your inches lost! That is awesome. I bet you will have a fabulous day shopping and lunch with friends

Silver I have always seen butterflies as a direct gift from God. You are going to have a special day today

Have a happy Friday everyone!

Chelsey, congratulations on your exercise. I'm sorry that the scales don't reflect all your hard work. I'm still fairly new at using the online calorie calculators, but I have found that they all show that I use more calories than I actually do. I'll see if I can find the thread I read in the Maintenance section which explains how the online calculators work.

I, too, think butterflies are gifts from God and I am having a special day. Thanks very much for the kind thoughts.

Will add the link when I find it.

Silver,

I journal everything I put in my mouth on FitDay. I dont think I am eating more than I think, and even if I am eating lets say 200 calories more than I think, its still a significant differene in calories. Oh well; no need to analyze it to the bone, I will just be patient and learn to make this my new lifestyle YOu all rock!!

Chelsey, I'm no expert on this, but I found this thread very helpful:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/livi...lculators.html

I'm working on making my plan my new lifestyle, too.

Am sending you lots of good thoughts!

Thanks for sharing that Silver. Ive always been skeptical of those calculators. I really want to go to my nutritonist and see if he has any machines that can tell me my BMR. In all honestly, I feel I have an average one. He does have this special machine that tells you your weight in fat, bone, and muscle. Apparently I put on muscle easily. All I can do is be patient and see what happens..

Thank you for the good thoughts; have a great weekend and good luck!!!

Hi, I'm new! Working on losing 10 vanity pounds, but I know I need to exercise to lose the new mommy pooch and jiggles. Yuck!

They say that when your sore the muscles retain water to recuperate, that's why you see the scale go up or not change when you start exercising. When your body gets used to it the 'whoosh' fairy visits your scale. So stick with it I guess.

Is Fitday better than Sparkpeople?