Argh, I'm feeling frustrated. I've been diligently counting calories and working out like mad, even though I'm not sticking to any one particular diet plan right now (other than, again, just counting calories with a goal of 1# loss/week), and I've realized I only lost 0.5 # this past week and am still experiencing plateaus that last between 3 and 6 days. This is so frustrating. I went back through old spreadsheets where I've been logging my weight for over a decade, and five years ago when I got married I was 117. I'm only about 3 lbs. above that; it's so close I can feel it and yet the scale WON'T MOVE. I was having success with going with vegan, pre-packaged foods recently, but I found that wasn't sustainable for longer than 2 weeks just due to the monotony of it, and it was a fairly restrictive daily calorie allotment. I have to go back to 1000 calories a day? Is that it? I just... that's so few! But apparently 1300 is too much for me right now. *sigh*

kat I think you're going through a really normal weight loss process. .5 lbs a week is really good considering you are well within the range of healthy for your size and weight. As your weight gets closer to goal the body is more and more resistant to lose each little ounce, since you're already at a good size. I'm close to my normal adult weight (127), and am expecting to only lose between 1-3 lbs a month for a while. Keep doing what you're doing because it's obviously working. It's just that the new definition of success this close to goal may be 1- .5 lbs a week staying at the same weight for 3-6 days before the next drop.

(this is coming from someone who also complains when I plateau for a few days too, but it's easier to be rational when it's someone else right? )

ju5tdoit I'm too stubborn to give up salads, even though I know I'm taking a risk. Slowly learning how to lose weight in India, but it definitely involves not eating more than 1-2 homecooked Indian meals at other peoples' homes, which is difficult to do when you're visiting family for a week or two in Nagpur!

krampus glad to hear binging cravings have subsided! What kind of tea do you drink?

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About to head out to an event tonight where there will definitely be finger food (ju5tdoit, including khandvi, which I could eat pounds of at a time). I'm at about 660 for the day right now so I should have some buffer. Still, as a grazer, finger food at parties/events are my absolute worst trigger so I'm hoping I can keep things under control.

Good luck indiblue - I blew off a conversation class tonight just so I wouldn't be tempted by the usual array of snacks. Finger food free for alls are the ultimate test of control.

kat999 .5 lbs a week is still a loss! You're so light now I don't think 2 lbs a week is really feasible at this point.

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I had a good day. TOM came as a result of going off BC pills and my appetite is just like, halved. It's really bizarre. I wonder if this will be my normal state? The constant need to peck at things and eat is gone. I didn't have a "formal" workout but I walked a lot at a very chop-chop sort of pace. I walked right to the cheap clothing store from work and managed to get a jacket, cardigan, scarf, and pants for work - for a total of less than ¥5000! I feel pretty darn accomplished getting all that for under fifty bucks.

Good morning Feathers!

Is it weird that I actually don't mind Mondays anymore because of dieting? It makes me feel like , yes, back to normal routine and on schedule/plan. Sometimes it feels good to be structured when you go off on the weekends.

Indiblue and Ju5doit I am shocked that being "healthy" and living a healthy lifestyle is almost frowned upon where you live. How do you both stay motivated when you are surrounded by people who don't agree?

Krampus Awesome job on the .5 loss and bargain deal!!

So I went off horribly on Saturday. Guestimated about 3500 calories for the day. But I didnt let it bring me down. I jumped right back onto eating healthy Sunday. Also, I had a NSV with some friends at the beach (and even strangers). One of the girls that was with us (who is average sized) didnt want to stand next to me in the pictures because she thought I would make her look fat! I was absolutely shocked! I admit my stomach is smaller than most, but my legs and butt are not! It shocks me when people make comments like that but I love it. Feels so good. Also, I kept getting tons of compliments from strangers on my bathing suit. It was such a nice day in the compliment department. I loved it. Made me even more motivated to keep at my healthy lifestyle. I just feel better when I am healthier

As you all know, I have decided to stop dieting and trying to lose weight and am just intuitively living a healthy lifestyle. I have decided to take Kat99's advice and just set goals rather than set plans with lots of restrictions. That being said, my two goals for every week is this:

1. 3 days stay at 1100 calories - the other 4 days, just intuitively eat healthy
2. Run 5 days a week

Lets hope I can do this the rest of my life

Hope everyone is doing well!

Thanks for the support, ladies. Rationally, I know I'm still losing and that being in a good range already means these last 5 lbs. will come off slowly. I'm going to just hunker down for another week, keep doing what I'm doing, and then if I still feel like I need to adjust something, I'll adjust my exercise rather than my food. I simply know rationally I can't sustain long-term eating habits at below my current intake level, nor should I to stay healthy.

Good attitude, kat! I know it's so difficult when you don't have that frequent instant feedback of the decreasing scale to keep you motivated. I'm totally down with you. You have such a good attitude and healthy approach- hunkering down and committing for the long term rather than dropping your cals too low. Who knows, maybe you'll get a sweet whoosh at some point. Either way you're doing great so keep it up!

Dianne I guess it's a combination of lack of awareness about health issues (although diabetes is getting a lot of attention in India these days) and cultural issues (women not being encouraged or taught how to exercise) that makes it difficult. I unfortunately eat the majority of my meals at home so I can stay healthy and lose weight, which I regret because living here is such a great opportunity to eat new food all the time. As a foodie it's hard to say no to trying a new unique Indian restaurant with friends and opt for an American salad in my kitchen, but for my health I have to do it. Hopefully once I get the weight a little more under control I'll have some leeway, but for now I have to keep things tightly controlled :-/

Congrats on all the wonderful comments you've been getting! I'm sure you look terrific. Good for you for moving on after a splurge day. Your plan sounds terrific and you seem to be setting yourself up for success. Good luck!

Krampus congrats on both the BC victories and shopping finds! What a great day you had. I would looooove to get off my BC. I at least need to look at lower hormone options. I'd love to experience the effects you're seeing just a couple of days off it... hope things continue to improve.

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Well I made it through the event without going crazy! I had a ton of carrots and cucumbers with yogurt dip, 2 diet cokes (just to keep me from the wine), 2 really small baked samosas (like savory pastries), 1 pakora (tiny fried vegetable thing), and 1/3 piece of cake (only because a high-level person offered me a slice and then talked with me for a few minutes.. had to be polite. As soon as I could escape I left and gave it to my BF to finish).

Anyway, all in all about 500 as a conservative estimate, which is about what I budgeted in my daily calorie count.

Tonight was much easier than I thought- I feel so much more in control of my eating than I did just two months ago before I started working to lose this weight. I don't think I've eaten mindlessly once since then. I almost went crazy on a bag of chips this afternoon but had about 3 and then went for a small handful of cornflakes instead. I just feel I've worked so hard to get to where I am and I really don't want to ever do this again. Hopefully I can keep this up for the long-haul, because it will take quite a while to get where I want to be.

Thank you all for your continued support, definitely couldn't be doing this without all of you as inspiration and motivation!

Dianne! I do not live in India. I don't think I would have an easy job of losing weight if I were there. The thing is that since the home cooked food is healthy, the disconnect in India comes...it's all wholesome food. But what people forget is that even wholesome food leads to weightgain if you eat too much of it.



I have had a good day. Lower body weights and cardio! I love the gym and am fast becoming a gym rat! And i love that!

Scale has moved down again. I had a strange graze in my bed at midnight (???) but clearly not enough to harm anything. I'm pretty annoyed though that my Achilles tendon has started creaking and cracking and it's too painful to wear normal shoes. Love that I'm getting punished for not being a couch potato, I really do. Not.

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Dianne I feel the same way about Mondays! As you know I'm a weekend cheater and trying to pare down my cheat days to one per week. Congrats on the beach NSVs! Let's trade - I have to wear pants with flaps on the pockets to even look like someone pretending to have a butt, but I could probably smother an entire village in my stomach fat. /hyperbole

ju5tdoit Gym is one of the better addictions one can have. Glad you're in a good groove!

indiblue Thanks! Being off BC so far is okay but I have noticed my skin is getting less clear and since TOM has started it's twice as heavy. Awesome job on handling the party gracefully. That takes a ton of restraint!

kat999 Glad you're not going to cut calories to 1000, that would be a miserable existence.

Haven't been around too much the past few days but I am taking a break from writing papers and thought I would chime in.

All was going well for me in weight loss last week...but the last few days I've been starving and eating way more than I should. Stress has definatly kicked in for me, which might be contributing. My day job has me leading a high profile, tight time frame project (which I love), and at the same time my grad school classes have kicked up and I have 3 papers due and a presentation all on Mon/Tues of this week.

One of the worst things about business school I've been suprised by, is that they don't actually tell you what these assignments are until right before they are due, therefore you are always playing "catch up" trying to get them done on time. I'm stressing big time this past week.

In combination with this, my remaining free time is being spent wedding planning. Something that apparently most find enjoyable, yet I find torturous because at the end of the day I want to go to bed, not argue with my future mother in law about how her cousins we've never met don't need to come to our small intimate wedding.

I keep telling myself that if I can run huge projects at work, a wedding is no comparison. Except unlike work, I don't have someone else's check book to play with here (other than my parents, which doesn't really compare to my fortune 100 company's) and also unlike work, family is not nearly as civil when they disagree with you.

Just had to take a paper break and rant. Seems like everyone is doing great. I'm trying to keep my head above water at the moment. My planned evening run was sadly off the table due to the realization that I am going to be up all night finalizing one of my papers. Sigh. And tomorrow night I will be in class, so maybe Wednesday night I'll make it out for one. One day at a time, right?

On a positive note...only 14 weeks left of school until summer break. Hoping to be at my goal weight by then....but I have 13 more lbs and that would mean losing a pound a week. Probably not going to happen. I am more like a pound a month girl.

krampus glad you're in a loss-groove these days! What a great feeling to see losses consistently. Good luck with battling life post BC. It sounds like the trade-offs will be worth it.

Wildflower it's nice to see you back! It sounds like life is so crazy right now, but for all very good reasons. Way to kick butt at work and get handed an important project AND be in grad school right now. I don't know the stress of wedding planning but I hope amidst all the opinions and personalities of family members you're able to enjoy yourself a bit. You have probably mentioned this, but when is the big day?
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I wasn't able to get an accurate scale reading this morning- acid reflux prompted me to guzzle water when I woke up, then I weighed, then my body decided it was ready to do the usual morning restroom trip, etc. But, signs are promising that I'm still well within 128 and hopefully moving down. I'll be so elated when I see my pre-India weight of 127. That means a) HAIRCUT!!!! that I am DYING FOR!!!! and b) time to move into unchartered territory of the mid and low 120s! Looking forward so much to seeing what my body looks like at these weights.

There has been a trainer in the gym in our apt complex who has given me lifting pointers whenever he sees me. He does weight training for a group of women 3x a week. He charges a ton but I'm going to try to see if I can get a discount and only go once a week. Just a few minutes with him modifying my workout and my arms are completely dead. It would be great to really get my lifting back in good shape. I didn't realize how much I have forgotten since my high school soccer team training days...

Hi Indiblue,

I didn't mention a date because everything is not finalized with the venue/officient. But it seems brides set a date before they know if that date is even feasible? Seems backwards to me, but if that's the case my date is October 16th.

Happy Tuesday!!

Katt You have one of the best attitudes with weight loss - that alone will give you success!! You can do it - last 5 pounds!

Indiblue Congrats on staying in moderation at your event. I KNOW thats such a challenge. Does it feel good to conquor something so difficult? And now you are moving on down the 120's. I am SO envious!

Krampus You are remarkable with how fast you lose weight. Are you still doing your "lax" calorie plan? I remember you saying you wanted to take a break from counting calories. Are you still doing that and losing weight?

Wildflow I can relate to stress eating all too well. I believe thats what causes my binges. Thats why I have decided to take a break from "dieting" and just simply living a healthy lifestyle..

Its annoying. I am intuitvely eating healthy and not counting calories but i find myself still subconsiously adding up the calories and macronutrients in my head! Its so frustrating!! Oh well..life is SO much less stressful knowing I can have what i want to eat (in moderation and healthy of course). Its amazing how much pressure I put on myself when it comes to losing weight.

On a happy note, a friend of mine posted beach pictures! I saw one that i actually wasnt horrified by! The only thing that really bothers me by the pic is that I look wider than all the other girls. But thats so annoying becuase my bone structure isnt bigger - well so I thought! I believe I wear a smaller size than most of them but I just look so much wider and bigger boned than them in pics :/ Otherwise, I can live with the pic.. Ill attach it!

Dianne - You didn't say which one you are in the picture, but i can honestly say that all of you look FANTASTIC!!!

Your group must have had constant male attention on that beach!!!

Aww thanks Wildflower!! lol no, not constant attention. My friends are beautiful though!!

Oopss..I am the one on the far right

Dianne, you have a DREAM BODY! O_O I'm like, seriously overcome with jealousy. I look absolutely nothing like that in a swimsuit and I don't think I ever will. You should be proud of yourself! Also for what it's worth you all look about the same to me, no one looks "wider" than anyone else.

*sigh* Scale bounced up over a pound today despite my feeling pretty good about myself. One of those "dammit I wish I hadn't weighed" days. I'll tell myself it's because of TOM or constipation or the salt and richness in the sauce in my dinner.