Marion, I found I have been much more successful after I separated losing weight from emotional issues. I have been a member of another diet board for years and I find "younger" people, (Well OK below 50) tend to really put a lot of thought on how they are feeling emotionally effects their weight.

I realized as I get older that it really doesn't matter how I am feeling; devastated, really happy, what ever, I still gained weight.

It all had a lot more to do with the fact I can't handle wheat, and if I get too busy to look after myself properly I grab what ever is handy. In our culture that would be something wheat based. I lost 40 pounds after I cut out wheat but couldn't get my weight down any lower. I was originally 204+ at 5'1" (= because I stopped weighing myself).
What IP has done for me is get me off sugar also, I was totally overdoing the natural sugar in fruit.

My name is Pat and I am a fruitaholic!

I am posting here on your restarting thread because you all are fascinating people but I don't think I'll ever be a restarter. I may be overweight again (I sure hope not) but I don't think I could ever force myself to go through the first week of phase 1 again. I just couldn't face the migraine after migraine with the sugar withdrawal. That actually is why I know I will stick to program at Christmas. If I go back to the way I ate before I'll be sick right away.

So I have to make this kick at the can work.

Anyway I have spent the whole morning trying to figure out my new phone
( I have come very late to iphone; they gave them to us at work this week.)
I should be writing up funding grants applications for some students, but I guess that's what midnight is for.

I put one picture on my profile picture but can't figure out how to do more than one. Any help with that would be appreciated.

I am 8 pounds away from my original goal. That is what my doctor suggested and my coach thought was a good plan. So since August 1st I have lost 23 pounds but have hardly come down at all in clothing sizes. I started in size 14 petite, the petite only refers to shortness, not width.
I finally donated most of my clothes in that size and got a few things in 12 petite.

I am starting to think I will aim for 125 instead of 130. 130 puts me at the heaviest end of the healthy BMI scale. I think my doctor liked that because research shows people at that range live longest which can only be a good thing!
But the strange thing is I have always been extreme apple shape since puberty. This is the first plan I have ever been on where I lost around my middle.
I thought under the fat I was tall and thin but discover at age 64 I actually have a heavy duty hour glass figure. I don't know why that surprises me as both my mother and my daughter who have no weight issues are shaped like that. So that is why my size isn't going down greatly, plus also I need to build up muscle mass.
Anyway, all the long ramble is about trying to decide my best goal weight. I don't think 8 pounds more will make a huge difference in clothes size.

Once I got past the shock that I look just like my mother who is 88 I posted the pic.
I have horrific ones of when I was 50 years old and 204+ but they are buried so deep in my computer I can't find them. I will put up those before pics when I figure out how to put up more than one pic.

Thanks to any brave soul who stuck with this to the end!
Pat

Yes, Linden. That is very true.
Pat, I don't quite make the over 50 category, but even at 45, food is less of an emotional thing for me. I think the first time I was totally on IP, I managed to make the mental connection that food is fuel and for the most part, that is still my attitude. There have only been a few times when I said, I'm mad or I'm sad or I'm whatever and I just want to eat. Even when I was off plan, I was eating really well for 90% of people. I stayed in ketosis for almost 2 months after phasing off, but I wasn't losing much weight at all because I was strength training. It wasn't a bad trade. What messed me up was vertigo that lasted for 4 months and I just couldn't to the strength training 'cause I felt like I was going to fall over. I continued to eat like I had been for training while being pretty inactive (for me) and guess what, my weight started to go back up.

My addiction, like you is fruit--grapes, cherries and pineapple! And what caused me to start regaining weight was not eating a cheesecake but rather eating a bag of dried pineapple and almonds. I also can't eat a lot of wheat. I'm okay in small quantities, but a bowl of pasta makes me sick.

I can tell you that restarting was not as physically hard this time as it was the first. I don't know what others have experienced, but it was pretty easy for me.

As far as your weight goal... I have found that it is really hard to determine healthy weight for those of us that are bigger boned. I was so happy to find that my Exercise Physiology is my size and similar frame and thinks her ideal weight---for body competitions---is 175! It makes me feel like my goal of 180 is pretty reasonable because I've had 7 pregnancies that she hasn't gone through. I'm going to have to work more to change my body composition when I get closer to my goal, but I'll cross that bridge later.

What I trying to say to you in my own rambling way is, find what feels healthy to you. When you can do the things that you want to do. Also, keep in mind (and I mean this with total respect) that there are many studies that show that it is healthier for women, to have a few extra pounds as they get older. I'm not sure what a few is, but my point is don't kill yourself trying to get to something that is low for someone who isn't your frame size.

Okay, back to sorting stuff from my shopping trip.

Thank you for an extremely thoughtful and helpful and, well, thoughtful post. I'm really glad you are sticking it out to the end. I also like your insight into our figures. I sure wish I had one of yours. As I remember mine I am pretty much straight up and down and I gave up the excuse (in my mind) of being generous-boned years ago. In truth I should be slight, which I was for years until 10 years of undiagnosed hypothyroidism. But none of our "conditions" means a hill of beans unless we deal with them the best possibly way we can. Say that to youself again, she says to herself. Again.

Ho, ho, ho. A jolly big breakfast for me. I'm not gloating. Just wanted to share.

Marion, I didn't realize I'd missed your really thoughtful, insightful "ramble". I guess because you posted 1 minute before me and I didn't go back. Thank you, a lot.

I wanted to second this motion....... When I had my yearly physical this year, I was around 150 pounds. I mentioned to my dr. that I was trying to lose an additional 15 pounds. She said no! That is too thin for you at the age of 52. Maybe 5 more pounds down to 145 but not 135! I'm average built and weighed 135 back in the days of playing high school basketball many many moons ago. I remember feeling "fat" back then but now I look back at pictures and I was very thin for me. My dr. is very thin, maybe 110 pounds maybe dripping wet. She can't gain weight. What a problem to have huh?

I will be happy to feel comfortable in my clothes, move around and not feel like I am slowed down because of my weight. I guess I'm saying we can't all be the models we see in magazines nor should we want to be. When we hit the ideal weight for us, we'll know it.

Thanks Linden for doing a search for positions....it's tough out there right now. I keep telling my daughter she isn't alone in the job search and that networking is the best thing to do right now. Hopefully this position in Chicago will happen. Now if she can take making the move from warm Arizona to the Windy City she'll be ok. Actually, she is missing the midwest's weather changes.

I had to really work to get my mind right after the bad day. I finally decided there's only so much I can do for my children. Me worrying about it will change nothing. Maybe my sons just need a kick in the rear too! Sometimes you have to cut the umbilical cord and let them be adults and figure things out. That's hard to do, but sometimes neccessary.

Your grandmother's story is a good one. I can picture that happening in my mind and had a good laugh. Reminds me of when I thought I'd be all fancy and cook a prime rib. Problem was I over cooked it and it turned out like a well done over cooked roast. Just the opposite of your grandmother! They ate it anyway but I was sure disappointed in my cooking abilities. Something about letting beef sit in a warm oven just didn't seem right to me. Thought for sure that if I cooked it according to directions, everyone would of gotten sick from under cooked meat. Lesson learned on my part.

When I read your posts, I hit upon certain words that you use that remind me of my grandmother. Like in this post the word "scads". She was from Scotland and I still remember different words she used that makes me smile and think of her when others use the same words. When I would say something to her, she would always answer with ehh? Don't know why she did that but now I find myself doing it....

Both sides of my son's family are Scottish with a little bit of English and a tiny bit of Dutch thrown in, but they all emigrated before 1750. Still, I grew up in western Pennsylvania. At that time there were about ten times as many people of Scottish descent and there were in Scotland.

And over cooked? Oh boy, I remember a duck that should never have been sacrificed and my husband asking if I'd like a piece of the sauce.

You are welcome. I didn't think I was being all that insightful--maybe direct--I'm used to that.

Exactly, Iowa. We can't base our weights off of others--at least alone. In my home, I'd be in so much trouble if I did so. My husband is 5'8" and weighs about 135lbs (which is higher for him now that he's 53). My 21 year old daughter is 5'5 and struggles to maintain 108lbs. My 18 year old is 5'8" and runs about 110lbs. My 14 year old is about 5'4" is just a little over 100lbs. If I based my weight goals off of them, I'd be in so much trouble. It's clear that the girls all got their frame side from my husbands side of the family who are all pretty petite.

There's another factor that I've been mulling over in my head as I do my Exercise Physiology class... our bodies are made up of two different types of muscle fibers( type II). One is for fast use (type I) and one type is more for a slow burn, but each of our bodies have more of one type or the other. Some people might have 70% type I and others may have 70% type II. I've never had a biopsy done to determine my muscle composition, but based on the descriptions of how the muscles perform, I think I lean more toward the slow burn type of muscles. I am wondering if our muscle composition effects how we handle certain types of food and would therefore effect our ideal diet. That might not be an entirely true statement... I know the different types of muscles fibers process energy differently, what I want to know is what that should mean for diet--in an ideal situation. Maybe it's a topic for a research paper someday.

Sorry to muck up the weekend with science!

Speaking of which, it's time to start one of the two tests I need to take!

How was your weekend ladies? Weigh in first thing the in the morning for me may not be pretty, but I figure with Thanksgiving at my daughters future in-laws on Thursday and TOM due that same day, then I can get back hard and heavy until Christmas.

We had a nice weekend though... did a little Christmas shopping, enjoyed time with family, went to a musical. I also spent time working on a photo album online that I'm going to have printed for my parents and mother-in-law for Christmas.

Hi everyone! All of this talk about body composition, what we should weigh, and the reasons we can't get there or why we did get here, make this sound almost like a diet forum.

Gosh, you're right Rosemary...what we're we thinking

On a lighter note...Linden, I was watching a show today about travels in Germany . They had a clip about a bowling alley where the men were bowling NUDE! Oh my! The next clip was about a bath house where after being bathed, they napped in a hay bed. Interesting to say the least. Now why didn't you tell us about those places! Of course they were all drinking that good German beer.

Hum. Kind of reminds me of a Disney movie my son and I went to in Paris when he was young. Coke ad with nude people diving off a yacht. Are they allowed to do that? he asks. Here they are,
says I. Who knows, that might have been the first step toward his living in Europe. Scary.

Still, I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you. Or, maybe I'm just living in a delusional bubble. And same weight I was this time last week, to the decimal point.

Down .1lb. I can't even say that with a straight face, but I didn't expect any different. I am still down some inches and a slight amount of body fat. I'm going for maintaining over Thanksgiving.

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hugs

Good grief! When did you post those numbers in your signature? and the pictures? Great! Everything's great. Have I had my head in the sand? And the cookbook looks good, too. I'll bet you're over the moon.

Tried to order the cookbook since they say some of their orders came from Japan. No dice.