I made that last post and then it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

I don’t mean to be so negative lately, I’ve just been going strong since May, I don’t feel painfully fat anymore and “diet fatigue” is starting to set in. TOM just came so tomorrow’s weigh in will probably be even uglier than it needs to be. TOM is great news though. I have PCOS and the fact that I got my past 3 periods like clockwork means my hormones are becoming more normalized.

I plan to get tomorrow over with and try and finish the challenge strong. I would LOVE to be down to 175ish by the end of this thing. I can definitely do it. All this over eating really revved up my metabolism; if I put a good week together I should lose what I gained and then some.

Themilesawaygirl – thanks for the encouragement. I guess we’ve both been a bit negative lately.

PollifaxFive - on 40 pounds. That makes a HUGE difference on your overall health.

I lost 4 pounds this week! I thought I wouldn't have lost much this week or maybe even have gained since TOM is due any day now, but hey, I don't mind.

That pushes me past 50 pounds lost since April!

Still sitting at the same weight... I've been on plan, so I measured, and I'm losing cm, so am hoping the scales catch up soon! I've been doing c25k, and it's almost TTOM, so it might be water retention even.

Congratulations to everybody this week!

First time in a while I've been excited to post on here. Stickin with it!

Just take me off the challenge. I'm just not able to stick with it right now...too busy with school and other things. I'm still around and NOT gaining, but I'm not actively losing right now either and I don't want to still be on the list if my weight isn't going anywhere. Maybe I can get on board with the next challenge.

~*Quote of the Week*~

“Progress is always slow, and uneven, but if you manage to be moving in the right direction – creating something a little better than what we had before – the pain is worth it. That’s the trick: you’ve got to learn to love the pain, to own it, to make sure it doesn’t kill you. Day by day, year by year, you get stronger.” – Gary Gensler


*** I saw this quote in a book I just finished “Confidence Men” by Ron Suskind. I literally bookmarked the page and wrote it down. I hope you guys like it.


~*3rd Quarter MVP*~
abejune23 – With 7 pounds and 4.02% lost over the past 3 weeks


~*Biggest Loser*~
FassGal


~*Honorable Mention*~
PollifaxFive & my2cats


~*Dean's List*~
FassGal
PollifaxFive
my2cats
fatsincebirth
LongTallBee
do the robot


~*5% Star*~
Ryler832

.
.


.
.

Sorry I was a little late in getting this stuff up. It's been a crazy past few days. This morning I ran a Halloween 5 k in freezing rain off the ocean. The course was re-routed due to flooding. I had a huge yellow rain coat on and people were running in full costumes. A crazy event.

Also with my progress....

Baseline : 197.6
Week 1 : 192.7
Week 2 : 191.4
Week 3 : 191.4
Week 4 : 191.5
Week 5 : 188.2
Week 6 : 186.6
Week 7 : 188.8
Week 8 : 185.2
Week 9 : 192.6

The weigh in was coming off of a bad eating-without-abandon 4-5 day stretch AND TOM on top of that. I'm up a bit but not THAT much. I just like to fess up to the number in order to keep the weigh ins honest. I brought back my food diary yesterday and have been religiously logging everything I eat since. The diary has taken away that "uncontrolled eating" feeling. I plan to go hardcore on Phase 1 south beach come Monday. I feel like the slip is officially over.

At the very least I am still down from my beginning number

Yay! So many stars! I'm super happy about how this challenge has motivated me. It really has made me feel accountable and helped me see my progress. I hope we can expect another challenge after the end of this one! You've done a great job organizing, Scarlett.

In addition, all this talk of running has inspired me to start running too. I'm currently doing interval training, trying to work up to 5k by building muscles and endurance. I'm enjoying it so far, and it really helps to know that women of all sizes are runners, so that I understand it's not simply a "you can only ride this roller coaster if you're 120 pounds or under" kind of thing. xD

Aannd, I saw my sister today, and she was very impressed with my weight loss. She kept on forcing me to try on size 8 coats. Admittedly, I think she was overestimating the variety in sizes from one brand to another, but I appreciate that she thinks I lost that much, haha. I am officially a size 12!

@Scarlett, I admire your ability to carry through! That's dedication. I barely walked through the snow today, but hopefully I will be that fit of a runner in the future. I still can't believe it's snowing like this in October. Wow.

177.4 last weigh in. I'm a little upset that I've had a gain, but now a few days have passed and I'm getting over it. I've experimented with just staying under 1400, but eating things I didn't dare eat 4 months ago (like a caramel/nut apple as opposed to an apple) so I wonder is that it? Is it TOM coming or not coming? In perimenopause I don't know if TOM still causes temporary weight gain even when it doesn't arrive. Is my body and conditions fighting me? All questions I ask myself.

Also, I'm just losing steam. I know I have to regroup. I can find plenty of things to blame---I'm feeling blameful and petulant rather than accountable. That is a bad territory to be in.

However, I resolve to sink my teeth into this again----tomorrow. En route to work, I'm going to pick up a 6 pack of Glucerna (diabetic slimfast) and a fruit salad. That covers breakfast and lunch for 2 days. I'll also allow myself a cup of skim milk in coffees throughout the work day. That should get me through to dinner. Dinner, I won't sweat. So long as I just eat a plate, I'll be good. I won't count calories for the week, or track food, or eat subscribed foods, or avoid subscribed foods--just let myself be. I know, calorically and nutritiously I'll be okay for the week. And, I vow to stay off the scale for a bit. How long, I don't know. I was obsessing, and I don't like that at all. Better to go for a month knowing I'm "on plan" with a chance of a loss in 4 weeks than to drive myself nuts daily and/or even weekly. I have my last WW weighin this Wednesday, even tho I don't want to do it and I've not followed WW's plan since week 9. The amount of people on WWPP in my atwork plan who are staying basically at the same weight is staggering. How they can be happy with a plan that doesn't work for them astounds me.
I'm actually sorry I gave it 8 weeks of my effort...I truly know had I started with calorie counting, I'd be down about 20 pounds in the same amount of time it took me to lose 10.

I've marked myself as "off" on the chart for the remainder of the challenge.

As a group, we've all done well, and I'm proud of us all.

Continued good luck throughout the remainder.

@124chicksinger, I'm sorry to hear that you're facing some difficulties, but your results in the long-term show that the obstacles in the present won't prevent your reaching your goal in the future. Congrats on your tremendous weight loss since 198 lbs. I wish you the best of luck in finding what works for you! I know you can do it. <3

Hi, all...I've been hiding from you guys but figured I'd better turn myself in if I want to stay at all accountable! I'm up a little bit this week, probably due to Halloween candy. I'm so good at saying no to cookies, pies, cakes...but put a little piece of wrapped candy where I can see it and it sings a siren song!

Anyway, off to a fresh start this month and determined to lose at least a little more weight before Thanksgiving. I already did well at work by ignoring the huge bags of leftover candy my co-workers brought in! I love how people do that and say, "Had to get it out of the house!" I always feel like, "Gee, thanks, you know it's bad for you so you brought it here for me to eat!" :P

It’s time to catch up a little. I just started a new job (lots of orientation activities and tests) and had a busy weekend.


PollifaxFive – a few people PMed me about doing a holiday challenge. I’ll probably do something like a 6 week “survive the holidays” challenge following the same rules. It will probably start right as this one ends. I’ll figure out the details soon.

Good luck with running. I started with intervals too. It is so empowering. Also, thanks for the congrats on my race. It was really fun.

124chicksinger – No Worries! You need to do what’s best for you. Sometimes we all get a little too crazy with dieting and need a controlled break. I’ll take you out of the charts. Good Luck!

Bronte155 – The candy bowl did me in too. If junk food isn’t around, I’m fine and I don’t miss it. The second the candy bowl appears, I turn into a crazy person. It didn’t help that the candy showed up right as my pre-tom sugar cravings started. Anyway I’m back on track now. Great job with pulling it together and not letting a minor setback keep you down.



As for me…

I started Phase One South Beach yesterday (basically no sugar or simple carbs). So far I’ve been perfect. The “sugar withdrawal” is killing me though; just headaches, tiredness and I feel like crap. It’s the pain of getting all the sugar and crap out of my system. I know the worst of it will be over in a day or two though. I should post a good number this week. I lose like crazy when I follow it strictly.

Eh, a gain this week. Although I have been noticing that my scale goes gain - loss - gain - loss every other week. I haven't been doing anything differently, so I'll just wait for next week to see if I need to find the crux of the problem. Good lucks folks!

I didn't gain or lose this week. I didn't try as hard as I wanted to. I only exercised 4 days instead of my usual 6. I'm getting back on track this minute.

Hey guys I'm going to enter my weight tomorrow morning.

Hoping for a big number as I have been perfect with south beach phase 1 since Monday.

Good Night