Usually when I'm up more than a few pounds (water weight, a weekend off plan), I give myself several days before I change my ticker (I do give myself about 5 lbs leeway - 10 during TOM, because I usually gain about 8 in water weight, but have gained as much as 12).

For the first time, I find myself in a different quandary. I've have a really bad cold, that started about 5 days ago, and I've dropped several pounds - enough to be fairly certain that some of this is dehydration (even though I'm drinking so much I feel waterlogged).

It is so tempting to change my ticker (Hey, I did lose the weight, by fair or by foul), but I think I'm going to wait until a few days after I recover, to make sure the weight loss is fat loss, and not dehydration.

One the plus side (?), usually when I have a cold, it feels so good to have something going down my throat, that I tend to overeat, even if I can't taste anything. I've been quasi-nauseous the whole time, so I really haven't tried to eat anything very solid.

Though I've eaten a few gallons (yep gallons) of soup. The first two days, I made and ate little more than my usual cold or flu cocktail - a huge soup pot of chicken broth, bouillon or soup base, and some seasonings, including a lot of garlic and hot peppers (about 10 to 20 calories a mug).

Capsaicin (found in hot peppers) is chemically very similar to gaifenesin (the active ingredient in Mucinex), and a whole lot cheaper (though I've been taking both).

I haven't resorted to cayenne lemonade yet (my bronchitis and pneumonia remedy). I didn't invent the crazy treatment, I read about it in Chile Pepper magazine. Apparently chile peppers have been a folk remedy for respiratory infections for centuries, and there've been some research support for it's healing and preventative effects for respiratory illnesses. I read some of the studies, and figured I had nothing to lose. Although I could not drink it hot as the article suggested, so my compromise is spicy broth and cold cayenne lemonade.

As much as I love spicy foods, I have to be pretty desperate to bring out the big guns of the cayenne lemonade (it's very effective though, and relieves the pain of a sore throat too - although perhaps by being a counterirritant - the pain of the pepper distracts you from the pain of the sore throat).

I've read that capsaicin and other micronutrients in chile peppers can increase metabolism (usually only the most dedicated of chili heads would ever eat enough peppers to see any noticeable effects), but with the round-the-clock pepper-broth sipping, it could be helping.

I'm not sure that I'd want to stay on the chili pepper diet, though.

But after reading this article, maybe I should:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?t...dspice&dbid=29

Change your ticker! LOL

Gosh being less than your ticker seems to be a rarity around here lately. You don't know how many times I've read quick confessions from long time members that they are up sometime as much as 20 POUNDS, but they refuse to change their ticker/weight loss markers. I can understand a pound or 2 because of normal fluctuation but when it gets much past 5 pounds it sure seems to defeat the "self honesty" and "accountability" concept of weight loss.

I'm not 20 lbs above my ticker (well I don't really have a ticker) but I am above my tracker. The reason I haven't changed it is because that is my own personal goal to get back there and I will not accept my weight gain as being permanent. I will happily explain to anyone that no I don't weigh 202, I'm about 10 lbs above that and if someone doesn't like it, I'm sorry but the number is there for me, not them.

That's cool Nelie, you should do what ever makes you happy....But does that mean then, because I WANT to weigh 133 that i should put that under my "current weight"? It just seem if I did that it would be deceiving to others. If I really thought I could get to 133 I would put that as my goal, not my current weight.

I tend to agree with nelie that my ticker/tracker is mine to use however is best for me. I don't care how people use their own (or whether they're 100 lbs from their reported weight).

As long as I'm within a few pounds of the ticker/tracker, I don't feel dishonest (with myself).

Actually, it's only been in the last six months that I've used my ticker this way (deciding to change it upwardly if I spent more than 4 or 5 days at the higher weight). Before that, I gave myself permission to keep my tracker number at it's lowest point, so long as I didn't give up. I don't think I was ever 20 lb over my lowest weight, but I know I've been more than 10 (especially around TOM).

To be honest, I'm not so concerned with my ticker being "deceptive" to others. In an online forum, not everyone is who they say they are, and I think most people are aware of that (or should be).


Because there's no way to validate accuracy, I don't really see online communications as true accountability (no one would know if I'm lying - for all anyone knows I could be 100 lbs heavier than I'm claiming and the photo in my avatar could be old - or not even of my husband and I). For that matter, I could weigh 90 lbs, and just like talking about weight loss. I may not even be a woman. I could be 12 years old or 90.

I think most people online are essentially truthful, but not for anyone's benefit other than their own (lying is exhausting work, and not many folks have the skill to pull it off before inconsistencies start showing up and they're called on it).

My ticker and tracker really are only for me. When I change my ticker as soon as I can, and then gain (but am still in my leeway), I still can feel that the lowest weight "didn't really count."

If most of this weight loss is water loss, then I'm going to feel bad changing my ticker back (or I won't do it, and I'll still feel bad). But the feeling bad has little to do with inspiring or disappointing anyone else.

On the plus side, In terms of the cold, I'm starting to feel much better (and haven't had to resort to cayenne lemondade).

I'm not entirely safe from pneumonia as I've had colds and sinus infections seem to get better before turning into pneumonia. My last bout (April, I think), I almost argued with the doctor that I couldn't have pneumonia, because I was feeling better than I had earlier in the course of the infection.

But, so far, so good. I'm really looking forward to getting far more of the weight off - it probably won't cure my autoimmune disease, but I'm thinking it should shore up my immunity at least some.

Lori, I'd say do whatever makes you happy. I was down to 202 a couple times and I'll be down there again sometime. When it changed to 202, it was my current weight. Again, its mostly for me, not others and isn't meant to deceive anyone.

I don't really look at peoples tickers/trackers so I wouldn't notice if someone's ticker/tracker was off and people's weight does fluctuate whether it is because of their own personal struggles or something simply as being sick or TOM so I don't expect trackers/tickers to be 100% accurate anyway.

I think if the tickers are not updated due to a gain, maybe its:

* because it's emotionally painful for the person that gained

* a carrot on a string to remind them that they need to keep at it

* simply forgotten. When was the last time I dusted the top of my fridge?

But I personally would never think of it as being deceitful any more than ... wearing baggy clothes!

Of course there are limits - but I hope that people don't feel like their posts are cross referenced to their tickers after reading this thread.

I just changed my ticker..painfully so. I just want to be honest with myself and clearing the 200lb mark is a huge motivator to get back on the mark, get set, go! Seriously, I feel out of control. Changing my ticker is a wake-up call for me.

techwife - soon enough, you'll be below that 200 lb mark

And for me, I don't actually plan to change my ticker unless

1) I somehow go into a gaining mode and go past 220 or
2) I get down to the 180s. Even when I get to the 190s, I won't be sure/accept that weight until I am beyond it just because my weight has bounced around a lot in the past couple years.

Wow, I had no idea people actually paid a lot of attention to other people's tickers!!

I look people's tickers all the time. Usually to see how much weight they lost and their current weight is relative to mine. I don't really care how the tickers are used I guess, Although i never thought about it much. I will say that I change mine as soon as my weight goes down, no matter what causes the loss...

I check people's tickers constantly. Not out of nosiness or anything...I just like to know where the people that are encouraging me stand. I have to admit I often feel a little more proud if a maintainer happens to compliment than someone who is in the same struggle as me (although I am VERY proud to receive those, also!)

Also, it's nice to see someone with the same general stats and know that I'm not the only 5'6/175lb girl out there. :P

I think people are free to use their tickers/trackers however they please. However, I would have to say that personally I always record a loss, no matter what. And I'd like to think that I would hold myself accountable for any gained, as well. My ticker is my way to boast AND to remind myself of my faults.

Kaplods, I think you nailed it. Who are we to dictate how people manage their personal tickers in regards to their goals? For me, maintenance is a forever changing and fluid concept. More often than not, I am at 145, but there are periods where that isn't always the case and I'm certainly not going to live and die by the almighty ticker if I know that it's merely a basis for my own reality or goals.

The point is, I've been able to maintain a healthy lifestyle and a very significant weightloss for several years now and that's the real tracker to me.

To be honest, I'm really surprised that the tracker issue (didn't even know it would be an issue) would draw so much attention.

I expected more surprise and comment on the cayenne lemonade.

When I was still working (I'm on disability for several issues, including an autoimmune disease attacking my respiratory tract and skin), before I was on a medication cocktail that worked, I would have bouts of bronchitis that would last for weeks, even months - so I often had to go to work sick (not when I was contagious, more often than not I was on antibiotics and steroids).


I'd bring my pinker-than-pink lemonade to work. I'd even mix it up at my desk when I needed a refill - Pink lemonade drink mix (the Aldi or Walmart version of Crystal Light), real lemon slices from the cafeteria, and up to a teaspoon of cayenne pepper (usually a quarter teaspoon would do) from a spice jar, and ice cubes.

Drinking it super ice cold, helped a little bit (the chill gave the illusion of counteracting some of the heat - if only for a couple seconds).

I really didn't advertise that I was drinking cayenne lemonade, but I had told a few of my office friends what I was drinking (my cubicle mate, asked when he saw me putting spice into the drink if it was cinnamon, and I told him no, cayenne pepper).

What's funny is that I started getting visits from people in other departments, mostly just people curiously wanting to verify that I was actually drinking cayenne lemonade, but a few (who had severe sinus issues themselves) wanted to know about it's effectiveness (Very) and it's taste (not so great, but not as bad as you'd think).

One of the most interested was actually one of the department heads. He had severe sinus and lung issues himself, and had also noticed that spicy foods helped, but he'd never thought of adding cayenne to beverages. He was so impressed that I did have to admit I hadn't invented the concoction, and told him about the Chile Pepper magazine article, including their advice that it worked even better steaming hot (and my wussiness about taking it that far).

He laughed and said he thought he was "macho enough" to handle it, but that he'd let me know. He later did admit that it worked better hot, but agreed that it tasted better cold.

Although there were a lot of people who were curious, I don't know that anyone else ever tried it. Though I did meat several people who ate spicy food whenever they had a cold.

When I first started getting more respiratory illnesses than was normal, I was working in a courthouse building one block from a chinese restaurant that made the best hot and sour soup, and one block in the other direction from a thai restaurant that had a lot of wonderful hot and spicy foods and soups.

That was when I first noticed that I could usually (at that time) keep from getting sick by eating at one of those restaurants at least once a week (and if I did get a cold or sinus infection - I was at the chinese restaurant ordering the hot and sour soup every day for lunch until the cold went away).