Disregard my signature. It's not right. I'm not sure what I weigh or I'd update it. I've been afraid to get on the scale. I know its in the 200s. Not sure where. My 14s still fit but are pretty tight so I'm almost exclusively wearing my 16s again. I will try to get the courage to weigh in tomorrow morning. I recognize a few people from the last time I was here. Congrats for staying on track!

Not to make excuses but I've been going through fertility treatments after over 3 years of TTC and that combined with the fact that I tapered off my anti-depressant (in an effort to be off of it if I got pregnant) has been a bad combo for my weight. I was going to do IVF but we decided to try some IUIs first. I wish I had just done the IVF and gotten it over in one shot not that it would have been successful. IUIs haven't worked yet but the drugs give me PMS cramps at ovulation and very bad PMS during the last two weeks. I get ravenously hungry and my full/satisfied switch doesn't exist. I'm also pretty depressed with no energy almost all the time.

I've stayed pretty good eating-wise for breakfast and lunch. It's dinners at night that I have difficulty with. But I'm starting to get sick of my work food and unsure what to sub for it.

Breakfast is pb toast (1 tbsp pb, 2 slices toast) or oatmeal or cereal
Morning snack - string cheese
lunch - leftovers or can of soup or sandwich, baby carrots, fruit (apple/orange now or in the summer it was blueberries or strawberries that was the best!)
dinner - crap shoot plus desserts

I'm aware my weight can be affecting my fertility but my doctor isn't concerned with it and said there was no reason I shouldn't be able to get pregnant (we have severe male factor). When he told me that months ago I think I sort of took that as I was 'okay' and quit tracking my food. But I know being overweight and pregnant can lead to added problems too...so I want to get back on track.

I had a binge Sunday night (on chili and cornbread and brownies no less I was soooo sick that night but during it I just felt hungry so I kept eating just a little more and a little more. I was wishing I would just throw it all up but I can't make myself throw up and I know that's wrong anyway), so that was another wake up call for me that I needed to get back on track.

Anyway I thought I'd start back here and see how everyone was doing.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I am glad you are here! I think your goal to track is exactly what you need. I know if I try to go back & track after the fact I am no where near as good as I should be.

I really like to eat at night. I eat sparingly during the day to save most of my calories for the evening. It seems to work better for me that way. It's pretty easy for me to have a fiber bar & coffee for breakfast & then a salad & sandwich for lunch. I usually have 800-900 calories for my evening meal & snack. Yes, snack too!





I was afraid to weigh back in September. It had been about a year since I had weighed. I was so determined to do something about my weight though, and I knew I'd want to know what my starting weight was. So, I just bit the bullet and bought a scale. I just told myself that it didn't matter what the starting number on that scale was, because I am changing my life, changing my decisions, and that number was not going to be around for long. And here it is almost three months later & I've lost 30 pounds!

You know what sweetie? You've been under a lot of stress, fell off track, and gained a few pounds. You're human, it happens, and you can change it if you set your mind to it. The first day or two is always the hardest it seems and for me personally, the day after mini-goals is always a challenge to not become complacent. Just start back building a tighter routine and you'll catch your groove again. Don't look back, just move forward. Just look at what you've already accomplished! That is awesome! Setback or not, you should be proud of that!

Hi Elizabeth and welcome back to 3FC! Good to see you again.

I don't have any magic words of advice, but I think you've made a great first step by being accountable to yourself and coming back here for support. We all have our own unique challenges with weight loss (of course some have more difficult obstacles than others)...but even if we haven't gone through exactly what someone else has gone through, we can usually relate on some level and give each other the support we all need along this journey.

You've lost weight before, so you know how to do it again. Start small, set attainable goals and take it one day at a time. You've got this!

Sorry you're going through tough times. I have no words of "wisdom," but I can offer a practical suggestion from one calorie-counter to another: I start counting my "day's" calories with dinner. So, from 5 p.m. tonight until 5 p.m. tomorrow will be one "day's" calories for me. I started doing that because, like you, dinner is often a crap shoot. It's my most unpredictable and calorie-laden meal. I can more easily control breakfast and lunch. I've managed to stay within my calorie range so much more easily since I started tracking this way.

Thanks RachaelM and 4star!

I do that too I only eat like 800 calories during the day (if that) and then the rest of my calories at night. When I was at 2000 calories a day it was sooo easy but when I got to the 190s I dropped my calorie count and it became harder to stick to my calorie allotment (1700 was my old goal).

I've thought of joining weight watchers since i have an aunt, cousin and sister in law on that losing weight but I just think its silly since its just calorie counting in a convoluted way. (my apology to anyone on it here)

I'm going to the grocery store tonight so I hope to make some good choices there.

Thanks again!

Hi Northern! You are one of the ones i recognized! Congrats on your loss!!! Yes I can do it again. I hate that I keep having to. My 14s are just starting to get uncomfortably tight so hopefully I haven't gained that much and I can get back on track easy.

Lin43- Good idea! I make a weekly dinner menu it just sometimes gets tweaked and portion sizes are horrible. DH and I will eat an entire thing of hamburger helper or an entire frozen pizza each, etc. I'm going to try and make better dinner choices this week and plan better!!!

Thanks again everyone!

Wow. I never thought about doing that but it makes so much sense. What a great idea! That is a smart, really practical way to work around your natural eating habits!

Thanks LilButterflyWings!

Well I weighed in this morning. 209.6! Bad but not as bad as I thought. I struggled between 190s and low 200s for a very long time (depending on the time of the month). The last time I was weighed at the doctors (fully clothed and in the afternoon) I was 204. That was August before I started my treatments. I thought I surely gained a lot more not that 10 lbs isn't a lot (assuming i was 199ish without clothes/food).

I put my new weight into the Daily Plate and put that I wanted to lose a pound a week and it gave me only 1564 calories! That seems really low. Not sure how well I will achieve that. I think I will really aim at under 2000 with an ultimate goal of getting down to their goal.

baby steps.

1564 seems low to me too. My lose it app gives me a budget of 1550 at 173 lbs to lose 1 lb/week. (It assumes a sedentary lifestyle and you add in your own exercise.) I plugged in your height/weight and it tells me 1742. Maybe you might want to try a few different calculators and pick a number from there?

Thanks Northern. I swear I had over 1700 when I was in 190s too! I think Daily Plate changed their calculator or something. Congrats again on your 100 lb loss!!!

Thanks It was a long time coming! Granted I intentionally maintained my weight over the summer, but I've been in the 170's since April. Finaly broke the 174 (100 lbs) mark around Thanksgiving. I'm really hoping I can keep things moving along now, but it definitely gets harder the smaller you get.

Glad to see you joined the CC challenge! Those really help me and keep me accountable. Again, welcome back

I so feel for you! I can't imagine how frustrating that must be, and feeling like crap all the time because of the treatments sounds like no fun! I just want to encourage you that you can do this! And you're right, your weigh-in was not bad! One of the things that I think would motivate me in your situation is your desire to get pregnant. I am not quite there yet (trying to finish school first) but hubby and I are definitely planning it for the nearish future and I know I want to lose a significant amount of weight before I do get pregnant because I want to have a healthy pregnancy (one of my friends weighed less than me and was on bed rest for 3 months with pre-eclampsia, plus I know of people who have had gestational diabetes, and that's no fun, either). I can't imagine how devastated I would be if there was a problem with my baby that I felt like, in some way, I could have prevented. Also, I don't want to be a fat mom! I want my kids to grow up with healthy eating habits and healthy weights. As stressful as life is now, I can only imagine how much more stressful and how many more excuses I will have when I have kids to deal with on top of everything else, so I think it's good practice to start now.

I think under 2000 calories is a great way to start to get you back into this, but you mentioned that you were having trouble with 1700 last time you were losing. I think there are some things you can do to make that 1700 go a lot further, just looking at what you were saying about what you are eating for breakfast and lunch. First, what kind of bread are you eating? The difference between 2 100 calorie slices and 2 50 calorie slices is a whole snack later in the day! Also, to me, as much as I love peanutbutter, a little pb sandwich would not be enough to hold me in the morning for as many calories as it would be. If that pb sandwich is 250 cal, you could be eating three eggwhites (50), salsa(10), a piece of toast (50)with sf jam(10), three slices of center-cut bacon(70), and a sf yogurt (60)for the same amount of calories. It's all about the volume!