Cant get rid of this water weight *cries*

I don't think crying will be sufficient enough :-)

Is there a particular reason you're trying to get rid of the water weight?

I'm trying to get rid of a hangover... I had some wine on the 5th (6th was our independence day) and my head is still hurting. So annoying. The good thing is that I don't crave hangover foods. Still would rather be feeling healthy and happy though. Oh well.

Today is my fasting day, but considering that I didn't eat enough yesterday, I'll probably end up eating something a bit.

I entertained myself today a bit with lotionmaking. There was an article about a "body sculpting" cream on Daily Mail which was super expensive, but claims to be efficient. So I checked the active ingredients and realized that I had all of them, so I made such a cream myself plus added couple of other active ingredients :-) Unfortunately I tried out a new emulsification system in the same time and it wasn't totally successful, but the lotion is still usable and sinks in the skin really fast and leaves the skin quite soft (and a bit tingly). We'll see how it works :-) Took a bit of effort, but at least it wasn't 75GBP for a tiny amount!

Well so nice to meet you all... I just started this journey 53 yrs old 325 and been at this for about a week.... dr. orders... always very confident being overweight and active it never bothered... now that I am older however, things are changing and it is definetly an issue. So things much change... always been a mover and shaker so lets hope I can get this issue reined in..... Would love to be part of this group, you all seem very smart and motiviated. cheers to a new future..

Welcome! :-) I'm really glad to see a mover and shaker with confidence! Right attitude is so important in everything. I hope it's contagious! :-)

Good to have another fiftyplus member on board. I'll be 57 next month and I'm still waiting for menopause.

F.

A thought for Monday morning, something I've been thinking about a lot the past week: the object of your focus is the thing that will grow. I'm constantly reminding myself of that, as I sometimes have a tendency to start focusing too much on problems instead of solutions.

My last week was a bit chaotic when it came to diet and exercise. I did manage to eat some fish and I was under maintenance calories, but eating small amounts of mostly carbs has a tendency to make me very...jiggly. So I thought that I'd switch to more protein for a while to get things going. I have a ton of diet books and for no real reason other than convenience I decided to take on the 2 week start from the Eades' book "Six-Week Cure for the Middle-Aged Middle". So essentially three protein shakes per day + one meal. It also calls for getting rid of caffeine. I already had a cup of coffee before deciding to do this, but I guess I'll skip it for the rest of the two weeks.

Still doing IF every day, except I'll probably have to skip the Sunday fasts during this time. Then it's going to be Christmas and after that it's back to seeing what needs to be done next!

I *still* didn't manage to get to the gym. There's always an excuse: bad weather, stomach cramps, not enough time... Oh well. Need to try again this week!

Going strong with the exercise and zigzagging calories. Even though I'm down with a cold I still managed to get my workout in. Previously I'd have taken any excuse to avoid it, now I panic a little if I think I'm going to miss out!

@Paisleymama: that's great! I mean not the cold, but managing to get on with the workouts. I wish I had that mentality :-)

I am soooo sleepy. I gave my body all that protein, and even if it was in the protein powder form (it's not great, but I need to get rid of some of it, so it's practical)...it just seems to be lapping it all up. It's like my brain is saying "OK, thanks, now go to sleep. This body is now closed for maintenance."

I am starting my second six months of this journey. My goals are to:

1. Never go 2 days without exercise. I can miss a day here and there but not 2.

2. I'm a diabetic so I need to keep my blood sugar under control and as close to normal as possible by keeping my diet low in starchy carbs.

3. Lose weight, I'd like to be down a hundred pounds by my birthday in June which is about 35 more pounds.

4. Take less or maybe even no medicine for my blood pressure.

I've never had this mentality before, I guess I've finally formed the habit and I'm really motivated and giving it 100%, whereas before I was just plodding along reluctantly.

I was sleepy for a while there, too. Especially when I cut the carbs. I hope your body adjusts to the added protein and you get some energy back.

@lotsakids: Great goals you have and all perfectly attainable!

@Paisleymama: I actually do have energy, I'm not lethargic, but I just sleep a lot and really well :-) It's nothing negative at all! I got inspired by you and went for a walk today. Granted, I was also inspired to get to the grocery store, but still! :-)

I've had the weirdest week thus far, in a very positive way. All kinds of things I've wanted have went my way in an almost eerie way. I think about something and soon it's there. I'm actually really psyched about this, and I'm focusing on all kinds of very positive life changes. I'm totally seeing my healthy, slender self in the near future :-)

Also, funny thing. I've been using the "slimming" body lotion I made. I was just on a walk and I swear I was sweating more from the places where I had put the cream (tummy and upper arms). There has been some research on topical l-carnitine enhancing fat burning, but I didn't quite expect anything like this. OK, I am still sceptical, but why not focus on the possible positive effects :-)

My weird week continued as weird. Throughout the week, things were just going my way all the time in small ways here and there. I have to share some of these with you, because it was so weird in a nice way.

On Monday I was supposed to have physical therapy. Nothing is wrong with me anymore, so I felt like I don't want to go there now (it was originally for my lower back which I injured at the gym). I didn't want to call the therapist in the morning, so I sent her an e-mail asking if I could reschedule to January and that I'd call later if I didn't receive a response from her. About thirty minutes later, I get a call. I thought it was my therapist, but it was some other woman calling on her behalf. She said that I was scheduled for that day, but asked if it would be possible to cancel and reschedule. I asked her if she was calling because of the e-mail I sent. She had no idea about the e-mail. She said that the therapist couldn't make it that day and she was calling to reschedule, and didn't want to call earlier and asked if we could reschedule to January. I was just laughing, because she said the exact same things I had written in the e-mail!

Then I was going to receive a package from US (Coastal Scents Black Friday sale, yay!) and I knew it was going to be rather heavy, but the car is at the shop at the moment. It was really nasty weather, and I hated the idea of walking to the post office to get the package (I had chosen the USPS instead of the courier service). Yet, even though I wasn't using the courier service, the post office delivered the package to my door, so I didn't have to go out and get it.

Then I went to the grocery store. I had been thinking about blackberries before and wondered what they smelled like and tasted like and had also been thinking that I'd want a concentrated juice that wasn't sweetened with aspartame to use in my protein shakes. I had just checked before this one cheap brand and they used aspartame and I was bummed about that. I get to the store and check out the juice section, and behold: there is a blackberry flavored juice sweetened with stevia from that cheap brand! I thought...OK...this is getting weird.

Then I wanted to go to my gym's Christmas party, but wasn't sure if I wanted to go alone or not. Especially as I haven't been at the gym for over a month! I have a membership for a full year, but I've felt bad about wasting that month. Anyway, so my friend says that she wants to go there with me (she used to work at that gym, so she knew the place) and so she signed up us both (and paid for us both). It was a really cold evening and I hated the idea of walking to the gym (takes about 20-30 minutes), but she decided to take the car, so I got a lift. The evening was nice and then...I got one month's membership for free! I can add that to my current membership, so basically I got a second chance on that one month I just wasted :-) I knew they were going to give out cards with various lowered prices, so there were cards like "10 times, -60%" but I got exactly the one I had wanted!

So weird... Not complaining though! :-) I'm a very happy bunny right now.

SparklyBunny it sounds like a lovely week! How cool is it things worked out for you!!

Today I managed my first proper interval training workout And ive tracked all my calories and staying within them even though ive had some slip ups.