Michelle, good luck with Dewey. For his breed, top differentials would be endocrine disorder (Cushing's syndrome), then diabetes; fingers crossed that it's not kidney failure. Cushing's is quite treatable, so not a terrible diagnosis.

My remaining older dog has a partial slipped disc that started Sunday; she's still paraplegic but slowly improving. Fingers crossed she continues to improve. We're not considering surgery - she's not a great candidate due to her bad arthritis, and she's borderline for needing surgery anyway. She has bladder incontinence as a result, as well. DH just got back from taking care of his mom post-op, and we have a to-do list the size of Texas for the upcoming 3-day weekend (things like: tear down giant barbed wire fence; mow 6 acres of brushland). Of course my parents called last night and said "we're coming up to see you!" I want to be happy - but I have a partially paralyzed incontinent dog to care for, a filthy house and unkempt land threatening to consume us in our sleep, and this is the single weekend in May or June that DH and I have where we are both home.

Just my 2 cents' worth JayZee. Say no to your parents. It's hard but it can be done. You and your DH need some alone time to be a couple.

Dagmar

Michelle Good luck with Dewey. I've walked 3 dogs with diabetes and 2 with Cushings. Their lives can be quite normal but tend to be shorter than those of healthy pets.

Dagmar

Dewey update-- all labs (blood, urine) came back normal. So... no idea why he's doing what he's doing, but at least it's not Cushings or Diabetes or kidney failure. I'm to watch his weight (he's lost some weight but it is at a good weight now) and if he keeps losing, we'd need to do ultrasound and other testing.

My back (did I mention I fell at kickball yesterday?!) is not great. Better than yesterday but definitely not good. Trying to baby it and not sit down too long, or I can't get up. Ugh. Didn't exercise last night and did an easy dance video this morning, which went ok. I don't want to skip again this afternoon but I'm trying to be smart about it...

Good news about Dewey! But it might be behavioural then - any changes in the house? Hope your back feels better soon!

Dagmar

Trixie's xrays were clean! Recheck in 6 months or if some other symptom comes up.

Dagmar

Friday's weigh in was fine. 135.4 lbs. By this coming Friday I should be in the summer zone -

Dagmar :

Well my weight was back down at 147.4 this weekend, but then yesterday I was so weirdly hungry late in the day that I ended up eating a bunch after dinner and now it's 149. Sigh. I feel like I've been sabotaging myself every time I start to close in on passing that boundary from "overweight" to "normal weight" (which is 145 for my height). Yesterday was like an adventure in me trying to make the right choices and then messing it up. We went out to lunch, and I got a salad and ate only half of it. Then I was really craving ice cream, so we did go to ice cream, but I split mine with both my kids so had a very reasonable portion. Healthy leftovers for dinner put me only a couple hundred calories over my losing target and well within maintaining target. Then after dinner I was just so hungry that I ended up eating half a serving of leftover veggie lasagna and some raisin bran. On the one hand, at least I picked food with some nutritional value. On the other hand, I totally blew my calorie budget with that.

On the good side, my engagement ring fits me again -- not the wedding ring yet but it's close. Also I've been pretty active lately. Running 3x/week in the morning and I'm back up to running 2 miles with my time improving so hopefully will soon be exceeding that. Went swimming with the kids this weekend, did a lot of walking, and yesterday they came along on my jog with me (on their bikes) which was nice.

Goal for this week: stick to my @#$#@ calorie budget the rest of the week.

i'm still hovering around (stalking) this thread, and can't bring myself to do proper maintenance experimenting til I'm below my (changing) target. Originally I was going for 56kg, then I decided it would be better to start my experiments at the bottom of the 'wiggle zone' so now i'm aiming for 54kg. After a whoosh this week i'm nearly there and was 54.3 on the scales yesterday and 54.4 today, so half a kg (1lb) more and that's it....

Mentioned this on another thread, but it's interesting that the advice to switch to maintenance is to add say 10% calories and see whether that works, then add a bit more etc til you stay steady - BUT this is the exact same advice as if you've been on a low calorie diet but have stalled a bit and want to bump up the metabolism (i.e. all those posts that scream 'you're eating too few calories' 'you have to eat more to lose'). So which is it? I've been eating at around 900 cal all year which has worked fine for me - but when I increase which way will it go? Am I suddenly going to lose faster (don't think so!....) or transition to maintenance?


Does anyone have any experience of eating more, perhaps because you were switching to maintenance, but ended up losing faster? (you can already tell i'm sceptical about this!).

I think that given you've been averaging 900 cals, you can expect to gain some weight when you raise your calories.

There is a lot of folklore about weight loss. Remember that you are an experiment of one. What happens to others may or may not happen to you.

You're not alone in getting to a goal weight and then thinking, "Oh, I'll just go a little lower to have some wiggle room." Of course that can be a never-ending strategy and it isn't sustainable. At some point you'll need to decide to just stay where you are.

People like to think the body is a machine, and so weight loss and weight gain is just a matter of calories in/calories out. It is not that simple. The body is alive and has its own agenda. One of the items on its agenda is not to starve to death, and eventually it pushes back. I'd say you should go very gradually in raising your calories because you're down so low in your intake. 10% at a time sounds reasonable, but again, no one else knows what will work for you.

Keep in mind that you most likely will not be able to eat like you did in the past without regaining. That doesn't mean you have to stay at 900 cals forever--just that the "normal" 2000 cals a day is not going to apply.

jayell yep, agree with everything you say.

54kg has been a dieting target every 5 years or so for the last 25years at least, and I know I can't maintain below that for long, so I don't think i'll be adjusting my target again now. (I just didn't believe at the start of this effort that I could get anywhere near where I am now, hence the 'soft' initial targets). I definitely won't be able to eat like I did in the past because i was gaining all the time, and that was with another 25% of me added on!

The good news is that at the moment i physically couldn't anyway, and also sweet stuff/fried stuff doesn't even appeal. Think i'll aim for around 10% calorie gain on a weekly basis (not a daily basis) then i can have a splurgy day and stick to my normal routine for the majority of the time. See how that works. 54.0 this morning, so officially AT TARGET! Actually i was probably a bit dehydrated so not thinking it's actually 'real' but it means i'm close at least!

ange82much-- I don't know how you were able to stick to 900 calories a day for any length of time. That seems like so few! Are you sedentary? I would hope you'll be able to increase your calories and still see the weight you're hoping for.

My dh has been gone for 3 long weeks. A week or even two don't seem so long, but 3 gets soooo long. He's back Saturday and I can't wait. He was missing me this weekend and spontaneously decided we should go on a cruise! We haven't been on one in awhile so he asked when my school breaks are-- the only ones available were Alaska or Caribbean, both of which we've done several times. Plus, we have to fly from California to Florida for the Caribbean ones, which is very expensive. So... he found a Japan one! It goes in and out of Tokyo, with 3 Japanese ports plus one in Russia! Since he frequently works in Japan, he will plan on a business trip either before or after, and I'll fly to meet him there, which will mean just one place ticket (roughly the cost of 2 tix to Florida for us!). I'm very excited as we'll get to explore new places and the cruise should have very different passengers-- mostly Japanese-- so it should be interesting. However, it's about a month before my dd's wedding, so I'll have extra incentive not to overeat like I usually do on cruises!

Also going to Arizona late next week to help younger dd move and then will plan a Texas trip in July to help with wedding stuff, so my summer is starting to look busy! Gotta stay focused on my goals! My back is still not great from falling during kickball last week, which is frustrating.

Michele, what cruise line do you usually use? I've been wanting to take a cruise forever but I have never gotten around to it. From what I've heard from others with young children Disney is great but you have to pay a lot more money for it.

ange, congrats on meeting your goal!

I was at 147.0 today and stayed within my calorie budget yesterday and the day before. Just another reminder that yes, I can lose weight, if I actually manage to eat few enough calories.

Wow, Michele, the Japanese cruise sounds very exciting! Glad Dewey doesn't have any detectable disease.

Ange, congrats for being at goal!! Feels good, doesn't it? I don't remember your overall dieting history, but I'm guessing you've done a lot of low calorie rapid weight loss, which is why you have to eat so little. I am happy to lose 1 pound a month. If I get in 15K steps plus don't sit much, I can still eat 2200 calories a day at age 63. It's probably due to building up my muscles with resistance training. I'm still aiming to get back down to 123 lbs and I was 126.5 this morning.

Jessica, way to go with your weight loss! We all need a little blip now and then. Just do the best you can every day.

JayZeeJay, I hope your dog is still improving.

Dagmar, Trixie might have several years ahead of her. I had a Border Collie with mammary cancer and she lived at least three or four years after surgery, well into her teens. It was many years ago so I can't remember the exact details. Good going with your weight control!!

Some days I think the animals cause me more stress than joy. Now that four of the cats are in their teens, I'm always thinking something might be wrong with one or another, especially since Pepper was actually sick. If they don't lose weight I try not to worry.

My diet is working, albeit slowly. But at least the scale is finally moving!

Speaking of cruises: Yes, Disney is the way to go if you're taking your kids, but there are others out there too. Holland America is a mid-sized ship (not one of those ginormous moving cities!) and they have Club Hal for the kids where the kids are entertained as much as you need in rooms that other guests are not allowed. We never used them, but I've been on cruises with kids and IMO it's great so the adults get some alone time and the kids have fun and are supervised. I'm sure other major cruise lines have similar set-ups.

We had a cruise scheduled for May 2019 when I suddenly realized our daughter will be getting her PhD while we would be gone! I can't miss that (even though she said there is a 50% chance she won't graduate due to some grant her group is waiting on). I called and cancelled the cruise and then found the almost exact same one in September 2019, going the opposite direction, so i booked that. Then yesterday, I was informed that several ports were changed and they'd be adding 2 days to the already 18 day cruise, but at no extra charge! Can't argue with that! While we'll miss a couple ports and added a couple others, none of the important stops changed (Panama Canal and Cuba). So I guess we'll keep the reservation. By the way, we've been cruising with Oceania lately. Not a ship for children. Much more expensive, but worth it for a smaller ship (450 approximate guests).

On Mother's Day, our son came home for dinner and left with his cat, Ringo. So after the loss of Culley and the adoption of Silas, we're back to three cats. Three was a challenge before we got Silas because Waffles and Ringo don't eat a lot and Louie likes to eat, but I don't want him to get fat. I was feeding him a whole can (which i used to split with Culley) and felt that was too much food. So we got Silas thinking the food thing would even out. It didn't. Silas likes to eat like Louie, so those two were constantly hungry (they don't eat much dry food) and the other two were fine. So after Ringo left and we were back to three cats, I've been giving Louie and Silas 3/4 a can and Waffles 1/2 and so far everyone is pretty happy. Meanwhile Ringo is adjusting well to our son's apartment and is no longer peeing in the sink like he used to do at our house. It's all good.