[MrsDawsondn]

Hello ladies. I know I've said and done it befor but I am seriously sick of the merrigoround. I started in april at 328 lost weight 10 lbs maintained for a few weeks started back up in july lost another 10 lbsmaintained for 6-8 wks and now I've gained back 6 lbs. I cannot take it and someone took a pcture of me over the weekend at my sons game and I am mortified at what I saw!?!? I didn't even recognize myself and its on fb which is soooo embarrassing because I was tagged. I can't remove the tag I mean its a picture of......me. I litterly mean NO neck I have huge double chin and my body is humongous. I haven't had a huge regain but I never thought that I was THIS big. Its really depressing but it is the kick in the pants that I need. August was a very hard month for me with a lot of financial strain (still there) not having my hypothyroid meds and pee wee schedule throwing my workout schedule off to the point of NO exercise!

Sorry for the rant I just needed to get this off my chest in a safe place

[Pint Sized Terror]

See if there are little things you can do to get some exercise in. I have a 5 year old and a 2 year old, a military husband who is gone a lot, and 50 million things to do every day. (ok, that's an exaggeration, maybe it's closer to 30 million )

I try to stick to my meal plan no matter what. I fail sometimes, but I don't let it get me down. I don't drink pop or milk, eat chips and I stay away from junk food.

I rarely have time to go to the gym. I'm super lucky if I get to go twice a week, plain lucky if I get to go at all. Instead, I walk my son to and from school every day. I walk around my neighborhood pushing my daughter in her stroller after dropping him off and before picking him up. I CLEAN. And I mean clean. Getting on your hands and knees and scrubbing your floor clean burns calories and gives your arms a great workout.

You're going to have a harder time than some because of being hypothyroid and off medication, but you can still try. to you. Just try baby steps.

[MrsDawsondn]

went walking this morning for the first time in a month. I feel a little bit better it was only 20-25 minutes but I feel energized.

[Eliana]

Awe, rant away! That's what we're here for.

But we're also here to help you try to tackled the problems that are holding you back.

Use that FB picture as a motivator to change your diet! What is your plan? Are you calorie counting or doing some other method? What does work for you? What doesn't? Why not? What can you do to counter the things that are holding you back?

I'm a huge advocate for exercise, but I also firmly believe that it's 80% diet and 20% exercise, so you really need to get the diet under control. The exercise, for me, is about toning and about health. You want to make sure you schedule time to exercise because it's good for your health and it can help you burn off a small portion of your diet. You have to exercise and awful lot to burn significant calories.

I think I might have a suggestion for you. I'm quite impressed that you were able to maintain (or mostly maintain) for a period of time. My friend is on a plan where she goes into weight loss mode for 6-12 weeks and then goes into maintenance mode for 6 weeks. Then she repeats the cycle. There's something comforting about being able to buckled down and white knuckle through it when you have a deadline.

I placed a deadline on myself of a different sort. I told myself I was going to stay on plan no matter what for one year. I found that to work really well for me.

What do you think will work for you?

[MrsDawsondn]

Still working through the specifics. I did fitday calorie counting before and that worked well until finances got tight and buying the healthy stuff no longer worked seeing as I'm not the only mouth that is being fed and we need the amount necessary for everyone to eat. I used to workout with a workout group but they stopped meeting. at this time pee wee football and Middle school tennis, and violin lessons started and so came the late night dinners followed by going to bed late waking up late and sluggish and running errands nonstop. luckily tennis season is over and pee wee football only has a few more weeks. I am trying to find balance right now. My eating hasn't been so bad and I think that's the reason why I maintained I'm really missing the exercise bit of it all. I will try to stay on top of documenting and planning as that was my strong point before. I now also have my hypothyroid medicine which I haven't had over the past 2 months. Usually when I have my medicine I see a HUGE difference in my energy levels and everything. I think until now I've never really made an effort to look at my medicine as a Necessity until now I can definitely TELL a HUGE difference when I don't have it. I have to make taking this medicine as important as wearing my contacts to see to make this a priority in my life which I've never done. Changes changes...

[Eliana]

Take it one step, one change, at a time. Maybe find one thing in your life that isn't working for you and change that. My diet plan has evolved immensely over this past year. I started relying heavily on quick and easy things like Lean Cuisine, Slim Fast and protein bars. Now all of those are gone. I seem to have a new mission every month, something new to eliminate or add or change. This month's mission is to rid my diet of high fructose corn syrup. An early mission was to rid my diet of pop.

As for fitness? I love it! I most love exercise because I can set goals and I know with full confidence that reaching them is within my control. Those goals are not dependent on my unreliable body...or the unreliable scale.