Munchy- the island sounds awesome, with all the natural beauty who needs to decorate. That is great news about finding a great Therapist. Do not let your MIL bother you, just stick to the program, eat your points and you will be great.


As for me, I lost my .6. After a not so great week I will take it. I finally saw a bit of a drop this morning before weighin. Then I went for a run just before weighin, so I helped it along a bit. I really wanted to get back to free lifetime (who wants to pay when they do not have to) but I am still 2 lbs from goal. So now to stay motivated to lose those two lbs. hopefully this week is better then last and I will lose them quickly.

flickety_switch - I like what SoMuchFattitude said, think of how you'd feel if it was a .4 lb gain! You'd probably feel like it was a lot, so it makes sense that the loss was also a lot Additionally, keep in mind that weight loss tends to slow after you've been on a diet for a while, and especially as you get closer to goal. Little losses are still losses! celebrate them, you did good

Koshka - Still be happy with your loss! You're doing awesome too.

Dixiemom - Congrats on losing that .6! Sending you good thoughts for that last 2 lbs.

SoMuchFattitude - Ex has done crappy stuff before. I've been avoiding going to court for child custody stuff, but if it keeps up then I may be forced to if I want to play an active role in my son's life (and I do). Fingers crossed it doesn't come to that. Congrats on the .8lb loss. You're right in that it adds up. I hang around 1lb constantly and I'm at 20lbs lost total since the end of September, even with some bumps in the road! Hope you keep on loving the spin class!

archychick - Good job for staying on plan while being social. I know that's where I struggle a lot. I've been given criticism for all types of diets. It always feels strange because my family is very supportive of me wanting to lose weight, but at the same time they can be very critical of methods. Some of the criticisms have been valid, some not so much. So far they've been less critical of WW than of the more restrictive types.. that being said my sister was anorexic in high school, so restrictive stuff tends to send red flags. I don't hang around friends enough for them to really see me weighing foods, but could easily see that happening for work places. It's always strange when people want you to change an aspect of yourself, without changing actions.

Elaine - I will record what I know, and guess based on available recipes or known nutritional information for what I don't. I usually will over-estimate calories and points. If you're eating out regularly, it may be a good idea to e-mail frequently visited places to request the nutritional information for your dishes, or to plan ahead to go to places that have nutritional information on the menu.

Munchy - Yeah, 5 years is great for savings.. and really I'm happy to start planning some stuff now. Our plan would be to not have to decorate at all. Your venue sounds lovely, and a lot like some of the ones I've scouted out as back-ups. I'm in South Carolina and there are a ton of big plantation type things in the area, which are basically huge mansions. My heart is set on this resort in Myrtle Beach right now. It's on the beach and has these huge windows in the reception area that look out over the ocean, plus a balcony we can go out on if the weather is nice! Anyway, I'm glad you're doing better! It's also awesome that your fiance stepped up to help you with planning everything! Boo on your MIL for bringing you down like that. Surely she should know adding to the stress of planning a wedding isn't a good thing, and you are seeing a therapist now to make sure you don't relapse so you already have it handled.. You're right, it's not abnormal at all for a bride to diet before a wedding. In fact I'd say it's probably abnormal for the bride not to diet based on the women I know who've gotten married. You are doing awesome, don't let her comments get you down.

My week went pretty well. Down 1.2lbs since last weigh in. That puts me at 224 even (though I was up today, but we'll focus on Monday!). 5lbs into my next mini-goal, 10 lbs to go. Always exciting because it's been years and years since I've been at this weight, or lower, and when I was it certainly wasn't for any extended period of time. I'm still a bit amazed that I've been able to stick to this plan without any real issues, which makes me happy because I know it needs to be a lifestyle change.

Ex is still being a bit of a turd. Didn't get my son last weekend, now suppose to get him this coming weekend. On the happier side of things, an old middle/high school buddy is in town, so I visited with her yesterday. We went to the Charleston Aquarium, saw the Sea Turtle Hospital, and just sorta walked around. We're going out for dinner tonight too.

Thanks for all the advice - I was just wondering if there was a magic formula for dining out and I think I am just going to need to experiment, like you all said. Hoping everyone is having a good Wednesday so far!

I had a couple off days on Monday and Tuesday. I'm having trouble with my sleep cycle, I am having TOM for the first time in 14 months since having an implanon put in (UGH, WHY?!) and I'm still under a lot of stress. I think (cross fingers) my truck is FINALLY fixed, after being in and out of the mechanics for 3 weeks (and $935 later!).

I got back on track for the most part today, but I didn't eat lunch because I woke up soooo late. I had a protein smoothie for "breakfast". I had a small snack, lots of water and we're having turkey meatloaf, baked sweet potatoes, and roasted green beans for dinner. I think I'll have some FF frozen yogurt with raspberries for dessert.

SoMuchFattitude: I am familiar with Egg Beaters, are "SW" egg beaters: Southwest Eggbeaters? I know a local grocery chain carries large tortilla wraps that are 2PP if I remember correctly (I think they're Ole XTreme, LC High Fiber), I might get those next time instead of these Mission "low carb" ones, I still can't get over that they're 4PP each!

Elaine: Before even stepping foot in a restuarant, I look up their nutritional info and calculate points for about 4-5 different meals, sides, drinks, so I am prepared when we go out. I write it all down. If the restaurant doesn't have their nutritional values on-line, my next go to is My Fitness Pal to see what they have for that restaurant. Sometimes I add 5-6 points to the meal so I can account for the cooks different cooking style. And I'm not afraid to ask for "no butter, light oil", etc. One of our favorite places is Red Robin and I can get a Turkey Burger with mushrooms and lettuce wrap for 9PP, fries (no refills) for 9PP and an unsweetened iced tea for 0PP. I usually count it as 22PP, which in the end usually only uses about 10-12 of my weekly points. We only go out to eat once a week. I also have a Dining Out Guide that I use, I'm not sure if they still sell these, I got mine a while ago. It has a nice regional section to base your PP values off of.

sunarie: I LOVED planning my wedding! I planned for about 8 months, but I got very ill and was hospitalized for about 3 weeks a month away from our wedding. Many of the things we planned for didn't happen. I'm now planning our vow renewal for 2018, which will be our 10 year anniversary. I'm very excited. I wish Pinterest had been around when I was planning the wedding!

MRSD - Yes! southwestern eggbeaters. Sorry! The tortilla is my favorite part, so I'm willing to spend 4pp on it. I have TONS of different kinds of tortillas. high carb, low carb, high fiber, low fat, fat free, etc. lol. I keep the Ole Xtreme in my pantry, and prefer them with peanut butter and banana on them. They have a bit more of a gummy texture than you're traditional tortilla. Try'em! I'd love to know what you think of them!

______________

I'm exhausted!!! I just don't feel like I can catch up on enough sleep, but that might be because I'm only getting 6.5 hours a day according to my fitbit. I slept through my alarm this morning, like the real slept through. It was still going off an hour later when I did wake up. HA! It didn't wake me, the husband, or the dog up. Guess we were all tired!

Since I slept through my alarm, no gym, but my plan is to go 4 days a week and I've already gone three. This means I think I'm going to try a Zumba class tomorrow. I've never done Zumba before and for some reason this scares the crap out of me. LOL I took dance til I was 18. Not sure why I'm nervous.

ANY ZUMBA TIPS?

LA fitness says to bring water, a towel and an optional hip scarf. Okay, my dumb moment of the year, I thought they meant like a trendy hip scarf. DH showed me pics of an actual hip scarf. Oh god, so glad I can laugh at myself. I straight up thought they meant like a trendy infinity scarf. AHAHAHA

MrsD - Good that you got back on track today. We all have slip ups and times of stress where we eat more than we should.. the important part is keeping on plan the majority of the time. Hopefully eating healthy and cooking will become completely second nature at some point. I know I'm not there yet.. I still have to plan out and schedule or I end up eating out. Yay for not letting a few days destroy your week though. That's a victory!

SoMuchFattitude - I've never done classes, so I don't have real input there. I do have a set of Zumba DVDs though. Don't get too stressed and have fun, and be prepared for it to be a real good workout! The hip scarf thing.. well I had to look it up. I didn't have any idea what it was and the trainers in the videos I own don't have them. Probably just to make it more fun! If you can get through the whole routine without doing modified versions of the moves, yay! I still do less intense movements for my DVDs. Sometimes my legs just don't move as fast as the moves require.

More house leaks for my this week. Kitchen sink sprung a leak and that was fun. Apartment was super slow to respond to it and so I spent the majority of yesterday trying to keep water from flooding the kitchen area. Went through all my towels and two rolls of paper towels before they finally got here. Sink isn't leaking anymore, but it's also not fixed. They had to order a part and that won't be in until tomorrow. Cold water was supposedly shut off but I can still run cold water so I'm not really sure how that works. It did sort of push us into the final decision to buy a home though. So one more thing to add to planning!

We had been talking about getting a home for a while, this was just sorta the final nudge in the decision. Our lease is up in 2 months so we're just going to go month to month after that and invest in a house instead. It does mean a lot of stress within the next few months.. especially since I'm doing the majority of the planning and all for it since I'm at home.. but fiance has to be the point of contact as he'll be the primary on the loan itself. I screwed up my credit by defaulting on student loans, and I wouldn't qualify. His credit is pristine though. It's a bit of a headache already, but we should be able to sit down with people next weekend, and we have 15 houses picked out that we want to tour based on pictures online.. so hopefully finding one will be quick.

SoMuchFattitude: I have tried the Ole EXtreme from my past tries with WW. Do I remember correctly that they're 2PP each? I didn't mind the texture, but I do like how soft the Mission Carb Balance Tortillas are. I swear, I have looked for them in my local store every time I went shopping since last October and they didn't have them. I found them at BJs on a trip with my sister (I generally don't go to BJs), so I got them there. Yesterday I was at my regular grocery store and they had them in THREE different sizes!! What the what?! I snatched up the taco size and threw them in the freezer, I didn't check points yet. I hope they keep them in stock if they're low in points. As for Zumba, don't blow off the warm up and cool down, it does help! Wear good sneakers and bring water. Don't be afraid of what others think when they see you dancing--they probably won't even notice you! I strictly pay attention to the instructor and I don't notice the other ladies dancing! Good luck!

Sunarie: My husband is a master plumber. It seems odd that they'd "shut off cold water", usually that doesn't happen unless they shut off water completely!

I weighed in this morning for official WI. I actually lost this week! I'm amazed, but so happy! I am down 3.2 lbs! Since starting WW in Feb, I am down a total of 12.8! I'm not quite sure why it's a larger loss except that I really pounded the water all week. And I guess I have to factor in last weeks WI was with TOM, so that was just higher, but not because I didn't work the program.

Question: I bought Del Monte Red Grapefruit slices in fruit juice. They're fresh fruit in little cups that need refrigeration. I thought as long as I drained the juice and only ate the fruit, it was 0PP? I was looking at an extensive list of snacks low in WW points I found on Pinterest and they listed them as 1PP per little cup. Maybe they list the point for the people who like to drink the juice? I know my sister does. Let me know what you think of this.

Tomorrow we have a benefit dinner to go to. I'm nervous about what kinds of foods will be there. I'm going to stay away from desserts for sure, unless they have strawberry shortcake--that's my downfall. I'm hoping there is a tossed salad of lettuce and veggies. I know I'm personally making coleslaw and baked ziti with sausage, neither of which I should be eating! (Gallbladder.) I see the surgeon on Tuesday, I'm excited to tell him my weight loss!

Well, if I'm not back on before the weekend, I hope you all have a great one!

MrsD2008- congrats on the loss. Way to up the water. As for the grapefruit in juice. On etools it is 1pt but some of the juiced pack fruit is 0pts if you drain the juice. (Orange slices and pineapple). I find it funny that it would apply for some but not others. So I would go with what you think is best (I would probably track it as 0pts if I had 1 small cup but if I had more I would track as 1pt).

Somuch: Excited to hear about your Zumba experience! I am not allowed to run for a while as I nurse a back injury from last year, but Zumba always has appealed to me.

Sunarie: I hope you have fun touring the houses! That's always been my favorite part - getting ideas from what people have (or haven't) done in their spaces, imagining living there, etc.

MrsD2008: Are you having gallbladder surgery? I have been sorting out a GB issue myself, but surgery may not be indicated. I am really confused by the doctors at this point.

I had my weigh in this morning - down 4.4, so it looks like TOM last week must have masked a loss (remind me of that next month I'm really excited and hoping that in a few more weeks any losses will actually translate to me being able to wear clothes I haven't worn in a while

Just checking in as today as my usual WI day but I'm in Thailand with no access to scales.

I've been doing OK...trying to eat smaller portions but definitely not on plan. Weird thing though...I ended up eating fried fish (by accident...I thought I was ordering grilled) and then the following day splitting a chicken schnitzel panini with a few fries with my mum (my parents by chance just happened to be here at the same time for a few days crossover).

It was obviously far more fried food than my body had had in months and it did not like it. Had several trips to the toilet and have sworn off fried food for the rest of the trip!

Good luck this week everyone- my goal is to come back with no more than a 0.5kg gain.

Elaine: It's complicated! I have gallstones, but I am on Warfarin for past DVT and PE. I'll be on Warfarin for life (I've gone to 5 different doctors who all said the same, sadly). My hematologist told me if I were to ever need surgery, they'd need to take me off Warfarin for several days and do Lovenox injections. Lovenox is weight based and the surgeon for my Gallbladder doesn't like doing surgery with that in his patient's systems. But the alternative is me going off Warfarin and clotting (or going on Lovenox and bleeding out during/after surgery). There is no easy answer. But, because Lovenox is weight based, he said if I lose weight (he didn't say how much) he and his colleagues would consider doing the surgery. He said he's had pregnant women go 8+ months before surgery, so he thinks at this stage it is fine to wait. I see him for a follow up on Tuesday. I am hoping to lose another 0.4 lbs before I see him, bringing my total to 13.2 lbs and I'll meet my 5%.

Dixiemom--I've been counting them as 0PP. I can't have more than one cup every few days because I am on a medication that grapefruit and grapefruit juice interfere with. I'm allowed small amounts, that's why I like the cups. I like that extensive list I found, but some point values are off. I need to remember to take my calculator with me before buying new foods. I trusted the list and bought a couple snacks that were supposed to be 2-3 PP per serving. But when I got home and checked, they were 3 and 4 PP per serving.

The benefit dinner went well. I had salad and a small portion of a baked pasta dish minus the cheese (it was the only meatless option). Then my husband says he wants to go to our local ice cream shoppe that just opened for the season. No problem, they (usually) have Dole Whip! So we go, wait in line for 20 minutes...and they don't have their Dole Whip Machine up. So, my next choice is half and half, I know it's low in points...They don't have chocolate and vanilla! I had a baby coffee soft serve, I counted it as 6PP to be on the safe side. I have FF Frozen Yogurt in the freezer here, I should have stuck with that!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Did anyone do anything fun? We won the 50/50 raffle from the Benefit dinner. I made a baby afghan for the raffles--and I won that as well! Hahaha. I'm going to give it to my niece!

MrsD - Yeah, it seemed odd to me too. I guess what they actually shut off was our ice maker. So no water is going to it anymore. That's still not fixed, but it's also not something we need so no big deal! Congrats on your loss! 12.8lbs in a month is amazing! Sounds like you got your grapefruit dilemma sorted.

Elainedc - Congrats on your loss too! It is very common for TOM to wreak havoc on losses. The good part is that is usually accompanied by a whoosh. I'll be sure to remind you if you get worried next month! I'm excited to tour houses, just nervous about the loan bit. I am glad we found a lot of houses online to look at though, that aren't in horrible areas. Fiance's co-workers, who've lived here longer than I have, are going through what we found and telling us which are in bad places.

Flickety_switch - Sending good thoughts your way! Hopefully you come back within a range you find acceptable. At least your body is sort of helping with that on it's own I know if I get sick after eating something then I tend to avoid the something later, even if I really enjoyed it before. To this day I don't really do omelettes because of a single incident when I was younger. Funny bit is I didn't even get sick because of the omelette, I got sick cause I had chicken pox.. but my mind associates it with omelettes so I tend to get queasy even smelling them.

Weekend was good. Son visited and I got to tell him about the engagement. His response was, "You're going to have to buy pretty dresses." We also told him about getting a new house, and that we'd be getting a dog soon after we get to move into a house. Stayed on plan, but was horrible about exercise once again last week. It just sort of fell to the wayside between the kitchen leak, and then trying to take care of loan stuff, and decide on a good amount of houses we'd want to go look at.

This week I'm down .2lbs. I don't feel bad about it. It's still a loss!

Hi there! I am new here. I am following an older WW plan...the Flex plan. I have 40 lbs to lose or so...I will weigh myself in the AM. My guess is I weigh about 185.

My pitfalls are:

1) Sedentary job. I need to get out and move!
2) Portions. I can eat a lot.
3) Wine. I like my wine at night.

My plan:

1) Join the gym, which is only about 1 mile from my house. Oh, and go to it.
2) Eat off the small plates and more slowly. I eat like a wolf.
3) Pre-measure my wine so I keep track of how much I drink. I do a lot of "capping off."

In my favor:

1) We mostly eat at home and healthy food.
2) I live in a climate that is conducive to outdoor activity year round.
3) I ain't dead yet!

Thanks in advance for your support.

PJK

Hey all. Just thought I'd check in about my week. It's been super stressful this week with school and family issues. The first half of the week I barely used half of my daily points, and the second half of the week, I ate a lot of ice cream. I stayed within my points without using any of my weeklies, and I did lose 1.6 lbs (for the second week in a row) so I'm happy.

One thing I'm proud of myself for is I stayed off the scale for the whole week. I get preoccupied with the number, and it's just an added stress. This week I was able to go the whole week without looking at my home scale. Win!

One thing I'd like to improve this week is try to get some exercise. I'm swamped with school work this week, but I need to try to find the time to take a walk at the least. Hopefully it'll help relieve some stress, and tire me out as my stress level is having a negative impact on my ability to sleep.

Good news: I got my ticker today! Yay! Super happy to have the little guy show my progress!

I hope everyone has a successful week!

pjk: Can you walk on your lunch break? I used to frequent a paved river trail in the capital and many people who work for the state throw on a pair of sneakers and walk during their lunch break. But, these people get an hour long lunch break, so I guess that allows for eating and walking. If you don't have time for both, can you eat at your desk and use the break to walk? Or maybe a protein shake for lunch and do the stairs a couple times? I'm just thinking of ideas. I work from home...and it's winter in Maine. I walk the dog every morning and afternoon, but I don't count it. Some days we're just out there shivering, some days we play fetch for 15 minutes. And some days (when the snow banks aren't so high) I have to chase him through my neighbors yard to get him away from their chickens! And I don't mean to be rude, but I'm wondering why you're following an old WW plan?

iSpoons: Looks like you and I were typing at the same time. When I clicked submit, your entry popped up above mine! Congrats on the weight loss. I hope you can fight the stress. Do you have an iPod touch or smart phone you can plug in near your night stand? If you, try you tube videos for "Guided Sleep Mediatation", "Guided Mediation", etc. On Youtube, I like the HonestGuys videos. I usually turn my phone or ipod so the display is facing down so I don't see the light, put an ear bud in one ear and listen. The first time I tried it, I was like "This is never going to work, I'm going to be awake all night like usual." Before I knew it, I woke up in the morning to my alarm! Different ones work for different people, you may have to try a few before you find some you like. Sometimes the speaker breathes weirdly, sometimes the background music is too strange, etc. Shop around to find one you like, then save it to your favorites or make a playlist so they're easy to find. Sometimes if I don't feel like participating in the mediation part, I use videos that are just ocean sounds, rainforest sounds, thunder storms, etc. They're all titled "8 hours of _____ sounds" or "10 hours of ______ sounds", etc. Looks like all the ones I have favorited are by MusicsforMediatation. Good luck! I'm actually off to go use my own advice!

I meet with the surgeon tomorrow. I'm nervous. I'm actually hoping surgery doesn't need to happen soon. I guess I'll update tomorrow evening.