<p>^^^
My H has always been one to not want to “waste” food…so he eats it rather than throw it away. I have finally convinced him that it is waste either way!!!</p>
<p>And crackers!!! Why do they have to make the boxes so big? I buy them for company and throw 3/4 of the box away three weeks later.</p>
<p>But, I have some surprising news! Today I wighed in and am down another .5 lb. Not very impressive but I’ll take it. I found my measuring tape and measured my waist (hadn’t done that since July). I have lost 5 inches in my waist since this thread started! I couldn’t believe it!</p>
<p>I knew it! Just thinking about food makes me gain weight. I weighed myself about an hour ago and then again about 2 minutes ago. Without eating or drinking anything, I gained .4 lbs. I suppose that in reality my scale is not accurate to that degree but it was given to me as part of my diabetes research/weight loss study.</p>
<p>I need to be re-motivated. I have done pretty well with the exercise component; I’ve hit the Sparkpeople.com 1000 minutes of exercise every month since January. I switched to myplate to record my food intake but even though it is easier, I still have trouble recording EVERY thing that I eat. I don’t pay much attention to their counts for carbs, proteins, and fiber since I think they are way off for someone like me with metabolic syndrome. With the holidays, I am hoping to keep my exercise up and maintain my weight. I am already making that New Year’s resolution.</p>
<p>Have you lost weight at all? I think if you are going to record what you eat you need to try to record everything. Otherwise, calories are sneaking in and yo will get discouraged thinking you are doing all the right things and still not losing. I don’t record what I eat. Iknow I should and I know I would get to my goal faster if I did but it is just such a cumbersome job.</p>
<p>I’m approaching this as a long term project. I’m down 4-5 lbs. since June and if I can keep at it I will reach my goal weightt by next June. I’m happy with that because I don’t feel deprived. I feel like I an learning to eat what is good for my body…long-term. No more quick fixes for me.</p>
<p>5 inches is certainly a lot of progress. For motivation? How about getting bigger closets? When you get smaller, you can wear small clothes and can then fit more of them in your closets (we’re discussing cleaning out closets in the other thread).</p>
<p>I have officially lost 8 lbs. since my research project spring check. According to Myplate, I need to stay under 1203 calories to lose a pound a week. Since I try to do 300 calories worth of exercise, I should be losing if I stay under 1500. My situation is complicated because of my blood sugar which fluctuates too much. I am working on getting my morning blood sugar closer to 100 by experimenting with evening meals/snacks. Once I get that figured out, I can work on the rest of my calorie allotment. And, I agree, this is a lifestyle change, not a temporary diet. This latest plateau will end at some point.</p>
<p>^^^^
That’s the other change in my mind set that this thread has helped me with. In the past, when I have tried to lose weight, I have always hit a plateau or even a relapse in which I gain some back. At that point I would give up in discouragement. This time around, in August, I gained some back and felt so discouraged I almost fell into that same old pattern. The people here helped me get through that rough patch and back on track.</p>
<p>Keep at it and be confident that the plateau IS temporary.</p>
<p>I had a two-month plateau and then broke through recently. Real life can get in the way of progress but that happens. Keep punching the clock and good things will happen.</p>
<p>Five inches?!?!?!?!?! That is amazing. How fun! Congratulations. And metabolic syndrome is one like alcoholism, it’s real, but can be conquered by avoiding certain substances.</p>
<p>Truth! I hit a 2 week plateau and then, without any changes on my part, the weight loss started up again. Confusing…</p>
<p>First interim goal has been hit! To celebrate, my 88 year old neighbor and I are going out for banana splits next week. There was a lot of pressure for me to make weight–you can’t count on an 88 year old woman to be around forever…</p>
<p>Have fallen off the WW wagon, seems menopause carb cravings got the better of me. But I have stuck with regular exercise, and even improved my heart function thru exercise,(congenital heart defects) so that I am proud of. Need help getting back on track to stop the carb cravings.</p>
<p>That will probably be the follow up thread to this one–we’ll have lost all this weight but now look like wrinkly pouches and will need advice on how to deal with THAT. But for now, one problem at a time…</p>
<p>Myturnnow, I was surprised that I haven’t had carb cravings once I started watching what I ate. I LOVE carbs, but when I think about how many calories they take out of my daily limit, I have managed to be very circumspect around them.</p>
<p>But I will say that my largest amount of weight gain occurred at menopause–so I understand how tough it is when you add hormones to the whole mix.</p>
<p>Why is it when I gain weight it goes straight to my butt and thighs; but when I lose weight, it comes off my face and chest? I guess the good part of that is people seem to notice when your face looks slimmer, but I would prefer my pants to be looser! </p>
<p>I have always, well since menopause, worn a larger size pair of pants to accommodate my butt and thighs and then have to take in the waist a good bit. When my favorite jeans wear out, it shows by the start of a rip in the inner thigh area. I don’t have much weight to lose, 10 lbs. would be nice; I hope some of that will come from my bottom half, otherwise I will look like a skeleton up top!</p>
<p>snowball- I am the opposite. Where I have noticed the biggest weight loss is in my butt and thighs. The thighs is good but I never had much butt to begin with. The baggy butt is the first sign for me that I need to pull out the size down in pants.
Add me in with the pouchy stomach and wrinkly arms. I find I am using more lotion on my arms. They don’t look quite as bad when they are wrinkly and moist versus wrinkly and scaly dry.
I am the former carb queen. Like others have mentioned the more you avoid them the less you want them. I have two packages of artisan ravoli in my refrigerator. I know I should use them before they go bad. They just are not calling my name.</p>
<p>I’m thinking that my weight has come off fairly evenly across all areas - it never really showed that much on my lower legs and arms. I’m noticing that socks and watches are a teeny bit looser so have lost something there. DH says it clearly shows in my face. But most of the weight has come from hips, thighs, and rear. I’m also dealing with the loose tummy and upper arms, and also the girls are hanging low (remember I’m the hourglass figure). Rear doesn’t seem so bad. I had gone up and up and up year after year so just kept getting bigger clothes. I do think menopause caused a jump.</p>
<p>I’m still beating my target of 5 pounds a month - it’s exactly 5 months today since I started and I’m past 28 pounds. But the rate of loss is slowing down - I’ve been tracking every Friday and just did some trend line charts. It sure make a difference if I trend the entire 5 months vs the last month or so in terms of where I’ll be at the end of the year. But wow I love that downward slope!</p>
<p>Actually, I’ll be happy if I just maintain through the end of the year! DS is coming home for 10 days over Thanksgiving (taking a break from job hunting - if anyone has CS connections in the SJ area please PM and yes I’m helicoptering). So we’ll probably cook and eat out a lot more. Chanukah is low key with DS gone and we don’t do Christmas so maybe I can recover momentum then.</p>
<p>Weigh in day…I’m down another 0.8 pounds…of course last night I went out and had a HUGE cobb salad…</p>
<p>But yesterday I actually wore the cutest plum colored suit that I bought at GW for $6…but it didn’t exactly “fit” when I bought it. It does now!!</p>