<p>Great job, ema! What approach did you use?</p>
<p>Thank you Jym for reviving this. I am back up about ten pounds. So discouraged.</p>
<p>I won’t yet face the scale. I can tell by how my clothes fit :(</p>
<p>I am stuck at a plateau. I know I need to drastically cut carbs not calories but I haven’t been motivated.
I also have another weekend coming up in San Francisco. I can only hope the walking and the calories consumed will cancel each other out.</p>
<p>I’m still essentially just trying not to creep up. I did manage to lose 4 pounds by having my first ever surprise attack of diverticulitis. But then gained half of it back after reintroducing normal foods. I’ll see what happens after my colonoscopy next month ( I was due anyway; been 10 years). Then I’ll learn if I only need to be a bit cautious, or totally change my eating habits. OTOH, my doctor says she’s very happy with my weight right now. </p>
<p>Om60,
Our avatars are so similar I thought your post was mine, and I only wish I was going to San Francisco!!</p>
<p>I’m going to San Francisco too! Not for a a month or so, though. And I have a colonoscopy scheduled for next week. We are all leading parallel lives! How much wight can you lose doing the prep for the colonoscopy? [-O< </p>
<p>I just braved the scale. As they say, we are not amused.</p>
<p>I cut my carbs way, way down. My doctor is against low carb diets and wanted me eating 50% of my calories from carbs, or no less than 40%, but I had tried everything else and she was telling me to just accept being overweight, so I ignored her. I first just reduced them to like 30% of my calories (down from 50%) and eliminated simple or “white” carbs, which lost me maybe 5lbs but then I got stuck again. So I reduced it even further to more like 10% and am slowly losing another 5lbs. I can only eat 1200 calories and still lose, so I only work out a couple times a week now to maintain fitness. If I eat even 1300 or 1400 and work out every day I won’t lose, so I can only eat 1200, but 1200 is the minimum for a woman who isn’t active so I can’t be as active. Which I guess is okay with me because I don’t have time to work out more than once or twice a week right now with all the wedding appointments I have to go to.</p>
<p>I’m becoming familiar with the concept that not every body WANTS to be thin. My body does not want to be thin. It really wants to be just slightly overweight, regardless of what I am eating or doing at the gym. It is yet another thing to make me annoyed at people who want to insist weight loss is just calories in calories out. Maybe if we didn’t have hormones, but we do. I am approaching the limits of what my body is capable of doing. I don’t think that fit, trim look I was hoping for is attainable. But, I think I can get to looking pretty good. Today I am 2lbs away from goal. I might hit goal this week or next, we’ll see. I’ve decided I will either stop there or only lose 5 more, I won’t go for 10 more. I am hoping by the end of it to be able to fit into the size 8 jeans I bought when I was a size 16, but so far they won’t zip… I think they will be too big in the legs before my hips ever fit, if my hips ever fit. I have been somewhere between an 8 and a 10 for months, I’d like to hit one size or the other so I can find clothes that fit. I am starting to research maintainence… I am afraid I may only know how to lose or gain… I need Maintainence for Dummies! </p>
<p>Making the cut from 50% carbs to 30% carbs was actually really easy to do. All I had to do was switch out one carb dense snack for another less carb dense snack and that made the difference for me. To cut from 30% to 10-15% I had to change the sides I eat with dinner. You have to think not just in terms of quantity of carbs or carb rich foods and at the percentage of your calories. That can also make reducing the percentage difficult because a lot of low carb foods are so low calorie that swapping them in won’t affect your ratios in the way you think it will. But sometimes significantly reducing your carbs doesn’t require as big of a change as you think. I just had to make some slight tweaks. I still have carby foods once in a while, they just aren’t in my everyday meal rotation anymore so that I can afford to have those splurges when I really want them.</p>
<p>To those of you struggling. Post your top 3 reasons for recently gaining weight/not losing/not exercising. Put in down in writing in front of you - or us - and then look at those items carefully. Likely, all of them are within your power to change based on choices. It’s really all YOU driven. Makes excuses to do better, not to do worse! In other words, if your excuse is you are too tired when you come home to exercise, then turn your excuse around - make the excuse that dinner will have to be a quick protein salad instead of a hot meal so you can have time to exercise. If your excuse is that you are going on vacation and want to splurge on food, then turn that excuse around to be that your excuse for meeting your friends and family for breakfast in the morning is that you are going to be out pounding the pavement for 30 mins to burn calories off for later. YOU driven. :)</p>
<p>Add to the parallel lives Eptr- I need to schedule mine. Keep avoiding that task.
Jym626- where did you take your photo? I am trying to fit as many trips to S F in as possible. My D doesn’t know how much longer she will be in the Bay Area.
A basket- if it was just so simple. My problem is that while I could lose and would like to lose I am at an acceptable weight. That makes it harder to police myself. Like Ema if I cut carbs I can lose. Too many tortillas sneaking into my weekday diet. </p>
<p>I’m up two pounds since last November - the last time I stuck anything into the Livestrong site. I’d like to lose ten pounds, I’m not really trying that hard to do it though. I eat a healthy diet. I’d be fine if I got just a little more exercise. It’s a beautiful day today and I am definitely planning on going for a walk this evening.</p>
<p>There’s some evidence that antibiotics are making us fat. <a href=“Opinion | The Fat Drug - The New York Times”>Opinion | The Fat Drug - The New York Times;
<p>I still have a hard time with excuses, especially with work outs. It is hard to tell when the excuse you are making is valid and justified, and when you just really want it to be. My response to that once was “okay, no excuses ever” but then I started injuring myself and damaging other aspects of my life-- because there were times I really did need a break and I didn’t let myself have it. You can’t afford to be inflexible. I’ve been at this for almost two years now and it is still a struggle for me to strike that middle ground. I rely on my fiance a lot to help talk me through it when I decide to take a day off… I will say, “My shoulder kind of hurts, and I’m really tired, so I think I should take a day off” – after talking about it I usually realize well maybe my shoulder hurting is valid, but I really just dont want to work out because I’m tired, and I could just do something else that will still get my heart rate up without using the sore shoulder. I’m a pro though, and if I didn’t ask for help I would probably just not work out due to being “tired” and convince myself thoroughly I am just resting that sore shoulder.</p>
<p>I’ve found a great first step to getting back on track is to go back to tracking diet and exercise. Even if I am still doing the same old bad habits, tracking helps train your brain to be mindful, which serves to prepare you to start making changes. Baby steps are okay. I admit I stopped tracking my weight watchers the last few weeks. I am eating the same foods every day and only exercising once or twice, so I could recite what I ate or did for the week from memory. But I know I need to not do that or I will start to slip. Let’s get back on track!</p>
<p>Everybody should have rest days from exercise. A seven day a week committment is not necessary or healthy - and your body may tell you so!</p>
<p>In my case it’s more french fries than antibiotics :-).</p>
<p>MOm60,
my photo was on the deck of a cruiseship in the caribbean. Where was yours taken?</p>
<p>We’ll be heading to SF to visit DS and his gf hopefully soon. So am motivated to get the pounds back off. Just started logging food intake back into the Livestrong site 2 days ago. Its a start.</p>
<p>BTW, did you see the horrible fire in SF yesterday in the Mission Bay area? <a href=“Flames shoot 40 feet in air in 5-alarm S.F. blaze”>Flames shoot 40 feet in air in 5-alarm S.F. blaze;
<p>Jym626- my photo is the Pacific Ocean taken at the beach near my house. I am blessed that I also get the same amazing sunsets from the deck of my bedroom.
Good idea to get back on board tracking what I eat. I know my downfalls just need to remedy them. Overall I have decent eating habits. I drink water and unsweetened tea. Rarely have alcohol. Never eat fast food or even fried food. I don’t keep cakes or cookies in the house. I don’t regularly eat fries or chips. I don’t have any of the easy stuff to eliminate. It really comes down to white carbs.
Thanks for the fire link. I will have to ask my D if she saw it from work. Thank goodness the building was not occupied yet. </p>
<p>Making slow progress, but its probably just water weight. At least I am trying to get my head back in the game. Can’t stand the clothes being so tight. Hows everyone else doing?</p>
<p>***Eta- sweet view from your bedroom, mom60!!!</p>
<p>Where is everyone???</p>
<p>I’m still here! I weighed in today at 1.2lbs over goal. A new low. I haven’t been this light since before I got sick, so it’s a good feeling. I was not prepared for how difficult reaching this point would be, though. I expected a great sense of relief, a weight off my shoulders (no pun intended.) Instead, I feel no different. I still feel unsightly and like I need to cover up. I wonder if that will ever go away. It would have been nice to have more realistic expectations of what success would feel like.</p>
<p>In sum, I’ve now lost about 35lbs.</p>