<p>If you can be disciplined, I think it’s fine to eat one chocolate a day.</p>
<p>^^^agreed. Or every other day. Cause that’s what it’s all about, right? A lifestyle change. Learning to eat well most of the time with the discipline to allow yourself to enjoy the luxuries of a chocolate now and then. Take one and but the box away out of sight!!</p>
<p>
I think that is bad science, though. All calories are not created equal. The calories in the orange come from nature and have nutrients and fiber. The ones in the rice crispie treats, not so much.</p>
<p>My D lives in San Francisco and brought my H some chocolates from Giardhelli. The are 85 % cocoa. I don’t mind indulging in one of those every other day or so. </p>
<p>ETA: I’m down three pounds over four weeks. Thank YOU, colonoscopy!</p>
<p>Giving this thread a much needed bump? How are we all doing? Summer is almost here! My wedding is 4 weeks from yesterday.</p>
<p>The Good:</p>
<p>I went shopping for clothes for my honeymoon yesterday and got a lot of great dresses, shorts, and shirts. The best part? I thought I was stuck hovering between a size 10 and a size 8 because all my 10s were too big but the size 8 jeans I bought to test with still didn’t fit. Well, apparently they were just cut weird because all my new dresses and shorts are 6’s, I think I got one 8 pair of jeans and one 10 dress in something that ran really small. One dress I actually saw on a mannequin and thought “oh, how pretty, but that would never fit me…” and I ended up needing a smaller size and the shop girl had to take it off the mannequin-- and it fit! I bought a dress right off a mannequin! Granted it flows at the hips so where I am carrying all the weight I don’t like wasn’t a factor (I am not as tiny as a mannequin FOR SURE), but I can’t believe I fit into a size 6 anything. Last years shorts and dresses are 12s! I just pulled some 16s out of my closet to make room for my new 6’s.</p>
<p>The Bad:</p>
<p>I am down to 146.8 as of yesterday… I did not eat so great yesterday so not weighing for a few days! But that was a new low. My original goal was 150 and I shifted it to 145. I definitely decided I can’t go lower than that, and I am frustrated. There is at least 5 if not 10 pounds of excess fat in my hips and thighs that is full of cellulite and just does not look good at all… but in my mid and upper body you can now see abdominal muscle definition and I can’t afford to lose any more weight from my chest and back without starting to not look so good, so this is it-- I am done, my body is what it is. It just does not want to let go of that lower body weight and I keep losing from places I shouldn’t be losing from instead. I can only hope that maybe as I switch into maintenance, some of this thigh issue might turn out to be skin that just needs time to tighten up or maybe it will still go away. Maintenance is hard. When you’re losing you focus in on your problem areas and work so hard to make them go away, and at the finish line they might well still be there. Going from a diet mentality for 3 years to a maintenance mentality is way more complicated than I bargained for, but I am looking forward to the challenge. It was a grueling 3 years mentally and emotionally, and physically really, and I think maintenance will be a healthy step for me.</p>
<p>And The Ugly:</p>
<p>On a less positive note, I have a vent… I have a 21 year old sister who is just starting to lose her younger metabolism. I am 100% sympathetic and supportive of her, and as a disclaimer I know this issue isn’t about me and the answer is to not talk about my weight loss around her at all, which I am trying to do-- but I just need to vent. She still looks great, and I think a lot healthier than she did before-- she’s still tiny but just looks like a grown woman now, but she’s really struggling. I am struggling not to be hurt because if she hears I went down a size or that I hit my goal weight, her reaction is, “but how can YOU be a 12!? I’m an 8 now!” like I am always supposed to be six sizes fatter than her. She was like this a year or two before she ever started gaining (and she only gained a couple pounds. The girl still wears juniors sizes.) She has always had a more petite bone structure than me, but when I was her age I was her same size, I was a 4-6 in high school and rail thin as a child, I was never overweight except the last few years and being overweight really does not feel like part of my identity the way it is apparently a part of my identity for her. I don’t like overweightness being ascribed to me in that way, it is hurtful after how hard I have worked to be my “normal” again. She wears brands that run smaller than I do so even though I am a 6-8 now I am still a bit bigger than her, but if she happens to catch that I’ve gone down to those sizes she’s going to go ballistic.</p>
<p>I wish she could keep her weight struggles focused on her and not on me-- I know it’s not really about me, but having someone feel threatened by your weight loss is just uncomfortable. I avoid bringing it up in front of her, but she’s my maid of honor and has been coming with me to dress fittings–she is usually there for her fittings, too, and my mom and I have been doing weight watchers together so the subject does come up-- and it’s just obvious, I look completely different now, I have abs, she knows I am small without me needing to say anything and whenever we go out somebody else says something-- the seamstress, the hair dresser, grandma, etc. My seamstress is having a cow because my dress has to be taken in 3 sizes. I’m very proud of her for recognizing NOW that her metabolism isn’t what it used to be and not a year from now like I did (which is how I ended up with 40lbs to lose in the first place). I wish she could see how well she is doing, she looks great and anything she’s unhappy with she’s going to be able to fix relatively easily if she makes the appropriate lifestyle changes now when she only has a couple of pounds to lose, this is not a crisis-- and she’s doing what she needs to do, she’s eating better and exercising. If she feels threatened by me we don’t have to talk about it, I go out of my way not to rub her face in it or mention it in front of her because she is BEAUTIFUL and I want her to feel that way, but I’m not going to wear baggy clothes around her just to protect her self image as someone half my size. Sorry honey, you are NOT half my size anymore, just the same as it’s been the VAST majority of our lives! Why is this a contest all of the sudden? The family is allowed to have more than one healthy, thin girl-- in fact I have been the only fat one for a long time, now I am just like everybody else-- and I am MYSELF again. Don’t make me feel funny about it!</p>
<p>Ema, just focus on what YOU need to do to take care of yourself. Doing it now will help your health for many years. Trust me on that one. 
The ideal weight is the one that you can maintain. You will be gorgeous at your wedding whatever your weight. You have taken a smart, scientific approach to accomplishing your weight loss goals and that will put you in good stead for the future. Your sister’s body image issues are in <em>her</em> head. Keep them out of yours. :)</p>
<p>How tall are you? I am also getting to the point where I’m not losing where I need to and the rest of me doesn’t need to lose more. Mine’s in my middle, which is not good for heart health, so I am reluctant to stop here. I am also three different sizes, depending on the cut of the waistline.</p>
<p>I was always the overweight one in the family, and that’s relatively speaking-- 5’8" and 165 in HS seemed enormous. (Now I look back at pictures from that time and see a very different girl than the one in my head. However, I look in the mirror now and still see the body that used to weigh 100 lbs. more.) One of my sisters has gained a huge amount of weight in recent years and now is more than I was at my peak. I had tons of clothes that no longer fit and thought she’d like them, but was so hesitant to bring up the topic (with the underlying message, “Hey sis, do you want my size 24-26-28 clothes?”). She does not have the budget to go out and buy new things. Ultimately I took the leap and told her I had lots of stuff that would be suitable for work and church, and she was happy to take them. Just took them down to GA two weeks ago and she was THRILLED. She said, “It’s like you went shopping just for me!” Whew. </p>
<p>My other sister decided that when I weighed less than she did (and that was the first time that EVER happened), she went on a diet. She wasn’t snarky, but I sense some competition there. </p>
<p>I find it really hard to go visit my family with my new philosophy about food. They do not eat healthfully, and think that since I’m down there, “this is a special occasion” and I should just pile food on the plate. Seriously – I buy greens and veggies, make a plate full of salad and grill a chicken breast and they say “Is that all you’re eating? You have to put some BBQ on top of that rabbit food! And have some German potato salad – you need a starch!” Noone there EVER eats salad. Temptations abound that are just not present at home, and I find it hard to resist. And exercising? That is not even on their collective radar. OTOH, if I ever even hinted that I am doing these things so I can stay alive and healthy and not bedridden like my mom because of extreme obesity, diabetes, congestive heart failure and bones that crumbled like what my mom experienced, all &^%$ would break loose.</p>
<p>Well. That turned into a vent and a half!</p>
<p>I am 5’7. I look great from the waist up, better than great. The area between my hips and my knees… not so much. It’s that “cottage cheesey” look, which is not what I want to be seeing at 25 years old and pre-children. :\ My attitude, right or wrong, is I have plenty of time to have those problems later… I eat healthy and work out like an athlete, I want to look like it! Some of it is skin that needs to tighten up, this is where I carried most of my weight, I just don’t know how much… I am hoping a lot so that in time it will improve. But at the same time, I’ve lost like 8in from my waist and only < 3in from my thighs when the vast majority of my excess pounds was in my thighs. So the change there is really not very dramatic compared to the rest of my body, and that’s where so much of the weight was. I don’t know. I just have to get used to the idea. It’s strange, because my overall shape did not change much at all… it just got smaller. I suppose that was how I managed to look like I weighed 150 when I weighed 185-- I was always shapely even when overweight, but then at 145 I feel like I don’t look that much difference from 180. I wonder if that ever goes away?</p>
<p>Clothes shopping actually did help. I want to try and not think about it in terms of how I think I look in the mirror and more in terms of my actual clothing size. I was a 16. I just bought dresses and shorts in size 6. I just ordered lands end swimsuits and was a 4-- I’ve NEVER worn a 4. I am small. I have never been this small as an adult, the last time I bought a size 6 dress I was too young to work and my mother bought it for me, I probably didn’t even notice the size. I am small, I am small, I am small. I have to keep telling myself that.</p>
<p>It is tough when you are not in a supportive environment, especially when you usually are and you have to venture out. I am NOT good at that. My fiance and I are both gym rats who try to eat well all the time, he lost over 100lbs a few years ago and we are both committed to this lifestyle. As a result, I am REALLY well insulated from temptation at home. When I leave home, I nearly always blow it up. Other people can make it hard, I take a lot of criticism for my eating – “oh my god, are you anorexic???” if I eat a salad with chicken and a cup of soup for lunch. It doesn’t change how I eat, but it can make it harder to feel good about what I am eating. When I am at my parents house they have snacks galore and they just graze all day, and it is ALWAYS bad news when I go there… I never do well. I always eat half a carton of goldfish crackers, and I am allergic to milk for crying out loud-- no self control whatsoever in that environment. Learning to be consistent in different environments is really tough, it’s definitely something I need to work on and it’s a skill we all need. And learning how to STAND FIRM without coming across as judgmental to other people, that is hard and I think what brings on some of the anorexic comments. My one coworker tries to get me to go out to eat with her every day and if I say, “I can’t go out to eat every day like this anymore,” she takes it as a criticism of her own diet-- and of course she does, it would probably make me feel funny, too. But what can you do? If I don’t tell her I’m on a diet she’ll just think I’m blowing her off, it’s lose/lose.</p>
<p>Haven’t been on routine in the last few weeks because (1) catching up on medical stuff; had annual gyny/Pap, mammogram, and 10 year colonoscopy all within one week. Everything is OK other than the expected couple of small diverticulum(sp?) pouches. Then (2) we’ve been dealing with MIL stroke and passing; DH was back and forth to the east coast and DS and I flew out this last week for the funeral. In between I’ve been (3) getting the house ready for Passover, having invited my brother/SIL and mother. And (4) my ankle is feeling all the activity. I’ve scheduled outpatient on April 30 to remove the plate and pins, so will be laid up for a little while for that.</p>
<p>I haven’t paid a lot of attention to what I’m eating but still have many of my same habits. I admit I ate the whole bun on a quarter pounder while we were traveling to the funeral. Overall I’m up maybe a pound but would like to take a few pounds off before my surgery. Luckily everyone is supportive and complimentary. Ema, I know what you mean about shopping the smaller sizes; I was so thrilled when I could leave the Women’s section for Misses. I saw that Coldwater Creek is closing due to bankruptcy; probably because I no longer need to go there for the plus sizes.</p>
<p>I did celebrate yesterday - DS got a job offer and starts Wednesday!!! A good job in his field with full benefits. It will be a big adjustment for him but we are so thrilled. (He boomeranged back home last August and has been hunting for work since then.)</p>
<p>Other than the ankle surgery, I hope to be back in my routine, exercising every morning, and behaving myself at the table.</p>
<p>went dress and pants shopping.Was.not.pretty</p>
<p>Back to the top.
I have had a bad two weeks. Need to refocus. Still eating healthy but way to many carbs. Pants are tight. </p>
<p>Am glad Passover is ending. This has not been a good week. </p>
<p>Ema, curious. What about your wedding dress? You’re at a stable weight and have had your final fitting, I presume?</p>
<p>I have not been good. Will need to get back on track too. Ideas, anyone?</p>
<p>I had my first fitting last week and thought I was at a stable weight, then I gained 5lbs. 
It only took two bad meals but will probably take months to lose so I might be out of luck now in terms of being at my goal weight for the wedding and looking nice in my swimsuits for the honeymoon. I am just trying to do the best I can for now and accept the results I can manage. I think there will not be much difference in sizing for the gown but I guess I will find out today, second fitting is today. I am bummed because the bachelorette party is Saturday and we are having pizza and cake, and I am going to have to find a way to discreetly eat something else in another room. I will not be able to participate without gaining another 5lbs. I won’t get to participate in the rehearsal dinner either. It’s a real bummer but the alternative is to return all my swimsuits and go out and buy different ones with more coverage, but I don’t think I can tolerate that defeat after 2 years of work to get here. I just don’t get to eat food like that anymore if I want to look the way I want to look, not even in moderation. And at this size, 5lbs makes a drastic difference in appearance much moreso than it used to-- this sucks! Any “bad” food seems to make me gain in 5lb increments, I could be 15lbs overweight again by the time we get back from the honeymoon if I don’t abstain from participating in these pre-wedding parties. This lifestyle is going to take a lot of getting used to, I can see why so many people regain. You can’t go back to your old habits, but your new habits have to change too if you don’t want to keep losing, it’s almost like uprooting your life and starting all over AGAIN. </p>
<p>As it turns out the weight issue was the least of our concerns, the bigger problem was that the sales lady lied to me about my bra options when I bought the gown and I almost had to pick out a completely different gown last week because the seamstress said there was absolutely nothing she could do for me and not wearing a bra was not an option. My gown has a keyhole opening in the back, which only bared my upper back when I tried it on but now somehow basically bares my whole back all the way down to my waist, so the longline bra I was told I could wear does not work. She says I lost too much weight and now the dress hangs differently. This is why I only just had my first fitting last week, everything got pushed back while we scrambled to conjure some kind of magical miracle bra. I ended up buying the bra that worked the best, taking it to a different seamstress who specializes in bridal bras, and had her turn it into some kind of frankenstein contraption that seems to work. Today I try my newly 3 sizes smaller gown on and if it fits we will be sewing the frankenstein bra to the inside of the dress for further security and hoping for the best. </p>
<p>The wedding is two weeks from Saturday. Lordy lordy! Things are coming down to the wire. I guess the positive is, if I get to walk down the aisle in my real wedding gown and not a last minute stand-in because we couldn’t get the bra to work, I really have no right to complain about a $100 bikini not looking quite as flattering as I wanted it to. </p>
<p>Hi all - just popping in to confess weight was up a bit this week and won’t go down soon because I’m getting the hardware taken out of my ankle tomorrow morning. Apparently it will all be much easier than getting it put in last summer, and I’m supposed to be able to walk out of the hospital (outpatient surgery) but obviously won’t be exercising much for a couple of weeks at a minimum.</p>
<p>I have several items of clothing that won’t fit if I can’t drop a few pounds soon. Sigh.</p>
<p>Marilyn–had hardware taken off femur 1.5 years after it was put in. That surgery had a really easy recovery, by comparison…</p>
<p>Yay for getting your pins taken out! I understand your frustration, my foot and ankle are in a cast this week. I am still probably about 5lbs up, I lost a bit of my Easter weight but did not exercise self control at my bachelorette party… but I’ve decided not to use the scale anymore until after the wedding, so I am just trying to eat the best I can and what will be, will be. You’ll have to try and think the same way… all you can do is the best you can, you can do quite a bit by watching your diet just a bit more carefully for the time being, and soon you will be on the mend again! But being sidelined from exercise when you know you’re up is no fun, I am with you there.</p>
<p>Haven’t posted in months, but due to a variety of reasons (most not including self-control) I’ve managed to drop 10 lbs…the goal now is to keep it off and lose the remaining 10. I did do WW SimpleStart in January in anticipation of our March cruise and lost 5, but put back on a couple while we were away. However, Passover for me was exercise in itself when I was cooking for 18 I had no time to eat! Then I had knee surgery 2 weeks ago, followed by some gastro reactions to the meds, so the result is I am now below 150 for the first time in 2 years. I want to stay here! My refrigerator broke the night I had the surgery, so my husband cleaned it out, completely, and I find it is easier to just buy what we will eat that day. It’s like reverting to my first years of working when the only thing in our fridge was what I picked up at the market on my way home. I know it’s not the most frugal way of living, economically speaking, but at this stage of my life, my health is more important to me. Right before the surgery I was also diagnosed with scary high blood pressure, so reducing all salt and watching my weight took on new importance. As Ema mentioned above, however, I feel like if I look at the bad stuff (which I still love), I can put back all the weight and then some. I’m hoping, eventually, to have enough wiggle room to have a few treats now and then. Best wishes on the wedding, you are beautiful and will shine on that wonderful day!</p>
<p>I haven’t posted in months either! I realized I have zero willpower and would never work out on my own. I hired a personal trainer as part of my New Years resolutions and have been working out with him 2-3 days a week since. I just had my re-evalution and my strength has increased dramatically. My weight is not moving as much as I would like (I would ultimately like to lose 30 more pounds)but I did get the Aria scale and it measures body fat as well as weight and that number has declined over 5% so I guess I am having some success. Modifying my food is such an effort as well…I love carbs and sweets and seem to gravitate to them for comfort all the time! Such a struggle!</p>
<p>I’ve also been away though I have (or had) managed to lose stubborn the ten pounds I’d been working on. Unfortunately trying to sell my house, with after work showings when I would usually be cooking dinner and the general stress of it all, has me back up a few pounds. Tomorrow is the first day of a new month so I am challenging myself to get back down where I was by the end of it. I also need to check back in with the Bag a Week Crew. :)</p>
<p>It looks like I’m on track to lose a couple of pounds this week, but mostly I’ve been the same weight for the last two years. It’s about 10 pounds more than I weighed when I got married, so naturally I’d like to lose it, but I’m not really trying that hard. I do need to get more exercise. It’s very hard in the spring when my business just gets crazy. (Though I’m sure it would help if I didn’t take my breaks on CC!)</p>