I’ve been struggling with food, but doing well with exercise. I’ve been going to Bikram yoga 2-3 times a week and going to the gym for 32 minutes on the treadmill-running/walking, about 4 times a week. I’m happy that I’ve maintained the exercise and want to increase to add strength work.
Food–ugh–so hard for me. But I am now on the 6th day of a cleanse, which feels great! Really healthy food–plant based, no sugar, dairy, wheat. Delicious recipes so I don’t feel deprived. It’s just a nice re-set for new, to get me back on track.
Going to Paris in two weeks, so I’m hoping to maintain a good sense of control leading up to that.
I continue to read this thread, especially when I’m struggling, so thanks to all who post!
@mom2and, how do you like the user interface of the WW website tracking or the mobile app? WW “updated” it a while ago and I would be interested in your experience of whether you find the interface user friendly, cumbersome, confusing etc. Also, if you used the older version, which do you like better from an ease of use point of view?
@MichaelNKat, I’m a WW lifetime member, and I use the mobile app. I find it very easy to use. I’ve used the older version and did not find it any problem to convert to the new one. Tracking food intake does work for me.
jym - I could live on popcorn. The trick is to not use butter/salt. H makes it with just a little oil and leaves it plain for me. I also like “Skinny Pop” which is only 39 cal/cup.
@Packer, I agree that tracking food can be a critical tool for a weight management or nutritional plan. I in fact used the older WW mobile app very successfully many years ago to reduce my body weight but close to 20%. (I ended up moving on from WW as my training goals changed and WW wasn’t well suited to track specific macro and micro nutrient levels and exercise caloric burn values.) I recently recommended WW to a client that I train and discovered the changes to the software interfaces. I found the new software not to be as intuitive or easy to navigate and was wondering if it was just me, lol.
It definitely is a ‘battlefield’ to keep exercise up and manage dietary intake to consistently chip away at losing weight and getting healthier. Let’s keep the encouragement up, and wonderful that some folks are getting in some travel. I will have a trip to visit relatives/friends that I haven’t seen for 18 years - why - they are in Switzerland. Sis is coming for 2 weeks and I will be there for 4.
Agree with getting taxes done, that can be a stressful chore! Then I dealt with canceled insurance this week, triggered by DD one car (at fault) claim in Dec for $8K - homeowner’s, umbrella, and auto all need to be replaced by June - homeowner’s by next March but with bundled savings to replace with the others. We had ‘claims’ with no payout but it is a numbers game - it wasn’t from the size of claims IMHO. I had a hit and run claim in 2013, so that wasn’t supposed to count but the claim had to have been counted by someone in underwriting. So that was the stress this week - got that off my back yesterday with qualifying for USAA insurance Thursday, thanks to veteran FIL still alive (we took out and paid for a $48/year minimal policy with him for personal articles/$2500) so now we (H and I) both have USAA member numbers (and could then get insurance quotes and secure insurance Friday) and in addition to securing the insurance both DDs now have member numbers for future.
Next I have a career test to take (trauma nurse certification course written exam) - have to read the manual cover to cover, study my notes from the class (already passed the performance exam portion). That will spruce up my resume for job re-entry.
It is too hard to lose to allow the weight to creep back up. I made that mistake when I was healthy. Now at less healthy it is even harder. H even learned this lesson - he is older, so even though generally healthy realizes his ‘quick weight loss dropping’ doesn’t work as well due to more physical limitations. He luckily can still jog a few times a week 4-5 miles, so that helps him stay motivated.
@MichaelNKat – the newest Weight Watcher program (introduced in December) (and their updates to the iPhone app) has left me feeling disappointed, after a year of successfully using the older (new) program. In the moment when I entered a recipe (full-fat yogurt, protein powder, fruit) and clicked “blended” and watched the point count go from 8 points to 18 because, according to WW, blending changed the glycemic index, I realized that the focus was weight loss, pure and simple, and not health and fitness. That was the day I started looking for another weight-loss centered conversational/group outlet. I am currently following a nutritional program aimed at triathletes called “Swim Bike Fuel” that offers promise. I’m not far enough in to be completely positive, but I’m optimistic.
As a further comment, the newest WW program gives you points for activity–but the bar is ridiculously low… every thousand steps is a point, and you’re supposed to get 25 a week! A lot of the meetings are now devoted to making “healthy food” (read: low in sugar and far, high in protein) taste good. They also spend time hawking their latest packaged “healthy” junk food. (I’m not big on stuff that comes in plastic inside cardboard, considering that a marker for junk food.)
And, at the risk of losing my “body neutral” credibility, I’ve noticed that the “Oprah effect” has brought in a lot of new members who are seriously obese–hundreds of pounds to lose–and who really need to move more. In short, if you’re interested in overall healthy eating and exercise driving healthy weight loss, I don’t think WW is as good a place as it used to be.
My WW target exercise goal is 61 points. Still pretty easy to reach. I’m a little disconcerted that WW doesn’t track sodium. When I talked to one of the presenters, she said that they did market research and said that people weren’t as concerned about losing weight as “being healthy.” Well, yes, I want to be healthy, but that means weight loss and exercise.
When I used WW long ago, I did so to take advantage of it as a system of tracking intake quantity. I put together my own food/nutrition plan and either used the WW data base or entered food labels and created my own favorites. I did not think WW was particularly good for creating a personalized nutrition plan and instead I relied on my own knowledge to do so. I avoided all WW packaged/branded foods. One look at the ingredients was all that was necessary! The exercise tracker yielded bizarre results for my cycling cardio workouts. The relationships between time vs intensity and resultant point values were all screwed up. The system seemed very skewed towards duration and did not properly credit intensity. For example, I would be credited more points for riding 30 miles in 3 hours than if I did the same distance in 2 hours even though doing it in 2 hours required greater energy expenditures.
I stalk and read and learn here alot- thanks to you all!
I’m down 33 lbs from high last year sometime, BMI 34.7
But what I’m excited about is being close to moving from the dreaded “obese” category my doc feels compelled to scribble all over my chart (rightfully), to the oh so much more pleasing “overweight” category.
I’m at 30.5 BMI, so about 5 more lbs should do it.
I’ve not been good about exercise, but MUCH BETTER food choices, amounts.
Higher protein keep me from craving and binging on junk food.
Feeling pretty good.
Thanks for the encouragement! I am happy with my progress. Just still realizing how in denial I was to let my weight get SO out of hand. It just crept up and up and I pretended it was no big deal. But age age 59, my A1c finally started inching up. I refused medication.
Probably need to lose 35 MORE to get in reasonable (not thin) range. Don’t care if it takes me another year…I’ll get there.
I like your attitude @musicmom and I am about the same place as you, with age and amount overweight. Good for you to take good control and have a plan that works for you.
Congratulations, @musicmom! That’s a commendable drop to achieve on your own. You’re taking the journey a lot of us took when this thread started. I still remember the thrill of my Wii fit no longer announcing “you’re obese” every time I got on it. (It doesn’t seem to feel the need to announce “you’re overweight”, thank goodness.) My doctor was never so mean. Also the thrill a few years ago of no longer shopping in the Women’s Department - Misses for me from now on!
Inspired by my blood sugar drop and disregarding the fact that, yes, I hate to exercise, DH and took a beach walk and a pier walk today. I admit I don’t consider that “exercise” because it’s so enjoyable, but my feet are sore now. Main priority for me is to not slough off on my PT - gotta keep the ankles flexible and the hips strong. Also will try to keep up my 20 minutes in the morning with Wii Fit light aerobics to get the blood moving.
I am proud of DH. He has been inspired to jog several times a week and is pretty much at his goal weight. He is very careful on what he consumes - he has discovered how he does not like to ‘bounce back’ after weight gain.
Have had some major stressers out of the way the last few weeks. Trying to keep my food consumption down and am doing pretty well on that. Will look forward to being excited about taking the time to do some meaningful exercise.