A Challenge.........as we enter into the "Traditional Weight Gaining Season"

[Madilyn A.]

Ratchel, Congrats on the diet, and more importantly congratulations on your new endeavor. I wish you the very best !!

[Andrea's Lynne]

Congratulations, Rachel!! Great news o the job, your celebration, and the weight. Nice work, girl!!

[gwenbeth]

Well over the holidays I gained about 2 pounds but now I have lost that and 3 more pounds down to 205. At the rate im going i might get under 200 in a few weeks. I think it has been at least 10 years since I have seen that.

Two weeks ago we were having dinner at a friends house, and even though I was on vacation, I was still thinking about losing weight. So I had a reasonable portion for dinner and my wife said that i "eat like a girl". I think she was making fun of me

[makin' it real]

Thanks Maddie and Lynne. I'm still flying about this new opportunity, to the point I haven't been able to think of hardly anything else. I even spent a full day travelling out of town just to talk for a couple hours with a friend who's done similar things at another school, rather than stick around home to do the regular tasks I know need doing.

Still, it's also motivating me to get off my duff and get stuff done! Including getting my body in shape; fit and healthy so I can function at my best, and curvilicious so I can enjoy my bits of down time. After all this dieting I'm starting to see a waist again. That hasn't happened in years! Sorta like Gwenbeth, we are both reaching places we haven't seen in a while.

~Rachel

[insearchofme]

Late congratulations Rachel, sounds great for you.

Well, after being back on my "diet" for a week I've dropped 4 lbs. All I am doing is cutting down on my portions. I'm not missing anything that I enjoy eating or drinking. I'm just not eating or drinking as much. I'm only going to record my weigth on Monday mornings as I used to do. I may jump on the scale to take a peek but will only count what I weight on Mondays.

So now I'm 230 and hopefully by next week I'll drop a couple of lbs.

Here is a web site with lots of cool stuff for diet and exercise some of you my know it but for those who don't go check it out www.livestromg.com

Hugs, Dana

[insearchofme]

Just want to bump this up. Let's not forget our challenge. I'm holding at 230, been out in the cold a lot shoveling snow. When I get inside i am famished and eat, a lot! So holding is good. Going to eat Mexican tonight got to be careful since I love it.

[Andrea's Lynne]

I've been holding steady at 194 for several days now, but am OK with that. I, too, am watching portion control

My wife and I call it ELAG (Eat Like A Girl) You can tell I used to be in the military

Logging every thing I eat does help me to control how much I eat. I guess I know I'll feel doubly guilty f I have to enter data that shows I'm not ELAGing

Keep it up!!!

[Madilyn A.]

For me, still about 234. I am having a most difficult time losing this year ! I had Avodart proscribed, already have Flomax. Maybe not enough T in my system. Just can't figure it out. But somehow I am going to get into a gown my wife used once and gave to me. I need to drop 20 lbs. Perhaps some before and after photos. I have plenty of "before" right now, and "afters" from before. Got that !!

[insearchofme]

Had Mexican last night and loved it. I had the "special" two flour tortillas (huge) stuffed with chicken, lightly fried, covered with salsa and a cheese sauce. With LARGE servings of rice and beans. I immediately asked for a box and put half of it in it. I also didn't pig out on the chips before the meal. I did drink a Negra Modello, loive it. I ate the rice and beans I took home for my mid day snack and am going to have the tortilla for lunch. Oh, by the way my weight stayed the same overnight.

One thng I want to pass on is that inorder to lose weight you must eat. Most recommend 5-6 small meals a day. That way you not get hungry and you don't get into what I call "starving mode". Our ancestrers often went long periods with out food, at times hunting wasn't very good. Our bodies learned to "feast or famine" by slowing down our metabolism when food wasn't avaiable and speeded it up when it was. So if we go on a "starvation diet" we give our bodies signals to slow down the metabolism. This makes us retain out fat stores which is what we don't want.

You've got to eat to lose weight. So girls keep eating, just not so much!

Hugs,

[cdona20]

Well even though Im a new member and didn't know about this challenge as described here, I did set a weight loss goal around Halloween and am glad to say I made progress. I am 6 feet tall and around halloween I was around 180 lbs. Now as of today I am 154 lbs. I want to lose more (Just a few pounds short of being able to see the underside of my belly just by looking down) but my Dr. is telling me I could now stand to gain a few.

[Madilyn A.]

CDona, All I can say is wow !! At 6' tall and 154 lbs, with such a beautiful face, sweetie you could be one of the hotties'. Keep posting and show us what 6' and 154 lbs. look like.

[Barbara Dugan]

I had a doctor appointment this morning for a regular check up and the scale kind of shock me 163 lbs its the heaviest I've been probably in my life. It is estrange because always my weight tend to be stable around the low to mid 150's. I may need my hormone levels check again probably my T levels are getting too low again or my thyroid is getting out of whack but anyway I will starting working out and checking what to eat more careful.

[jennifer easton]

OK,OK, I have nothing good to report still hang'n round the 205 mark, or maybe I do, the fact I'm not going up in weight,has to be a good thing right, hey so life is good!! I feel better all ready, I think there's a piece of cake with my name on it out in the kitchen, I'll check-in in a week. Jenni

[insearchofme]

I've stayed the same, 230lbs. that is good since I've been a bit lax in keeping my food portions small.

[Juliemckay]

I'm down another 6 pounds... due to a lovely case of the flu. As it stands now I'm down 11 of the 30 I wanted to drop. Not the way I wanted to do it though.

[Marissa]

cdona..almost 30lbs in 3 months???? WOOOWWWW!!!! How did you do that with all the holidays foods and cold weather??? Hints to pass on? That is great..

No I didn't raise my hand at the start of the thread as I have taken a big turn to not being as active since leaving the military and not working..bad excuse, I know..but I did one posititve thing..I bought that contraption that is mean enough to tell you what your not doing..yes, a scale. When I was active duty, we had fitness training first thing in the morning and I would jump on the scale before and after.. well okay, I lost part of the battle Gained 20lbs in 2 yrs (165 to 185). So the goal is to lose it again.. well how am I doing? uhhh fluxuating between 2-3 lbs. At least I'm not gaining.. that is what the scale reminds me, now I have to listen to the other voice that says get out and be active

I commend each of you on making the decision and wish you all the best of luck.. keep the faith

Hugs,
Marissa

[kimdl93]

I'm in. My goal is to lose another 20#. Once upon a time (6-7 years ago) I got careless and my weight ballooned to 267. I've knocked off 32 pounds over the past five or so years, but would really like to get back below 220.

One comment - I don't think daily weight measurement is entirely reliable. Its prone to variation depending on fluid intake and exercise. I can drop 4 pounds in an intense workout. But it all comes back the next day. So, I'll track myself on a weekly basis - stealing a glance at the scale now an then between offical weigh ins!

[Andrea's Lynne]

Keep it up ladies!

And a tip for you if you do weigh yourself daily (which I do): Weigh yourself at the same time every day (preferably as soon as you wake up ..... and "in all your glory") and you'll get some useful data.

[IamSara]

I had a doctor appointment this morning for a regular check up and the scale kind of shock me 163 lbs its the heaviest I've been probably in my life. It is estrange because always my weight tend to be stable around the low to mid 150's. I may need my hormone levels check again probably my T levels are getting too low again or my thyroid is getting out of whack but anyway I will starting working out and checking what to eat more careful.

Well keep working at it. I am and have been hitting the treadmill, elip and bike for 1hr every day now since jan 1. Unfortunately have only dropped 5 pounds. Grrrr but that is the way it goes. Got 25 to hit my goal of 165.
Sarah

[IamSara]

Keep it up ladies!

And a tip for you if you do weigh yourself daily (which I do): Weigh yourself at the same time every day (preferably as soon as you wake up ..... and "in all your glory") and you'll get some useful data.

Same here Lynne it is a great idea that a trainer told me to do a couple of years ago.
Sarah

[suchacutie]

Ok, for the third time in this thread I have gotten rid of the holiday bulge and I made it back to 181!!!! Now, can we continue on this track?

I'm working hard at it!

tina

[Eryn]

Keep it up ladies!

And a tip for you if you do weigh yourself daily (which I do): Weigh yourself at the same time every day (preferably as soon as you wake up ..... and "in all your glory") and you'll get some useful data.

I'll add that day-to-day readings mean little, usually reflecting the weight of the previous nights' dinner. Keep a record and look for overall trends. I started to weigh daily when I found out to my dismay that I had broken the 190 barrier. I'm now hovering in the mid 170s and would like to get back to my college weight of 168.

[Jocelyn Quivers]

Just did my weekly weight check. 161!! I'm getting close to my goal and to the point where my wife is starting to forbid me to lose any more weight.

[Andrea's Lynne]

Way to go, Jocelyn!! That's inspiring (and I could use a bit of inspiration with all these grey days and snow fall!)

[makin' it real]

I seem to have lost my motivation or focus this month. During December I kept holding the idea of losing weight while facing the challenges of holiday food, and that's what kept me going. Now in January it's been like, "No holidays? No motivation!"

I started the month at 169, and somehow got up to 173. I'm back down to 167 now, but I think I need to refocus how I'm going to do this. I'd had the idea of dieting and losing weight over just a couple/few months then being able to revert to most of my previous eating patterns to simply maintain that weight. Now I don't think that's going to work.

It's like I have to create a new way of relating to food in order to bring in a long-term eating pattern. I'd been doing the close-to-starvation diet occasionally and that's just not healthy or enjoyable to maintain. Plus, as Dana mentioned, the body rapidly adapts to that and stops burning fuel as readily. It was weird. When I started eating more snacks during the day (nuts and such) I started losing weight again. Thanks Dana, your tip really helped.

Anyway, I'm not sure what eating plan to put in place yet, but I just realized I'd bookmarked a lot of dieting recipe and lo-cal recipe websites that I haven't been using. I like the idea of adding more flavorful and visually satisfying meals to my diet, so I can have a longer lasting, healthful, and sustainable manner of eating.

~Rachel