Motivation and Support - 2/22 to 2/29
 

It's sunny in southern Ontario this morning and it feels like Spring. I am finally feeling up to doing some exercise today and getting into a routine of regular activity and eating a healthy diet. We have five more weeks in the Spring Challenge so give it all you've got.

I overdid it this weekend. Not sure how my challenge weigh-in will go. I'm mostly on track, but weekends are tough for me. Especially when my daughter bakes cookies. I cannot for the life of me say no to baked treats. I don't know all what else messed me up. Mostly a little here and there.

Huge win, though. I was up all night until about 4:45 this morning, and I didn't eat a single thing all night! That has to be a first for me to have insomnia and not eat!!! yea me!

Today I am back on track.

Good morning, everyone!

I'm continuing on fairly well. Last week I stayed on track diet-wise, but didn't get in much walking. The cold temps and snow continue here for us. Libby, I'm so jealous of your spring-like weather! I know my mood will change when my taxes and FAFSA are complete, the temps and weather improve and I can get outside to walk more. Saturday, we were in the mid 40's, (...which is great for us) but it's back down to the 20's for the foreseeable future. =(

One thing I did learn is although mall walking is fine for most, fast walking on concrete for 45-60 minutes/day is tough on the joints. Give me the outdoors any day!

Progress is right on track. Since January 11th, I'm down 11 pounds. =) 4 more to go to hit my comfortable maintenance weight and a 15 lb. weight loss. Last night for the first time, I caved in to cravings, and chowed down on take-out pizza. Kept it under control, as much as possible, by ordering a veggie pizza and tried to limit my intake. We'll see what the scale says. lol

I'll still be working on year-end paperwork, but I'll check in now and then.

Have a great week, all!

Good morning, Fitday Friends!

Well, this is going to be a rather difficult post to make, especially so early in the thread. But it's something I've been thinking about for a while, so I suppose I should just come out with it.

Effective March 1, I am suspending my participation on the forums (geez, that sounds like some sort of bad political campaign-speak... :D).

It's not you, it's me (geez, that sounds like some sort of bad break-up line...:D).

In all seriousness, though, while I thoroughly enjoy all your company and reading all your comments and stories, I'm not sure this is helping me. As most of you know, I'm a slow loser. A REALLY slow loser. Normally, I'm not a competitive person. For some reason, however, weight loss brings out a competitive streak in me and it makes me uncomfortable and sad. Uncomfortable because I really don't like competition, especially involuntary competition. Sad, because mostly it's me realizing that I'm never going to do as well as everyone else (involuntary competition). No matter how hard I try or how well I stick with my plan, I'm a loser at being a loser.

Since the beginning of February, I've lost about 1.5 pounds. According to the scale, I'm fairly close to "normal" BMI (although my mirror would disagree) after having been inches away from what BMI categorizes as "morbidly obese" (I HATE that term, by the way). I have lost close to 80 pounds, but it has been so slow that I didn't even realize the total loss until a few weeks ago. According to my medical reports, my health is excellent. All stats (except weight) are within the "normal" range. Heck, I haven't even had a cold in more than a decade. And, as a final point, I know that, the closer one gets to goal weight, the fewer "pounds per week" one loses.

The rational side of me understands and accepts all that. But the emotional side of me sees other people losing buckets of weight, sometimes despite not sticking to their programs as well as they'd like. The emotional Epi laments, "why not me??? I wanna lose X pounds a week, too!" On Mondays, I'm usually pretty pleased with my weigh-ins until I check the forums and see how well other people have done. Then, my little 1/4 pound sounds like nothing. Nothing to celebrate, nothing be proud of. Nothing to see here, move along.

It doesn't mean I'm not absolutely thrilled for others. I am. I rejoice in every pound lost by everyone who wants to lose. I'm incredibly proud of all of you!

But I'm feeling participation is counter-productive for me, personally. I need to feel good about my progress if I'm going to continue. I still have a long, long road ahead of me. At the rate I lose, it could take another year. That's not a happy thought, honestly. And so, I'm thinking perhaps I should just go it alone so I'm not as tempted to compare myself to others (and come up lacking).

Of course, I'll continue to stick with my program. I really like the strategies I've been using. They feel organic. I really don't "think" about "dieting" -- this is my new way of life. Nothing is forbidden; I simply make sure that every credit has a debit. Balance. I'll continue to log my foods and weight. None of that will change, at least not in the near future.

And I'll check in on y'all periodically (I hope you don't mind). I'm just not sure I can participate much. Maybe in a year or so, when I've finally hit BMI 25. Then, I'll have something I can talk about :D.

Whew, I hope this wasn't too much of a downer. Sorry 'bout that, folks. Carry on and make it a GREAT week!

Epixi, You have done so well and I am sure that you will continue to do so.
Thank you for supporting me and others on this site. Come back when you can and know that we would be happy to have you back any time.

Epixi: I totally understand your train of thought. I've lost a lot and have about 75 more pounds to lose and it seems like it's taking me two forevers to get those last pounds off regardless of how much I work out, what I eat or don't eat! I finally decided that if at the end of each day I could honestly say I have eaten according to my plan and exercised according to my goals, then that day has been a success! My Lifestyle Coach urged me to keep my current food plan & exercise plan and to realize that plateaus & slowed weight loss are just part of the journey. (If the current plans ever do not give me a loss for a consistent 6 weeks, then my nutritionist and I will hammer out another plan.)
I wish you well and thanks for all the encouragement you've given me!

Only lost 0.8 this past week--not what I'd like to see, but it IS a loss! Vicki

wow...was it just me who couldn't get into the forums, or was it FitDay being stupid again and nobody could get in??

Epi, You've been very supportive of everyone on here. You will be missed. I hope that you will come in and say hi once in a while. I wish you the best of everything in your journey onward and downward.

I've been sick with a persistent, dry, deep cough, body aches, tired, etc. It hit all of a sudden out of nowhere. One minute I was fine and literally the next minute I felt like crap. I am down on the scale though since I haven't felt like eating much, lol, so I guess there is a positive.

How is everyone doing??

I've been trying to log in for a couple of days, so you're not the only one who wasn't able to log in Lisa.

Epixi - Sorry to hear you feel that way....although I can completely relate. I too am a slow loser....but seem to be a fast gainer. I too have felt discouraged reading posts where someone hasn't even followed their plan 100% and have a big drop. I have to be 100% on plan to see a loss and even then, it's extremely slow. Having said all that, I really think that is the way for everyone. I think when you see someone having a big loss one week, it's because they had a gain the week before...then they lose the water weight plus a little making it look like they are losing fast....if you were to look at their weigh ins over time, I'm certain you would see lots of fluctuations up and down. Wishing you the best and much success on your journey :)

Only 5 weeks left to the Spring Challenge as Libby mentioned. I will not hit my goals, but I'm going to do my best to get the scale moving again and bust this plateau!

I just received an email from a site that I subscribe to. Very wise words so I wanted to share. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did :)


A healthy outside starts on the inside!

Taking great care of your body and your health with a nutritious diet and movement that makes you stronger and more vibrant is the best way to look your best. When we focus too much on the external it can be tough to stick with our goals because we don't see changes happen quickly enough,
or feel like we're not good enough if we don't look a certain way or weigh a certain amount...

Make sure you've decided to live a healthy lifestyle because you LOVE your body and want to take the best care of it possible. Celebrate your body for the amazing miracle it is RIGHT NOW by appreciating and caring for it.

Diet and exercise can feel like punishment, but movement and nourishment is a real treat! <3

YOU CAN DO THIS!

Holy Hannah, I kept getting kicked off the forum and tried logging back in but couldn't post. Glad to see that it's working again. The weather has turned ugly with freezing rain and high winds. I hope the power doesn't go out. The scale is yo yoing again, up one day down the next. I hope that every has a good week and does well on Friday.

Debbie, that was a very good message!

Libby, stay warm and safe.

The bold button isn't working. *heavy sigh*. It's always something, isn't it?

I've been awfully sick. I was fine one minute and literally the next minute I couldn't stop coughing. Not just a little cough. It's a deep, dry, loud, growling cough. Sara went to the dr. and has a bit of bronchitis so she's on meds. The dr told her to take over-the-counter delsym for her cough, so that's what I've been taking too. It's been helping a lot. I have no congestion or anything like that...it's weird. I slept for the better part of about 14 hours last night and yesterday. Now it's 1am and I'm awake. hopefully in the next day or two I'll be feeling back to normal. On the good side of being sick and not feeling like eating, my weight is down a little bit lol. Hey, I'll take it any way it comes!!!

Lisa - Sorry to hear you're down with a cold!! There are some crazy virus's going around. Hope you are on the mend quickly! Glad to hear it's somehow working in your favour and the scale is down. When I was sick, the scale actually went up. Not sure if it was water retention or what....I'm so sensitive to it! As for the bold not working, neither are the smilies. You can bold it yourself by putting square brackets around a b before your text and a /b with square brackets at the end of your text. Hopefully this is fixed soon.

Libby - We got freezing rain yesterday in the capital as well. Luckily we didn't get nearly as much as they were calling for. Hope your yo-yoing scale is down tomorrow for Friday weigh in. I must have the same scale as you ;)

Vicki - Great attitude on the .8 lbs. loss. A loss is a loss and also a success!! Congratulations on all the success you have achieved!


Quinn - You are sooooooo very close to your maintenance goal!! Wow!! 11 lbs. in 6 weeks is unbelievable!! Way to go!!

Hope everyone has a great day! :D

Good afternoon, Fitday Friends!

Glad to see everyone made it through unscathed. I worried that the forums were gone forever!

Thanks so much for the support and understanding, folks. It was a tough decision to make and a tough post to make (I didn't want it to come off as drama, because it really isn't), but I think it's the right one for me. It's sort of like how some people need to weigh every day (yes, that's me) and for others, seeing those daily fluctuations is detrimental.

When I took that hiatus last year, I posted very infrequently. The mistake I made was that I slowed down on everything. I stopped weighing daily. I stopped logging (bad move). I became extraordinarily lenient on what constituted "sticking to my program". A bag (or three) of Peanut M&Ms? Sure, I can handle it! Chinese food three times in one week (oh, the sodium!!!)? No problem! Big Bacon Burger and fries? Why not? Of course, it wasn't all day, every day, every week, but enough so that my weight crept up a bit.

This time, I'm going to continue the daily weighing (that seems to work best for me) and am going to continue monitoring intake and daily logging. Those two bits of self-accountability are important for me and, I think, will help me stay on the path. We'll see how it goes!

Now if I could just stop seeing ads for Nutrisystem/Weight Watchers/HydroxyCut... "I'm (name of celebrity) and I lost 9000 pounds with (name of miracle)!" Yeah, right. You and your army of personal chefs and nutritionists, make-up artists, stylists, personal trainers...

Anyway, on to the social:

Quinn: 11 pounds since January 11!!! Fantastic!!! You are an inspiration! I hear you on the taxes and year-end stuff. I'm mixed up in that now, too. My (physical) desk is awash in paperwork. I thought cluttering up the desktop would inspire me to work. Instead, I've just been pushing it all aside and working in the little clearing. Hmmm there's a dieting metaphor in there somewhere, haha...

Libby: Thank you for the kind comments. I love that phrase "Holy Hannah". Never heard it before. I hope you don't mind if I borrow it occasionally! Sorry to hear that the scale is yo-yoing. They tend to do that, don't they? Pesky bits of technology.

Lisa: Thank you, too, for the kind comments. Much appreciated. I hope you're feeling better soon. You're wise to get some extra sleep. It helps the body repair. I love how you're seeing a silver lining, though -- take it any way it comes (off!). Feel better soon, hon.

Debbie: I'm very thankful for your comments, too. Heh I didn't realize that you're a fast gainer (me too!!!). I eat one M&M (yes, they are one of my downfalls) and my body says, "Yeah, baby, I'm keeping that!" and stores it right on my butt.

To elaborate on Debbie's answer with regard to the Bold workaround, it works for other text enhancements as well. Do these WITHOUT THE SPACES and you should get the results you're looking for:

• [ b ]Bold[ /b ] will show up as Bold.
• [ i ]Italics[ /i ] will show up as Italics.
• [ u ]Underline[ /u ] will show up as Underline.
• [ color=red ]Red text[ /color ] will show up as Red text.

And, of course, for colors, you can substitute whatever color you want, blue, green, yellow and so forth. And you can combine effects, such as making a bold color.

There are workarounds for smilies and for making bullet lists, too. Let me know if you want me to show them.

Anyway, have a great rest of the week, folks! I hope the forum remains up and available for us!

Epixi - Glad to see you posting :) Not sure you know my story....nearly 2 years ago, I was posting regularly here on fitday, logging, weighing daily and lots of exercise. I went from 143 lbs. to 118 lbs. in 8 months....so it wasn't fast, but I did it!! Then I injured my shoulder. I stopped working out and the scale started to creep up. I eventually stopped logging and weighing daily. Fast forward two years, I gained back all the weight +20 lbs.! The highest I weighed was 163 back in January. I've been flip flopping....trying one week, not trying the next. I'm just like you....I need to weigh in daily to stay accountable to myself. I also need to exercise daily or the scale won't move. The reason I'm dishing on all this is I just want you to see you aren't the only one who is struggling. I think we are all struggling to be honest. I hope you do stick around and keep posting. We all enjoy your positive energy! Also, one last thing...the only person you should be in competition with is you. We all have different bodies and metabolism....no use in comparing yourself to others. Look in the mirror....challenge that girl...she's your real competition! ;) ....oh one more last thing, there's an app called Happy Scale. You enter your daily weigh in and it tracks it for you. It also highlights your best weigh in over the last 10 days and smooths out the fluctuations on a chart. I too find the fluctuations disheartening, but this app has helped some. If you have an iPad or smartphone you should check it out! It's free, so if you don't like it, nothing lost ;) K, no I'm done! :p

How is everyone? I'm super happy because I had a 2.4 lb loss this week. Being down with a cold and cough has its perks. lol Actually, I have eaten when hungry, and that's it. I'm trying sooooo hard to learn to listen to my body and not eat because I'm bored or even because I "have room in calorie count for the day for another snack" (which inevitably leads me to going over!) My calories have been under my goal quite a bit this past week, and a few days right on goal. I think I was way over one day if I remember right. So my lesson this week is that staying on target (or under if manageable) does actually work for me.

I've been taking Robitussin every 4 hours to try to keep my cough at ease. I've been coughing so much that all the muscles around my rib cage are aching from the strain. The Robitussin works for the 4 hours it's supposed to, but after that it comes right back. I was up for a couple hours last night with it until I finally got out of bed and took more. dh has been so good to me with taking the kids to school and picking them up. I'm really grateful for that. love that man o' mine!

Libby, I saw your note on maybe maintaining in the weigh-in thread. I decided to do that a couple weeks ago, and I've finally broken through and am having some progress again. Sometimes sitting back and maintaining for a while can help to take some of the pressure off and help you refocus. At least it did for me.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend. My horrible cough seems to be getting better, thankfully!

I brought out an old goodie from my past arsenal...3-2-1 Cake in a Mug. You get a gallon ziplock bag and in it you mix one full box of Betty Crocker Triple Chocolate Fudge cake mix (or any chocolate you prefer), and 1 full box of angel food cake mix. Combine well. Then you spray a coffee mug with cooking spray. Mix in 3 Tablespoons of the cake mix, 2 Tablespoons of water and cook in the microwave on high for 1 minute. It comes out kind of spongy, but tastes great and it is a super little snack for just 132 calories. Granted, not much nutritional value, but it's an indulgence with portion control. That's the kind of treat I need...portion control!

I probably won't be on tomorrow. I'll be gone all day for a 3.5 hour trip each way to visit my son in prison for a few hours. I'm super excited to see him for the first time face to face in nearly a year. I'll actually get to give him a hug and hold his hand. It will be something special for the 3 of us (dh included).

Have a good weekend all. See you Monday for the challenge weigh-in!

Lisa, the mug cake sounds a whole lot better than some of the stuff I have been eating lately. Starting tomorrow I will be on a much narrower path and hope to get some of this regained weight off before March 1st. A waist is a terrible thing to mind. Ha Ha.

I'm home. It was exactly a 12 hour day. we left at 7:45 this morning, and walked in the door at 7:45 tonight. VERY long day!!!! Our visit with our son was really good. He looks healthy now that he's clean, and we shared some good laughs. It was a very good 4 hours with him.

On the not so good side, being gone for 12 hours meant food on the go. I had a danish this morning, 2 sodas at the prison, 1/2 a cheeseburger and fries at Wendy's (but it made me verrrry sick!!! ugh!), and a little hot fudge sundae from mcd's. All in all, I'm probably still near my calorie goal, but not the kind of food I should be eating on a regular basis. My weight is up a couple lbs today from friday, so it will be interesting to see where it's at tomorrow.

Libby, I like your "waist is a terrible thing to mind" line. lol

Hi all :( No smiley face for me this morning. I did something to my neck/back/shoulder on the weekend and I think I'm dealing with a pinched nerve now. I'm off from work today and trying to book a massage and chiro appointment. I hope to be on the mend quickly!! Soooooo frustrating!

Lisa - how are you feeling? Is the cold on it's way out? So happy to hear you had a good visit with your son and that he looked well :)

Libby - good job getting back on track. It can be a slippery slope when we veer off our path, so good for you for getting right back on the right track!

Have a good, safe and healthy day all! ;)