RillaVanilla's 125 lb loss thread

Options
135678

Replies

  • IslandSneezerooo
    IslandSneezerooo Posts: 268 Member
    Options
    @KrunchyMama‌ Yes, ignoring the "perfects" is definitely the best option. Or as a close friend said to me years ago, "Don't engage with crazy." haha

    TOM is still not here... I think the extended PMS before TOM is the worst part of having PCOS, for me personally. Thankfully I have the luxury of time right now to sleep it off when I'm struggling with fatigue and headaches. I've been REALLY consistent with taking my iron/B12 supplement for the past month and that's helping my energy levels tremendously. Adding in extra cals makes sense...
  • melodyesch
    melodyesch Posts: 49 Member
    Options
    I think you've made great progress so far. I'm a month in and down 10.2 pounds, which is awesome for me. But I tell ya, the scale is not your friend and likes to play mind games. On one of my weigh in days I was down nothing and the very next day was down almost 4 pounds. Did I lose 4 pounds over night? NOOOO.

    I have started weighing daily and then just recording my weight on Friday, my official weigh in date, good or bad. That way, I see the fluctuations that my body goes through but just know that if I stay on plan, the scale WILL go down. So that's been my goal. Not pounds lost, but staying under my daily calories.

    Good Luck! I wouldn't focus on "x" number of pounds before your trip home. But rather just staying on plan.
  • IslandSneezerooo
    IslandSneezerooo Posts: 268 Member
    Options
    @melodyesch All very good points. I tend to get caught up in numbers (I loves them), trying to predict the outcome of this or that if I do this or that. I've been tracking my numbers on a spreadsheet (geek alert!) and there's no rhyme, reason or trend emerging. Surprise, surprise. LOL One week I lose over 6 lbs eating a lot, the next I gain 2 eating just slightly less... I eat a lot less and only lose 0.2, I eat slightly less and lose 2.6... Who even knows?! It's SO HARD to trust the process. What's even harder is getting OUT of my own head!!

    So... I'll probably always tweak and edit my plan (it's fun), and I'm going to weigh when I want... but I'll TRY not to worry about the ups and down throughout the interim & keep my eye on the big picture. A a loss is a loss and I'll take it!
  • KrunchyMama
    KrunchyMama Posts: 420 Member
    Options
    RillaVanilla wrote: »
    @melodyesch All very good points. I tend to get caught up in numbers (I loves them), trying to predict the outcome of this or that if I do this or that. I've been tracking my numbers on a spreadsheet (geek alert!) and there's no rhyme, reason or trend emerging. Surprise, surprise. LOL One week I lose over 6 lbs eating a lot, the next I gain 2 eating just slightly less... I eat a lot less and only lose 0.2, I eat slightly less and lose 2.6... Who even knows?! It's SO HARD to trust the process. What's even harder is getting OUT of my own head!!

    So... I'll probably always tweak and edit my plan (it's fun), and I'm going to weigh when I want... but I'll TRY not to worry about the ups and down throughout the interim & keep my eye on the big picture. A a loss is a loss and I'll take it!

    I find that my weight fluctuates by about 5# on any given day, and I also track my weight on a spreadsheet lol. As long as the overall trend is downward I'm happy. Do some reading about plateaus, water retention, and whooshes. I was working really hard for the last couple scales, and felt like I should be losing weight but I wasn't. I did some reading though, because my fat felt really squishy, which is when I read about whooshes. So I upped my calories for a couple days, and the water weight came right off! Once I get over my cold/bronchitis, I'll be going back to my 1240 calorie days, and upping my exercise.
  • IslandSneezerooo
    IslandSneezerooo Posts: 268 Member
    Options
    @krunchymama Yes, I do know about whooshes and all the variables that go into weight gain/loss. Weight loss has been my main "hobby" since I was 13... I should have majored as a dietician or something. haha Maybe when I"m slim and won't feel like a hypocrite I'll pursue it... :wink: Oh, and hope you feel better soon!!
  • KrunchyMama
    KrunchyMama Posts: 420 Member
    Options
    RillaVanilla wrote: »
    @krunchymama Yes, I do know about whooshes and all the variables that go into weight gain/loss. Weight loss has been my main "hobby" since I was 13... I should have majored as a dietician or something. haha Maybe when I"m slim and won't feel like a hypocrite I'll pursue it... :wink: Oh, and hope you feel better soon!!

    Thanks! And I know what you mean, learning about food and nutrition are my interests too! I think if I can get this weight off I'd like to become a motivational weight loss/health coach :)
  • kiawells2015
    kiawells2015 Posts: 2
    Options
    I had the bypass done 5 years ago and fortunately no horrible side effects. Over 5 years i have gained 18lbs and I am working hard to get that weight back off. I weighed 345 and now I average 180 to 195. I just maintain my weight but the weight loss surgery does have its ups and downs but overall I have no complaints.
    mcclelland0484 wrote: »
    I looked into the surgery option when I reached 365 lbs. The surgery just removes the sensation of hunger but it does it at a great cost. Side effects are endless. My mother had a bypass 7 years ago. Lost weight. Then regained it. Sometime in between she had heart issues (unrelated). She could not utilize the standard treatment because she was unable to absorb medicine due to the previous surgery. I have lost 130lbs in a year, doing exactly what you are doing now. Side effect of dieting is hunger. The side effect of bypass surgery could be death. I'd rather be hungery.4jd6k5cvfpd9.jpg

  • IslandSneezerooo
    IslandSneezerooo Posts: 268 Member
    Options
    @kiawells2015 Thanks for sharing about your experience with it! I am subbed to a lot of WLS'ers on Youtube as well as a WLS forum, and your experience tends to be more the norm than otherwise. Of course I've been researching it for years, and the pros outweigh the cons for me at this point... Congrats on excellent maintenance!
  • eml298
    eml298 Posts: 70 Member
    Options
    Hi there, @RillaVanilla‌ et al! Looks like things are sailing right along today! Interesting comments about TOM and calories, etc....glad I popped in! Also, I think you can meet you goal by your birthday! Somehow I missed that you have until NEXT year...you can do it! :)
  • NK1112
    NK1112 Posts: 781 Member
    Options
    I'm on a life-style change mission because I don't want to resort to bariatric surgery, even though I know that if I survived the surgery I would come out of it with no insulin resistance. At 70 years of age, I think a surgery that big is a dangerous move for me. Good luck to those of you who are working to that end. Like someone else said on here, by the time you get to the point where you can have the surgery, you might find that you can go on without it.
  • IslandSneezerooo
    IslandSneezerooo Posts: 268 Member
    edited February 2015
    Options
    @NK1112 Me too... I have to admit I have doubts I'll continue to lose, given my track record, but I'm committed to sticking with it until I get a surgery date and then make a final decision at that point.

    @eml298 Thanks for stopping by here too... :smiley: Yes, it's a year and 3 months, not 3 months! haha That would be a bit extreme...
  • IslandSneezerooo
    IslandSneezerooo Posts: 268 Member
    Options
    My dad is staying at his sister's place tonight and she's driving him to the airport to fly back home tomorrow. He's been staying with us since the 11th so our week and a half of family get togethers and all the extra high calorie food is finally ending.

    Thoughts at midnight in a quiet house of sleeping family:

    I think one of the main reasons I've failed at weight loss in the past is because it feels like a full time job to stay focused. Just to be clear, this isn't an excuse in any way, just an observation or awareness... Losing weight is a huge energy drain for me... I'm an introvert who has trouble juggling tons of balls at the best of times, and when I get worn out, the first ball I drop is my weight loss efforts... It's been a vicious cycle of starting a diet on Monday morning, joining a gym, going to work full time, going to the gym after work (I'm NOT a morning person), coming home exhausted, family clamouring for help, making dinner, cleaning up, etc... If just one more stress is added to the mix I derail. I'm not a binge eater, but I will have an extra serving, or some ice cream, or go out for dinner and those extra calories add up... Then I'm too tired/busy to workout, I start gaining weight back, I feel like a failure so I comfort myself with a treat, and gain more and before you know it I've undone my hardwork and... I start a diet on a Monday morning... Rinse, repeat...

    So what's different this time? For the first time since I graduated high school (more than 20 years ago), I'm very grateful to now have the luxury of a lot of free time alone to focus on food prep, logging my meals, getting activity in everyday, and processing all the milestones and challenges along the way. I have very few personal obligations so I've committed to making the most of this time to get a handle on living a healthy lifestyle, and develop habits that will serve me well when I'm at goal.
  • NK1112
    NK1112 Posts: 781 Member
    edited February 2015
    Options
    OK @rillavanilla ... here is some real 'tough love' heading your way, so pull out the facial tissues and take a deap breath ...

    That first paragrah ... the one that starts with 'I think' reads like a bunch of excuses to alleviate the pain of failure ... a natural inclination we all fall prey to when we don't succeed and don't want to face it ... you took on too much at one time. You set yourself up for failure right from the get-go with the thought that this is a 'diet' and you jumped into the deep end of the pool before you learned how to swim. No wonder you drowned!

    Believe me, I am your sister in this, because that is what I also did for 30-some years. Therefore, I am now nearing my 70th birthday and still have the same weight to lose that I have been trying to lose since I was 45 years old. Not that I didn't have to lose weight before I was 45, I just didn't have as much of it to lose then as I do/did now. Right now I am still working on getting back to the weight I was in 1993, when my son got married. If you looked at a photo of me in the dress I picked for the wedding, you would say .... "hmm, nice dress, too bad it's on a size 20 woman. Would look much better if it was in a size 12 or 14.

    Do not think of this as a diet, or anything temporary ... it is a life-style change for the rest of your life. So take it one step at a time. Make one substitution at a time. Don't eat so few calories that you sabatoge your body and slow your metabolism. What woman with PCOS need is exercise. Not the gym-type exercise per se, but moving more and sitting less. Walk. Do some calisthenics. Dig a garden. Cut the grass with a walk-behind mower. Play with your kids. Have long sex with your husband. Eat in moderation .... put more vegetables and less starch on your plate, make most of the vegetables something you like that is not starchy. Give yourself the freedom to have a dessert that is not a piece of fruit once in a while ... even one time a week. For that matter, give yourself a 'free day' where you can eat up to your maintenance calories instead of your reduced calories for the day.
    Make soup ... and eat some every day. When one soup runs out, make another one of a different kind. Get your whole family used to eating soup to start the meal, and salad to finish it. Keep yourself fed often enough and fully enough so you don't need to eat again for about 3-4 hours. Measure your blood glucose. If you are taking metformin, it's because you are insulin resistant ... you need to learn how the foods you are eating affect your blood sugar spikes. The more carbs in your meal, the more your sugar will spike and the sooner you will be hungry again.

    Most important ... don't make this a temporary thing. Weight loss surgery is not always a cure all ... even with it you will have to make modifications in your lifestyle on a permanent basis and it will take a year to get trim. I know too many people who didn't make the lifestyle change and ended up regaining all the weight they lost via surgery because they stretched their stomach out by overfilling it on a regular basis ... and with more severe repurcussions because they didn't have the parts of the stomach anymore that helped them absorb nutrients. Make the changes during this 'waiting time' to form new and better habits by working on one habit at a time.

    The way you change a habit is you replace one thing with a better choice. You do that until it's natural and automatic. Then you tackle another one.

    Good luck. Don't be angy at my rant at you. I just don't want you to be in the same boat as I am in when you are 30 years older than you are today.
  • IslandSneezerooo
    IslandSneezerooo Posts: 268 Member
    edited February 2015
    Options
    @nk1112 LOL sounds like you haven't read the rest of my thread from the OP onwards. What I was thinking about last night was an add on to the positive changes I HAVE made, not WILL make, and like I said, it's an observation, not excuses. Maybe go back and read through this thread from the start. :wink:
  • NK1112
    NK1112 Posts: 781 Member
    Options
    RillaVanilla wrote: »
    @nk1112 LOL sounds like you haven't read the rest of my thread from the OP onwards. What I was thinking about last night was an add on to the positive changes I HAVE made, not WILL make, and like I said, it's an observation, not excuses. Maybe go back and read through this thread from the start. :wink:

    I have. I was ranting about your most recent post.
  • IslandSneezerooo
    IslandSneezerooo Posts: 268 Member
    edited February 2015
    Options
    @NK1112‌ I don't understand how your rant is relevant to me? My entire thread agrees with you, for the most part?
  • NK1112
    NK1112 Posts: 781 Member
    Options
    RillaVanilla wrote: »
    @NK1112‌ I don't understand how your rant is relevant to me? My entire thread agrees with you, for the most part?

    Sorry to have offended you. That was not my intent.
  • LubGunther
    LubGunther Posts: 10 Member
    Options
    Oh man do I relate to all of you! I lost 140 lbs about three years ago and I have slowly regained..I think about 60lbs, though I'm too scared to weigh myself. I need support and friends on this weight loss journey too. I find that, for me, I struggle with self sabotage and eating to cope with down time. I read, I exercise, I try to do a lot to make sure I don't have a lot of down time...but I make a lot of mistakes along the way.

    Whenever I eat something I know is bad for me or binge on a whole bunch of crap food I feel so much self hatred that its all consuming. I find that meditation relieves a lot of self hate and so does connecting with others.
  • IslandSneezerooo
    IslandSneezerooo Posts: 268 Member
    Options
    NK1112 wrote: »
    RillaVanilla wrote: »
    @NK1112‌ I don't understand how your rant is relevant to me? My entire thread agrees with you, for the most part?

    Sorry to have offended you. That was not my intent.

    Not offended at all! Just trying to understand... ❤️
  • IslandSneezerooo
    IslandSneezerooo Posts: 268 Member
    edited February 2015
    Options
    @LubGunther For me, the key to making a lasting change has been small gradual changes rather than going "healthy" cold turkey. It took me more than a week to get my cals under my daily goal, but every day I logged it all anyway, and allowed no judgement or guilt... And everyday I do a little better. I also removed all "bad food" from my vocabulary. ANYTHING can be worked into my macros, absolutely nothing is off limits. As I go I've naturally found the healthier food to be more satisfying, so that's become my primary diet, but I'm still making room for treats so I feel normal and not deprived... If something extra comes up I'll do more exercise to get in under my net calories... I started with zero activity and almost a month later I do 8 min/day every single day now (unless I'm in too much pain). Be kind to yourself. Focus on what you're doing right and celebrate your achievements... I've had to let the bad thoughts go and know that I'm doing my best RIGHT NOW and my best will improve with practice. ((((HUGS))))

Categories