Motivation, Success and Frustration Sharing!

JannaFowler1

@SusanDSME Thank you! That's so awesome that your kids are so supportive, mine are still very young and don't understand what I'm trying to do. lol They are sweet about it though.

Yes, I agree about others not really understanding. I didn't really venture much into the forums until about a week ago. Thanks for the encouragement.

Rachel0778

@JannaFowler1 Welcome! Glad to have you as a part of the group. I am also an emotional and stress eater so I can totally relate to that struggle!

@gymprincess1234 Sorry to hear about your binge. I hope you're able to reflect on what lead up to it and move past it without too many feelings of shame and guilt. As far as social stuff goes, a lot of my events are for professional and community development for my career so many of them are not optional to cancel on as you can with close friends. Honestly, you're making me miss being in grad school when I did have a more flexible social schedule

@SusanDSME It's so cool that your kids are such a big part of your active lifestyle!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!! I am seriously so excited that I only have one day of work left before the weekend. It's gearing up to be a slower day at work today (thank goodness!). I had a great time out with the humane society dogs and ended up knowing one of the employees and my fellow dog walker so I already have built in friends there! There was a 12 year old dog there that absolutely broke my heart. Once I'm retired, one of my dreams is to rescue older abandoned dogs and give them a good quality of life before they pass away.

Rachel0778

JannaFowler1

@Rachel0778 Thanks for the welcome! If any of you want to add me as a friend feel free, seeing as I don't have any! lol

I've been really good this week, the hubbs brought home fudge from his work yesterday and I had 0 pieces of it. As much as I would have loved to have some, I want to be healthy more. I hope everyone has an awesome weekend.

gymprincess1234

Happy Friday, everyone! So happy it's the weekend. Did a bit of Christmas shopping and even thought I messed up and am like 5 days from the -2kg, I bought 2nd week reward anyways, cause I am trying my best. For the first kg lost I got myself a gym membership and a new workout outfit, for the 2nd kilogram new skincare products and makeup. I have ordered a beautiful dress for Christmas dinner, which will be delivered just in time for the -3kg, so I better have my *kitten* together and actually be at -3kg.
For 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th kilogram I don't have anything planned so far, but as the beginning is always the hardest, I think by then I won't need that extra stimuli to keep at a deficit.

JannaFowler1

@gymprincess1234 That's so awesome about your dress! Let us know how it fits/looks. I'm so glad you aren't being too hard on yourself about a mess up, they happen. I love the idea of rewarding yourself for meeting your goals, I never thought of that.

SusanDSME

We're on our way to Ohio to see my husband's family for Thanksgiving, plus it was his birthday! So I found a Khmer restaurant on our route, and we got to eat food we'd never had before! (I've been to Cambodian restaurants before, but this was really different. I was expecting to really blow my diet, but a lot of it was raw veggies, and there were no heavy sauces and very little fried! Lunch at the Polish restaurant will be another story. Even though we didn't get to our hotel until 11:30, I plan to get up at 6 and hit the gym before we leave.

Hope everyone had a good day!

Evamutt

So impressive about your traveling eating & exercise SusanDSME. Welcome JannaFowler1. I'm an introvert myself & have acquaintances at dog park & church but have very few friends, 2 actually & feel uncomfortable in gatherings so I tend to avoid them. My best friend whom I'm seeing today has been annoying with all her "diet" advice from ww & other sources. she was in weight watchers years ago. I know she's trying to be helpful with all her pointers, but I'm not in weight watchers nor am interested. she's lost 60lbs 3 times she reminds me, so she has a lot of knowledge about losing wt (she gained it all back) & she thinks I'm obsessed with calories. When she asks me why don't I want to eat this or that, I tell her it's too many calories & won't fill me up. She asks so I tell her. so I'm going to try to avoid the subject. I gave her all my clothes that got too big, which she appreciates. She says she's happy being a size 16, but my old pants were size 18-20 & they fit her for the most part, some are a little snug. I don't tell her she ought to lose wt or give her tips except I encourage her to try to eat more often, she doesn't eat till near dinner time & by that time she feels weak. Anyway I didn't know I was going to vent till I got started. I didn't know I was so frustrated with her till I started to share. I'm glad I can share here. I can't think of anyone else I can share with, as I don't want to say anything to anyone I know among ppl her & I know of course.

SusanDSME

@Evamutt ... Sorry you're having such a frustrating time with your friend. It's hard when someone thinks they've got weight loss all figured out and want to give you pointers... whether or not they know what they're talking about.

Today was my biggest challenge so far...big Polish lunch with lots of sausage, then Saturday night dinner at my husband's Grandpa's house. I wound up doing aerobics at 10:30 to try to work some of it off. Tomorrow is another day.

gymprincess1234

Hi!
So, life is a handful at the moment,and PMS is a *kitten*, so I sadly have to admit I ate my emotions again. I know this chat is for support, but in my head it's more about being accountable. I have failed myself, the expectations I've set, so now two messups seem like I've lost (and probably have) all progress I had made in the first 1,5week. I will take a break from here again, cause I did go too crazy with the counting, tracking and obsessively trying to get a maximum caloric deficit. I so wish I could go 1 year back when I just ate intuitively and worked out and the weight was falling off so easily. It's hard when you know you know what to do, you have done it, but don't know what's missing, why I'm in this rut now ?! I'm not giving up, just maybe need a new strategy? Like I did working out and intuitive eating for 3 months, then it stopped working and I did 4 months of working out and tracking calories and it worked. 25kg lost. Now it's been 5 months of up and down 2kg all the time. Don't know how to get out of this to the next phase.

I do believe I have the motivation and mojo back to lose the weight and it's a struggle to do it now, cause I'm very unhappy in my current education/living situation, which triggers emotional eating and binging. I need a stragy, a new plan. Luckily in 1 month it will change. I keep tracking, I know 2 messups set me back to 7kg still to lose, and I will do my best to reach my Christmas goal as close as possible, but in the mean time have to strongly consider quitting tracking and finding a new method of fat loss ASAP.
ohh, what a mess I am

p.s. to make me better and my bank account worse, I have retreated to retail therapy, I seriously need a shrink or something

SusanDSME

@gymprincess1234 , I'm sorry things are so hard right now. I hope you can figure out what will work for you.

I'm looking forward to a nice walk this morning and a run later on. I'm really enjoying visiting family, but it's so hard to be out of my routine... especially eating. I'm used to eating the same thing every day, which fills me up with the least possible calories so I have more wiggle room at dinner. I just ate breakfast (not my choice) and I'm still hungry.

Rachel0778

@gymprincess1234 I'm sorry to hear you're going through a rough patch. Please be kind to yourself. Hopefully you can find a more moderate way of eating again like what you were doing before the extreme micromanaging of food.

@SusanDSME Visiting family is so hard! I'm going to my in-laws on Wednesday and I usually run into the same problems that you are. Hopefully both of us can stay on track as much as possible. Progress over perfection!

@Evamutt Friends with diet advice drive me nuts too, especially when they clearly aren't being successful. Keep doing what works for you!

@JannaFowler1 Way to ignore the fudge, that is impressive!

I think I may be in PMS mode, because I was suuuuuper moody this weekend. Friday I went to crossfit but sadly pinched a nerve in my back (ouch!). After that we stayed in and started to watch The Punisher (great show if you like superhero shows). Saturday was extremely busy! I did 4 loads of laundry, grocery shopping, volunteered at the animal rescue, took my own dog for a walk, and then drove 1.5 hours to meet up with friends for a game night.

Sunday was where the crabbiness came in since my SO had to go to the old place to clean the oven and paint over holes where I was stuck at the new place once again cleaning the whole thing by myself. I hate cleaning and I resent that his procrastination at the old place means I have to do ALL the cleaning at the new place. I did as much as I could but some things just didn't get done (i.e. dusting blinds and ceiling fans). He promised me we can look into how much a cleaning person would cost since I hate wasting my free time scrubbing floors.

I did put up new to me Christmas tree and it looks beautiful. After all the work I did this weekend it was nice to curl up by the tree and finish my book. I also got the good news we'll actually have furniture delivered next week so I can actually start to put away the rest of the boxes then!

Evamutt

Gymprincess, there's a thread on here called "of refeeds & diet breaks" you may want to check out. I keep it on my favorites & read more about it but haven't done it yet. On the first page there's a video from Lyle McDonald explaining why & how it works when you take a diet break & eat more for a few days consecutively. That would be something new to try. I'm sorry you're having a hard time. I'm glad this group is here. I was so hungry last night after my work out, I had like 500cal extra. I just needed some more food. The good news is we're moving forward & not giving up. Sometimes I feel like, heck with it, I'll stay where I am then I lose another pound & I think I can do this but personally I'm not willing to eat only 1200 cal/day. I was in the beginning but my friend told me that's too few calories so I uped it. I lost weight pretty steady till I reached 40lb loss then mfp readjusted my calories to lower & I just didn't want to go with it, so I upped my exercise but had to stop those intense hiit classes so I'm doing my best at what I'm willing to do. oh & thankfully me & my friend didn't talk about food the other day

Evamutt

SusanDSME, I don't eat exactly the same thing every day, but I do eat about the same handful of things to choose from. I don't like to veer too much off the path of my foods. When I eat too much, I eat too much of my regular foods, lol. Beautiful Tree Rachel0778. I don't spend nearly as much cleaning as I did when the kids lived at home. I'd much rather spend my time doing something else. I do alot of maintenance & do projects of things like dusting, or scrubbing the counters occasionally.

gymprincess1234

Thank you all for your support Didn't track anything yesterday an not planning to for a while. Also decided that 7 days of cardio is not good, I managed to lose majority by doing only week days and weekends were always free, so I'm going back to that. Basically, going back to where I started, focusing on working out, and eating by listening to my body.

I will look that thread up later, thank you @Evamutt

@Rachel0778 awesome tree!

Rachel0778

@gymprincess1234 This plan sounds much better for your overall health and sanity

@Evamutt Glad you and your friend were able to connect without talking about food. And I'm glad you listened to your body and fed it when it was hungry

We're heading to my SO's family tomorrow so I'll be out for the rest of the week. I'm still a pile of raging hormones and I already snapped at my SO this morning over something stupid, I'm truly a joy to be around right now *sigh*. I apologized, but I feel like my emotions just aren't settling down. Yesterday I had 5 meetings in a row which did not help my mood at all. I was so glad once I got home from Crossfit to just curl up on the couch with my dinner and the Great British Bake Off. My dog has been extra cuddly lately so I think he's sensing my emotions. Wish me luck on mellowing out before we get to my in-laws!

gymprincess1234

@Evamutt Just watched the video and read a couple pages of the thread, it's very interesting. It's quite technical and scientific, I have never been very into tracking macros, my fat loss has always been only CICO based.

The main idea I get from the video is that once you get quite lean (can do refeeds before too though) , losing body fat gets harder, so you do a 1-3 day refeed (increase carb intake). From the comments I got that you keep protein and fat as usual, only increase carbs).
I saw a girl there trying 3 weeks at a deficit-1 week maintenance.

I will read more when I get the time, but I am not sure my mental health is strong enough to continue tracking AND track macros, and plan refeeds.
Also not sure if I'm the right person for this. I know I have lost 25kg, but I still have 8kg to lose till normal/healthy weight and body fat. I don't think that's lean enough for this strategy. 10,75% of my current body weight still to go.
Also as they say in the video, some people fall off their weight loss because of the refeeds.

Anyways, a very interesting topic.

gymprincess1234

Also, they mentioned menstrual cycle. I never lost mine, actually once I started weight loss, it got more regular and a lot easier to handle - working out provided happiness hormones, so PMS got easier, and as I was working my *kitten* off on spin bikes, never felt any stomach pain.

rachelcalsbeek

Hi all! I've been reading all of your posts, but I just get lazy and dislike typing responses on my phone.

On Saturday, I weighed in at my lowest weight ever - 163 lbs. So what did I do? I ate horribly that day, drank too much beer that night, and ate horribly on Sunday too (because of my husband's family Thanksgiving and being hungover). So I was up Monday and Tuesday, and the scale is just starting to come down today. I hate when I self sabotage when I see a lower number on the scale! I do love weighing daily, though. I know my patterns and what to expect when stuff like this happens. The number seems much less scary.

Anyway, I've had a good week so far. I got a little behind in C25K last week, so I made up a couple of days this week. I'll be starting week 4 today, which I'm feeling good about. I like the idea of doing something that I've never been able to do well before. I actually plan to get my run done tomorrow before Thanksgiving eating.

On Friday, my husband and I are going to Lincoln, NE to watch the Huskers and Hawkeyes play. I am a Huskers fan (not too serious), and he loves Iowa. I hope Iowa wins, otherwise he may be crabby, lol. Once we get back on Saturday, I would love to put up our Christmas tree. Yours looks beautiful, @Rachel0778!

I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving, and allow yourselves to have some pie.

SusanDSME

Help! We're going to an Italian restaurant tonight.. looked at the menu to prepare myself. Do I get the pancetta wrapped pork tenderloin, which will be yummy, or go crazy and get the manicotti which I really want, which will torpedo my calories for the day? Willpower, where are you?