Women 200lb+, Let's Be Adaptable This April!!!

AlexandraFindsHerself1971

The week's been hard. Boyfriend's had issues, and the accumulated stress got to me and I had a meltdown. But I am better now. Made a carrot cake with cream cheese icing for Girlfriend. It was tasty enough, but not my favorite, and so it is trying hard to sing from the counter but it's not getting anywhere with me. I had a piece when we sang to her, and I don't want any more so I won't have any more. I'm still a little in awe that I can do that, that I've broken the terrible compulsion to eat everything. I still find myself sort of poking at it and marveling at it.

Instead, I had my usual evening snack of cheese and crackers, and my last mug of decaf tea, set up the thermos of hot tea for tomorrow morning and his coffee pot, made sure the small plates we ate cake on are clean for me to serve breakfast on, and now I'm going to have a bath and go to bed.

This feels really good and nice. I like this.

CupcakeCrusoe

Friday weigh in day!

31 years old
5'4"
SW: 207
3/31: 196.2
4/3: 192.6 (-3.6) 😳
4/10: 193.0 (+0.4)
4/17: 192.4 (-0.6)
March goal weight: <196.2
UGW: 145

GOALS:
💮Lose weight. Ehhhh. This is acceptable. I've had a higher calorie intake this week, and I haven't been moving quite as much (still moving every day, but not for as long). I'll keep chipping away at it.

💮Move every day. ✅ My four year old decides at a very short way away from home that she'd rather go home and have a snack when we're out on our bikes, so bike rides being short. And running this week? Hasn't been terrific. I had to cut one a little short because *TMI* the trots, and the other was only a little over a mile. The bright side is, I was able to do the training run last night for my Zombies, Run! virtual 10k coming up. Should be an interesting story (a murder mystery this time!).

💮Be kind to myself. ✅ I'm okay with all of this. I'm okay with it. I'm not gaining weight. I'm not really losing weight. All of this is okay. I'll get back into the losing weight mindset sometime, and in the meantime, I'm okay with maintaining. I've been making a *loooot* of sourdough sandwich bread. English muffins. Cranberry almond sourdough. Hamburger buns. I love making bread. It's not great for weight loss, LOL.

Happy Friday, everyone! I'm hoping for a longer bike ride today, the weather's supposed to be gorgeous. Tonight is pizza night, I've got everything pre-logged, and I've got a couple hundred calories in case I get really hungry. Have a great day!

orangequilt

Hi everyone, too many to reply to, but good to see everyone hanging in there, making good choices, trying new things, and just surviving! I think I'm moving out of the stunned stage of the lockdown and in to the getting on with it stage, luckily the people that mean the most to me are well so far and have a roof over their heads. It's a desperate situation for so many. Luckily we can go out for walks here and I live near a park and a river both within a 10 min walk so I'm very blessed. Have a good day everyone.

vegasgirl0825

Well, I sort of fell off the face of the earth (well, at least My Fitness Pal) for the last two weeks. I got a bit overwhelmed with teaching at home (and teaching my own children), like I know many are with working from home, and I just sort of let this go. I did try to stay on track within my mind and honestly, haven't done a bad job. My normal weigh-in day is Monday's, but since I made myself actually step on the scale today after almost two weeks, I figured I'd hold myself accountable and post.
SW(1/6/2020): 260.4
2/1: 244.8
3/1: 237.3
4/1: 230.4
4/6: 226.2
4/17: 226.6
Total loss: -33.8

So, I'm super happy that I have only gained less than a half pound over the last two weeks. As I said, I've still been staying conscious of what I put in my mouth, but not tracking. After I found myself eating about 12 mini chocolate eggs out of my son's Easter basket yesterday, I decided it was time to snap out of this funk! My first original "mini goal" was to be at 220# by 4/25. Had this Coronavirus not hit, I know I would have smashed that, but I'm definitely moving less now that I'm teaching from in front of a computer 8-9 hours a day. I'm not super motivated-it's still cold here in Wisconsin (snowing this morning!), so getting outside has been hard. I feel more exhausted at the end of these teaching days than I did when I actually had to go to school and was running my children around like crazy to sports and scouts and everything else. Most days I try and close my computer by 3:30 and often find myself then taking a nap instead of being active. I'm going to give myself this weekend to plan and then try and improve things next week. Our Governor just extended our "Safer at Home" order until May 26th and said we will not return to physical school this year. So that means I have 6-7 more weeks of this and I refuse to go backwards. I know if the weather was nice I'd be more motivated to go outside...last week we had a day that was 70 degrees and I did yard work for almost 2 hours and it was fantastic. But when it's in the 20's, I'm staying in. Anyways, I'm babbling! Thanks all for listening!

jm216

Hi All!

I think the secret to exercising is to do something fun...or do something you look forward to. This morning I was looking on YouTube for workout videos. I love to dance...in my mind I am a Solid Gold dancer! Yes, I am a child of the ‘70’s. I also love to roller skate...but at 50...falling would not be cool. Anyway, I came across a Zumba workout with Footloose... so that got me off the couch and dancing like a fool... a happy, sweaty fool. Before I knew it, the next dance video ran into the next video and 25 minutes zoomed by. I worked out, had fun, danced like no one was watching, and boosted my mood. IT WAS AMAZING!

Of course I modified some movements, so my knees wouldn’t scream at me...but I felt awesome and had a great time.

What is your favorite way to get exercise...now and before quarantine?

Happy Friday!

🥰Jill
Air hugs to you!

Tarzan37

Name: Tamara
Height: 5'7"
Highest Weight: 254
End of December Weight: 246.7
End of January Weight: 244.7
End of Feb. Weight: 242.2
End of March Weight: 240
4/3: 240
4/10: 240.4 (+0.4)
4/17: 241 (+0.6)
4/24:
4/30:
April Goal Weight: 240 (maintain this month)
End of 2020 GW: 199
Overall Goal Weight: 165

I knew I'd have a gain this week since it was not a great one. Struggled with some depression and ate comfort food throughout the week. I've revised my goal for the month to just getting back down to my end of March weight at this point.

cesse47

Cesse age 72
308.6 lbs - starting weight on 3/28
300.2 lbs - weighin on 4/11
165 lbs - goal weight

April Goals
Log all food and beverages honestly
Drink at least 8 cups of water every day
Begin to exercise; and increase duration each week
Stay in touch with family and friends on a frequent basis
Get outside every day weather permits

Still on track with my goals. Definitely need to improve in the exercise area and get more diverse in the foods I'm having. Overall, doing ok this month. Have a great day Everyone!!

@meganlyn1984 and @vcfleming -- Welcome!!

@AlexandraFindsHerself1971 Resistance can be very rewarding ... stick with it!!

@CupcakeCrusoe Congrats on pre-logging, a smart way to handle it!!

@orangequilt Walking by the river sounds very relaxing

@vegasgirl0825 Congrats for staying so close to plan...that's definitely a win!! Sorry to hear you governor extended to May 26 since that means MI probably will do the same.

@jm216 How wonderful you found such a fun program! I'm just getting started ... just baby steps for now.

@Tarzan37 Congrats on keeping your gain so small; you'll lose it quickly now that you've refocused!

Hang in there Everyone ... We Can Do This!!!

KeriA

Hey I am doing a Friday weigh in today. I post my weight when I lose it. I have been waiting for this.

Name: Keri
67 years old, Height: 5'6"
SW: 266 lbs
April SW: 257.6
3/24: 257.4 (my old low)
CW: 256.8

GW: Onderland 1st, maintain for a few weeks then 150 lbs.

April Goal weight: 252

My April Goals are:
1. Get enough sleep and improve water intake
2. Log weight, food and exercise and stay under calorie goal
3. Get some exercise 6 days a week and up NEAT clean
4. Get close to lower 250s this means my highs and lows get and stay below 255
5. Make healthy foods at home

Well I don't think I will make my April goal weight but I might make it to goal #4. What is helping to move the scale even this small bit over 3 weeks is

1. drinking more water
2. getting sufficient sleep
3. staying under goal, eating very few exercise calories
4. having some exercise calories
5. making healthy food at home

Pretty much this matches the goals I set this month. I do plan my food as per PNP (Phit-n-Phat). I do some evaluation of how the plan went but not that formally. I identify when things didn't go per plan and think about why they didn't. Often is that I did something better than what I planned either for health or for more practical reasons since our overflow refrigerator died. If I think it needs tweeking I tweek if I don't then I won't. Otherwise I might have made a meal last night instead of us eating up the leftovers sooner.

My husband actually did more everyday cooking before this time of COVID-19. I used to do the majority of the cooking and cleaning before and after I went back to full-time work after my kids were born. But I have had times where I was working more hours than my husband or my commute was longer and he started to cook more. When he started telling me how to cook the dishes I taught him I said fine you cook it then. Now since he is still working from home and I am not, I cook the main meals but he puts the leftovers out so I get a break and it is easy for him. He does weekend breakfasts or I should say brunch. I didn't end up baking a strawberry rhubarb pie I planned on Easter to use up pie crusts from the dead freezer so I made it on a leftover day this week. I have been having the leftover pie for breakfast. It is a custard based pie so it has eggs and milk in it. So not a bad breakfast.

However yesterday I didn't really have enough calories. I got caught up in other things and worked through feeling hungry. I am really trying to learn when I am hungry and to stop eating when satisfied. Yesterday I think I ignored my hunger. I guess I am not afraid of being hungry anymore. It isn't sustainable to eat that few calories to lose just almost a pound. I even exercised yesterday. So today the plan is to eat more and to continue to exercise and drink water.

Have a great day all!

KeriA

@AlexandraFindsHerself You start our saying it is a has been a hard week and end saying this feels really good! That is so cool. The growth you have made is the difference in those two things. It is reminiscent of the Mulan quote for the day someone posted.

@CupcakeCrusoe I love hearing how you are doing such a good job at juggling being a Mom and taking care of yourself. I wasn’t good at the later when I had kids at home. I have an adult kid at home taking classes online now but not the same thing. I definitely wasn’t good at bread! Enjoy Pizza night. Slowly losing or maintaining is what this is all about. There is a great way of losing by eating at maintainance calories for your goal weight. I can’t do that since it would be under my BMR.

@orangequilt I am glad to hear you feel you are moving beyond the stunned stage. Gratitude for what we have does help. I find I still have days where I am in a funk. I think this is actually normal and healthy. I saw an observation of what we are dealing with now. I am going to post it below.

@vegasgirl0825 That is a lot of teaching. I like that when you had good weather you took advantage of it. I often don’t do that. We have had beautiful weather here but it took me weeks to get out there and get some exercise and sun. We usually don’t have such sunny springs in the Pacific Northwest. I also think the naps are good for you. Hope your planning this weekend goes well.

@jm216 I love Zumba. I also love Aquafit. Just before this pandemic hit we lost our Aquafit teacher. I heard her replacement was going to be a Aquazumba teacher. I was so excited. I will check up on the Footloose video.

@Tarzan37 I am glad you are going to make sure you don’t lose the progress you have made. Take care.
I saw this probably on Facebook that explains why we all are having a problem getting to achieve some of our self realization goals now. It was based on the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs/self-actualiation pyramid:





The problem now for us is that due to this pandemic we have been brought down from where ever we were on this pyramid to the Safety level. We are very wisely concerned now for our safety and it is hard to focus on any of the higher level areas (love, esteem, self-actualization). Just know that many of the things we are experiencing are normal for when one is concerned for their safety. We are made to focus on that at the exclusion of all else when we are faced with a threat to our safety. This doesn't even include all the other issues we face with the interruption to our lives this pandemic has brought.

So take care, be kind to yourself.

torih941

Thank you for all your kind words and virtual hugs. Means more than I can express. I adjusted my goals to lose 0.5lbs to give myself more calories to work with so I’d stop beating myself up if I went over.

Exercising and logging isn’t really happening for me right now, as someone mentioned earlier, getting out of bed and dressed is an accomplishment. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.

Welcome to anyone new, I promise I’m usually more upbeat than this

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I hope to be back and a little more refreshed Monday!

pamiede

Good morning 😁‼️ I hope everyone is staying safe and practice health defense if you cant stay home.

THE SCALE IS MOVING AGAIN❣️ I’ve expressed my frustrations at the none to tiny losses I’ve experienced. I upped my walking, even added brief jogs and it worked‼️

SW: 307 (4/2019)
CW: 4/4 199.6
4/7 199.2 (-0.4)
4/14 198.4 (-1.2)
4/18 196.4 (-2)
GW: 160
Apr GW: 195 (almost there!)
Total loss: 110.6 (😋👏🏽🥳)

Weekly goals:
💕Continue walking 2X per day
💕Continue hydrating with 100 oz water/day
💕Increase distance jogged during walks
💕Increase daily distance to 4 miles/day
💕Incorporate toning 2X/week

I get a lot of recipes from YouTube. I love storing my favorites in MFP. Makes it easy to log. I’m enjoying cooking❣️ I love being able to try need meals. Each week I try to increase the variety in what I eat. I love recipes from Tasty. On YouTube I find healthy, low fat, sometimes low carb meals and desserts. I also look for air fryer recipes.

Have a fantastic weekend❣️

cesse47

Congrats @KeriA on the loss! Keep up the good work!

mmccloy12

Hi guys! I am losing track of days I just realized it was Saturday and I was supposed to weigh in yesterday! So just doing it today.

Lots of posts! Not going to reply today, but know that I have read them all and either hugged you, liked the post or was inspired by it! You guys are awesome!

I am happy about a loss for this week as it has been a challenge. Being home and not working is definitely something to get used to! It would be different if I was home because I won the lottery and there wasn't a pandemic Praying for all those juggling work and home schooling...wow! But I have two more weeks to try and make my goal...will be happy either way. Just trying is a win for me!

Worked in my disaster of a yard yesterday for over three hours...pulled or tore a calf muscle...very painful and disappointing because it is hard to walk or do anything. Hoping to start a little herb and vegetable garden once I get the area cleaned up! I have tons of oak trees and the leaves...oh the leaves. Love the shade, but hate the leaves!

On a different note...does anybody else get random friend requests from men? Like they are using the app as a dating app for goodness sake? I actually accepted one thinking he was on a weight loss journey but when the questions were flying like where I was from, what do I do for a living, how old am I, any kids,etc. I was like are you a scammer? Maybe he wasn't, but it seemed shady to me. I messaged that I was not on this app for that and then he wanted my email or phone number. Anyway...get two or three every couple days and I feel bad because I am not accepting them anymore. Any thoughts?

My weigh in...

Name – Margie
Age – 51
Height – 5’8 ½”
OW – 276.6 (Jan 2019)

2020 start weight – 252.2
January end weight - 247.0
February end weight - 240.2
March End Weight- 237.0

Total loss for 2020 – 17 lbs.
Total loss since OW –41.4 lbs.

4/3/2020 – 237.0
4/10/2020 -236.2
4/18/2020 – 235.2
4/24/2020
5/1/2020
Goal for April is 232.0

Non scale goals –
-Move more! At least 15 minutes 5 out of 7 days - DONE
-Work on my mental awareness – doing my journal everyday which includes my eating plan for the day, 5 things I am grateful for and 1 thing that I love about myself that day.- DONE

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

aliciap0116

Great job @KeriA, @pamiede @cesse47 @mmccloy12 @speyerj and others on your successes!! You have mastered solid skills to be accomplishing these losses right now. Really impressed!!

Hugs to everyone struggling right now. I think the chart @KeriA posted is a good reminder of what we are dealing with.

Just wanted to also respond to @mmccloy12’s post about men friending you. I never accept them. If they found me, it was probably from this thread, and I find it really creepy that they are following us. I have also been unlikely to accept requests from potentially women who friend me who are reading here but not posting (which is fine, we probably all checked it out first) if they don’t send me a note introducing themselves. I know of one other person who had to create a new account and re-friend everyone just to get rid of some guy who was harassing her. So please be careful everyone!!

cesse47

@mmccloy12 I have gotten a few requests from men. Most just pop up in my message boards and like or comment occasionally. A couple guys were definitely trolling. Even after I said I was 72 and obese, one asked if I was single. At that point, I deleted and blocked that person. There's always gotta be at least one or two jerks. LOL

Rosie3579

Check-in day:

@shorepine and @changeforeverlj - Thank you for the supportive words this week - they were very appreciated. I really am in a much better place now than I was 14 weeks ago, even considering COVID. I had just really gotten trapped in a pattern of feeling run-down, binge-eating, feeling worse, not working out, not drinking enough water, not eating any real nutrients, feeling worse, and binge-eating again. So I just had to break out of that cycle. Once I finally made the decision that I was done living like that, starting eating nutrients, drinking water, being more active, and losing weight, I found a lot more energy. So now little man's sleep problems still exist, but I have a lot more energy and resiliency to cope with them.

I totally am with those who are in maintenance mode or have adjusted their goals slightly this week like @torihudson6. I have been eating at maintenance this week and needed that break. Hoping to be at more of a deficit next week. @CupcakeCrusoe - I love your goal of being kind to yourself.

@pamiede - amazing!

Goals this week:

1. Average 11,500 steps per day -- Done. Averaged 13,800 daily steps this week
2. Strength-train 2 or 3 times - Done. Had a couple good strength sessions - lots of squats & lunges and core work this week
3. Lose some weight - Will look at scale end of April. Ate at maintenance this week so hopefully stayed the same
4. Wear my dress - Yes! Was able to wear my April goal dress to work on Friday, and it was comfortable, and it made me so happy to wear it again. Like finding a little bit of my old self. Now I've pulled out a rain jacket that I hope to be wearing at end of May. Going to have to lose some real weight for that one to happen!

Everyone have a great week!

MuttiNM

As I mentioned on Wednesday, it's been a year since I started tracking my food (but only about 9 months using MFP) and 9 months since I started adding a little exercise into my daily routine. I lost 157.8 lbs. during that year (plus 19.2 net at the end of 2018). I still have 98 to lose to hit my initial goal of 160. I probably really should have a lower goal weight but I'll see how I feel when I get closer. That's a good starting goal for an old lady (I'm in my early 60s).

So I started my changes this time around by focusing on my nutrition. My diet was really horrible. My two main food groups were sweet and salty, with an occasional side of fried. I've dealt with cyclical depression for years and I'm sure I was using food to self-medicate/avoid dealing with the issue. I stopped eating all those foods for the first few weeks and gave up my beloved diet Coke. (I have only had water for the entire year with the exception of one rum and Coke at a family gathering at Christmas. I also don't drink milk but I do have it on my cereal.) I focused on eating veggies, fruits, protein, and some dairy and grains, choosing unprocessed or slightly processed foods as much as possible. I am usually an "all or nothing" person, which I realize can be a bad thing. However, I felt I had to completely stop eating the junk because I wouldn't be able to moderate it. Still, I knew if I wanted these changes to last a lifetime, I needed to find a way to have a treat occasionally without feeling like I had failed. Eternal deprivation is no fun. After about a month, we brought pie to my parents for Mother's day. I had a slice of pie but did not eat the Culver's everyone else had for supper. I was holding my breath the rest of that day and the next, waiting for the old cravings to kick in and totally derail me. Somehow that didn't happen. About a month later, we went to my parents again (Father's day and my Mom's birthday) and again brought pie. (Do you get the feeling my parents really like pie?) Once again, I waited for the dreaded cravings and once again they never came. I began to feel that I really could have the occasional treat without ending up down the path of just eating junk again. I don't know what is different this time because, in the past, I would always get derailed by one treat, even though I knew it didn't make sense to let that happen. I'm guessing it was easier to accept that this is an OK way to eat because I wasn't in the middle of a depression episode. Anyway, during this year, I had sweet treats about 12 times. Once at Christmas, I was making some cookies and almost felt like the "tasting to make sure they were OK" was getting a bit out of control. I decided to get them packaged and store at my son's house until our family get-togethers. That was the closest I came to feeling like I was going back to old habits. I'm so thankful I didn't revert back to them. I also used to have french fries probably 2 or 3 times a week. I've had them once since last April. Who knew that was possible?!? I have had pizza 7 times and take-out/fast food about 12 times during the year. That includes one vacation and a couple long weekends. For the most part when traveling, I eat food that I bring: hummus, veggies, fruit, popcorn, yogurt (small cans of pineapple are good for traveling--I like to mix pineapple and walnuts with my yogurt for a tasty and filling breakfast), nuts, good bread, cheese, etc. Then I can have an occasional meal out if I want and still stay within my calories for the day. The biggest thing is that I stopped, for the most part, eating the sweets and fast food, salty snacks, delicious nachos, etc., when I'm home alone. I live alone so I don't need to worry about anyone else's eating habits. That's a huge help. (Living alone also makes it easy to eat poorly since there is no one else around to see what I'm really eating.) I kept to a deficit every week this year. Not every day, of course, but every week I ended up having at least a small deficit. It really helps me to look at my deficit on a weekly basis because one higher calorie day doesn't really mean much if I stayed close to my calorie goal the other 6 days. Viewing the deficit weekly helps trick my "all or nothing" brain into thinking a high calorie day is OK if I have a deficit for the week.

I still sometimes feel like I'm holding my breath, just waiting for the time when I will go back to eating the way I used to, for when the depression really gets bad again or some other bad thing happens. I'm trying to think about that now a bit and hope the things I'm doing now will feel more like habits when the inevitable bad days come. Like I mentioned in another post, last April I created a list of foods I like that are more nutritious than the stuff I used to eat. Using those as the basis for my grocery lists really helped remind me that there are foods I like that are better for my body than the junk I used to eat almost exclusively. It's been fun to add to the list this year. For example, I never had blackberries before. Those are now one of my new favorites! They make my plain Greek yogurt taste delicious. (If you're looking for a naturally sweet fruit to mix in plain yogurt, try thawing out some frozen dark sweet cherries. They are so sweet without any added sugar. I often check the package to make sure because they are so very sweet!)

Since changing my diet, I no longer have any acid reflux and "bathroom issues". Probably TMI, but I often had the need to find a bathroom shortly after eating, especially after take-out or fast food. That hasn't been a problem at all for the last 9 months. I can hardly believe it. I used to hate to eat anywhere other than home because I never knew what would trigger it. I tried tracking it but there didn't seem to be a consistent trigger. One time I could eat something and be fine. The next time I ate that item, I felt bad and had to find a restroom right away.

Losing the weight that I have so far has made life so much easier. Everything used to be hard. Just getting dressed felt like a workout. Getting into bed was a struggle. (You know how high some mattresses are these days. ) At my current weight, a lot of things are still hard but I can feel the difference in so many ways. I used to feel like I was going to die just walking from the elevator to my car. (I live in a condo with underground parking. My parking space was maybe 80 to 100 feet away from the elevator but even that was too much for me. I would actually have to rest before buckling my seat belt because that short walk had me wiped out.)

I guess I rambled on long enough. I want to review my exercise log and will probably post again after that.

Thank you all for the support and inspiration I find here with this group! Stay well.

Da1NonlyMrsStiggers

I thank everyone for sharing their thoughts and feelings! It is always nice to know when someone else is going through something similar! This pandemic has really tested my mental health. And to make matters worse, I was already about to leave my husband right before this all started. Now, I truly have nowhere else to go because my job is here! I am forced to remain in this home until this pandemic is over! It is very difficult because I miss my adult children, my grandma, my dad, and all family members on my side of the family. Where I currently live, I have no one to turn to..I feel SO isolated. Right when this pandemic hit, I had been interviewing for others jobs in hopes of snagging something so that I could transfer out or take a position closer to my family. All things are at a standstill! 🥺

All of the hard word that I did losing 30+ pounds was for nothing because I'm so depressed I'm gaining it back pound by pound. I'll get myself together and prayerfully get back to eating better and working out next week. This weekend, I will continue to drown myself in pity by eating whatever I want!

AlexandraFindsHerself1971

We went to the store today, Boyfriend and I, and worked out a protocol between us to avoid a cross-contamination move that I'd had trouble with solo. I got a migraine, though, because he, ah, distracted me this morning before I drank my tea, so I spent the afternoon sleeping it off. Curried lamb meatballs with spinach and cashews, rice and naan for dinner, and I get ice cream afterwards.

I'm in the size smaller shirts that I bought earlier in the year, and I'm just thrilled.

Tarzan37

"On a different note...does anybody else get random friend requests from men? Like they are using the app as a dating app for goodness sake?"

Yep, I don't accept friend requests from men on here for that reason. I think there is one guy on my friend list, but he is genuinely on this for the weight loss journey and that was obvious from the get go.

Did a very long walk with my pup this afternoon (over 2 hours) and got to see the Air Force Thunderbirds fly overhead halfway through our walk. It was an emotional moment with people outside their homes cheering... I admit I teared up a bit. Overall a really great day so I'm feeling really grateful after a tough week.

Hope everyone is staying healthy and continuing to hang in there!