Trying to be balanced and patient

HanamiDango

I am losing weight just fine, but I am impatient. So here I am to get general opinions and thoughts. I am taking time to read and re-read all the wonderful thread so many members have set up for new people to MFP. I feel silly post, I really do. I feel like I should have all the answers, but I do not. (I am still trying read over others threads too, just hard when kids take me away ^_~)

Trying to make this short and easy. Now I go from one extreme to another, my personality just sucks like that and I am working on balance. Balance is not easy for me, but I am trying really hard on this. My body has not been normal, went to the doctor, got blood work, all looks good. Doctor thinks it is due to losing weight. This is where things have been shaking for my bouncing extremes self.

My goal, to be in a healthy BMI by my one year MFP anniversary. That will be Oct 11, 2014. I am hoping to hit 140lbs by this time. I am 5'6, small framed, stay at home mom, and kind of seriously lazy. ^_^ I have 34 (to hit goal of 140lb, 34) to 54 pounds to lose, not sure if I should be aiming for 1lb per week or if 1.5lbs is ok? When I upped my cals to 1600 plus eating back 1/2 exercise cals, the weight really did slow down to about a pound a week. I get kind of confused on if I ate to "little" (little never being below 1400-1500 but truth here, my net is probably around 1200 sometimes, if not much lower), how it will affect my future maintenance calories?

Eat a little, eat a lot, lose it slow, lose it fast, body damage, etc etc etc..........there are so many different opinions, and I know I will see a lot of different ones here. I am just hoping see what others say help me find my balance and patient self. Thank you kindly.

StaciMarie1974

Wanted to say first & foremost - congrats on your work thus far! I also have a hard time with balance. Feel a little like I need to pour my heart & soul into the matter, and maybe that's why I spend so much time around the MFP forums?

Anyhow - based on what you've said, I think a 1 pound goal per week is fine. And then eat or not exercise calories based on how you feel. You should have a 1 pound deficit by your nutrition alone, and perhaps a little bonus deficit from your activity.

Other things in what you said rang true for me also. I'm lazy! But I want to be active. Its a struggle so I work at it by using an activity tracker and I make sure to get at least 10,000-12,000 steps in per day. Take a walk at lunch, run in place on a mini-trampoline at home in the evenings or treadmill or neighborhood walk. I try to walk more as I run errands, by parking far from the store, avoiding drive thrus at the bank and such. In all honesty I don't pay too much attention to my rate of loss now, as I'm getting closer to my goal - I'm just happy that its progressing. I do aim for a 500 deficit per day.

In all honesty, this is the first time I've really admitted that my final goal will be in the 135-140 range. When I've started each time on this journey, I'd be in the 175-185 range and would say 150-160 and that I'd reassess when I got there. Now I'm below 150 (barely, but that's ok!) and I can see 135 as a realistic thing. Before it didn't seem like I could ever get there.