For those who've lost 50lbs or more

deedeefelldown

Hi there. I need some help. I want to lose at least 60lbs and need some help from those who have lost a good amount of weight. So please help me out.

What have you been eating?
What have you not been eating?
What exercises have you been doing?
Were you sedentary before?
Hell add whatever tips for success you have.

TIA

mrsthomasstevens

So far I have only loss 35 lbs, but my aim is to lose at least another 20-25 lbs! My SW was 205lbs & my CW is 170lbs. I started out with TRYING to do Jillian 30 shred DVD but that was the wrong move, and I always quit after 5-6 days. Then I started out just walking more instead of trying to kill myself with exercise I wasn't in shape to do. After about 2 weeks of increased walking I started trying out different Tae Bo videos. I settled on Tae Bo Amped, and I did it steady for about 8 weeks. Now I'm using Power 90 because I want to see more results. So far I'm on day 44 of the 90 days & I'm down 11lbs and a whole lot of inches around my body...

So basically start off with increasing the amount of time you walk, and you will gradually increase different exercise routines when you are ready. I had to increase my movement & eat more meals because I was tired of sitting at my desk job all day & only eating 2 big meals a day while gaining more weight than I ever had! I also eat 4 to 5 times a day to keep my metabolism going (3 medium meals and 2 snacks most days). Another tip I learned from fellow mfps was to exercise & drink 32 oz of water before your 1st meal of the day (this helped me after a 2 week plateau & I haven't had a plateau problem since)...

I hope the experience I gained through my journey can help you as well :-)

nifnerf

I've lost just about 60lbs and it was a lot of hard work but I do have a few tips:
1. Don't force yourself to eat foods you hate just because they're good for you. Instead, work hard at finding things that you like AND are good for you. It's so much easier when you aren't feeling deprived
2. Find an exercise you love. For me, it's Zumba. I do it 3x a week (hour each).
3. Lift weights
4. Drink lots of water (I find 8-12 cups a day is perfect for me)

Good luck! It's definitely a journey but one you owe to yourself!

Cosmic_Unicorn

I've lost about 60 so far, and want to lose ~10 more, though it is slow going at this stage!
My tips!
1) Learn to cook and eat real foods as much as possible. Processed stuff will only take you so far, even if you're under your calorie goals. I can't stress this enough.
2) Eat healthy foods that you like. If you don't like any vegetables, find some that you do, or find a way to prepare them that you like. I eat a ton of spinach and mushrooms, but only ever cooked, for example.
3) Find a way to be active that you enjoy. I've tried so many times to take up running but I just hate it. Exercise doesn't have to be crazy. Walking a few hours a day will work wonders for your physical and emotional health.
4) Working out with weights will take it off faster than cardio.
5) Drink a lot of water.
6) Enjoy yourself when you're out at bars or restaurants or whatever. Just don't do it all the time.
7) Love yourself, no matter what you look like.

goodness0531

Good Morning Lady,

I have lost 117lbs. It was TRULY hard work, but the best thing I ever did.

What have you been eating?

My goal is to eat health for the week and allow myself a cheat MEAL once per week. I had to stop with the fast food. If I must have it there should be a salad without fries. I have learned to cook more food, which is big because I DO NOT COOK. I make simple quick meals.

What have you not been eating? I have had to let bread and chips go. Now, I didn't eat a lot of them all the time. I called myself doing good with the organics chips and bread. However, it became to conventient and had my carbs high. I make sure that I don't go over 100 carbs. I am very sensetive to sugar and when I have a lot I have the sugar crash 10 or 15 minuts later. However, that was when I was much heavier. I don't get that way now, but I am so used to it. I have a public love affair with Chocolate. I have never had it before in my life, but crave it now along with Chocolate Chip Cookies. LOL I allow myself a treat with my cheat meal. I make the meal worth it and then back on track.


What exercises have you been doing? Walk Away the Pounds 2, 3, 4 Miles, Turbo Fire, Wogging (walk and Jog internvals) Weight Lifting

Were you sedentary before? Yes, I have a desk job and work from home 3 or more days out of the week. So, I literally am sitting all day infront of a computer.

Hell add whatever tips for success you have.
]
You have to push yourself. I work out twice a day sometimes, IF I feel my food wasn't as good as it could be. I take pictures and measure myself often. I have goals that I set for myself. I review my goals and my achievements OFTEN. Often meaning every single day. There is not a day that goes by that I have not looked over my food, my plan, pas pictures and mentally got myself in the zone. This is not a temporary fix its a LifeStlye change. I will say that I did a lot of cardio and just last year started weight lifting. Weight lifting has changed my body. I look way smaller than what the scale says. I am 236lb and people believe I am much much smaller than that. Sometimes, you have to PUSH when no one else is willing to do it with you. Get your Music, get your shoes and get moving.

I hace good days and bad days, but I NEVER stop trying.

My #1 rule: If my Work Out Shoes go on, I MUST WORK OUT. There have been times, I have walked around in my house with just my socks and shoes TRYING not to workout, but IT has TO HAPPEN. There are no OPTIONS LOL I know it is crazy, but it works for me.

jennajava

I eat what I want in moderation.

RichardCh

ok me personally everyone different
1. I eat what I want but know what's bad. I have given up non diet fizzy drinks and lowered the amount of tea I drink. I also Use exercise when I wann have takeaway with friends etc
2. I exercises 3 days a week and push myself to make progress with it e.g. start running at 20mins with walking breaks inbetween now 45mins no breaks
3. Tracking my food and keeping to a number I kept to around 1200 but that cos there days when I wasn't that accurate now I'm eat more but that cos im trying to maintain.

RichardCh

Hope that helps

sk2775

You got some great advise above. I have lost about 60 pounds thus far, and have about 20 more to go. I started out slowly. I started walking and just logging in my food intake. Once I was ready, I started increasing my pace and the duration of my walking. And once I was able to see how terrible some food were, I gradually added in more vegetables into my diet. I was not a huge fan of salads when I started this (but this was most likely b/c I was not make delish salads which are very much possible). Now I crave them. I stopped drinking fruit juices.

Couple of months into this, I started doing P90x, zumba, weight training and jogging into my mix of walking.
The biggest advise is start slowly. Don't change your diet drastically. Eat the food that you enjoy but in moderation...and start walking and then gradually introduce other workouts so you don't get bored easily.

Good luck. This takes time but you'll get their.

AnneGenevieveS

Okay, so I gained 75+ pounds with my first pregnancy. I know a lot of the people on this website have lost weight continuously for a year and got off 50 or more pounds in a year. For me though it took about 2 years to lose that weight, and it was losing some, then gaining, then staying the same, so it was a process, and its still a process. Don't get too worried about how fast it comes off. If you keep on trying, you'll keep on making progress in the long run Dont give up

As for food, try to find things you already like that are lower in calorie. Or portion control, measure your food! Then start trying new foods, adding veg to fill you up with a controlled serving of a main dish you already like. You'll find out that when you only have 1200 to 1600 calories to eat per day, that you'd rather have a sandwich for 350 calories to fill you up, than a sugary drink for 350 calories. I'd rather have the food that is more filling, than the one that has more calories that doesn't fill me up. It'll start to become natural. Going extreme and eating nothing but salad will set you up for failure, because very few people can live like that. I do not worry about carbs, sugar, sodium, just calories. I do try to make healthy choices though.

Keep the junk out of the house, so its not a temptation! If you are craving, buy only one serving. Like I might go get one candy bar. That way I don't have a bunch left in the house, but I find that if I don't treat myself here and there I go crazy and binge.

Still hungry? Exercise until you burn off the calories that you want to eat Then you get more food. That's my favorite part of myfitnesspal.

jendarlin

Hi there. I need some help. I want to lose at least 60lbs and need some help from those who have lost a good amount of weight. So please help me out.

What have you been eating?
What have you not been eating?
What exercises have you been doing?
Were you sedentary before?
Hell add whatever tips for success you have.

TIA

Hi,

There is nothing I don't eat. I eat everything in moderation and stay very aware of portions. I was sedentary before, still mostly am, but I do workout now. My favorite workouts are most anything of Jillian Michaels, and Tae Bo!

I think the best tips that helped me are: to NOT deny/deprive yourself (everything in moderation!), and if you fall off the wagon pick yourself up and get right back on!

Hope that helps and best of luck to you!

chevy88grl

I've lost almost 60lbs. I eat what I want, when I want it. I do, however, read labels and following serving sizes. When I first started, I used to measure EVERYTHING - now, I've gotten pretty good at just knowing how much 1 cup of something is or whatever. I'm not much of a cook and I do use processed foods to fill in the gaps (especially on my work days). I admit that sometimes I rely on them too heavily because I'm just too busy and I HATE cooking.

I drink about 70-80oz of water a day.

I joined a gym. I did it because I tried at home workouts and I will find 101 excuses why I can't possibly do them. For some reason, being at home doesn't motivate me at all. I found a gym that I liked and joined. I've recently switched gyms to something with a bit more variety. I can't stress enough how important it is to find a workout you enjoy - if you hate the workout, you won't do it. If you don't do it, it isn't helping. Plain and simple. Don't do something simply because someone else says you should - do it for YOU.

Allow yourself to enjoy some of the things you REALLY love - even if they aren't the best thing for you. As time passes, you'll find that a lot of the things you LOVE right now? Well, they won't a) taste as good or b) your body won't tolerate them as well. I used to LOVE donuts (seriously, I probably ate donuts everyday!) and now? I don't like how they taste AND my system doesn't tolerate them well.

There's nothing wrong with having a candy bar or a cookie -- just keep it to the serving size. Moderation. Moderation. Moderation. Deprivation will only lead to failure.

Above all else? Remember this is a LIFESTYLE CHANGE and not a DIET. This is the only life you have to live and while you can be healthier - you don't have to go without!

Here's a few things I've done:

I no longer eat any fast food (honestly, I rarely - if ever - go out to dinner). I don't care for the taste of it and honestly? If I'm going to use up 1000 calories on a meal, I prefer it to be something I REALLY enjoy. Not tasteless boring food handed out a window at me.

I no longer drink pop. I was a Mt Dew addict and I gave it up over a year ago. I've never felt better. For me, I'd rather eat my calories than drink them. I don't have room in my calories for 170 calories for a can of pop.

I no longer eat a lot of the "white" foods - white bread (the taste is disgusting to me), white rice (I prefer brown) or white potatoes (I do occasionally eat these - but not very often. They just don't taste very good to me anymore). I try and stay away from white flour and white sugar, but boy is it tough to do!

Also, I avoid any food items with high fructose corn syrup in it. It makes me feel quite sick and get quite bloated.

The key to success on this journey is: FIND WHAT WORKS FOR YOU!


Good Luck!

ImKindOfABigDeal40

I was 240 at my heaviest and I've been as low as 180. I eat a lot of salad with chicken or turkey breast and I drink a ton of water. I don't necessarily deprive myself of certain foods but I do minimize things like sweets, pastas and breads. As long as you are logging you calories here and staying true to them, you shouldn't have any problems.

TheFitHooker

What have you been eating? It's easier to say what I don't eat

What have you not been eating? Fried foods, bad sugars like candy, ice cream, cake, chocolate things like that. But I've found some low calorie recipes that I might try for those days when I do crave them. It's been a week with no grains, and no alcohol

What exercises have you been doing? 30 day shred, running stairs, running/walking, bike riding, plank jacks, push ups, jumping jacks, and squats.

Were you sedentary before? Pretty much was pretty much what ya called lazy, only thing I did was clean and take care of kids. The rest my time was on my butt. Or sleeping.

Hell add whatever tips for success you have.
Do what works best for you, each person's body is different. Find a calorie intake that works for you, if eating back your workout calories helps you lose weight, do it, you have to play with it to figure out what will work for your body. Everyone has a different body, and what works for someone else might not work for me. For me I do not eat more then 1200 calories a day, I do not eat back my workout calories, I've tried to eat them back, and I've tried the eating more, I always gained weight. This works for me. I went from eating in moderation, to eating healthy. You'll be amazed at what your body feels like when you quit eating things that are no good for you. For me I've not ate fried foods in awhile the last time I ate it, I had gone months without it and I felt so sick and felt like I was going to pass out, it was awful feeling.

Honestly the key to successfully losing weight is finding what works for you that doesn't put your body in a real starvation mode aka not eating or making yourself throw up or other methods to get the food out of your body. When you get to a point when something doesn't work no more, time to change it up and see if something else will work. Exercise, my weight loss doctor told me to workout because we don't want to have sag. I see my problem areas starting to firm up a LOT. I still have 35-45 more pounds to lose. Just remember it didn't come on over night, it's not going to fall off over night. It's about commitment, determination, and dedication!

mamasyd

I thought I would try to answer your questions since I have lost quite a bit more than 50! LOL My first realization was that I never wanted to 'diet' again. That is only a temporary solution to a long term situation. For me, it had to be about truly changing my lifestyle and that included my eating habits. I did it incrementally. First, I cut out all desserts and snacking unless the snacks were healthy foods (fruit, nuts, veggies like carrots, etc). After doing that for a while, I started actually counting calories of what I was eating and sticking to a goal amount. Again, my needs dictated a goal of 10000 calories per week. I varied my days (some as low as 1000, some as high as 2000) to keep my metabolism off balance and to persuade it not to settle in to a new normal. Of necessity, I must eat out fairly often and also eat in other people's homes. This needed to be something I could manage so those would be my 'high' days that week and I would keep the counts lower when I could eat at home.

Exercise was also a step by step process for me. The key to losing weight is to get moving. Initially, I was doing the Biggest Loser Jump Start dvd. The first week consists of ten minutes a day. I stayed on that first week for several months. They show the basic exercise and also a modified version. Some of them I couldn't even do the modified version at the beginning. I was probably only actually doing about eight of the ten minutes, but the key is persistence. Finally, I started to branch out into other low impact things - Biggest Loser Power Walk (the first level only for a while) and just parking my car a bit farther away from stores. Even shopping became a pretty substantive workout for me because I use to have to ride through Walmart in one of their carts. Being able to walk through the entire store was a big NSV for me!!

I was EXTREMELY sedentary before I started losing weight. At 385 pounds with a bad heart there was precious little I could do. I had to rest for a couple of days between 'big events' like being at church on Sunday (I am an associate pastor!) or Wednesday night.

My tips would be:

1. Don't give up! You didn't gain the weight in a week or two and it won't come off in a week or two. You want it to come off slowly and reasonably through an eating style that you will be able to continue for the rest of your life, not through eating foods you hate and can't wait to escape.

2. Set small goals along the way. Seeing that I had to lose 240 pounds was inconceivable to me. Even half of that was beyond what I could grasp. I started seeing "big Os" (350, 300) as goals. Then it started to be "what I weighed when . . ." (like what I weighed when I delivered my second child, then what I weighed when I delivered my first child, etc.). I had a couple of clothing items that I had kept that I wanted to be able to fit in again. One of those was my wedding dress. Finally, when I had lost a substantial amount of weight I set my goals as the amount that some of my friends weighed as the goal. I wanted to have lost more than this person or that person weighed. When I attained that goal, I would have my picture taken standing with that person as a visual motivator!!

3. Don't deprive yourself of special occasions that are food connected - just learn to be reasonable with portion size. While I have been losing my weight there have been some significant events. My youngest daughter got married. There was a baby shower the following year when she was expecting her first child. My grandsons were home from the mission field for the holidays and we made a gingerbread house together (and ate parts of it). I have been told (I think that this may have come from a Weight Watchers meeting that a friend attended) that you only truly taste the first few bites of any given food. And I have found that if I need to participate in a food connected event, I can eat a few bites (of wedding cake, or shower treats, or gingerbread houses) and feel both satisfied physically and be involved emotionally.

4. Drink lots of water!! This can't be emphasized enough. I drink a lot of carbonated flavored water (I use the Kroger brand - yummy and no aspartame). In talking with my cardiologist, he debunked some of the 'concerns' that had been voiced to me by others about either the carbonation or the slight amount of chemicals. It's a good tasty diversion for me and has helped me get to a much healthier life. I have been taken off of all restrictions and all medications related to my heart issues.

Hope this proves helpful to you in your journey!

AdAstra47

First of all, everyone's body is different, everyone's metabolism is different. People can only tell you what worked for them, and that won't necessarily be what works for you. There's no one-size-fits-all diet plan, you just have to figure it out for yourself via trial & error. The people on here can provide good ideas, so it's good to listen to what worked for them. Just don't feel like a failure if you do the exact same thing and it doesn't work for you. That just means that your body works a bit differently than theirs.

I agree with the "finding things you like" advice. I've seen a lot of people try these strict diets that give you a meal plan and tell you exactly what to eat at each meal, and personally, I've never had any success with those. They always include foods I don't like, or exclude foods that I do, so I end up unhappy and/or hungry. Also, I'm a lazy cook, I prefer meals that take fewer than 10 minutes to make and don't dirty up too many dishes, so a lot of those meal plans are just too much trouble & effort for me at the end of a long day's work. So you also have to figure out what foods will fit into your chosen lifestyle. Are you cooking just for you, or for a family? That will make a big difference in how you approach your diet plan.

My doctor tested my metabolism, and instead of giving me a strict meal plan, he gave me three simple rules:
1. a carb limit that I should not go over each day (30g).
2. a protein goal that I *should* try to go over each day (250g).
3. split up my daily calories among 6 meals; eat something approximately every three hours while I'm awake.

This was based on my personal metabolism, which is rather slow and does not process carbs very well. For some people, they can eat all their daily calories in one sitting, and it works for them; I can't, my metabolism requires steady input so my blood sugar doesn't spike & crash.

But the beauty is that my doctor gave me the "what" but left the "how" entirely up to me. Nothing is absolutely forbidden. If I'm on the go or just feeling too lazy to cook, I can eat fast food (I just have a burger without the bun, and a side salad instead of fries). If I have a craving for a certain food, I can look it up on MFP & check out the carb / protein count, then plan the rest of my foods for the day so that I can eat the food I want and still fit under my carb limit. If there are foods I love that are unhealthy, I've done a lot of recipe-surfing to find healthier versions that will provide the tastes I love (like mashed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes, or making pancakes using protein powder instead of wheat flour). It gets easier and easier as you go along & find more tricks that will work for you & for your lifestyle.

I have lost over 55 lb now, over the past 9 months, and have about 75 to go. Feel free to friend me if you'd like!
Good luck to you!

capriciousmoon

I eat mostly healthy, trying to get in whole grains, fruit, and vegetables. I pay a lot of attention to my fiber and protein numbers, to make sure I'm getting enough of both. I don't go by mfp numbers, atleast 25g fiber and protein is based on weight. I still eat some unhealthy things, but this is supposed to be something you can keep up for the rest of your life and I don't believe in "bad foods".

I don't eat foods that I don't like, but I'm lucky enough to like most fruits and vegetables (if I didn't I'd sneak them in anyway). I also avoid foods that aren't very filling or make me more hungry than I was before I ate them. You should pay attention to how you feel after you eat.

I lost 100 lbs walking once or twice a day, every day, 3.5 miles each time. When I joined MFP I switched to biking, which I also use for transportation. (I don't drive)

I was only sedentary for about a year, because I moved to a new area. It was normal for me to walk and bike, but when I started trying to lose weight seriously I increased the distance and frequency.

- Sleep is your friend. You'll lose more weight if you're getting your 8 hours.
- It's easier to stick with exercise if you enjoy it. I got bored walking every day, biking is more fun.

TerresaJ

Hi there. I need some help. I want to lose at least 60lbs and need some help from those who have lost a good amount of weight. So please help me out.

What have you been eating?
What have you not been eating?
What exercises have you been doing?
Were you sedentary before?
Hell add whatever tips for success you have.

TIA

TerresaJ

OK...I think I screwed that up the first time. I have lost 84 pounds. I try to stay away from junk food, but otherwise eat what I want but stay within my calorie goal. It took me a year to lose my weight. I was NOT active before I started. I began walking and some jogging. Now, I can run a 10K (6.2 miles). I love how running makes me feel stronger! I also do other cardio like the elliptical and stationary bike. I tone with weight lifting.
MFP is a fantastic tool for weight loss. You get good support and logging the food and exercise is a great way to keep yourself on track.
Good luck. I'll send you a friend request. Feel free to add me if you'd like.
Terresa

chevy88grl

I thought I would try to answer your questions since I have lost quite a bit more than 50! LOL My first realization was that I never wanted to 'diet' again. That is only a temporary solution to a long term situation. For me, it had to be about truly changing my lifestyle and that included my eating habits. I did it incrementally. First, I cut out all desserts and snacking unless the snacks were healthy foods (fruit, nuts, veggies like carrots, etc). After doing that for a while, I started actually counting calories of what I was eating and sticking to a goal amount. Again, my needs dictated a goal of 10000 calories per week. I varied my days (some as low as 1000, some as high as 2000) to keep my metabolism off balance and to persuade it not to settle in to a new normal. Of necessity, I must eat out fairly often and also eat in other people's homes. This needed to be something I could manage so those would be my 'high' days that week and I would keep the counts lower when I could eat at home.

Exercise was also a step by step process for me. The key to losing weight is to get moving. Initially, I was doing the Biggest Loser Jump Start dvd. The first week consists of ten minutes a day. I stayed on that first week for several months. They show the basic exercise and also a modified version. Some of them I couldn't even do the modified version at the beginning. I was probably only actually doing about eight of the ten minutes, but the key is persistence. Finally, I started to branch out into other low impact things - Biggest Loser Power Walk (the first level only for a while) and just parking my car a bit farther away from stores. Even shopping became a pretty substantive workout for me because I use to have to ride through Walmart in one of their carts. Being able to walk through the entire store was a big NSV for me!!

I was EXTREMELY sedentary before I started losing weight. At 385 pounds with a bad heart there was precious little I could do. I had to rest for a couple of days between 'big events' like being at church on Sunday (I am an associate pastor!) or Wednesday night.

My tips would be:

1. Don't give up! You didn't gain the weight in a week or two and it won't come off in a week or two. You want it to come off slowly and reasonably through an eating style that you will be able to continue for the rest of your life, not through eating foods you hate and can't wait to escape.

2. Set small goals along the way. Seeing that I had to lose 240 pounds was inconceivable to me. Even half of that was beyond what I could grasp. I started seeing "big Os" (350, 300) as goals. Then it started to be "what I weighed when . . ." (like what I weighed when I delivered my second child, then what I weighed when I delivered my first child, etc.). I had a couple of clothing items that I had kept that I wanted to be able to fit in again. One of those was my wedding dress. Finally, when I had lost a substantial amount of weight I set my goals as the amount that some of my friends weighed as the goal. I wanted to have lost more than this person or that person weighed. When I attained that goal, I would have my picture taken standing with that person as a visual motivator!!

3. Don't deprive yourself of special occasions that are food connected - just learn to be reasonable with portion size. While I have been losing my weight there have been some significant events. My youngest daughter got married. There was a baby shower the following year when she was expecting her first child. My grandsons were home from the mission field for the holidays and we made a gingerbread house together (and ate parts of it). I have been told (I think that this may have come from a Weight Watchers meeting that a friend attended) that you only truly taste the first few bites of any given food. And I have found that if I need to participate in a food connected event, I can eat a few bites (of wedding cake, or shower treats, or gingerbread houses) and feel both satisfied physically and be involved emotionally.

4. Drink lots of water!! This can't be emphasized enough. I drink a lot of carbonated flavored water (I use the Kroger brand - yummy and no aspartame). In talking with my cardiologist, he debunked some of the 'concerns' that had been voiced to me by others about either the carbonation or the slight amount of chemicals. It's a good tasty diversion for me and has helped me get to a much healthier life. I have been taken off of all restrictions and all medications related to my heart issues.

Hope this proves helpful to you in your journey!

232lbs lost? You're AMAZING!

AdAstra47

2. Set small goals along the way. Seeing that I had to lose 240 pounds was inconceivable to me. Even half of that was beyond what I could grasp. I started seeing "big Os" (350, 300) as goals. Then it started to be "what I weighed when . . ." (like what I weighed when I delivered my second child, then what I weighed when I delivered my first child, etc.). I had a couple of clothing items that I had kept that I wanted to be able to fit in again. One of those was my wedding dress. Finally, when I had lost a substantial amount of weight I set my goals as the amount that some of my friends weighed as the goal. I wanted to have lost more than this person or that person weighed. When I attained that goal, I would have my picture taken standing with that person as a visual motivator!!

This is excellent advice. Little goals keep you on track & keep you from feeling overwhelmed. I'm kind of a dork, so I even set up an Excel chart for myself. I fill in my weight once a week. I took the total amount I wanted to lose, divided it up by 1.3 lb (which is the average amount I lose per week; between 1 & 2 pounds is a healthy, sustainable loss). So if I stay on track, I look forward to hitting my goal weight around New Year's of 2013. Each week I document any NSVs, like fitting into a smaller size jeans, or getting my BMI down to X%, or getting a compliment from a coworker. It helps me see that I really am making progress, even if it sometimes seems painfully slow.