Hi

Congrats on your loss so far - it's fantastic. I'm not from Tassie but the one and only trip I made there a couple of years ago had me in love with it - so many different terrains and environments in such a relatively small place and the people were very friendly.

I'm from Adelaide and have no children so running around after 7 of them is something I can't imagine! Are you also doing exercise(in addition to the children lol) or are you doing it all with food managment only at the moment? That is how I started although not with meal replacements. I have them occasionally but not as the primary means of managing my intake.

I decided that I needed to lose slowly this time and try to change my eating habits generally (portion size, less sugar and processed carbs). Without additional exercise, I lost approximately 16kg over 3-4 months but then came to a bit of a standstill and became a bit despondent. I put back on about 3-4 kg over the next 2 months and have now taken most of that off again but I am still fluctuating up and down from week to week without actually losing anything.

Winter does me in a bit because I stop drinking water and substitute caffeine type drinks hence more fluid retention. I also hibernate a bit and stop the small amount of additional walking exercise I do in the warmer months.

I have come to the conclusion that I have now reached a point where my metabolism needs another kick start and it will need to be exercise based combined with a change to my food intake patterns again.

Enjoy using the MFP site to help you learn new ways of doing things.

You are welcome to friend me if you wish. I generally come on the site daily if I can. You may find some other Tassie people on here in some of the other "friend" threads in this group.

Cheers
L

Hey! I'm Tasmanian, 39 and had 6 kids! I'm in Launceston.