Any More Chubby Twenties?

Boo-yah! Take THAT water retention! Who's your daddy?

Sorry, had to gloat today. I'm feeling pretty darn good at the moment. After my surprise TOM apperance yesterday, I drank a buttload of water (even more than I usually do!) to flush out what I KNEW was water retention. Decided to weigh myself today and... down 1.6 pounds! Uh huh, that's right! *happy dances*

Which means that last week I actually lost 2.2 pounds, not 0.6 pounds. It ALSO means that

1) I've finally hit the 10-pounds lost (while at MFP) mark! 12 days behind schedule, but still close!
2) I can no longer say "I've never been this heavy before". This is the weight I was at prior to losing thirty pounds and getting to my goal weight 7 years ago (Kept that off for 3 years, until I had children), and I was also this weight prior to losing ten pounds just before I got pregnant with my youngest. I've BEEN this weight before, and lost from this point, so it feels good (in a weird way) to be back to my OLD 'heaviest' weight. At one point, I felt HUGE at this weight. No, I feel pretty darn good considering I've been as high as 184!
3) I'm half a pound away from being halfway to my target weight!

Normally I don't weigh in twice a week, but I thought it was necessary in this situation. Glad I did because I'm feeling SO PUMPED.


As for the TOM issue.... I embarrassed that it hadn't occurred to me but like I said, I hadn't had it in nearly two years so it really was the last thing on my mind. Now that I'm over the shock, I'm actually kind of glad I got it again! I don't mind it because it's like a monthly 'cleanse' in a way. I remember back when I was on Depo Provera. It did weird things to my body. It's nice to have my body's natural rhythms back. It feels like my body is slowly going back to normal- not just with regards to weight, but overall function, know what I mean?

...Ahem. And now I will move on from the subject of moi....

christina_rivera , rubysparkle, sarina87, gummibaehr, Rdy2Lose128 : Welcome! Always happy to make new friends.

embr - You know, I actually rarely drank and if I KNEW I was going to be drinking, I eased up on my calories for the day to allow for it (obviously not something you want to be doing that often! But once in a while, I think, it's okay). Light beer isn't bad, there are some really good low-calorie options there. Or mix with diet pop, or water, or cranberry juice, like others mentioned. I try not to drink at all anymore (at least, VERY rarely) because alcohol can have some adverse affects on your body. Though I know the occassional beer or red wine is good for you- so maybe go in that direction?

Jenn- You're welcome! I think it's good information for all of us to have. Personally, I had no idea! It's reassuring for sure, to know that just because I'm not seeing a loss, it doesn't mean I'm not doing my body good. And I'm glad to hear your workout last night was so much better!

kaytbognar - Sorry to hear about your scale frustration. BELIEVE me, I understand. But if the past few months have taught me anything it's to just hang in there... the numbers WILL go down, eventually. At the end of the day, it's measurements that really count (though I am the same way- I HAVE to see those numbers go down!).... And obviously it's making a difference! Glad to hear your coworkers are noticing all your hard work is paying off! And good for you, resisting cake! Every time I turn down foods that are bad for me, I feel like I've made a mini accomplishment!!!!


gummibaehr - You're going to love it hear! Since joining MFP at the end of November I've lost over ten pounds. The food diary is so simple to use and helps a LOT. I had some troubles with it at first (mostly in remembering to log my foods) but now I do it faithfully every day and have no problems with it at all. Using the Wii to get healthy is a great too! I got Wii Fit Plus and some other fitness games over the holidays and have had a lot of success working out every day! It wold be amazing if you lose all that weight in 90 days but don't be disappointed if it doesn't happen- the smaller you are, the longer it takes to lose weight, unfortunately. I've had to learn that the hard way! We'll be here to support you along the way whenever you need help.

jrbowers83 - Sorry to hear about the gain, but what matters is that you're taking care of yourself! Water retention is definitely a pain in the butt!

Keri- I understand what you mean about vitamins and eating. Vitamins make me SO ill, it's ridiculous. Particularly the iron. Blech! I'm confident your weight is gonna start dropping fast, VERY soon. The amount of elliptical training you do is insane! Even if you're not seeing huge losses, you KNOW you're doing something very good for your body.

Mandi - I love TBL! I didn't catch the end of it last night, though, because I was SO bagged. Hit the hay early. Had to read the re-cap today!

gurlondrums - Good to see you back! Happy to hear you've been checking back even if you haven't been super-active. Sorry to hear you haven't been getting the results you're looking for. I definitely think increasing your exercise should help somewhat. Since you mentioned you were hoping to lose more weight, I took a look at your food diary and have a couple of suggestions for you. Of course, take them or leave them! Just like to help wherever possible.

1) I'd suggest cutting back a little further on the calories. I don't want to make a bunch of suggestions about how to eat or what to eat (you'd probably get better information from the Food & Nutrition forum than from me anyhow) but they seem to be a little on the high side some days. Not enough to cause a weight gain, of course, but not enough to cause a huge loss, either. I usually eat about 1200-1400 calories per day (I'm aiming for a 2 pounds per week loss), unless I've worked out (in which case, I go up to 1500-1800 per day). Which brings me to suggestion number two...

2) Don't eat ALL of your exercise calories. I know this goes contrary to the the overall message of MFP and so of course I want to clarify: it IS important for you to eat all your exercise calories. The problem is, the calories burned that MFP reports is really inaccurate. Really, this will vary from person to person. It's likely that you're not burning as many calories through exercise as MFP is telling you you are. So when you eat all of your exercise calories, you could actually be eating ABOVE your exercise calories. Make sense? I've noticed this issue myself some time ago and started eating only half of the exercise calories that MFP tells me to. This seems to be helping me lose weight but I am always worried about not eating enough. I've finally caved and ordered the Polar F6 heart rate monitor. It will count the calories I'm ACTUALLY burning so that I know how many exercise calories I should actually be eating. So my advice is to either get a HRM and properly calculate your calories or eat a smaller percentage of your exercise calories.

Like I said, this is just an observation on my end and please feel free to disregard. Just thought I'd offer my take. Hopefully it helps!


Rdy2Lose128 - Thank you for your story! Congratulations on your loss thus far. You are very inspirational to women (and men) like us who are looking to reach our weight loss and fitness goals.

Patti- Wow, dinner sounds YUMMY! I love-love-LOVE pizza. Going over your calories every once in a while isn't a bad thing, so long as it's not habitual. I went WAY over my calories last Friday, lol. I just couldn't stop eating, I felt STARVING. Keeping in mind, though, that by Friday I'd had four hard workouts in a row. I think my body was just saying, "FUEL ME!" So I did, hahaha. The past couple of days I've been CRAVING chocolate and salt. So in a way, again, I'm happy I have my TOM. At least I know that that is what's causing my cravings! Haven't indulged yet but I'm about ready to start licking my own arm just to get some salt! (Kidding, and gross, I know.) Here's hoping that your BL at work is a success! Sounds like a lot of fun.