(Hold on...this turned out to be a long post!):noway:

Little about me...I'm 40 years old. 5'4. Been active for a long time, but never really finding my groove. Taught Group Power for years, plain old step aerobics before that, and in the last couple of years, my focus has been more on running. Just finished my third half marathon this past September. Despite all that, I have always weighed in the 160's. Shot up to 180 lbs after a botched surgery and dieted low cal back to 165. Started EMTWL at 173 and still low cal, got down to 167lbs....that's me in a nutshell. :happy:

Small achievement today. Hopped on the scale and it greeted me not with the +2 gain (was at 172) I was thinking, but -2 (170) for the FIRST time since I've started EMTWL back in late August! :bigsmile: I read the posts and joined the group long before that (late May), but didn't "buy in" because it seemed too good to be true. Before EMTWL, I was netting around 1200 cals/day. :huh: This was definitely dropping weight for me, but once I started running more, the scale stuck. Then, I increased to 1400 cals which seemed a smidgeon better, but I was still not losing. Started EMTWL at 1650 cals because I was scared to go all the way to 2300, then got brave and just jumped in once I started realizing how much I have missed food.

Although this 2lb loss may seem like a small loss to most VLCD, I have gained a total of 5lbs since starting reset. It was starting to feel a bit like the scale would never budge in the right direction. Heck, I was even starting to be happy with weeks of just staying at the same weight!! Funny thing is, I was SUPPOSED to be done my 8 weeks of RESET in early October, but wasn't feeling it, and was enjoying the cals I was at (2300), so decided to try and keep my daily intake to around 2000cals/day. This has been a small CUT (only 15%). Although I have not been entirely successful as I have had days WAAAAYYY over (2665 cals last night...damn Halloween candy calling me) but mostly in and around 2100.

I stopped running around early September after finishing my half marathon and have been very committed to weightlifting. Started NROLFW and did all of stage 1 and stage 2. Wrote up stage 3, but it was stressing me out due to the time it would take to complete due to all the one-legged exercises, so I've switched yet again (I know, I know, it's not recommended) to Stronglifts 5x5 and am starting week 3 of that today. It's great because it has 3 compound exercises and I am definitely feeling it! I'm ashamed to say (I know Kiki won't mind me saying this - :drinker: ) that I haven't done much of ANY cardio (the odd walk on the inclined treadmill, but only a handful of times).

So, I am feeling different. More muscular and definitely stronger. My eating has changed so much during this time. I try and keep my protein at around 30-35% per day (around 130g) and my carbs around 35-40%, and fats around 30%. Eating this much protein at first was a challenge. I do drink a whey protein shake every morning with milk and oatmeal. And I also have a shake after every workout. This was a VERY new habit for me, but I really believe it is working. I have baked my own protein bars and take Jamie Eason's turkey meatloaf muffins to work to snack on instead of real muffins. I eat Greek yogurt sweetened with agave syrup and cinnamon and protein powder. It's awesome! My husband tells me I'm getting more muscular, my co-worker the other day even commented when I turned to the side, "Is that your thigh muscle?" I looked down and my thigh was actually making a muscle over my knee!!!! WHA?!? So cool!

The best part about this journey is my performance in the gym. When I started, I couldn't even do my pushups from the floor. I started my sets doing them off the workout bench (as per NROLFW, you shouldn't do them off your knees), and now I can blast out 5 sets of 15 off the floor! It's crazy. Started squatting the barbell at 75lbs and have gotten as high as a set at 135lbs. I am pretty excited to see how far I can push myself to my new maximums with this new program.

Just wanted to say, that this has been a long few months of believing in something that I wasn't sure was going to work. But the support of everyone on here has been amazing, especially Lucia and Kiki who are so approachable . I would have NEVER EVER thought I could eat 2000 cals/day, lift heavy and feel so darn good! I'm never hungry anymore and actually feel in control of my life. If you are on the fence about EMTWL, you have to commit or it won't work the way you want it to. I know it's only been 2 pounds, but it's 2 pounds that I have wondered whether I would ever lose again, 2 lbs of eating more cals than ever before in my adult life and 2 lbs of what I believe are muscle (will let you know once I measure again). I haven't had time to take pics again, but will do so soon!

There are a lot of people STUCK, out there, but stick with it! It works. :flowerforyou: