I am getting depressed!

If you're really bloated maybe you need to do a little colon cleanse type thing. I have this tea...Super Dieters Tea, its not a huge harsh thing but if I drink some at night, a couple hours before bed, when I get up I have a pretty cleansing experience and it helps me with bloat, I only do it a few times a week.

Well, the alcohol consumption could be holding back your weight loss. Also, you need to consume a bit more water every day to flush out the excess sodium we get from processed food. Just my opinion.

Do you know how much fiber you are getting a day??

I agree that you should just give your body time to adjust. Don't get discouraged! The only sure fire way to lose weight (in my experience of going up and down) is just to be persistent with cutting calories and exercising. I have those days that I feel like I've done everything right but I"m scared to hop on that scale because I feel so bloated! Just avoid the scale for those few days and keep doing what you're doing! Good luck!

I would definatley check your sodium .... salt is a culprit when trying to lose weight .... salt is in everything ... having too much is not good ... and drink lots of water to flush out your system ... best of luck to you

Ahem...don't take this the wrong way but I get more fiber in my typical breakfast than you do all day which could be why you're feeling a bit bloated.

No expert here, but I read your diary and I saw: salt, salt, salt and beer. :drinker: Maybe switch the V8 to low sodium version, or cut one out, or make your own. Mix up your proteins a bit cuz the salt will make you retain water like crazy which could be why your scale refuses to cooperate. Instead of deli meat, maybe egg salad. For dinner, try chicken or fish. I think If you lower your salt intake you will begin to see some results. keep us posted.

Mel

I would definatley check your sodium .... salt is a culprit when trying to lose weight .... salt is in everything ... having too much is not good ... and drink lots of water to flush out your system ... best of luck to you

Since I cut sodium & sugar down to nil I have been really seeing the pounds come off. And I like my wine so I have a couple glasses a couple of times of week. RED of course (ggod for your heart) LOL

So yes I agree that you might need to watch the sodium intake - good luck and really 3lbs/3wks NOT BAD, cut yourself some slack

Hi Donna.

I checked out your profile and since your diary is public I looked at today and I think I may be able to give you some clues as to what is going on. FYI, we are about the same age--I am three years older.

I looked at your diary and the first thing I noticed is that you are tracking cholesterol, in addition to carbs, fat, protein and calories. Unless you have some overwhelming need to track your cholesterol, I would suggest eliminating that category and replacing it with sodium. I assume you know that you can customize your food diary to track what you want to. Then I would also start tracking fiber. To make changes in your food diary, just click on the "settings' link while you are on the food diary page.

That said, I think you will find your diet is higher in sodium than you might think. Regular V8 is loaded with sodium. You have logged 16 oz today and that is 960 mgs of sodium!!! That is almost half of the recommended amount. There are a couple of different numbers I see thrown around for daily usage 2400 mgs, or 2200. I stick with the lower nbr because I used to take meds for high blood pressure--happily I am off of them as of January. I usually consume around 1700 -1800 mg of sodium on an average day.

Another source of sodium is processed lunch meat. Unfortunately ham is usually high in sodium. I looked up the one you had entered and 3 oz has 660 mg of sodium. The canned green beans you posted for dinner have another 400 mg. (Frozen beans usually have almost no sodium--as long as you don't get those with sauces added.) So just those three items you have consumed 2020 mg sodium!!! And that is for just 3 entries in your diary!! This is a contributing factor to why you might feel bloated. There could be other reasons as well, food allergies, health conditions that you haven't mentioned or are not aware of.

I use the low sodium version of V8 and find that I like the taste better if it is room temperature, rather than from the fridge, but that is a personal preference.

Also, since you are not tracking fiber, you probably don't realize how little you are getting. Consider replacing your white bread with a whole grain bread, or whole grain sandwich thins. With the thins you get two slices to work with and the total calories for both are about 100 with most of the thins out there. I see you used 6 teaspoons of non dairy coffee creamer. This is processed empty calories, and you would be better off to changed your milk to skim, from 2% and use milk in your coffee instead. Whenever possible, use fresh fruit rather than canned. That reduces the amount of sugar you are getting and will increase your fiber content. For example a fresh apple rather than processed applesauce. A couple of clementine oranges, rather than a fruit cup with orange slices and sugar laden syrup.

There is lots of nutrition information available on this site and elsewhere on the internet. I wish you well in achieving your goal, and hope my suggestions are helpful. Since you are in the right age group, I would also like to invite you to the 50 + women's thread--here is a link to the current thread: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/93006-women-ages-50-for-april?page=4#posts-1291958

EDIT: Some of what I said is repeated above this post, but I started my message before any of the others were posted.

too much sodium & far too little fibre. But increase your fibre gradually! Apples are great source of fibre, applesauce is not so much.