Jackie, focus on living a healthier life. Like Mark (I hope I got your name right!) said, log your food and drink your water, get your exercise and your rest. It WILL happen.

I guess a pound is a pound but I've been trying to eat less than 1500 calories a day and have started walking 1.5 - 2.5 miles a day if I have time. I've also started a new job - and i haven't been eating the food - which has put me on my feet another 15 hours so far and I've had musical practice as well on top of that. No red meat and no fast food. Not sure what's going on and this is my 17th day and it's been one pound total from my weigh in Monday. Not sure what I'm doing wrong or if I need to do more. I determined to stick with it this time though.

OMG! I DID IT! I HAVE LOST 150 LBS! i am so happy! this last week i made sure to drink a protein shake every morning, tried eating a little more and exercised my butt off! i added dance lessons and went back to swimming laps and just tried to be more active during my day.

when that scale said 248 yesterday, i froze, i didn't know whether i was going to laugh or cry, lol. it still seems unbelievable that i am UNDER 250 lbs for the first time in at least 15-17 years. i am so HAPPY! thanks everyone for all the support and encouragement.

Holly, I am so sorry! Work sucks! I just went through this and it's maddening and upsetting and ... bleh!!! Maybe you'll find something better... that treats you with more respect. The place doesn't deserve you if it won't recognize what an important asset you are. :mad:

Dan and Jackie, I want you both to know how encouraged I, am by your accomplishments. People who have done the work and stayed the course like y'all, and like Paula and Mark, and all those who are so far ahead of me on the journey, you give me hope. I should say it more often because you deserve it...you've earned it. There are days when I think about needing to lose 115 pounds and I get terrified. It seems impossible. But then, I can say that I know people who have done it, are doing it. And not only that, but they are voluntarily helping others to do it, as well.
I need you. And I need to remember that you need that support, too. I am guilty of taking for granted that those who have lost so much weight have beat their problems and are invincible.
Thank you. And that goes for everyone who posts on this site. I need this connection, and I want to offer that same support to you.

Thanks for the advice Dan, and I promise to grit through it as well! It's spring and it's time to get serious! I'm gonna try to think of some new weekly challenges for the group, and maybe it will help to get some of us re-motivated :drinker: Again thanks for taking the time to help a friend in need!

As usual...Dan is right. * sigh *

We must not only be mindful of our needs and watchful over our wants and cravings, we must also be patient with the astoundingly complex and varied chemical processes that must occur to turn stored energy into fuel for daily life.

It took me years to get this way, it will take years to put me back to spec. I get that. Now. But first I had to wander most of the winter over a nigh endless plateau,

But the spring is here now and I am rocking a new exercise class, and upping my walkies game. ( I spend more time with my glutes and core activated and pluse the muscles when I march. It's like crunches...but without the fuss, or having to get on the floor.)

So yeah...while I did not lose much weight over the winter, I dropped a pant size and I can see a vague hint of ribs and other evidence of a human skeleton holding up flesh and blood, where once there was but waves of wobbles. Therefore I can say with confidence I have met my goal and got into shape. Because round is still a WAAAAAY better shape than amorphous blob.

But I am still working on rectangle! Watch me go!

I would not have had the strength to keep going without your help, my MFP friends and acquaintances.

Thank you to everyone who reads and posts and cheers!

I hope you too are working towards your happy geometry; whatever shape that may be.

Cheers!
Mark

I haven't been around much for about a month due to getting meds and other stuff straightened out. It's been a mess. Due to no longer working my finances are in shambles as I am lacking about $50 more a month than what I have now. This means my eating has gone to pot. I am trying to figure out how to get three meals and between 2 to 3 snacks in a day for around $5 for the entire day. Coupons I find are usually for TV dinners, french fries, and other similar foods. I find the occasional one for Yoplait! Greek yogurt, but it is good for one container, if I can even find it in the stores, which I can't, not even at Mama Jean's the local health food store. While I can afford strictly lettuce salads, which really aren't true salads, I can't exist on that. Protein is expensive as all get out locally, probably that way everywhere else too. Getting put on the lithium and the weight quickly came back on and then as I'm getting off of that I'm struggling to find a way to eat without starving and within a tight budget. Due to the lithium I had to hold off on a lot activity as it was causing the water levels to drop in my body too quickly resulting in a dramatic increase to the density of the med in my system making me sick. On that med not really supposed to spend much time in the sun, can't drink too much or flush it, yadda, yadda. So, I'm off of it, but now I have to get back into the groove with exercise along with other things. They're thinking of moving me to another city where I'd have to adjust to a lot more than just these few things. I need to get food back on track, somehow, just gotta get the math to work. Increasing activity level is at least one thing I don't have to wait to start on. I've accepted I'm going to end up at a food bank this month, but that means I'll be getting soups, pasta, rice, a loaf of white bread, and another jar of peanut butter. Oh, and I forgot. The single slice of American cheese. Just, urgh. Urgh, urgh, urgh and urgh some more. :explode:

A friend of mine has decided to help me out. She has given me $50 dollars to get what I need. It has to last for awhile, but it's a start. It means my cat gets his wet food as well and the better litter just in time for my quarterly inspection. I'll be spending most of it on non-food items, but it'll still help as I have $12 left of my food budget and it'll give me $14 left out of the fifty once I pay for the cat stuff and TP, meds, transportation, etc., which should be enough to get me through until I get my next allowance check on the 17th.

I am frustrated with myself for the lack of confidence I have in a friend of mine to actually follow through with her current plan for getting in shape and losing weight. I've just watched her for so long say she is going to do something, go at it for an hour or two for an eating pattern change and five minutes for starting a new exercise regime. It's not as if I have never supported her or tried to help her. I've sat with her and gone over exercised designed to hit the areas she wants to hit, figured up together a simple exercise plan. When she talked about watching calories I gave her one of my calorie counters and we talked about portion sizes and how that can trip a person up. I offered, when I had the money, to pay for her membership to the Y that would give her access to two locations in town she could go to. We've made plans to exercise together which when the day came resulted in getting a message as to why it was no longer an option that day. I hear from her as to how she was "bad" on her eating plan. (By the way, I've come to loathe that terminology? I don't like its implications and the way I see it used.) The being "bad" statements come at least once a day, if not more, and we go over again how she needs to not skip meals and that having a third of a fifty-cent bag of sunflower seeds is not a breakfast or lunch. I've seen all of this and more for too long. As I said, I want to have faith that this time will be it and not that in a month I'll be buying her workout DVD set from her as it was too (pick a negative adjective). I think it is more to do with I just don't have the energy to go through supporting her as she tells me all the reasons she can't. She actually got rid of exercise equipment saying it didn't work, but when pressed admitted to not using it. Okay, I'm rambling now. Hopefully, this time it'll help her achieve her goals without the excuses.

Chuck,

I am so glad you checked back in. What you have gone through is stunning. Thank you for sharing. Congratulations on logging faithfully and getting back on track after what sounds like a well-deserved meltdown. :ohwell: Sometimes we need that.

My 93 year old mother-in-law had intense pain yesterday and I was frantically taking care of her and hoping it wasn't a possible fractured vertebra (per doctor). Then at work today it just hit me and I wanted to cry. She's better now and so am I. But I had needed to crash. It was all just too much.

It sounds what you've gone through is a hundred times worse. And I am so proud of you for pulling through!

Paula

@Chuck: I haven't had nearly those kinds of problems but I do understand the dangers of medications quite well as one cooked my thyroid completely. I can't imagine the courage it has taken to keep pushing on. I am glad you are posting an update and that things are looking better, to some degree. As Paula said, sometimes we need that little breakdown to get us back to where we need to be emotionally.

@Holly: Sometimes I think I care too much, meaning I get too involved in trying to help them. It is one reason I am open to the idea of moving to Columbia, MO. It would put a physical distance between memories I'm not ready to deal with yet and those that I feel the most need to help out with. It's a way of forcing myself to take a break from things. Of course, it doesn't mean my patterns will really change when/if I get there..so, I don't know. But I still feel the move would be good for me to get away from things here for awhile at least. I do worry though about what will happen if I'm not here, which makes me feel arrogant actually. As it implies I think the people in my life can't get along without me, when I'm pretty sure they really can.

@Paula: I'm glad she's doing better now. I know how it feels. My grandmother is 84, almost 85, and a couple of months ago did fracture three of her vertebrae. She's had a few problems since then that have resulted in me frantically finding rides to get to her to help her through whatever is going on regardless of what I have going on. I do cry sometimes when it hits me everything that she's going through in the past couple of years.

@Paula: I am not pushing my friend. I do ask occasionally but I don't press it. I do have a hard time sticking to boundries I set with people. I'm strong at first, and then I cave, not as bad as I used to be though. Like most people, I just wish people would stop asking for advice if they are going to immediately ignore it. Oh, well. I'm better with it now that I got it out. Thank you.

Accidentally erased my previous message. Guess it's a sign to not to rant until I cool off. Hate smiling and nodding when I'm fuming inside. Anybody need a good bookkeeper?

I am an emotional eater. My husband has not been helping with anything around the house and with the kids. Lately he expects me to figure out then fix what he is going to eat for dinner. FRUSTRATED! When I started this program with the UofM he was one of my biggest supporters. Now I feel like he is not there at all for me in this time of need. Plus, when the kids need food, attention, or diaper changes, he leaves - goes outside or gets on the computer. Just ignores what is going on in the house. I ask for help and don't get it. Right now all I want to do is cry and eat, then eat some more. We used to be partners in everything, if one of us started cleaning, the other got up and started helping. I don't know what is going on with him. What I do know is that I feel like I'm about to crumble. I miss my wonderful husband.

We will get thru this, together.