Need to Lose 100 LBS -Robins Thread !

October: Completed Diary 3/4, Under/At Calorie Goal 1/4

Been busy working this weekend. Lucky for me, we are only open until noon on weekends, so I am able to be home in the afternoon.

Yesterday, we went to Mass at a different church than we usually go to because my daughter has joined the youth choir at her school and they also sing one weekend a month at one of two churches. They also sing at school at Mass every Friday. So strange to see her confidently charging up the choir loft stairs to join her friends and sing with barely a good-bye for her mom. Bittersweet parenting moment there. I'm so glad she's not super shy like I was at her age. I missed out on some things because I was too timid to try.

Today, I think I will be taking the kids out shopping for Halloween costumes and the few winter attire items that we need to replace this year. We only need to get my son some snowpants, boots and another pair of gloves and we should be ready for Old Man Winter! Woo hoo!

Sunday Share for all the newbies (Welcome everyone, btw!):
I'm Amanda. I'm 34, married with two children (dd is 7, ds is 5), and I work full time in a clinic laboratory. I've been on MFP for almost two years, but only on this thread since January 2014. If you've found us here, this is the place to be! I credit the accountability and support from the members of this thread with my ability to relose the weight I gained back in 2013 and to be able to keep it off so far!
I think I may be only about 5 lbs away from being able to wear my wedding ring comfortably again!!!

@niki--glad you found your proper calorie goal. I'm still working on it. I did great for the first 50 lbs or so, but as I'm nearing goal weight, it seems to elude me. Nonetheless, I'm glad to have come this far and know if I keep at it, I will succeed in losing the last 20-30 lbs. And yes, AFM means "As For Me" or "And From Me." Don't worry about the silly auto-correct errors and typos either. I know others have commented that b/c I'm an English teacher (and we've had a few others along the way) that they worry about being "judged" for mistakes. I always feel posting on threads or Facebook is akin to having a conversation where we don't worry as much about perfect grammar, spelling, etc. Now, if you write me a formal essay you'd better proofread it though. :laugh:

@amanda (hansea)--congrats on getting so close to fitting back in the wedding ring. I never outgrew mine, but only b/c it was really loose to begin with. I did have some issues with it on whenever retaining water--it would get snug beyond what I consider comfortable. Now that no longer hapens which makes me happy. :happy:

@tom--I think it's funny that World Teacher Day follows National Vodka Day. :laugh:

@nettie--glad the nursery plans are coming along and that you've been able to sleep better. Remind me of your due date again--is it in Feb.? I have 5 colleagues having babies between December and May, so I'm having trouble keeping track.

@kaye--I love cinnamon rolls! One of my colleagues sometimes brings homemade ones and I can NEVER resist; last time I ate two. :blushing:

@soosun--good job on the walking!

@laurie--great job on the swimming! I love the water, and playing in it for fun, but just never learned the proper strokes to swim laps as exercise. Yes, Brian is doing good and he was sad that he couldn't make the trip to NY. He took a really awesome trip to Europe over the summer to go to a big music festival. He's also been swamped at work lately, so probably for the best that he didn't try to come with us. However, maybe in the future he will travel with us. Or, if you make it to Chicago, I'm sure he would meet us for an event.

@marsha--Hope you have a nice trip to Baltimore? Do you mean your phone cannot access MFP or that you just don't know how? If it's an android, you should be able to download the MFP app, or just go to the website through the phone's internet browser.

I saw ushkii pop in the other day, but has anyone heard from Tracy (tlh) or RobinB?

Sunday Share:
For the newlings, i"ll give a quick summary. I'm Karen--HS English teacher from Chicago. Love my job, but not all of the grading. Actually, I like grading, but not the amount of time it sometimes takes. I've been on MFP for about 3 1/2 years and joined this thread in July 2011. Have met some great people here--both "virtually" and in person--who've supported and motivated me along the way.

Workout yesterday at the gym felt good. DId some lifting, but have to be careful of my shoulder, so not as much as I would've liked. Also ran a quick mile on the treadmill, but after walking the 5k in the morning, I decided not to do any other cardio. DId some grading afterward--finished one half of the 60 quizzes, but need to grade the other side now.

Weather is much nicer today--still chilly but sunny with no rain/snow--so I took gunner for an extra-long walk. Not going to make it to the gym after all, but that's okay.

Grading Goals:
1. x/14 AP analysis activities
2. x/60 punctuation/ style quizzes

Exercise Goals:
Sat--5k DONE + gym DONE
Sun--walk gunner DONE + gym
Mon-- rest day (late meeting)
Tues--walk gunner + gym
Wed--walk gunner + gym
Thurs--walk gunner
Fri--rest day (dinner plans)

October Challenge:
Days under calories = 3/4
Days >100g of protein = 1/4

@laurie--good for you for taking the day off. I did very little for school today as well--just some easy punctuation quiz grading. Sounds like a fun day visiting with your family. Hope you also get to visit with marsha when she's in town.

AFM--almost finished the quizzes, but not quite. will finish them up tomorrow morning before my AP kids turn in their journals. Will be under calories again, but also under protein. :ohwell:

Another *fun* note, my MIL just called and left another message. <sigh> At least this one had no jabs at me. Just a demand that DH call her b/c she wants to talk to him and her statement that she's "not giving up" on him. For all of you not versed in manipulative MIL-speak, that means she's determined to keep calling until he caves in and returns her call.

Fortunately? Unfortunately? he can be just as stubborn as her. To be honest, I'm not really even sure what I want to happen here. I would love for him to have a relationship with his mom, but I'm not looking forward to having her in our life again now that she's decided to blame me for all of this--when I was the only one on her side! He would have stopped calling/seeing her long ago if I hadn't encouraged family get togethers.

I'm not going to worry about it until he makes a decision about whether or not to even call her back. I don't want to put him in a position where he feels the need to defend me (trust me, I can do that myself), but I know he's really angry at her for all of her jealous nonsense toward me and my family. If they do mend fences, then she will have to mend some fences with me as well--I won't be able to move forward with her until I get an apology and acknowledgement that she is to blame for this rift with her son. I'm not good at biting my tongue and pretending like nothing has happened, and I can't just ignore that message she left telling him he can "always get another wife." Ugh! Why can't people just be normal?

Grading Goals:
1. x/14 AP analysis activities
2. 40/60 punctuation/ style quizzes

Exercise Goals:
Sat--5k DONE + gym DONE
Sun--walk gunner DONE + gym NOT DONE
Mon-- rest day (late meeting)
Tues--walk gunner + gym
Wed--walk gunner + gym
Thurs--walk gunner
Fri--rest day (dinner plans)

October Challenge:
Days under calories = 4/5
Days >100g of protein = 1/5

Well, I sure never know how my days will go. Long story short, I wound up with 18 for dinner. I have lots of potato salad left. I only had 30 min for a walk after everyone went home. Consequently I am over on my calories 2 days in a row, not far, but over nonetheless. Love my family. It was a good day.
Enjoy your reports and am inspired by your dedication. We can do this.
Onward and downward. Kaye

Monday check-in -- well, I haven't lost weight this week but I'm pretty positive about it. What's happened is that I was away for a weekend full of food and drink, and I didn't do so well (i'm now 3/6 on October logging and thread checking) -- but I haven't gained and I think it will come back off pretty quickly. We went over to our friends in Kent on Friday; had a lovely meal with them. Then nipped over to France and Belgium on Saturday to buy cigarettes (for my friend; I don't smoke) and booze (for them and us). We went to a fortified town called Bergues (near Dunquerke) and had a traditional lunch in a traditional Flemish restaurant. And then more food with our friends. Then yesterday we danced in and around Tenterden for their folk festival and then took a ride on a steam train to Bodiam for lunch and more dancing (we play tunes on the train and dance at the stops too). Anyway, I'm sure I'll be back to my low Friday morning weight in a day or two.

@Lois -- I hope you had a wonderful night out!
@FeraFilia -- a full day of walking will easily cover a nice Italian meal! I hope it's fantastic.
@Susan -- I'm so pleased to hear how well your challenge is going, and that you had such a great weekend in New York.
@Bill -- I love that the thread is always here for us if we derail and return.
@Robin -- you are probably right about my daughter's friend. She lives a very constrained life in lots of ways and our house is very relaxed as well as being messy! And I'm glad they got your W-vac sorted out!
@Teresa -- you are *definitely* right about making DD shape up on the housework front. Both my kids do about one easy chore a day at the moment, and neither of them cook. She's off to college in a year and boy is she going to get a shock.
@Lori -- hanging your laundry outside is the *best* way to dry it. Solar and wind power all the way! Most people line dry in the UK. It's going to be a long, long time before I have a lap. I can only use my iPad on my lap if I'm sitting with my feet up. And YAY for having less than 100 pounds to lose, what a great feeling!
@iahmed -- welcome! Plateaus are such a pain; sometimes you just need to be super-focused on the exact weights of everything, and mix your exercise choices up a bit. Why did you switch from MyNetDiary to MFP? I don't think I could ever switch to a different tracker now because of this thread!
@Karen -- I don't think the odd day that's off-macros matters, and being *just* inside target is fine!
@Laurie -- chatting with friends at the gym is the best, isn't it? It just makes the time fly by.
@Marsha -- it's funny what people choose to photograph on holiday, isn't it? And I derailed last time because I couldn't really cope with my MFP target going below 1400 calories. Exercise definitely makes it easier though.
@Soosun -- I occasionally get a leg cramp in the night and I know it's often caused by not getting enough potassium. I love all the potassium-rich foods on your list so maybe that's my body telling me something? I think 2lb a week targets are probably fine for people who have a huge amount to lose, but I find them too harsh; I get downhearted and start to comfort eat.
@Amy -- I've tried not logging and it doesn't work for me... so I came back to logging. I reckon if it works the little time spent is a small price.
@Tanya -- It must be hard having to drive straight after physio. Does the physiotherapist give you exercises to do at home as well?
@FeraFilia -- love the new haircut!
@Toots -- Monday confession -- I never, ever learnt not to put metal implements into the toaster. I still do it to fish out potato cakes and bagels. Yes I know it's a major cause of electrocutions #yolo
@Niki -- I find I'm ok at between 1400 and 1500 calories. When MFP drops me below 1400 I start to really struggle and this time I might just decide that 1400 is a good place to stay for me. 1800 could easily be a bit high unless you're getting exercise in every day. I feel like everyone on this list are my weight-loss buddies -- I do have an MFP friends list as well but most of those people are my real-life friends or people who asked for people to friend them and support them. Day One is a diary program for Mac (and also iPhone and iPad -- I like to get things that sync with all my gadgets so it doesn't matter which I'm using). I'm sure there's lots of others but this one is quite elegant and easy to use. They keep promising automatic import from social networks, but it never happens -- I think it's a *hard* problem. So i just cut and paste from wherever else I'm writing into the diary each day. I went back and grabbed all my posts I could find from the past, to Usenet newsgroups (who else remembers Usenet) and blogs and things, so there's thousands of entries stored now.
@kcsillag -- Welcome! It *does not matter* how long it takes -- and you'll start to feel much better way before the end of the journey.
@Morgori -- I definitely celebrated National Vodka Day this weekend, oh yes. My friend makes infusions of vodka -- this time we had fresh and dried hops, and ginger, and blackberry, and they were all great. The ginger in particular was very dangerous when mixed with fizzy water; it just tasted like a soft drink. ooops...
@Laurie -- that is such fast swimming! Fantastic!
@Kaye -- I learnt to make cinnamon rolls and my goodness they are so good. Definitely a "sometimes" food in our house.
@Nettie -- you are right that my daughter should have her friend round. Hopefully we can make that happen this week sometime. My daughter's so busy at the moment because she has a university entrance exam coming up in November, but she needs some time for fun.
@Brynncloud -- welcome! Don't think of it as losing 85 pounds and gaining back 40, think of it as losing 45 pounds. What an achievement! And now you can bank that and get right on with tackling the rest.

Welcome to all the newlings! This is such a fantastic thread. I hope everybody has another brilliant week! Whew -- what a long post. I guess I'm trying to avoid the work I should be doing this morning.

-- Alison

Wahoo. Received a call this morning that my baby furniture is in the store. Brian and my brother will be going this weekend to pick it up. It will have to sit for now in the living room until we are done with the nursery but I am still very excited!

Skinny - I am due 2/2.
Sorry to hear your MIL will not give up. Sounds like you are in for a stressful road ahead.
My MIL is causing some drama again. She rushed out as soon as she found out where we registered and bought something for the baby as well as a gift from her BF, mother and sister. Had her BF help her bring everything back to her house and put it in the garage. So sweet and generous of all of them. However these things can never be as simple as that. Since then she has emailed Brian several times complaining over how big and how heavy all they boxes are. (He doesn't respond to her when she gets like that) She also complained about having to go out and buy wrapping paper large enough for all the gifts and wrap them. Instead of asking for help she is demanding he drives 20 minutes out of his way the morning of the shower to pick everything up and cart it to the shower because she "can't be bothered". She said if he doesn't she will return everything to the store and the baby will have nothing. You would think for her first grandchild she would be excited but.....nope not with her. Everything is too much work and too much of a bother for her. Leave it to her to turn something that is supposed to be joyful for us into "too much work" and a "nuisance" for her. I can understand that the boxes are big, bulky and heavy and it would be easier on her if she had help but she should explain that and ask rather than demand and threaten him. Grant me patience I don't snap on her. It's always something with her.

Alison - How exciting about the entrance exam. I hope she does well!

Lois - My Fitbit did that to me too. It was frustrating until I found out the explanation for it. I cannot put into words how to explain why it does that at the moment. It has something to do with how it tracks the days and how active you are during that period of time. If I am not mistaken Kah (Kelley) and Tayna are the ones who explained it to me. Maybe they can explain it again.

Yes, Robin, that pretty much sums it up. I am a grazer, so I really have to work constantly on not just sticking stuff in my mouth. I'm always good for advice, and am still looking for the key to breaking this stubborn plateau.
Onward and downward. Kaye

bump

Good Evening to all.

@Grammywammy - 4/4 Yowsa, great going

@skinnyjeansbo - MIL, yikes, Mine was a doosie, I'll have to tell you some time. But you sound like you are navigating the rough waters as best you both can. I tried to keep in mind that no matter what I did it was wrong, and went from there.

@Nettie - how exciting for you and the nesting. There are times when I long for those days, cherish every moment.

@Bohemiancoast - Sounds to me like your weekend was worth every calorie

Monday Check in: After logging the lost 2 pounds MFP took away 80 calories. Doesn't sound like much but I want them back! To me it's like they are punishing me for losing weight. Stayed within goal this weekend. Did planned workouts with cutting the resistance WO by 3 exercises. I am sure the trainer will bring that up tomorrow. I do have a pretty busy week ahead of me.

Welcome to the newbies, check in daily it truly does get me through and I am sure it will do the same for you.
Lori

@lori--congrats on the 2 lb loss! :drinker: It's tough when the calories decrease, but try not to think of it as punishment. Instead, think of it as another measure of your progress--your smaller body doesn't need as many calories to thrive. Regarding the MIL, the really frustrating part of all of it is that she and I had a really good relationship in the past. I've known her for 24 years, and I am the one who would insist the DH and I attend all family get togethers, take her for an occassional lunch, etc. Even over the past few years when she'd become really needy and demanding, I would tell the DH to cut her some slack b/c she's "just lonely." He and his sister shielded me a bit from her controlling, manipulative ways, so I was always more tolerant of her. Only in the past year, have I learned the truth about her.

@nettie--sorry you are dealing with MIL drama as well. You really shouldn't have to put up with that--this should be a joyous time and it stinks that she is putting a damper on things for you and Brian. :flowerforyou:

@lois--I'm also not a ornign person ,s oI plan my workouts for the afternoon. It's sometimes hard to make myself go to the gym after a day at work, but still much easier for me than going in the morning. :yawn:

@alison--yeah, I'm not overly concerned with macros in general, but I haven't been great w/the protein intake in general. I made my 100g minimum today though, so that's something. Sounds like you had a great weekend of travel and friends. :drinker:

@robin--what about a cute doggie halloween costume for you sister? Dogs love that kind of stuff. :devil: :laugh: :devil: :laugh:

Welcome to all of the newlings! :flowerforyou:

Monday Check-in:
Long day due to a negotiations meeting that went past 5:30. We are in the last year of our contract, so will need to bargain this spring. I've served on the contract language committee for the past several years, but I've never been on the actual bargaining team. One of my fellow English teachers has done it twice and wants to bow out this time around. She asked me if I would take her place if the union president asks me to. It is a thankless, time-consuming task, and I don't really want to do it. However, there are only 4 of us from the HS on the language committee, so one of us needs to accept the job if we want to be represented at the bargaining table. As the only other English teacher (and hence, someone who's good with words), I'm the most pracitical choice to help with the contract language. Ugh.

MIL had DH's brother call to see if he's getting her messages. Not sure if that's meant to imply that she thinks I would keep them from him. DH talked to his brother to let him know that he has indeed received her messages, but he did not return his mother's calls. I'm not advising him on the matter.

Made my protein goal and still within 100 calories of allowance.

Grading Goals:
1. x/14 AP analysis activities
2. 60/60 punctuation/ style quizzes DONE
3. 15/67 AP journals

Exercise Goals:
Sat--5k DONE + gym DONE
Sun--walk gunner DONE + gym NOT DONE
Mon-- rest day (late meeting)
Tues--walk gunner + gym
Wed--walk gunner + gym
Thurs--walk gunner
Fri--rest day (dinner plans)

October Challenge:
Days under calories = 5/6
Days >100g of protein = 2/5

Beat, so keeping this short. Sorry.

Welcome to the "new" Marsha from the OLD one.

6/6 days under goal. No workout today, unless you count me pushing hubby's wheelchair all over Presby hospital (where the Ebola patient is, btw.).

Tomorrow my recipe group meets. Oh, heaven help me--it's pumpkin night! I might have to fast all day to handle this one.

Kaye: I have the same problem. I have to make the decision constantly NOT to put food in my mouth. Not only am I a stress eater, I just love most food. Think I need to be lobotomized! I wake up in the morning and my first thought is "what should I eat for breakfast?" Honestly, before I started logging my food, I don't think I was so obsessed.

Off to dreamland...probably about pumpkin desserts.

GrammyWhammy aka the OLD Marsha

Am away from home this week staying with friend. I was hoping to take my silver sneakers class at a gym in SLC, but my gym in the city does not offer the SS class. So this morning instead of an hour class, I decided to walk for an hour. My friends neighborhood is fairly old, house built in the 40's and 50's and 60's. All the landscape is so mature and so beautifully groomed. Her neighborhood is situated on what is called the Bench. Halfway above the valley floor and halfway to the mountaintops. So it was a perfect almost fall day, cool crisp and sunny with blue blue skies. The sun was brilliant and people were walking little kids to school or walking dogs or walking themselves. hahaha. Then I went to the grocery store to get the slim foods I decided I wanted to eat. My hostess eats thin all the time, but I wanted to do foods with alot of protein and postassium to see if it will overcome my fatigue. So far so good, I think the potassium intake and protein is a good thing. So this week my breakfast is plain greek yogurt with 15 grams of protein, fresh raspberries, sugar free jam, and 2 tbl of granola all mixed up. Lunch is spinach, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, bacon, mushrooms, and half an avacado heated in the microwave to wilt the spinach and light raspberry vinagrette dressing. I have a think addictive for an afternoon snack. Dinner tonight was made by my host and we had flank steak garden tomatoes, and cole slaw. Then I had a probiotic ice cream bar for late snack. I don't know why I am fooding here, but oh well, it was a great food day, and I did my 28 day challenge for squats. So tomorrow I will walk for another hour up and down the hilly neighborhood. Have a great evening everyone.

Oooh this is snazzy! I feel a little bit empty that I missed Tuesday. I was checking all day and it never came back. I even checked at about 10pm GMT and it wasn't back.
Soooo yesterday was a bad day in terms of calories. I would say I officially lost a day on the calorie challenge. I got thrown as to how many calories were in a chicken thigh (I didn't think it would be THAT much when I bought it) and then got hungry about an hour later, then my partner got back from work oober late and we just opted for Pizza Hut. Then found out he bought me a Toffee Crisp so yeh... I'll just move swiftly on from that and start fresh as a good girl today.

Also, success on the swimming during lunch! I'm allowed to come in to work a bit earlier and go for a swim at lunch, which suits me down to the ground so I'm happy about that. Just need to put it into practice

Wednesday Wish: Well, its pretty nasty weather over in England today, all cloud and rain and no sun, so if I could get a half hour window of glorious sunshine for when I go to buy myself lunch, that would be great.

@skinnyjeanz - I think I would opt for gym in the evening as well, but I left my gym because they put the price up (£50 a month!) and I refused to pay it and joined my local swimming center instead and evening is when the kids come to swim so the options were morning or lunch.

@Robin - That light trick sound like a good idea! I seem to remember seeing an app that gently wakes you up, which I might think about.

@Brynn - I have started by purely logging food. The first week I strictly logged food to see if I was eating 'normally' which turns out I was always eating between my loose weight calorie amount (1600) and maintaining calorie amount (2100) which meant I only needed to change small amounts at the moment to loose. Week 1 was to eat at 1600 calories and I lost 1lb! So this coming week I'm going to start moving twice a week (swimming) and see how I go from there.

Good luck everyone! Week 1 is complete!

October Challenge:
Days under calories = 7/8

@Alison - How did you do that? I miss my ticker already. I've gone from 0lbs lost to 1lb lost and I have no-one to show it to.
Also I keep thinking of getting a magnetic board or a cork board to pin things and ideas on... but I need to make room for it first...

Okay, I've been crazy busy and haven't been able to check this thread in days. Now I'm confused. As L2T said, what the heck happened?!