52 pounds in 52 weeks

ncfitbit wrote: »

So wonderful! Congratulations and thanks so much for sharing your story! I love your attitude. I just took a week "off" in maintenance and have been starting to wonder whether it was a good idea, but I'm glad to hear you feel that time off helped you stay on track in the long run.

Yes, I am a really big fan of diet breaks. I've done them a few times now. These two articles are my favorites about diet breaks. I usually do one when I get to the point where I am hungry and feeling frustrated/unmotivated. I don't eat at a huge deficit (I maintain at 2200 and right now am eating 1850) so I'm not usually hungry. When I get to the point where all I can think about is food, I know it's time for a break. It's amazing how much they refresh my outlook. I was feeling pretty fed up at the beginning of November and decided to eat at maintenance from that point through January, just for a big break. Well I ate at maintenance for two weeks and felt ready to get back to a deficit but ended up sticking out the break through early December due to a vacation. During that time I gained just 2 pounds but it dropped off within 4 days of going back to a deficit. So don't fear the break!

rockann16 wrote: »

Congrats on your wonderful journey! Brag away!! I love your look of confidence now and also your statement about flexibility. That is something I need to remember as I have somewhat of an "all or nothing" personality.

My natural tendency is to veer toward all or nothing or disastrous thinking. At one point over the summer my knee hurt so I didn't run for a couple of days. I was bemoaning this to my husband, saying that if I didn't run that day I might never run again and then I'd stop watching what I ate and then I'd gain back all of the weight and then I'd be back where I started boohoohoo. Mind you, my knee just hurt a bit, it wasn't even enough to see a doctor. He looked at me and said "Well...then just don't do all of that." Ha! I was mad for a minute but then had to admit he made sense. So yeah, I definitely have to watch out for that kind of thinking.

rockann16 wrote: »

Thanks for a great post and good luck on those last 10-15 lbs (although you look fabulous now!). I'm sure you will reach your goal.

Thank you. I'm definitely at the point where I don't care what my actual weight is and just want that belly fat mostly gone. I have no delusions about getting an actual flat stomach. I have the normal mom tummy skin issues plus the joy (sarcasm) of holding onto fat in that area the most. I'll admit that when I read the posts from women who want to know how to shrink their thighs or calves I sometimes think oh boy give me your waist and you can have my legs. We all want what we haven't got, eh?

teresalynn6 wrote: »

Thank you so much for your inspiring story, you look absolutely gorgeous! I'm much older that you but I'm starting out around the same weight you were at and I was just diagnosed with severe sleep apnea. I noticed that you had sleep apnea, do you still have it now that you lost so much weight? I'm steadfastly dedicated to improving my health this year and I would love not to have to use my CPAP machine for the sleep apnea.

Thank you so much. Yes, my AHI was 87, which is terrible. I'm going in for my checkup next week and hoping for another sleep study so I can get rid of the CPAP. I use it about 50% of the time now. My husband says that I only seem to snore when I have a cold now. When we went on vacation in December I didn't take it with us and had no problems. I used to use it all the time. If I didn't, I would wake up gasping for breath and feeling like I was going to pass out.