Good news, Jean! I was eyeing a Zumba class myself ... have never tried it but maybe now I can give it a go. ~ Kathy

I joined MFP one year ago today at 230 lbs. Today: 154.5. I have logged in 365 days. I have kept the diary current except for maybe a day or two. I've worked out most days and love working out now! Most of all I have enjoyed the friendship of some really great people who have kept me going and honest.

Thanks to everyone. I've still got a ways to go before I get to maintenance, but I'll get there!

Hugs,
Charlie

Good day, all. I hope the world is treating you right.

Charlie, you are such an inspiration. I also started at 230 and you let me know it can be done. You look marvelous!!!! I also often put in my day's food when I enter my breakfast. I mean, if I have to plan what to eat, why not enter it and see what I can add to the day. It works for me. Especially if I'm going out to eat (which I try not to do often), I look up the menu on line and figure out what I will order and enter the food. That way if I need to skip a snack, I know it ahead of time. Restaurant food seems so high in calories that I usually think it's not worth it. If I'm going to have a salad, I'd rather have one that I make.

I did not exercise the past 3 days. Really felt lousy yesterday and did nothing other than make a pot of chili and proceed to eat 3 bowls over the next few hours. I hadn't slept well the night before so napped a couple of times during the day. Well, I slept about 10 hours last night, which I never do, and woke up this morning feeling great. The scale was 1 1/2 pounds down and I did my full routine of exercise this morning. Thank goodness those days can still turn out okay.

I wish you all a great and successful day. Keep up the good work.

Janet in Myrtle Beach, SC

Congratulations Charlie- you are an inspiration- thank you for posting your pictures!
- and Janet I'm so glad you are feeling well! It is good you listened to your body-sometimes it does know best.

Have a great weekend all!
Sue in FL

You ARE an inspiration, Charlie and proof that it can be done. So I will remind myself of that every day... about eleventy-four times a day!

Here are some of the things I do when I feel like I NEED to eat.
This happens frequently, and being type2 diabetic, I try to be well prepared with legal snacks.

If I'm going to snack I SIT DOWN to eat it. I put it on a plate and make it an Occasion.
2 graham crackers and a cup of coffee or tea. They're a bit sweet, have a satisfying mouth crunchiness. The coffee warms and fills me up. And when they're gone--they're gone.

Crackers and cheese.. with coffee or tea. The carbs and protein fill that nagging nook that thinks it needs to be fed. Put a bit of salsa on top of the cheese--no calories and it gives your brain a flavor injection.

Low-fat yogurt; half a container. I don't eat out of the carton. I put it in a dessert dish and
sit down at the table. Maybe I add a cracker or 2. Or half a banana.

Green Olives.
Yes. Sometimes when I think I absolutely positively have to have chocolate, I eat a couple of Big Fat Green Olives. Wakes your mouth up and after this you wouldn't be able to taste much, anyway.

I didn't exercise the past 2 days, either.. same as Janit; hadn't slept well, felt less than stellar. but I'm ready to get back in it today.

Thanks again, Charlie for sharing your story with us.
It helps. Really it does.

Charlie you are truly an inspiration. Thank you for posting and showing us it can be done with determination.

Good morning

I make a practice of not weighing my self on the weekend, so i get a bit of a surprise on monday, with this in mind, I am very careful what I eat on the weekend so that the surprise is not a bad thing to look forward to.

I stayed the same weight as Friday, a positive, new week, more concentrated.

Charlie you look amazing, what an inspiration!! wtg

Again cant keep arm out of sling for a few more weeks so have to keep comments short still

Have a great day everyone!

grandmothercharlie wrote: »

Joan: I do that a lot. I enter some or all of my food in the morning a lot of days and adjust if necessary. I already have my breakfast and lunch added in today along with an evening snack so that when I talk to my daughter before lunch, I will know how much I will have for dinner remaining so that we can choose where I'll meet her and where I know I can get a nice meal for the balance. I have 494 calories allotted for dinner! So I have several choices. Helps keep me at my 1200. I try never to put anything in my mouth unless I already know how many calories is in it.

Joan I know what you mean about the love/hate relationship with facebook. One thing I have done in the past year (and this has nothing to do with fitness) is to simply unfriend negative people. lol For the longest time I could not bring myself to do that, but you know what, my facebook experience is what I create through my relationships and I decided its going to be fun for me. And it has been worth it. I do relate to how we see people's quality of life reflected in the choices they make, and especially in my family. I have two brothers. One, along with his wife, is a cigarette smoking, beer drinking, take out dinner kind of family. Their health status reflects that. The other has been vegan for years and the whole family is a testimomy to the fitness lifestyle. He is 62 and he texted me a couple of days ago as he passed 17,000 steps with the fitbit I talked him into buying while he was hiking around Key West. We share smoothie recipes and ideas for using the fiber from our juicers. Yes, at this point in life the daily choices we make REALLY show up in our quality of life. I spent nearly 30 years as a home health nurse educating people about this. Now I am really living it!

Well I have been home for a few days now and facing the ongoing fear of having to live on Prednisone for a while as I deal with this allergy situation. I am sure many of you know, there is nothing that packs on pounds like steroids! So far, I am very happy! Yes, I am hungry, but I am using an arsenal of tricks. I even have good old weight watchers freebies like diet jello in the frig. lol Mainly I am vegan for breakfast and lunch -generally slice of peanut butter toast and some fruit for breakfast with that morning coffee and a WONDERFUL book that I have of vegan soups from around the world and a full soup pot in the frig. I have soup for lunch and soup or fruit with a few (counted!) nuts for a snack. For dinner I do cook a meal for dh and do portion control and that may include some fish, chicken or cheese. I am sitting here with one of Bobby Deen's cookbooks as we speak planning to find something for dinner and I also love the recipes from the recipe rehab show. Joan I still do bake bread homemade bread. I experiment with whole grains and have found that we LOVE rolls made with organic spelt flour that I buy from amazon.com and also experiment with increasing fiber and cooking with whole grains.

can you tell that on these steroids I wake up chatty? lol

Good morning!

I'm losing it: I emailed a friend about an "upcoming" event that took place last week that I had to miss..
How did I lose a whole week?

Also, I find that exercising seems SO much more appealing a concept at 4am then when I actually get lined up to do it.

Just sayin...

I found playing the guitar stopped me snacking ....and I lost count of the number of cups of tea and coffee that went cold ..... Just forgot about them!

Jean

YAY me. I'm getting better at keeping with my exercise.

On the other hand, I opened a can of Progresso Vegetable beef soup for lunch and after I logged it, I was horrified at how much salt it has.
I guess it is what it is. I detest the "light" or "low salt" soups. In fact, even with regular canned soup, I always add my own seasonings (salsa, ketchup, garlic powder, pepper, paprika..... ) to hide the tinny taste. Blech. But sometimes I just want hot soup. What's a girl to do.

sigh

Gramanana, I just found my old stash of crochet equipment and threads, might have to spend sometime with those. I will need to rearrange a whole bedroom setup to find space upstairs for the electric keyboard. So that probably want be happening for a while
My mom is keeping us all busy. There is nothing that can be done for her at the point it is just wait for the end to arrive on its own terms.

Your food choices sound great. You got down before, you'll do it again. You got this.

Hi Joan! I looked up yoga in the database - see http://www.myfitnesspal.com/exercise/search
- and it showed two listings, "yoga" and "stretching - hatha yoga." Hope one of those will help you make an entry.

Here are some articles on calories and yoga:

http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/fitness/cardio/calories-burned-for-yoga-is-it-enough-for-weight-loss.html

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/health-fitness/exercise/does-yoga-burn-calories

http://www.popsugar.com/fitness/Total-Calories-Burned-During-Popular-Yoga-Classes-16392584

Great question! I am in the process now of trying to get myself back into daily yoga... so also a timely question for me ~ Kathy

Not to muddy the waters, but some folks might find it fun to check out Chronometer.com - another food and exercise tracking website. It doesn't have a social support aspect (invaluable) but it does give you an amazing breakdown of the essential nutrients you are getting - both by individual food and in the aggregate. Also - of course - cals in and cals out on a nice bar graph. It's a very simple, clean design -- cooool.

It has one feature I would like to see here - a daily email reminder to check in. Good for me - I would hate to blow my streak!

I won't be migrating over there - this site works for me - but the differences between that and MFP are interesting (to me). Just an FYI.