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Hello everyone and congrats to everyone on your victories!

Last week was rough, stomach bug and radiation kicked my butt! But I am back and ready to go at this again. I am so inspired by all of you lovely ladies and continue to be very grateful full all of the positive thoughts and support.

Hope each and every one of you have an amazing day and tons of continued victories.

Forgot to report on my first week of intermittent fasting results-down a pound!!!! Ate low carb, 3 days of fasting (each day around 500 cals).

RATSMITH69 wrote: »

Hello everyone and congrats to everyone on your victories!

Last week was rough, stomach bug and radiation kicked my butt! But I am back and ready to go at this again. I am so inspired by all of you lovely ladies and continue to be very grateful full all of the positive thoughts and support.

Hope each and every one of you have an amazing day and tons of continued victories.

hope you are feeling better this week and you have my positive thoughts heading in your direction

Good fasting day yesterday. And enjoying my coffee with coconut oil this morning! Have a good one ladies.

Good morning and night to a few of you. Happy day again 14 days in a row now with only one day being the same weight and one day a slight raise of .4 of a pound. I am almost to tip over to the 4 pounds down. Hoping tomorrow will be that day.

So far tracking on the other site has really helped me. I have no clue why, if the difference between two sites is so slight. I have not really changed anything except I did add the Choline and Inositol 500MG about a week or so ago. One a day. It is supposed to help with IR. I forget who talked about it and I had some on hand to give to hubby in his pill mix so I started them too. They are inexpensive.

The loss is slow and I am fine with that as long as it keeps going down with any major bounces back up. I was feeling pretty discouraged after a 3 month stall and being so good to never cheat.

It is raining oh happy day for my newly transplanted Bergenia. They will be lovely in their new spot. They can run wild as they choose and not over power the smaller plants like they were doing in their old bed. I am off to my glass work. Have a good one ladies.

You have a great day too Ratsmith. Good to hear you are having energy.

@sbom1 Woo Hoo for you to be down another pound.

I have a funny. The pants I was so excited to get into really are too large. Even hubby commented on how baggy thy were and he rarely comments on this kind of thing. You all know I have whined about my butt in the front. He said why don;t I turn them around backwards and they might fit better. I did not know weather to laugh or cry.

Also some thing odd. I always wear silver necklace and pendent and silver bracelets. I almost never have to polish them. The last few days they are tarnishing. Wondering if there is some thing changed my new WOE making them tarnish. Some thing changing in my chemistry.

Hello Ladies. I have only been here about 3 wks, and hadn't read this thread yet. Today, although I was daunted by over 200 posts, I did read most of them. Please ladies excuse me if this is too long and boring, but here goes...

I am 52 and have not reached menopause yet, but do know that it is harder to lose weight at my age. I used to be an expert at losing weight, the trouble was that I was also very good at putting it back on. Like most people, I wanted to have my cake and eat it too. I've lost hundreds of pounds over the decades and put even more back on. That can't be good, and it was horrible for my self esteem....but there were a lot of other factors that helped contribute to my lack of self worth, but I won't get into it right here. It became an impossible goal to try to lose weight.

The last success I had, if you can call it that, was 10 years ago. I started out at about 260 pounds and lost 100 pounds, and felt on top of the world, sort of, for a couple of weeks anyway. I did it the ultra low fat way, by eating a lot of crappy processed low fat products, by limiting my calories way too low and by exercising like a maniac. I don't know how I thought this would be sustainable in the long run. I was also an overachiever at work, and was the one that my co-workers would turn to for everything. But I hid the fact that my marriage was breaking up and when things got very ugly at home, the weight started to come back. It was purely a self comfort thing. I have always worked full time and have 2 girls. While filing for separation with hopes of divorce, I had severe issues with my youngest child who was exhibiting violent behaviour and had to be hospitalized in the psych ward. This led to me losing my job due to stress and suffering my own breakdown. It was just too hard to maintain the weight loss with crisis in my life. So all the weight came back and more, and I felt like the ultimate failure who had lost everything in her life. I did manage to keep my house and my kids, and I am working on rebuilding my health and self confidence.

Well, this ended up getting a bit heavier than I intended. Sorry if this isn't the place for emotional support. (I haven't worked up the courage to tell my story on the emotional support thread.) I guess my point here is that all kinds of stuff gets in the way of weight loss success. I can look back now and tell myself that when my life was in danger, I shouldn't have been giving myself extra stress because I was gaining weight. That should have been the least of my worries. I can forgive myself now, but I couldn't back then.

I ended up taking all kinds of drugs to try to feel better, on my Dr's advice of course. It started with the sleeping pill, d/t stress, then lead to the antidepressant, then when the panic attacks started, there was another drug for that and another one for anxiety to help me sleep because the sleeping pill wasn't as effective anymore. Yikes.

Then almost 5 yrs ago, my girlfriend was concerned about my health and took me to see her chiropractor who believed in total body/mind/spirit health, not just the state of my spine, but also my nutrition etc. At that point I was 284 pounds, had a bad back, and headaches daily, and my hips were crooked making it hard for me to walk straight. The Dr corrected my spine which I think made it easier for my body to function, my headaches went away and I could walk straight again. But most importantly, he taught me how to improve my diet by eliminating grains, sugar, starchy vegetables, most fruit and processed foods. I started to eat a paleo or primal diet mostly. I lost 40 pounds very gradually over 4 years. I completely changed the way I eat and shop for food. I have made this commitment to myself and do not intend to ever re introduce those foods into my life again. So I know this way of eating is suastainable for me to achieve long term success. It is just happening a little slower than I imagined it would, I think because I am getting older and my metabolism must be slower.

Last September 2014, I was getting frustrated with the slow weight loss, and wanted to step it up a notch. I hadn't started tracking my food yet, except to journal my food daily, and did lose 12 more pounds by new years. In 2015, I started paying more attention to what exactly I was eating. I think paleo is already much lower on carbs that a SAD diet, but I just knew I had to go lower. I suspect that is the case with many older ladies. I've lost another 17 pounds in 2015, thanks mainly to joining MFP, where I was able to actually see how many carbs I was eating in relation to fat and protein.

I have hypothyroidism as well, which I think is important to mention. I am sure that this makes it especially difficult to lose weight. I do take synthroid daily, but must admit, I hadn't seen the rise in metabolism I expected.......until I tried keto this year.

I am so pleased that just by going lower on carbs and higher in fat, I am seeing progress where I had been stalled. The great thing is that my chiropractor is extremely supportive with my plan. I have done a complete turn around in terms of trusting conventional health, medicine and dietary advice ( I don't trust them anymore) and I revel in being the rebel. Oh I forgot to mention, that I ditched first the panic attack meds that knocked me out, then the anti-depressant, then the sleeping pill. I replaced the sleeping pill with "Natural Calm" magnesium almost 3 years ago.

I am really enjoying being on MFP, and popping up in various conversations about all kinds of topics that nobody I know in person has ever had any experience with. MY kids and I are the only people we know who eat this way. It gets tiresome to have to explain to others who think you are crazy for not eating wheat etc. I want some of my friends to accept what I do and be excited for me, but they do not understand. I am so thankful to have found the low carb and keto people here who are going through the same experiences I am, and who know the joys of eating fat.

One of the most wonderful things about eating a high fat diet is that not only do you feel satiated most of the time, but it is extremely good for regulating mood and for providing a sense of well being. If you could see me now, you would never suspect that I had previously suffered from depression.

I am now 215 pounds and I can't believe that I am wearing clothes that I never thought I'd be able to fit into again. My health has improved so much, and I look forward to continuing on my journey with much more self confidence in what I am doing. It might seem like I have a long way to go, but I can look back and know that I have come a very long way, and I am excited to see where this ends up.

Right now my goal is to be the fittest I can be for this summer when I am going on a whale expedition with my sister and mother. We are sharing a small cabin for 3 on the train and I have been designated to sleep on the top bunk ! That is motivating me to continue.

Much luck to everyone on your journeys as well.

P.S. I'm loving the energy from BPC made with 2 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbsp MCT oil, keeps me going until supper.

Welcome Kitnthecat,
This is a fine place to get it all out! Very supportive group. Kudos on what you have accomplished and on your goals!

2nd fast day of the week for me ladies, went well again. I am enjoying this! Have a ton of energy, surprisingly.

Starting our countdown before our big 5 1/2 month trip, less than a week now. We usually travel a few months each summer but this year is a long trip. About 3/4 of the time we'll be in apartments and 1/4 in hotels, so I hope to keep losing and not gain as I usually do during these sojourns.

Hope everyone had a good day.

Hi Kitnthecat---It is such an accomplishment to work through so much and get to a much healthier place that you are right now. This is a great group, and you are welcome here. Keep on working to be fit for that whale expedition!

sbom1---Sounds like you're going to have a wonderful summer with your 5 1/2 month trip! You're doing so well with your WOE plan, I'm sure it will keep right on going. Great that you have so much energy! I'm waiting for that phase to hit me.

It's Thursday, so have a great day everyone!