Need to Lose 100 LBS -Robins Thread !

Hi all! It seems, at the very least, that we all have a few things in common around here, besides the need to lose a hundred pounds, or more. We all struggle with challenges - time, health, age, temptations, self image, self-control, others in our life who support, or don't, and probably more. We may come from many places and backgrounds, but at least have have taken this first step and we have people here who know what we're up against.

I'm three months into the journey this time, and wondering why losing weight has to take sooooo loooong! This is about the point where I have thrown in the towel in times past and I'm determined NOT to do that this time. I'm not exactly sure what will make the difference for me, but checking in here is part of the game plan. I think the fact that DH is having so much success on his medifast plan will keep me honest too (almost a hundred pounds since January 1st) . If he can do that, I can do this.

I finally gave in and got a fitbit a couple of weeks ago. I've laughed with all my friends and co workers about them wearing home detention bracelets, but my sister pointed out that they usually attach those around the ankle. I had gift certificate left over from Christmas, so I decided to splurge on the new Alta. To me it looks more like a watch, less like a detention device. I don't know what features the others have, but this one buzzes me at about ten 'til the hour and reminds me to get up and move to get 250 steps in each hour during the day. I guess that's good since I work at a sit on my rear kind of job most days. I haven't reached ten thousand steps in a day yet, but maybe one day soon.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Good morning all. Sorry its been so long since I checked in. I do read the thread every day but have been super focused on the family for the last month or so. Well hubbys back to work now for a couple months and its back to being able to focus mainly on me. My weight loss has started to pick back up. I lost that pesky 10 pounds I was bouncing around and am offically back at my low. I have a couple things helping to motivate me right now. First I was walking the dogs and having random thoughts the other day when I realized that if I lost 25 more pounds I would be 2 pounds less then when my son was born 22 years ago. My hubby will be gone for 8 weeks so I am shooting to meet that goal and be able to tell him that when he gets home. Then my trainer encouraged me to sign up for a biggest loser contest being sponsered for our county by the Y and the local hospital. Its got some pretty good prizes and I am just naturally a very competitive person. The officail start weigh in for that is mid may and it goes until August. Otherwise I am just keeping busy working for my dad, going to the gym, and now that spring is here working on the yard and the garden.

@karen and lori I loved the picks. It sounds like you guys had a great weekend and the race went well. I really wish I could have been there.
@kah wow that was a cluster of bad luck. Just got to think you used it all up for a long time so nothing but good things coming your way now
@celticgirl I just have the little fitbit zip so it doesnt do a whole lot of things but it defenitley keeps me motivated most days to keep pushing until I hit that step goal. I get a good head start on it most days when I wlak the dogs. That gives me between 5 and 6k.
@jade33jade I use gum all the time to just keep my mouth busy. I dont try to ignore actual hunger with it but if I have already eaten and I feel the urge to start grazing I pop in some gum and try to find something to do. Works well as long as the mindless eating isnt being driven by excessive emotions of some kind. That is one of my larger struggles.

Well my doggies are starting to get vocal so better get the leashes out before they ake up the whole house. Have a great day everyone

Kelley- I hope you don't have another tear in a tendon and that you managed to get a bike ride today. I need the weather in MD to start warming up so I can ride outside again. We had a mixed bag for the weather yesterday from rain to snow and sleet. Today was warmer but still cold just not as cold as Saturday.

Karen- I am impressed you were able to run another 8K this week. I spent most of the week letting my legs recover from the Shuffle. I ran for the first time on Saturday for a recovery run, not the best timing but better late than never.

Tracy good to see you back.

Welcome to all the new people.

This was a busy weekend even with the weather. The bright side is I did run and bike yesterday, today was a swim day after spending most of the day at Kinder Farm Park. Now I just need to plan out the next couple of weeks for training.

Goals for the week
Sunday- Swim- done 2500yds.
Monday- walk or run
Tuesday- Run or swim
Wednesday- Swim or run
Thursday- trainer
Friday- climbing
Saturday-bike ride

I need to make the time to ride my bike outside instead of the spin bike.

Have a great week.

Sunday Share; I'm Tracy. I just turned 43 and live with my husband and two kids (14 year old son and 9 year old daughter) in Bismarck, ND. I bake cakes on the side and right now my job is looking for a job. I do have 5 applications out right now. I have an interview on Wednesday afternoon, so hopefully

@Sgt_Pepper33 ...Gastric sleeve cuts off part of your stomach and leaves a banana shaped sleeve. I've decided to go with it because it will keep my "piping" in the same position, just changes the size of my stomach. Keep recognizing the increased ability you have...before you know it, you'll be able to do the full 30 minutes!

@Jaded...sorry to hear about your Aunt.

@Kelley..Yikes, that is a lot of yuck happening all at once. But nice to see a downward trend on the scale.

@celtic...I have a fitbit HR and it also has a measure of 250+ steps every hour. I added an alarm every hour (I can have up to 8) so it reminds me to get up and move to make sure I get those steps. I just figured out how to do that yesterday, so still getting used to it.

@Tammy...you are doing awesome -- only 25 to baby birth weight!!!

@Laurie...hope you get your spring soon. We've had an amazingly mild winter here in North Dakota. We maybe had a total of 10 inches (and I think i'm being generous when I say that). We had a few cold snaps, but nothing major. We've been seeing some 75 degree days for the last couple of months. It's been amazing. And I know it's abnormal, but will take it when we get it. Today, my daughter was upset that she had to pull out her heavier jacket to go to church -- it was only 45 and windy.

@Karen...wow...good for your MIL. It sounds like he makes her happy and when Momma is happy, everyone is happy.

AFM...I've had a bit of a tough weekend. Celebrating my birthday with friends and family. I even caved and had two sodas over the two days (and I had a 3 week streak going!), but as of this evening, back to mostly water and a few instances of fruit juice when i need some flavor. But for the most part, I tried to eat only 1/2 of what was given to me on the plate.

My workout goals:
Monday - strong lifts
Tuesday - water aerobics
Wednesday - strong lifts
Thursday - cooking and serving at the banquet so I'll be on my feet for 8 hours straight
Friday - Sunday-- headed to Fargo to meet up with my old work friends from Sioux Falls.

Here's to a great week for all of us! Drinking our water and keeping within our calorie goals. GO US!!!

Kelley... If you go to your menu, there is one called alarms. Then I just set them as repeats.

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you are all doing swell today!

@mellyandme39 Welcome to the group! I'm new too, and so far everyone here has been incredibly helpful and kind. I like getting on here and seeing how each person is progressing and what they are up to!

@NewCaddy Happy late birthday! It sounds like you still did a good job! You have to let yourself celebrate sometimes too! Good luck on your upcoming interview! I'm just getting ready to call a couple places myself inquiring on jobs...a bit nervous to get back out there..

So I am having quite an exciting Monday. A lot of mornings, before I get to my somewhat healthy breakfast, I can't wait til it's ready and end up grabbing a little sweet -- a piece of dark chocolate, a marshmallow peep, etc. -- but today I said "Tina, no sweets! You can wait the few minutes til your breakfast is done to eat." And guess what? It turned out I could do it! Another big success: I weigh in on Mondays, and today I was down 2 lbs! That's 11 in total so far! This is the furthest I've gotten in trying to live healthier, and I'm excited to keep going.

I do have a question for you all: Does anyone do their strength training at home with dumbbells? I'm curious what you do with them. I've been trying to do full body toning through videos online, but I'm not sure if this is the best way to go about it. I don't know if that even makes sense! I can do cardio like no other, but strength training I just don't understand. And no money for a gym membership quite yet!

Well, I hope you all have a great start to your week! Thanks for reading!

Hi everyone,
Sorry to see people going but I understand why. I've been on MFP for several years, on again and off - I started out strong in 2014 only to be diagnosed with BC. I tried for awhile to keep it up but finally quit even trying. While going through treatment I gained about 30 lbs - my pics from that era make me look like a blimp! But as soon as I was declared cancer free, and the holidays were past, I got back on the ball and made a commitment to good health. I'm doing this as much to prevent future cancer as anything else - studies show a confirmed link between obesity and breast cancer - not that every obese woman will get it, but an increased risk. Soooo... I need to lose this excess weight. I did really well during 2015 losing 40-ish lbs by July, but then my hubs health problems began getting in the way. I managed to maintain my weight loss through November, but then December and daily buffets at work with lots of desserts happened, and I gained back 10 lbs. I'm now back down to 193, 4 lbs to go to get to my lowest weight in 2015. I want to lose another 60 lbs to get within "overweight" range of what is supposed to be a healthy weight for me.... supposedly for my height "normal" weight is 110 - ha, haven't seen that number since 6th grade!!!! Probably never again, either.

I'm having to re-learn the habit of tracking my food, and fighting with my late night snacking. I decided since I work nights, and have to cook for my hubs when I get home, I'm going to try to eat my dinner when he eats his. So I eat breakfast before I leave around 2 pm, have lunch around 7-730, eat snacks the rest of the evening at work, and eat dinner around 1 am. During the week I track all my food and take everything with me to work, so I control my eating. I don't usually get to bed until 4-ish so this is not too bad, except all I do after I get home (besides cook) is putter around the house and then watch tv. I do all my computer stuff at work, BTW, and hardly touch one when I'm home, even on the weekends. On the weekends I'm not so good at tracking everything or controlling my intake.

Does anyone else have a Misfit Shine? I've had mine since October and loved it at first, now I can't get it to sync even when I have both Bluetooth tethering and WiFi on on my phone. I changed the battery, too, and tried turning the phone off then on, nothing.... I'm thinking of getting a Fitbit, one with a true watch feature. Maybe a Charge HR. The support on Misfit sucks... their website is more about selling than supporting their products.

Tracy
TX (the other one @NewCaddy is in ND and if you ever saw any of her cake pix, you'd faint! So very talented, too bad you can't make a career of that, though I don't know how you do it and still stick to a diet! )

@tracy (nd)-- awesome cake!! You are so right about everyone being happy when mom is happy!!

@tracy (tx)-- I'm also working on logging everything. I tend to "give up" if it's not easy stuff that's already in the database.

@niki-- totally understand about needing to stay off the computer.

@sgtpepper-- I have a set of 5 lb dumb bells at home, but I don't really ever use them. I tend to lift heavier at the gym. However, I bet there are lots of workouts on youtube.

@melly-- welcome!

@kelley-- I'll have to check that out when the time comes to replace our slow cooker.

AFM-- got a few papers graded. One was horrendous which made it hard to continue. Tomorrow, I will try to get a few more graded throughout the school day.

After school, I plan to hit the gym, and then I have to do laundry and pack for my three nights at IEA RA.

Grading Goals:
1. 7/41 AP Lit Theory papers
2. 10/10 AP analysis activities DONE
3. x/59 JRP essay drafts
4. x/21 Speech tests

Fitness Goals for the month of April:
I will run 3x/week and at least 2 5ks/week
Week 1 = 3/3 runs, 2/2 5k; Week 2 = x/3 runs, x/2 5k; Week 3 = x/3 runs, x/2 5k; Week 4 = x/3 runs, x/2 5k
I will run a 5k start to finish twice with no walking breaks: 1/2
I will run an 8k three times: 1/3

You vs Year Challenge:
140 k done/ 860 k to go

Exercise Goals:
Sun-- walk gunner DONE
Mon-- walk gunner DONE
Tues-- walk gunner + gym
Wed-- rest day
Thurs-- work out at hotel
Fri-- work out at hotel
Sat-- walk gunner + gym

@Tracy (ND)~Another great cake~I bet the recipient of that cake was excited! I’ve missed seeing your creations.

@Niki ~I can understand your need to stay away from the computer. I spend 8-10 hours a day at work on a computer, so spend very little time on it at home and I’m so busy that I guess it’s easy for me not to squander away personal time on sites.

@Tracy (TX) ~I have the Fitbit Charge HR and do love it--oh and it comes in a new color now, pink! Mine is purple. Also, Fitbit offers excellent support on their site and via email if you ever have issues.

@Melly ~Welcome to the thread!

@sgt_pepper33 ~As Karen suggested, take a look at YouTube for videos exercising with dumbbells. Also, if you subscribe to cable you may check to see if there are any on demand videos—I know U-verse offers a few, I’m sure other providers do as well. Don’t worry too much about snacking while meal prepping, I do because I often arrive home late and get hungry while prepping dinner—just plan what that snack might be and make sure it’s a healthy option. Make sure you don’t have trigger foods around, too. I often grab a piece of string cheese or a hard-boiled egg to tide me over.

AFM~Well, for the 2nd time in two weeks we had a huge hail storm last night—yesterday they were the size of golf balls. A town about 5 miles from me had baseball sized hail--lots of damage. Is it June yet? Poor Zoe, she saw those straight-line winds and heard the hail—she made a beeline for the bathroom. Didn’t come out of hiding for several hours and then every time after that, if she heard a noise under a table she went. She’s usually never scared of storms but I think it’s fair to say now she does NOT like hail! Poor kitty!

Hi guys!
Just checking in quickly while waiting for clothes to dry so I can finish packing.

@celtik-- that's great that you are seeing payoff for your hard work. I am also programmed nocturnal. I truly believe it's a primary cause of my insomnia. In the summer, when I'm not on a schedule, my circadian rhythm is happiest going to bed later and sleeping later. By mid-August I am typically up until 2 or 3 am and sleeping until 9 or 10 am. I function so much better on that schedule, but it's torture switching back to the 6 am alarm when school starts again.

@kelley-- that town outside of Dallas with the softball sized hail made the news. I just saw a story about all of the damage and close calls with disaster for folks who were out in the midst of it. Scary! I don't blame zoe for hiding.

@badnoodle-- I love shirataki noodles, but they're hard to find in a grocery store and expensive to order online.

Tuesday Goals:
I didn't make it to the gym b/c I realized about halfway through the day that I just have too much to do here at home to prep for 3 nights away. However, I should still be close to, or under goal. My goal for the rest of the week is simply to consume under maintenance considering all of my meals sill be out. I bought oatmeal cups for breakfast in my room and some grapes and wheat thins to snack on while in sessions. For lunch they have decent choices like chicken caesar salad or grilled chicken sandwiches, but I know dinner and drinks will be a challenge each night. Thursday night especially will be hard b/c we are going to Fogo de Chao for our region dinner; the food there is so delicious and those Brazilian rum drinks are to die for. That will definitely be my splurge night.

On the bright side, we stayed at the same hotel last year, so I know they have a decent fitness center. Plus, one of my colleagues who's also going is pregnant and asked if I would go walking with her to help keep her ankles from swelling from sitting all day, so we will walk during breaks. Then I can go to the fitness center and run before dinner.

Grading Goals:
1. 7/41 AP Lit Theory papers
2. 10/10 AP analysis activities DONE
3. 59/59 JRP essay drafts DONE
4. x/21 Speech tests

Fitness Goals for the month of April:
I will run 3x/week and at least 2 5ks/week
Week 1 = 3/3 runs, 2/2 5k; Week 2 = x/3 runs, x/2 5k; Week 3 = x/3 runs, x/2 5k; Week 4 = x/3 runs, x/2 5k
I will run a 5k start to finish twice with no walking breaks: 1/2
I will run an 8k three times: 1/3

You vs Year Challenge:
140 k done/ 860 k to go

Exercise Goals:
Sun-- walk gunner DONE
Mon-- walk gunner DONE
Tues-- walk gunner DONE + gym NOT DONE
Wed-- rest day
Thurs-- work out at hotel
Fri-- work out at hotel
Sat-- walk gunner + gym

Welcome to the new people.

I have been very busy this week and it is continuing through the weekend. I still need to finish my state taxes so will make the time to do that. I was happy that I ran outside today. I was going to hit the gym but then at school, we had a hobby day and no one signed up for my session on Sign language. So another teacher was taking a couple of girls running and I went with them. It was only about 2 miles but it was up big and long hills so it was good workout and good training. Luckily, I ran most of them.

Keeping it short tonight. I hope everyone has a great week.

@kah68 - I think we are getting the edges of the storm that hit you, it's raining buckets outside with thunder that I can hear under 3 stories of building. I get off in about an hour so I hope the rain's gone by then! Thanks for the info on the Fitbit Charge HR. I don't really want to spend the money but I need to, so I will have to work it into the budget somehow.
@odieluv1 - welcome, we have lots of new posters here, just jump in with both feet and tell us about yourself, your goals, your loves and hates. We are a very supportive group and are a very diverse group. If you look at the first page, the guidelines of the group are stated there. Just guides, not hard and fast rules. We look forward to hearing from you.

Well, I went with my sister to a local pottery place that makes ceramics and sells them unpainted, then allows you to paint them in-store. So much fun! We left our unfinished projects there so that we could come back and use the same paints, and apparently lots of people liked the UNFINISHED products so much they wanted to buy them! Ha ha, it was fun to hear that. We had a great time but my hands were shaking so much, and painful, that it was hard to paint a straight line. Ah well, who said it has to be perfect? I'll post a picture when I'm done with it.

Tracy (TX)

Hi @ushkii - glad to see you on here. It's never too late to start again, and I know that Fitbit will encourage you to move and be motivated. You can do this, just be consistent and try to start a new habit of tracking and exercising, and I'm sure you will do wonderfully. We are all rooting for you.

Hello everyone. I wanted to let you know my Aunt is doing better. She is out of the hospital now. She is going to be going twice a week to get fluids, hopefully that will prevent her from getting that weak again. She did however loose 9lbs. A little on the fast side but she is doing better none the less.

I noticed today is wish day. So a realistic wish of mine is to loose all the weight I need to and have a healthier life. A non realistic wish is I want a dragon. lol

I don't really try on setting much on goals for myself due to I am very limited on what I can do. I am currently still trying to hit walking 2 miles through out the day. So far I have been hitting 1.5 and 1.75. So I have gotten close but not quite there yet. Sadly I end up sleeping most of the day due to being extremely tired all the time. But I shall keep trying to hit my little goal. One day at a time.

I am sad to say over the last couple days (family party and mom being mean and buying M&M's lol) I have gained a couple lbs back. I am hoping to loose them by Saturday. That is when I plan to weigh myself again. I will post what ever that weight is, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it is lower.

It is a great view to see everyone here being so encouraging to each other. Much love all.

Keep shinning bright.

Good Morning.

Not a single post yesterday—that is almost unheard of. I hope the few of us regulars that remain can hold this thread together, it would be sad if this thread disappeared after all of this time. Work kept me from posting last couple of days.

@sgt_pepper33 ~Yep, all those BLTs (bites, licks and tastes) add up in the end, gotta watch those! Great job recognizing your satiety and saving that second enchilada for another day.

@ushkii ~Glad to see you stop by!

@Karen ~Hope IEA RA is going well, you certainly had a great plan for the hotel. I’m jealous of Fogo de Chao— that place!

@Tracy (TX) ~Pottery place sounds like fun. Years ago my sister made me a butterfly jewelry box at one of those places; I still use it to this day.

@Celikgirl ~Hooray for breaking through that plateau!

AFM~Not much to report. A friend is meeting me at my house after work, then we’re heading off on a bike ride this afternoon—afterwards treating ourselves to much deserved fish tacos/drinks. It’s supposed to rain all weekend so sadly this will be my only chance for an outdoor ride this weekend.

Have a great weekend!