Motivation, Success and Frustration Sharing!

Nichole, so sorry for the loss of your dad!! That was unexpected! We've had a few parents lost in the last few months on this board, that's sad!
Gillian - yes, I have seen people do that too... like saying "wow, don't lose any more weight or you will blow away in the wind" or weird things like that. (not to me yet, LOL!!). Just ignore. I've come to the conclusion that people are weird and they say weird things!! about all kinds of things! Just keep your goals in your mind, and keep working towards them. The only person that matters is you (and maybe your family!). You are doing great, keep it up! I think your profile pic looks awesome.
Jen, have fun on your girls weekend!!! Enjoy!

Well, this week feels like a write off! My older son's car transmission blew, so the next day he rode his bike to classes and his bike effing broke! I'm running around all week driving a 21 year old to school, and work, and for whatever reason everything has gone off the rails. It's pouring rain today (blah!), my blender broke this week - so I can't even make my smoothies in the morning, and a bunch of other things. So I think I've gone to the gym once! I'm leaving work and going to the gym if it KILLS me today, and will cross my fingers for a better week next week.
Crazy how life gets in the way, even with our best efforts for success - this week: FOILED.

Happy Monday all - I've been back at work about 10 minutes and already starting to think when our next break should be - not good! Hope the day treats you well

I'm officially back from vacation and back at it! I tracked every day even though it was completely estimated. I tried to do my best...but eating out every meal does not make it easy! We did a ton of walking/hiking though so I'm hoping that helped!

This month is a struggle and a half, but I'm doing the best I can and not trying to get stressed about it. I want to enjoy my summer and not have it be clouded with fear of the scale. I'm sticking with my plan of not weighing until after the craziness (second week in July) to see what my true gain is instead of these water weight fluctuations from all the extra sodium/sugar.

@ngolden3320 sorry for your loss, we are all here for you anytime you need

Hi all, i'm still around, just needed a bit more time than I first anticipate to give myself a little breathing space, but I got on the scales today and i've gained 10lb, so it's time to put this trend into reverse and get myself back on track properly, no excuses.

I'm going to up my daily calories for the time being though, ease myself back into things as I think half my problem is I was being too restrictive too soon and just couldn't stick to it, so i'll up my daily intake for a while and see how that goes.

I've got some positive things to be looking forward to in the coming months so i'm trying to concentrate on those, my 5k muddy run, a trip to Barcelona, and now i've booked a nice girly weekend with my friend to Edinburgh for the Christmas markets at the end of the year, all good things I've got to look forward to. Think positive!

Another bonus, RC have started another session on a Wednesday night now, so I will be re-starting their 12 week programme from tomorrow as I feel i've slipped back a bit and could do with the extra training. Plus Wednesday's are so much easier for me as I often get stuck at work late on Mondays, and motivation is much harder to find straight after the weekend and then a long day at work, so mid week training will be good. I'm very much looking forward to getting back out there.

On a side note, as i've gained weight, should I change my profile to reflect this, or just leave it until i've caught back up again? Thoughts please....

I'm so sorry to hear about Nicholes Dad, my heart truly goes out to her, they told us my Mum was making progress, but it seems this is often the way. I hope she looks after herself during this extremely difficult time.

As for everyone else, you're all doing so well, I really admire everyone's dedication to staying on track, and reading your posts has certainly kept me mindful of where I should be, even if i've not managed so well lately.

@Janet - I just thought the same, so I went into settings and put my current weight and changed the setting to give myself a higher daily calories intake, but it's only given me 60 extra calories a day! Hardly worth it. I can't seem to find a way to set it myself...

@caritjr - to be fair, that's what always gets me down about resetting, it doesn't give you enough of an increase in calories to feel worth the pain! I'd forgotten about that!! Boo hiss about the fitbit - I've had terrible trouble syncing mine in the last week so I'm not sure how accurate my stats are. I need to keep working with it though - a couple of colleagues in my team have got them and I'm amazed at the motivation and challenge that you get by comparing step counts!

@FitEqualsSmile 15 miles?!?! You rock! That temporary bloat will be gone in no time

@ShyCush6 What a great way to see your daughter off before her big trip! Hope you have a fantastic active day

@janetay01 I hope you enjoy your extra days off to the fullest! I love sporadic days off like that, I call it my "mental health time"

@CariTJR I love your plan of taking it slow! You are already going through so much, no sense in adding extra stress with an aggressive calorie deficit right off the bat. If it were me I'd increase my weight on MFP solely because I like the recognition of seeing "Rachel lost 2 lbs" show up in my news feed when I re-lose it

We're doing new student orientations this month so I am crazy busy at work! It's definitely helped to reduce how much I eat at work though since I'm not bored snacking. Is it weird how excited I am to get back into my work and healthy eating routine after time away? I seriously feel so much better when I have my good for me foods.

Thanks guys, I have amended my weight to reflect the gain - booooooooo!
But like you all say, motivation to get it back down again!

@CariTJR you got this! Just think of how good it will feel to celebrate those losses!

@chasidee90 Rock on!!!! Fantastic job!

We had a tornado watch and flooding last night so I had to miss my kickboxing class to battle the water seeping into my living room...boo! Thank goodness we're renting so I don't have to deal with the insurance claim on my floors. I was pretty pissed I had to miss class, especially since we're going to be in North Dakota next weekend for yet another wedding. But healthy me kicked in and I set my alarm for 5am and got 6 miles in before work today. #wycwyc!

Well done @chasidee, that's an amzing loss so far.

@Rachel - 6 miles! You're so good, you're always so positive and manage to turn things around.

@Janet, I know it's amazing isn't it, when I was working from home I was lucky to be doing around 4k steps a day. It's not much better being sat in an office all day but at least I have a 10 min walk to and from the car park each way, and I always go for a walk at lunch. Well done you for getting on the cross trainer and getting those steps up.

Well, I've had two positives - firstly, I've been keeping an eye on my weight over the last few months despite not actually eating too well, and i'd settled at around 165lb which was 6lb higher than my last recorded weight. I wasn't happy about that, but it wasn't the end of the world. However when I weighed myself the other day i'd suddenly jumped up even further to 169lb, so this is the weight I begrudgingly recorded in MFP yesterday. Today I got on the scales and i'm back down to 165lb.....so it would seem maybe my weight the other day was just a 'bad day', or possibly water retention, who knows. I'll weigh myself again tomorrow and record whatever that says, but right now it looks like i've had a 4lb loss this week!

I also went back to RC last night and i'm really glad for it as I enjoyed it immensely. They've just taken in a new beginners group and it was quite amazing to see how far we've progressed. Watching others struggle to run for 2 mins and stopping to walk up hills etc was an eye opener, as not too many moons ago that was us, and now we're the ones at the front and the newbies are making comments about how they don't know how we managed to run up that hill etc. It felt good to be reminded of how far we've come. It was also nice to be able to motivate the new group and tell them that not so long ago I was exactly where they are now, to keep at it and they'll see vast improvements. A good session all round.

welcome @HappyHannah0304 - come back often and talk, we're a good bunch!

@jkhoffe Welcome back to the swing of it! The board has definitely been quiet lately so you're not the only one! I'm pretty boring with breakfast. My favorite are the overnight oat recipes, or oatmeal with protein powder and fruit. I've been getting into avocado toast as a midmorning snack, pair it with a string cheese for carbs, protein, and fat

Hey friends! Sounds like everyone is having a good week. I love it that we all have our ups and downs (I'm currently in a DOWN!), but we all continue to keep trying!
Chasidee - HOLY KITTENS! that is an awesome loss for 2 months! You go girl, keep doing what you are doing! You must feel great!
Jen - not sure about breakfast, I'm in a cooking slump at the moment. Not inspired by much! might be the heat or just the end of the school year? Breakfast I usually eat porridge (oatmeal or cream of wheat) at my desk. Or sometimes a tortilla with peanut butter rolled around a banana. I was doing the smoothies, but the blender broke and I haven't gotten out to get another one yet.
I think lately I'm just feeling a little bit off. The schedule is crazy and my routine is out the window. I gave my son my backpack so he could cycle to school, so now I'm driving because I haven't had time to get myself another backpack!
I almost called in sick for a mental health day yesterday, but Tuesday I was in a meeting and the bosses were talking about how so many people are taking sick days and abusing the system! LOL!!! So there went that idea!
We are going camping tomorrow for Father's Day weekend, so I will be able to bike and hike, which will be good!
I may have to up my calories too, Cari - I just haven't been burning as many as usual, so I'm constantly going over, and then I don't track because I'm over! vicious cycle!
Rachel, good job tracking even though you were away and going over - I admire that!
And Karen, did you get tickets to Hamilton on Broadway? How awesome is THAT!!!??? Woo hoooo!
Have a good weekend, everyone!

@Rebecca - Don't be so down on yourself, i'm only 5'3 and I weigh nearly 2 stone more than you! At least you're only just over the line into 'overweight' i've got a long way to go to get where you are. We all struggle for different reasons, but don't be too restrictive with yourself, try and lose the weight at a sensible pace, you'll get there.

Well I weighed myself again today, 3lb gone, which is good considering i'm still struggling with the eating side of things, better luck next week sticking to it, i'll get myself there in the end. One step at a time...

It's Friday everyone! Hope you all have great weekends.