Women over 40, wanting to lose 20 lbs, support/motivation/success?

I weigh every morning. Before I even have my first cup of coffee. It helps me focus my day. Today I ate weird but not too bad. I had an all day meeting. I brought my steel cut oats for breakfast and a small container of almond milk so I wouldn't be tempted to cheat by eating a muffin or putting half-n-half in my coffee. I snacked on a fruit plate during the meeting and then had a really salty bowl of pho for lunch - no noodles; just meat, veggies and broth. I will probably regret all the sodium. I skipped the afternoon cookie break and instead cut my protein bar into little tiny pieces and ate it like candy. I like it that way - it makes it last longer. When I got home from work I was too tired to cook anything so I ate another bowl of oats. Sort of like cereal for breakfast. But healthier. No sugar. Whole grains. And very filling. Anyway, my macros were way off today -- way too high on carbs and way too much sodium. I'm curious how it will afffect the scale in the morning.

Good night!

Good morning everyone,

I have weighed myself every morning and written down the result in notebooks for the past 10 years. I do this whether I am trying to lose weight or not. I find that it helps me be mindful of where I stand. The only data missing are those during travel (I don't bring my scale along!).

Over the years I have learned a lot of things about my weight and my body. If I lift heavy or workout strenuously, especially after a hiatus, I gain a bit. If I eat salty foods, I gain a bit. Obviously there are monthly hormonal fluctuations also (I will go up a pound the day right before so it is a good predictor for me).

I have hit weight plateaux and there have been times where the weight has gone up for no reason. Sometimes that is just the way it works. I know that CICO works and that if I stick to it I will get the results that I want over the long term. I also use an app called Happy Scale to record my weight when I am dieting (in addition to my old paper notebook) because it will smooth out daily fluctuations and give me a trend which I like. I don't really worry if my weight goes up, it doesn't affect me negatively, I simply know I have to keep going forward.

In the end though you need to do what is right for you. If weighing stresses you then don't do it or do it once a week. I even know some people who only weigh once a month. There really is no wrong or right way. Just find something that works for you.

Hope everyone has a great day

@carriesirico - body measurements: I need to do that this weekend. The scale can lie but body measurements tell the truth. I don't want to take mine. I'm in totally denial.

Today was a bad day for me. Yesterday was a weird eating day but I stayed within 100 calories of my daily goal. Today, however, I went way over. I was up at 430 into the city for an all day meeting. I had to rush to drop my son at school. I had no time to meal prep or pack. I did ok in the morning but by lunch time I was starving and ate one of those Box lunches that business order in - I chose the unhealthy chicken salad croissant option. I was just hungry and I did not want a salad so I chose the worst thing for me. And I even ate the cookie and potato chips that came with it. Then... In the afternoon... I had another cookie. My bad! I am like 1,500 over on my calories today. And I feel awful about it. I haven't even had dinner yet.

How do you get back on track quickly when you blow it?

I've always had a love-hate relationship with the scale so I've only started weighing myself again once a week.

designerdiscounts wrote: »

How are your new macros working out Utahmom? I set mine a while back but really don't stick to them. In theory, I try to stay high protein, low carb but I know I need carbs for workouts and energy so I have carbs early in the day.

My new scale came today, yippee! Will weigh myself tomorrow morning, it's been over a week, gasp. I did take my measurements today. I found an old list of body measurements from 2012 and what's crazy is that I'm not a whole lot different. My waist is 2" bigger and my thighs are 2" bigger. That's about it. I don't change much from the waist up I guess .

So far they're working just fine. I haven't lost any more weight really, but I also started having my meal replacement shake for only breakfast and only on workout days because I don't want a bigger breakfast than that before my workouts (I work out at 9:00 or a little later). Plus right after I started tracking again I got sick so I didn't work out for a week and a half, and I always tend to lose weight more slowly when I'm working out regularly.

This morning, before my CrossFit workout (which was a "hero WOD" - so particularly tough), I spent a solid hour shoveling 6+ inches of snow off our very large driveway/parking area at our home. My Fitness Pal figured 407 calories for that, and since I knew I was still going to go to the gym and didn't want my net calories to be too low, I decided to eat back the shoveling calories. I typically don't log my exercise calories - because of the nature of CrossFit, it's difficult to accurately measure them without wearing a heart rate monitor (which I used to do), so I just figure that my workouts are a bonus for the deficit and just stick to my regular calorie goal.

I took "before" pics yesterday and took measurements yesterday. I compared it to the last time I measured in November and have lost 2.5 inches around my waist and hips. So that was nice.

Yay for the new scale! I hear you on not changing around the waist, etc. Whenever I drop any weight, I can totally see it in my face, neck, shoulders, arms, and even lower legs, but somehow the midsection just doesn't want to let it go! I imagine having given birth 10 times may have something to do with that, but I'm optimistic that eventually it will come off as I am consistent with my eating. I'm excited!

Did I ever sign on here?
I think I'm still in denial that I'm over 40 (even though I'm 44 <-- how is that possible? I feel like I'm 30!).

Appreciate all types of support.

Main focus = reduce body fat
Amanda
44
4'11" (so wicked short)
SW 128.5
CW 116.4 (1/4/17)
GW1 113.3 (lowest weight ever)
GW2 109.9 (just want to get pas 110)


I'm mainly low carb (hardly any sugary/starchy carbs), high protein, lots of water. (base on the Dukan diet)
Carbs for me is an addiction.
Once I start, I have trouble stopping.
Carbs also make me wicked bloated.

I'm sick of working out so hard to not see any results.
So I'm planning out my day (even week) to match my macros and try to stick to that.

Thanks for letting me join in this journey!
Amanda

tarothelp wrote: »

Good job utahmom. It's moments like that and holidays etc few and far between moments that I will keep dieting for! As long as you are good the majority of the time you can afford a little wiggle room.
Ps I must ask.... you have 10 kids? I thought my 5 were a lot wowzers!

Thank you! And yep, 10 kids. All from my body, one at a time. My oldest is 22 and my youngest is 3. The three older kids (they are mine from a previous marriage and were actually raised by their dad and stepmom) are all grown up (22, almost 21, and will be 20 in June), two are married and one has a baby daughter. So I just have 7 at home ages 3 to 17. We homeschool the 7 at home so we have a pretty wild and crazy, but wonderful lifestyle.