Motivation, Success and Frustration Sharing!

@ngolden3320 Sorry to hear stress has been getting to you. Is this week looking to be any better?

@jdelaroy Sounds like you had a fantastic, active weekend! That's great news about your daughters IEP meeting, so glad you were able to celebrate her awesomeness as a family!

@janetay01 That is so frustrating. It's always hard having visitors all weekend long, especially ones that are not helpful. I hope you're able to find some time to refresh today

@CallaLilyNess A lot of people make dieting way more complicated than it has to be. Every program really does boil down to calories in and calories out, they just differ in the ways they get that accomplished.

@melaniedscott Glad you had a wonderful long weekend (and a few days to recover after the wineries). And dealing with Microsoft products is a huge NSV. I have zero patience when it comes to that.

Welcome @trendline15! Glad the personal trainer is helping you to meet your goals

Happy Belated Birthday @Evamutt! Doing a heart test on your birthday is one heck of a way to celebrate, glad the results were good. I hope you got some rest in after your crazy day!

@gemwolf110 That is so frustrating that you're not able to move into your new position yet. I'm glad that your current situation is temporary, that would be so stressful!

Welcome @429jules! I hope you had a fabulous, productive day yesterday even though you woke up early!

Happy Monday, lovely ladies!!

Jane: Don't even get me starting on my inlaws (my FIL is passed away now). They would never lift a finger at our house when they visited - I would work all day, come home to clean up the kitchen from all their mess, then make a big dinner, and clean everything up after. My MIL would come in when I was just finishing cleaning and say "can I help you with anything" I literally would be wiping the counter. Every time I spend time with her I almost have a stroke - hence why I am sending my hubs to visit her next week for 4 nights by himself! Thank the ever loving lord she lives 1000 kms away from us!!! I'm sure we'd be divorced if we lived anywhere near her!
Oh, and I'm so bad for "yes I need to eat a whole meal again right before bed!" Why is it so hard to stay on the wagon?! I'm literally hanging by a thread getting dragged behind it right now! LOL

Jen - Hot stuff roller skating like a boss!! Good for you! Your cake sounds awesome. even though you are struggle with being on the wagon right now too, you are doing awesome! Keep up the good work. And you are a true gem for having your MIL live with you - as I said I would definitely be divorced if she lived in the same TOWN nevermind in my house! Just would not happen!! LOL

Rachel - nice that you had a fun weekend! St. Patty's day fun and then a relaxing sunday. Nice! I have to give you 10 gold stars for that genie hold - whaaaat in the world!? I would have fallen on my head and an ambulance would have been called! ha!

Nic - cheat meal? Cheat month? I'm pretty much at cheat winter at this point! PFFFFF! Let's get on board and shed these effing fat suits! Hopefully you are going to have a less stressful week. I'm totally a stress eater, but honestly I had such a fun weekend, so i think I'm a happy eater too!

Gem - Sorry that you aren't going to get into your new job yet for another month or 2, that totally sucks! You must work for a large company because the bigger the company, the slower everything moves. How frustrating! Just keep focused on the light at the end of the tunnel. Good for you for training for those races, you are going to kick butt! Enjoy your week off!

Calla - I have read different diet books in the past, and everyone has their own idea on what to do. No wonder the diet industry is worth billions - because people pay for solutions in the hopes that something will work. I don't read the diet books anymore, I have just been trying to find what works best for my body. Some people like the restrictive diets (like no carbs or no sugar etc), but I don't do well with restriction. If I feel stumped I sometimes look into people's food diaries on MFP to get ideas to try different meals. I also know that eating after dinner doesn't work well for me. So just keep trying different things. One of my friends doesn't eat carbs after 3pm... (that would never work for me). I find measuring my food, and eating mostly homemade healthy food works best for me. And exercising at least 30-40 mins per day!

I had a really fun weekend, my friend came to visit with her family and we had a great time catching up. Hadn't seem them since August! Did drink too much wine, and got into the cupcakes! Yikes! Spring is definitely here, we got out our bikes yesterday and went for a bike ride! I LOVE BIKING!!! and I walked the dog a ton, and raked up the lawn for a bit too. We went to see Beauty and the Beast (love Disney!), and had the movie popcorn and wine gums for lunch! OOPS! Obviously my self control is low at the moment! I'm feeling positive, which is surprising considering yesterday I tried on some spring clothes and they were all too tight! So I have to get myself on board here and step up the exercise!

I would love to join the group! When I started I had 60-70 pounds to lose and so far I've lost 26lbs. I reached a plateau and I would love some support and motivation through it! I also, took some kinesiology and nutrition courses and would love to put that to some use with helping others!

@vickyrose94 - welcome! Come and post often - we are a great, supportive bunch!

Shy - looking good for Bentley! Sounds like you had a great weekend and well done on the pants fitting again - great result.

Joy - I hear you on the in-laws. My FIL lives 260 miles away and that's good - doesn't offer him the flexibility to just 'pop in' when he feels like it so I don't get to go through the stress too often! Don't they just drive us all nuts . Wine and cupcakes - I like your style! I think you are right about spring - it feels like it is at least on the way here if not quite arrived yet - sun is shining but it's still a bit cold.

Rachel - not getting off the couch till 4pm sounds truly awesome! I think I need a day off to do exactly that - curl up with a good book and only move to make drinks and feed myself.

Jen - I'll stop complaining at this point - at least he only came to stay and doesn't live with us! I think it's lovely that your BF wants to have her around as much as he does - I also think it makes you a complete saint to be willing to let her live with you!! Lovely sounding weekend and congrats to your daughter - what is IEP? Hope Monday continued to be positive.

So despite being tired yesterday treated me well - good day, completed my diary within target despite eating 4 chocolate fingers at 10pm! Must try to sort out this pre-bedtime eating - not sure what drives it because it's rarely hunger. But besides that, I'll take the day as a win right now - better than I've done for weeks. Sun is shining and I'm working from home today so can't be all bad - going to try and do a little bit in the garden when I break for lunch - work is urgently needed and it will be good for me to get out and get some fresh air. Hope Tuesday is a good one for us all...

Ugh...I had finally seen the scale start to move, and my daughter's 12th birthday was this weekend. Yes, it's my fault...it was a cheat weekend. We had cheesy breadsticks and pizza (though in my defense, I really didn't eat much for each meal at one time!), a piece of cake, veggie chips, etc, and last night my parents took us out to dinner to the place of her choice which turned out to be a Chinese buffet...magically 5 pounds are back on again. I didn't think they'd come back on that fast, and even with the bad stuff, I was still eating moderately. *sigh*...cranked up the Zumba to 45 minutes this morning. Barely made it through - still very tired at times, but the knowledge of that 5 lbs helped! Thought I'd weigh myself after the workout just to make myself feel a little better, and I didn't even lose a pound of water weight. That's usually a given when I exercise (I do always weigh myself before that to get a more accurate read) and I didn't even have that going for me this morning!! I'm almost right back where I started! Not sure how that's possible when the rest of the week (and previous weeks) on most days I'm netting a little over 1300 calories with exercise, and prior to that I was maintaining without counting calories and no exercise. Frustrating!! Please tell me it's just a minor setback!

@rachel0778 Dinner was great. I always try to celebrate my kids’ accomplishments in school. I want them to do better than I ever did. I am also very jealous of your lazy Sunday morning. It seems like my life never stops.

@bluepoppies777 Sounds like a great weekend, and love the positivity. Perhaps it is because you know you can make this work and now that it is spring, it is a renewal of a new year. Lots of outside activities to keep us moving.

@shycush6 You are doing great, Favorite jeans so close to fitting! I love the pic of you and your hubby. My knees are still scraped and bruised from the fall. Can’t kneel on them, it hurts too much. I took to wearing knee pads when I roller skate. I don’t care how silly I look, I like my knees more than my vanity. Sunday, we ran into a couple that we see every Thursday and most Sundays when we go roller skate. They are fantastic skaters. They complimented me for getting out there, and for coming back. They said they can see the improvement and I am not doing as bad as I think I am doing. I will take it. Oh my Bentley is so cute with his new hairdo.

@vickyrose94 Welcome to the thread! 26 pounds is a great start! Keep up the good work. When you hit a plateau try measuring other things that you are working on. Sometimes are body is stubborn and will hold on to the weight, might be water weight, but you will notice the difference in your clothes, or your physical measurements will be better, or you will notice an advance in your fitness levels.

@janetay01 No reason to stop complaining. I was already upset about her, so it just triggered my own need to rant. Last night she ran into my chair 4-5 times trying to get something. Rather than say sorry, or excuse me she kept doing it. I finally snapped, and asked her if there was a reason she kept running into me. I need more patience with her. Sounds like you had an awesome day! Great win, despite the lady fingers.

IEP= individual Education Plan. If a child has a diagnosed learning disability the school is required to offer reasonable accommodations to help the child become educated to the same standards as all children at the school. In my case, my daughter had been diagnose with mental retardation when she was in middle school, however, at the last meeting I was told her previous school misdiagnosed her, and her IQ level puts her just above this. Which is great news because the school can’t refuse to continue her schooling because if the child is mentally retarded (they now call it intellectually disabled) they won’t benefit from continued education. However, if the new school bill passes that Trump is trying to get through the system it will get rid of IEP’s and schools will no longer have to provide assistance for children with disabilities. I am so glad next year my daughter will be a senior and graduate. Her IEP will even allow her to get special assistance in college.

@kasey39 A rough weekend (but a fun one) is totally worth it sometimes, and is totally a minor setback. Sodium (Chinese, pizza, and breadsticks are all high in) helps you retain that water for a few days, even if you try and sweat it out. Increased activity will also make your body retain water. Drink lots of water the next few days, stay on track, and your body will rebound just fine. I highly doubt you gained 5 pounds from a rough weekend. You would have had to have gone 15000 calories over your maintenance calories to actually gain that much weight. I doubt you ate that many calories. You can do this!


I made my health goals yesterday, but ended up having a fight with the BF last night which has carried over to today. I cried all the way to work, granted I am a giant cry baby, but damn. Stopped at Starbucks because I was tired, and stressed. I bought a large calorie filled Chi Tea Frappuccino. I plan on drinking the whole damn thing, because well I am exhausted, I feel like crap, and some days the BF can be a real jerk. To top it off I have to go to a mandatory meeting after my normal work hours, in the Tech center. This will get me out of work smack dab in the middle of rush hour, it the busiest part of the city. I will then half to drive at least an hour to go pick up my youngest, then another 30 minutes to pick up my oldest before going home. This will get me home 3-4 hours later than I normally would, I will lose my walking time, and then thanks to the fight with the BF make dinner. I don’t even know if he will be coming home. Going to be a rough day, but I am not going to let it kill me. I am going to enjoy my tea, and then get back to it tomorrow.

I hope everyone has a better day than me.

@kasey39 Yeah it is about 3000 -3500 calories per pound. Most people on a bad day will eat between 3-4000 calories, so maybe a pound gain. It is when you start having days on end where you are going over. A lot of people also like to do their calories as a weekly total rather than a daily total. So if you were to have 1500 calories a day they would do do 1500*7=10500 Calories for the week. So if they have a day or two over, as long as they have a couple of days under they are golden. This is a journey, don't let the bumps on the road throw you.

Thank you for the B day wishes. I did a lot of yard work this week end. I usually don't do any but mow the back yard. We had tall weeds cuz of all the rain & took some time to gather it all up & put it in trash after hubs weed wacked, plus a lot of sweeping. Old habits are so hard to break! Before mfp, I ate home made & fairly healthy (still do)but I ate too much twice a day thus couldn't lose wt that way, so lately I noticed I was slipping back to eating too much at lunch & dinner. Stayed within my calories most of the time but I just started to feel like I needed more food during those meals so today I'm back to my newer habit of eating less & having some snacks in between. It is HARD. I had lunch & was still hungry so I waited over an hour & just had bowl of soup, still hungry, ugh. Me & hubs are planning to go to movies soon, so that'll be at least 2 hrs. I know it's ok if i eat all my calories in 2 meals, but I feel SO much better if I don't have a full stomach & more energy if I eat throughout the day so I do WANT to get back to eating like that again.