Good Afternoon Everyone,
Checking in. I am glad to see everyone still at it. I am still moving pretty slowly since the accident. I am abut to start therapy this week. But I am down 96 pounds. The last few months have been slow going since my accident.

Everyone keep up the great work.

@Mellykay88 What an insightful and wise talk you had with yourself during your walk. You come up with some really great thoughts. I hope it's helping you as much as it's helping us.

I was WAY OVER my calorie goal for 4 days, eating lots of donuts. Now, I've been back under the last 5 days. I'm so much happier when I wake up in the mornings.

I'm trying to reach my 1st goal of 295 lbs. I'm still about 305.

@CheezWhiz88 good for you to sticking to it! Not many of us would have had the will power that you had.

bigghunny wrote: »

@ploddingturtle Hi and welcome. Great work on the 60 day streak and the weightloss. Surgery is always a scary thing....for me anyway. That's why I joined here. Look forward to following your progress.

Thanks, @bigghunny.

Yeah. The surgery thing is definitely something I'd like to avoid. My doctor is going ahead with the request for an appointment at the local obesity clinic for me, and it can take a year to get an appointment, so I have some time to prove to myself that I can get the job done on my own. In the mean time I am approaching this as an overall permanent health project and with a deliberate calm, patience, and maybe a little scientific curiosity. My approach is going to be to change what I eat and the frequency/time I eat in a way that I can sustain and am willing to eat/do/cook for the rest of my life. I have a June check up appointment with my doctor, and I'd like to drop another 10 lbs by that time.

Hi guys! I’m a bit out of commission right now. I passed out at work yesterday and now I have little energy and am just feeling awful. I got blood work done yesterday and got some of the results back today. I haven’t talked to the doctor yet, but a lot of my blood levels are too low or too high. The good news is my A1C is perfect as is my blood glucose level... so no diabetes or related problems. I’m hoping is just anemia or something else that is easy to treat. Since I switched jobs recently my new health insurance won’t kick in for about another month. And Dr. Google just freaked me out a bit so I am very anxious to talk to my doctor.

I have upped my calories a bit (still a deficit, just not as aggressive). I haven’t been to the gym in over a week, which now that I think about it should have been a sign that something was off.

I hope everyone is doing well... I’ll update once I know what the heck is going on with me.

@cnavarro002 : Thanks! Knowing I had to check in at MFP every day made it easier!

@meldwel : We have all been there! It’s a marathon, not a sprint, as they say! Every day is an opportunity to start fresh! After my detox, I went overboard having things I shouldn’t have had and today, one week after it was completed, I’m back to basics: healthy meals, consistent check-ins with you fine folks, and more exercise. We are all going to stumble or have decided cheat meals, and if our weight loss journey gets away from us, we can at least rest in the knowledge that MFP will be here when we get back to it!

@PloddingTurtle : Nice to meet you! Congrats on the 60 days- that’s a great commitment you’ve made to your health already!

@bmeadows380 : Enjoy your biscuits; weight loss doesn’t have to make us miserable as we head towards our goal!

@Mellykay88 : Thinking of you and hope everything works itself out! You’re a huge inspiration to a lot of us, and clearly you’re a fighter!

@bigghunny : I have to say: you’re one of the most positive and uplifting people on this board. I always enjoy your posts, thank you.

I had a rough week and I’m back to it today and going hard. My reasons for losing weight haven’t changed, so I am refocused. I did notice that after a week of not being as healthy, I have been lethargic, have gotten headaches and my foot has swollen back up from too much salt. Off to make my shake and make some better decisions again!

I've been totally off plan for the last two days. My family is dealing with profound loss, circle of life stuff, and healthy eating just doesn't rank in my top 10 right now. We sat vigil by my Dad's hospital bed most of the day yesterday, drinking far too much coffee and eating whatever food family members brought to the hospital. He passed shortly after midnight, shedding his pain-racked tired old body. Today has been a blur. I really can't tell you what I ate, and I don't think I drank any water in the last two days. I know my Dad would counsel me to get back at my healthy habits, so tomorrow I'm back on my plan and working on fitting in those walks.

Thank you, @bigghunny, for your kindness. Prayers are always welcome.

I'd like to get back to disciplined healthy eating and activity as a way to get a feeling of normal back, to continue on my road to a healthier me, and maybe as a way to honour my Dad's memory. I'm toying with the notion of maybe creating a walking log/journal, maybe call it "Walking with my Dad" and record the thoughts or reminiscences that come to mind when I'm out on my daily walk, which was something my dad did until his health deteriorated a few years ago.

so sorry for you, turtle, but at the same time, I'm relieved that your dad isn't in pain any longer, and I hope knowing that gives you comfort at this time.

If you wanted to take a break at this point, that would be totally understandable! We humans only have so much mental strength, and when something major happens in our lives, sometimes we need to refocus some of our resources to be able to cope. However, your plan sounds like a wonderful way to honor your father, keep yourself moving forward on your health goals, and to work your way through all the stuff you're dealing with right now - those long walks could be a great way for your to have time to de-stress, think, remember, ponder, and plan.

You and your family have my greatest sympathies!

@PloddingTurtle I’m so sorry for your loss. I think the journal sounds like a beautiful way to honor him.

My Starting Weight: ~375 lbs (01/01/2017)
My goal: 260 lbs (this would put me below the 40 BMI mark for being morbidly obese or stage 3 obese)
Milestone: 260 lbs
Current Weight: 266.6 lbs, 5/10
Loss this week: -3.9 lbs
Total loss: -108.4 lbs


What's Working: The 1500 limit is very, well, limiting so I've been experimenting with some success this week on delaying eating breakfast until 9 am. I have coffee with milk as I'm driving into the office, and I'll make another coffee with almond milk when I get there, and that holds me until around 9 am. I've found this is helping delay my mid-morning hunger and helps me eliminate a snack!

What Needs Work: It's been a while since I updated because I've been on a dab-blamed water weight yo-yo. I was down to 265.7 after the diet break on 4/26. Then I popped back up to 270.5 lbs last week on 5/3. It was water weight I know because I was bloated and swelled, but it was nevertheless very frustrating! Today is better, but still not back down to the 265. I'll keep plugging along!

It seems that when I get more active, I tend to gain water weight. Last week, I was very active outside, pushmowing my lawn, gardening, digging post holes, pushmowing my parents' camp - a lot of activity. And last week I had the darned water weight gain. This week has been very rainy and my church has had revival services, so I've been very sedentary this week - and the water weight went away.

I know when you are exercising that you gain water weight as your muscles repair themselves. I just wonder is it suppose to be to the tune of 4 lbs! I don't know if I'm having that sort of gain because I'm not routinely active or what, but it is very, very frustrating!

@bmeadows380 - sorry the scale is being such a jerk. It will flush though - probably in what I call a “whoosh”. I had vacation weight that was doing the same thing- down a pound today, up two tomorrow, repeat. Then about 8 days ago my body let go of it and I was down 7 pounds I’m about 9 days. Doesn’t make it suck less while you are waiting for it, but your body will let it go.

@PloddingTurtle - has it warmed up where you are? We suddenly hit 90 two days last week (or maybe the week before?) and my ankles blew up like balloons. Yuck.

My Starting Weight: ~375 lbs (01/01/2017)
My goal: 260 lbs (this would put me below the 40 BMI mark for being morbidly obese or stage 3 obese)
Milestone: 260 lbs
Current Weight: 272.7 lbs, 5/17
Loss this week: +6.1 lbs
Total loss: -102.3 lbs


What's Working: at the moment? nothing. my willpower is tanked, my energy levels are tanked, and I'm living with fairly constant brain fog and having a horrible time concentrating or thinking or focusing my swirling thoughts, which aren't very good thoughts, either. I'm definitely not firing on all 8 cylinders, but as usual, I still have no idea what to do about it.


What Needs Work: And the yo-yo goes back up This week was bad-really bad. Being out of town really kills my diet plans, and I'm struggling with energy levels and willpower. I blew it Saturday because I had to head up to my old house to make unexpected repairs mandated by the bank issuing the mortgage, which was an unexpected cost I really, really didn't want to spend money on, especially after the $700 bill for the termite mitigation! I took my parents to Texas Roadhouse, and went over on Saturday.

Monday was shot because of a meeting at the company HQ which had a catered lunch, though it wouldn't have been quite as bad as it turned out to be if I hadn't then got called in for storm duty and wasn't released until this morning (though I had been able to come home last night). When working storm duty, you sit at a desk dispatching assessment teams for 14 hours a day, and the company caters the meals. There is no control over what you are eating, no way to actually measure, and the food is just available all the time. My willpower was absolutely shot this week, and I pretty much binged as I couldn't keep myself from picking all day I'd have half my calorie allotment shot just at breakfast. I tried to tell myself to skip a meal, but I couldn't stick to the plan. I don't know what it is about sitting in a chair all day that makes me so hungry!

I mean, I did better than I would have before - I wasn't grabbing candy ALL day long, and I managed to limit the cookies and danishes I ate, i avoided bread most of the time (except for Tuesday night when I ended up eating 2 or 3 rolls), and I didn't drink any calories, but it wasn't really the sweets that were the siren's call - it was the high carb food items. But I still went way over on food and was eating at the least around maintenance and maybe even over. so no actual loss, maybe a little actual gain, and definitely water weight gain - AGAIN.

*sigh* and I looked at my calendar and realized that TOM is nearly here and probably will make a showing in about 48 hours, which is of course contributing to the water weight gain AND the drive to eat.

Oh well - today is a new day, I'm finally back home, and we'll see if I can once again try to get back on track. But next week isn't going to be good either - I'm out of town the first part of the week for work, and then we're going on vacation Memorial Day weekend. I'll try to behave myself, but with my willpower being where it is right now, I'm not making any bets on the outcome!