OK so I totally did not post my introduction in the right place for you guys. Here it is an a little bit about my story. Hope everybody’s having a great Saturday!

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My first time posting here so introducing myself. Paula is an old buddy of mine and we've been on this weight loss journey together for a bunch of years.

So my story. I'm 48 years old and live in Pennsylvania. Snowy Pennsylvania right now :-) I have a husband and a 13 year old daughter and 3 cats. Also moved my 70 year old mom in with us about six months ago( just supported her through a new hip she's doing great!) For work I'm a global customer care leader for a chemical company. We clean water. My job allows me to travel a bunch around the globe which is cool but also really challenging when you're talking about weight loss. Pretty challenging job with pretty long hours. And I just love to eat of course otherwise I wouldn't be on this board :-)

I had gastric sleeve surgery five years ago right around the same time that Paula did. At the time I lost about a hundred and fifty pounds within a year. Was in the best shape of my life :-) I was doing really low carb. Just cut out a lot in my diet and maintained it for quite a while. I've gotten off track and have gained about 40 lb back. Medically the past year-and-a-half have not been the easiest. Went through early menopause, had a partial hysterectomy, had breast surgery that turned out to be non-cancerous, and had skin cancer on my face.

So I'm pretty clear on some key areas where I went wrong. Got out of whack with not being able to exercise due to the various surgeries, let carbs carbs creep in somewhat although I still eat fairly low carb. Less than 30 net carbs a day. But maybe that's still too high? just started increasing the quantities and quite frankly started drinking too much wine :-) I blame it on the travel to Europe! But it really became more of a daily get done work and have one glass that turned into two, three, glasses :-)

So now I'm trying Keto. I really like keto and I feel a lot better eating this way, but I'm just not losing the weight I thought I would lose. I watch people losing huge amounts of weight and that's just not me. I know they tell you you don't have to count calories, but that just doesn't seem to work for me. When I don't count calories and eat the amount of fat that I think my body wants I end up around 1600 calories and I just don't lose a thing. I really feel like I need to stay more around 1,200 or less but again then I'm counting. I've dabbled with intermittent fasting with a bulletproof coffee in the morning to get me through. And I love how it makes me feel, but again I would expect that I would lose more weight. I am exercising at least four days a week and I'm trying to get that back to the six I used to do. Started to get back into weights which I love doing but I slacked off on. I miss my arms :-)

So really happy to be joining this group that Paula speaks so highly of. Would love advice, support, success is along with you gals! Right now I weigh 191 lb I would love to get down to 160 somewhere this summer. My sweet spot before was between 152 and 155.


Happy March and looking forward to being a lesser version of myself by the end of it! I hope to learn a lot from you all and offer my support as well!

Karen is my oldest friend on MFP. We've been through everything together and now we're both trying to cut back drinking! Love my whisky. :laugh:

....hmmmm.... whiskey....

paula

Glad your foot is on the mend @cpanus ! Slow and steady wins the race right? Thanks for the warm welcome!!

Oh if you have not seen The End Game you should. Loved it.

Shell

I am lucky to have a gym at work I can use....but I make excuses a lot to not go because my days are busy! BOO! Today...no excuses. Did some good weights, and cardio....there were a ton of us girls back there! Felt good to push hard

I love cats too...serious cat lady. I have 3 boys: Sebastian, Oliver and Anakin.

I weigh mostly daily, Karen. I like seeing it go down, or stay down. When it goes up, I usually know why and it's just a challenge to me to take corrective measures.

147.5 today. Still struggling to get down into the low 140's. Feeling a bit depressed lately, probably a bit of lonely self-pity mixed with seasonal affective disorder - could use a couple sunny days.

Enjoy your BFF's, SO's, boys and kitties, all.

paula

I was pretty frustrated yesterday. I just don’t seem to be dropping all this weight like everybody else with keto :-) and I’m fairly hungry. And I’m meeting my macros most days :-) and I’ve barely had any wine for a month! LOL! That should count for an immediate 5 pounds. Mamma Mia :-) but I keep trying. So weight today 191.2. Down a little bit from where I was a few days ago.

Kathy I missed being here. I am glad I am feeling better. A little dizzy at times, dehydrated I think. With diabetes it is even more important for you to take care of yourself. I know you have this. My sister is diabetic. She does not take good care of herself. It is frustrating. Keep at is Kathy.

I did not weigh myself this morning. Got up late and hopped in the shower before I thought of it. Watched my granddaughters concert last night. The kids all did great. The 8th graders did Poker Face. Their teacher said she did not know the words to it but thought she would pass on it. It was well done and I would have known what song it was even if she had not introduced the song.

Shelley

kjs1228 wrote: »

I was pretty frustrated yesterday. I just don’t seem to be dropping all this weight like everybody else with keto :-) and I’m fairly hungry. And I’m meeting my macros most days :-) and I’ve barely had any wine for a month! LOL! That should count for an immediate 5 pounds. Mamma Mia :-) but I keep trying. So weight today 191.2. Down a little bit from where I was a few days ago.

@kjs1228 make sure you're getting enough fats to satiate your hunger, Karen. You'll have to cut something else out to make up for the calories. But it really helps. Then when your hungers gone, just eat less, it's easy then.

paula

So cold here in PA! Need to work out before my first meeting this morning...the 22 degree weather is not inspiring me! #noexcuses

Hope everyone has a great Thursday!

Karen

Happy Friday Ladies and happy International women's day!

Have fun with the iPhone Paula. I just got a new one for work and Pinterest was a great help. It's amazing technology :-)

So busy weekend ahead. My Bella has her school musical opening up tonight which is Mary Poppins jr. :-) what's not to love about Mary Poppins? So she has a show tonight and two shows tomorrow. She's quite excited! Need to make rice crispy treats today for the concession sales, good things sweets don't turn me on anymore. If only booze was the same way lol! I have actually really really cut out alcohol in the past month. Maybe I've had two or three glasses of wine. Doing everything I can to try to get these pounds off! But miss my wine!

189.4 today... directionally correct. I took your advice Paula and tried to figure out additional fats yesterday and a little less on the protein. I think it was a good combination. Wasn't hungry later in the evening which tends to be my issue. And I fought through the habit of eating so stopped eating at 6 which felt good.

Have my mother-in-law coming up tomorrow to see Bella show. Planning on making some sort of nice lunch. She's a toughie... an energy sucker which usually leads me depleted. She speaks about herself so poorly calling herself fat, which I told her she's not allowed to do in my house, certainly not around my Bella who has her own struggles with weight. We dont call each other or ourselves names where I live :-) so hoping it's a more positive trip than the last time. Looking to find a good healthy recipe maybe some soup and something else.

Okay well better get myself moving and head to the gym before work starts. Hope everybody has an awesome day!

Karen