Women 200lb+, Let's Stay Fired Up This February!!!

Just to chime in on the food journaling and food tracking. I am with @speyerj in that they are similar and you can put your notes in from that day! It does give you more information for sure! But I also understand what Corinne Crabtree (Phit n Phat podcast) is trying to accomplish by training ourselves to get to know our hunger ques. It helps with overeating for sure. Like @aliciap0116 that scares me to death because I have had such a challenge with overeating and binging at times. So I think there could be a comfortable medium where we don't obsess over the calorie counting but also start trying to follow our hunger ques. We have to decide are we going to track food/calories the rest of our lives (and that is ok if you are and want to), or do we start learning our body hunger ques and be able to some day not count calories? I am ok with doing both for now!

I myself don't eat much during the day because I just don't feel hungry sometimes, but then there are days where I am a snacking queen! I tend to have a lot of calories at the end of the day to "splurge on" because that is the time of day I need it I think...and yes I am eating some of those with special "treats" when I am not necessarily hungry but allows me to stick with it and it is sustainable. Will I get out of control with that if I am not counting calories...right now I think I would.

@aliciap0116...I am ok with discussing points on here or a separate thread. I love the phit and phat podcast!

Just my thoughts

Hello everybody and happy February! I'm a few days late getting back in to the swing of things. Took a little vacay from MFP for a few days. It was my birthday last week so I didn't feel like logging. I didn't really go overboard though, just didn't log.

In January, I only lost 3.2 lbs. But, hey, it's better than nothing! For February, my goal is to GET TO ONEDERLAND. I need to get there! It's a short month, but I can do it.

Here's my stats:

SW on MFP: 210 (11/14/19)
Feb 1: 203.8
Feb 8:
Feb 15:
Feb 22:
Feb 29:

Goal for February: 199 lbs.

Today should be good, I already hit spin class at lunch and tonight I have to unload and stack a literal 2 tons of hay into my barn. My arms are aching just thinking about it!

Hi everyone, thanks for your responses, both on the votes and topic. Based on the votes, I set up a separate thread for the discussion at: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10783774/losing-100-lbs-with-phit-n-phat-podcast-discussion/p1?new=1 I would love to hear about your thoughts and reactions to the podcast in general over there!

To close the thought on food journaling topic, I do love the additional information that logging calories and other macros gives me. I am certainly learning more about different foods and what my body needs - and I enjoy being a bit more scientific about it! But I also think relying on the numbers puts me less in touch with my body and it would be good for me to take a closer listen. I should be asking myself why I want some particular thing at some particular time if I am not really hungry. I don't think listening to my body and counting calories are mutually exclusive. But maybe success from counting calories is not requiring me to focus on that new skill. All of this said, I am all for treats! Having small indulgences every day is perfectly fine and is key for me to keep going!

Apropros of the discussion about logging vs. paying attention to hunger queues - I've been thinking about this a lot - as I get closer to the day where I'll transition to maintenance. (25 pounds, baby!). I've come to terms that I may always have to log my food. The last time I lost a lot of weight through logging, I did go through several months at the end where I barely logged, but because I was doing a lot of running I still continued to lose weight. But when I got injured and stopped running, the weight came back because I wasn't monitoring my food intake or my weight.

I don't have a healthy relationship with food. I want to have one, but I relapse really easily, especially when I stop weighing myself. I might be able to get away without logging if I monitor my weight and then go back to logging if I see a gain. But left to my own devices, I will gain weight. I don't think the switch will flip and I can just eat when I feel hunger and maintain my weight.

On a separate topic, @RavenStCloud , I just watched Brittany Runs a Marathon on Amazon. You had recommended that movie maybe back on the August or September thread. I finally watched it. It was so good. I identified with so many parts of it. Completely recommend it to everyone.

@sharpdust I also ate a salad today- Dole's Asian chopped salad kit. Me and my husband split it and add some deli turkey to it for a good 300 cal lunch. They have several ones that are all around similar calories (250 ish) for half the package. We usually add some kind of protein to it. Sounds like maybe you had the same one.

@theleadmare This is something I need to work on too; being OK with mild hunger. When I feel the need to eat something, but it's not quite time for my snack, sometimes some hot tea helps.

February goals!!

SW: 280.6
Jan 1st 20' - 262.8
Feb 1st- 251.6lbs

First off: I met my goal of 10lbs for January!!!!! I thought i wouldn't but I did. So pat on my back. And a pat on you guys back!! Great job sticking to it and making progress for the month. You guys keep me inspired to keep going

Feb goals- 8lbs
Cardio- 25 miles
strength training- 12/29 days
Diet- Under 50 carbs and 1300 calories (no exercise calories eaten)

The low carb lifestyle is working for me so I'd love to keep this going and make it a life long change. Obviously this isn't goodbye forever to sweets or potatoes but I would like to make the change to these things being limited and in moderation. There are so many different alternatives lately that I haven't felt deprived.

I have a trip to Disney world/Universal planned for August 9th so my short term goal is just to get as close to under 200 as possible. The idea of being unable to fit on the rides (I'm very bottom heavy) or be unable to walk the parks sound like a nightmare for both me and the kids.

Once again ladies we got this!!! Stay focused, stay motivated, stay awesome!

Hey everyone! I’m new to MFP and ready to get into shape! I recently started going to the gym and watching what I eat. Need some motivation to stay on track!
Height: 5’4
Age: 26

SW:210
CW:205
GW:170

February goals💕
GW: 200
Hit the gym 5 times a week.
Work up to a jog on the treadmill
Watch carb intake.

@speyerj: I may never be able to not log myself. Of course, it's early days for me, but I like eating food. And I don't much pay attention to the couple hundred extra here and there, and of course that's what will put the weight right back on. I may do better with the practice over the course of this next year or so, and get myself to where I just sort of know.

The problem is doing, once you know, and I know at this point I wouldn't trust myself.

@speyerj My goal for when I eventually get to maintenance is also to just weigh myself occasionally without logging calories on a daily basis, and only go back to logging when I see a gain that needs to be corrected. That's the dream!! I also don't really understand my hunger cues or even the feeling of being 'satisfied' and not 'full'. I'm currently on my second weight loss attempt, because I gained back everything I lost the first time and more. I thought that I had learned better eating habits and proper portion sizes, but when unregulated, I drop right back into my lifelong habits. It's a crappy truth, but knowing it and accommodating for it is what we can do!

@fitchick37 dancing is so perfect

@lbostic89 yes you can gain with exercise but eventually it will help you lose. Thin people can have a high percentage of body fat and it isn’t healthy. It can be by increasing muscle or when you up your exercise your muscles can retain liquid. Drinking water will help.

@mama_onamission You have the right focus I think.

@aliciap0116 I wouldn’t mind hearing about the ideas from the podcast whether I listen to it or not. Before I really gained weight I wanted to get 5-10 pounds off after graduating from grad school. That is how I did it. I had read about how skinny people eat. They eat when they are hungry and eat what they want. They stop eating when they are satisfied but not full. However this system also said that if you do over eat one time then just don’t eat until you are hungry again. I think this works if you have learned how to listen to your body.

@bluffgirl take care of yourself too

@theleadmare and @TuesdayLucero I am trying to get used to mild hunger too. However what is a problem is being too hungry like after work before I can get dinner. There was a time I realized that I seemed to have an emotional reaction to any level of hunger. I almost had a fear of hunger. I had an ectopic pregnancy and my last pregnancy made it hard to eat for several months . During both of these morning sickness was worse than with my 1st pregnancy. It didn’t only slow my metabolism but I think it made me afraid to be hungry. Then my daughter was more clingy and it was hard to get time to exercise or even go to the dentist. That is when I started to gain my weight. I finally am fine with a little hunger but I am struggling with that after work before dinner hunger that can be too much. Those days I can end up snacking too much and then have less healthy dinner. However I seem to have gotten over that fear of hunger.

For the upcoming week the focus is as follows:
• put my weekday breakfast plan in place (this went well again today)
• log more consistently (still doing well)
• check in on this post during the week more (here I am again)
• add in at least 15 minutes of exercise on top of Aquafit days (not yet and tomorrow is the night meeting)

I doubt I will make it on tomorrow given my night meeting but I will try on Thursday.

Oh I forgot to mention that I have been probably been eating too little the last 2 days but felt satisfied. However today I went slightly over. It all evens out eventually.

Welcome to the newbies! Loving people's comments on learning to be ok with mild hunger, and not being afraid of hunger. This is huge for me and i'm working on it too. A behaviour i'm trying to change is taking too much food with me on a trip or if i'm out somewhere, for fear of hunger, then of course there is food there anyway, so i end up eating double. I am trying to teach myself that slim people don't worry whether or not there will be food somewhere because they know it won't kill them to skip a meal once in a while. I am on a five day training course next week, staying in a hotel, so it will be a test of the new attitude i am trying to develop. Could be a chance to look for this podcast!

Ok, so now that I have a scale handy...

My starting weight - 213.8
Weight as of Jan 26th - 193.8
Weight as of Feb 5th - 195.4 (I'm Pmsing bad but... I'll chart it anyway.)
Goal weight for the end of Feb - 190
I probably won't weigh again until the end of the month.

Things I want to do this month:
Continue to log everything I eat - Every Day
Drink 8 - 10 glasses of water -Every Day
Cardio (even just 15-20 mins) - 5 days a week
Strength training Routine - 3 times a week.

I'd say sleep more, as it is at the core of a lot of my problems, but I work third and live in a downtown area that is NOT quiet during the day so I really don't know how feasible that is.

Hey ladies, just checking in mid-week. Weigh in for me is Friday, and I'm so hoping to see a loss.
Ideally a 2lb loss, so fingers crossed.

5ft 7"
SW: 207lb (7th Jan)
CW: 194lb (31st Jan)

So I did 1 hour of strength and stretch pilates on Monday. My goodness my abs have been rather tender since, not helped I'm sure by the 45 minute circuit training class I did last night which was a killer. I'm now aching all over. Tonight I have my run clubs social run which is 5km, but I tend to run to the meeting point and back which is an extra 1.5km ish. Tomorrow I'm having a rest day! Phew!

I've changed my approach this week based on what others have said. So I'm not sticking hard and fast to 1200kcal a day. I'm consuming between 1200kcal and 1500kcal instead and seeing if that makes a difference. I need to get this weight shifting. I've also upped my water intake to 3 litres a day plus tea instead of the previous 2 litres, plus tea. I'm now getting more steps in because of increased loo trips LOL.