Doom, Despair, and Agony on Me! (aka a whine thread)

1568101143

Replies

  • bmeadows380
    bmeadows380 Posts: 2,982 Member
    @PAV8888 sorry - I know what the symbols mean, but I've lost too many brain cells in the last 16 years since I graduated college to want to try to sit down and think my way through all the formulas :)

    I realize my deficit is still pretty steep, but with ~90 lbs left to lose, I thought it was still okay at this point to keep it a little higher. I am trying this time around to consider factoring in re-feeds and diet breaks; I tried a re-feed back in March, though I think I was off on my calculations for what my maintenance calories should be. On the other hand, I quickly dropped the added weight which could easily have just been water weight retention do to the increase in food, so perhaps I wasn't as off as i think.

    What had me wondering if I had some sort of adaptive thermogenesis is because of my thyroid and PCOS diagnosis, but I do admit that after I found out that I'm extremely hyperthyroid at this point, I realize that shouldn't really be a factor today. Back in the summer, when I was struggling to lose 1 lb a week and my TSH was sitting at 8? Probably; now, when my TSH is down to 0.04? doubtful. But at the same time, the numbers just weren't lining up with what the predictions said they should be. I knew I was having water retention issues, but didn't realize just how much they were skewing the numbers. I've noticed that in the last month, since I started getting active and increasing that activity, that the water weight issues have lessened significantly, and I think I'm finally seeing the true loss per week, which is, I admit, a lot faster than I had expected it to be.

    This is technically the beginning of my 4th year, since I first started losing in January 2017, but I plateaued for nearly 2 years, so I'm about 9 months into the new losing stage, which was slow to get started, but has finally picked up - its been about 3 months since it started really picking up. But all that means is that I've gotten used to weighing and calculating calorie counts and using little tweaks to bring calorie counts down. The activity factor is brand new, so that's a whole new learning curve that I definitely am experimenting with to find what works for me. I am surprised at myself, though, at how quickly I've been able to up the intensity, though I'll never make it to what MFP calls a "brisk walk" - 3.5 mph is about as fast as I can maintain; anything higher than that is jogging!


    That is a very interesting link, though, and @NovusDies , they have much different descriptors for their energy levels, including two different factors - regular, daily activity, and exercise efforts - that are used to calculate the activity factor. Do you think they seem to be more realistic? The first factor for my activity at work I set to very light because I do get almost no activity during my normal work day. Going by their descriptors for leisure time, I guess I have to admit that for now, since I"m trying to get 30 minute sessions of cardio in 5 days a week, and 45-60 minute walks in 7 days a week, and 20-30 minute elliptical sessions in 5 days a week, not to mention the gardening, house chores, etc that get done in that leisure time, that with the purposeful exercise I've added to my schedule, I'd have to mark myself as active; moderate at the very least. Which gives me an activity factor of 1.4 - 1.6 (and probably leaning more to the 1.6). Which in turn says I should be up to around 1610 calories a day to lose another 34 lbs by the middle of August, which in turn is about 200 calories above what I have set for myself as my sedentary daily average. Which does indeed match MFP's goal for me at lightly active, and that's with the 2 lbs/wk setting.

    My brain, however, is already fighting the numbers we're seeing here lol From these numbers, that tells me that on days I get my activity goals in, I need to be eating anywhere from 200 - 250 additional calories. Right? OR at least, if I manage to be really active all week, I can afford to be a little over my goal on the weekend, as long as I don't go crazy with it.

    I just have to keep chipping away at that brick wall that is my head; I'll get through eventually!


    @conniewilkins56 it don't really require all that math :) I'm just a numbers nerd who likes things to make rational sense - even in my fantasy life (which drives my best friend insane - especially when I spent a week designing a made-up world's whole time and date system based upon rotational rates around their sun......)

    You can do it, though - just focus on one little thing at a time!

  • bmeadows380
    bmeadows380 Posts: 2,982 Member
    oh, and in keeping with the theme of the thread: I'm miffed that its raining and there's a severe thunderstorm watch out - I'm not going to get my walk in today :confounded: But I did get my elliptical session this morning, and my aerobics session at lunchtime (in between stupid phone calls). It's going to be tight, though, whether or not I can get that step count over 7,000 today :frowning:
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    edited April 2020
    @bmeadows380 I didn't see what you were talking about on the activity levels. I admit I skimmed it because I just sat down and in less than 5 minutes I have to get back up again.

    My currently calculated multiplier is 1.88. This includes 45 minutes of elliptical and 3 - 4 miles of walking an average of 3mph daily. My step breakdown is:

    12-14k elliptical and outdoor walks
    4-6k NEAT. I do try to make it a habit to move faster even around the house but that is not 100 percent.

    I suspect my multiplier is going to increase after my next whoosh but until I have new numbers I will go with what seems to be working.

    I fully understand and appreciate you being stubbornish about your activity. I did the exact same thing. As long as you are not miserable you should have actionable data in short order so no harm done. I didn't harm myself but I certainly had 3-4 miserable days. I might have been more susceptible to misery because I no longer have the energy reserves I once did. Intellectually I knew a reduction in mass would change things but wow does it change things. The once very comfortable 1k deficit was brutal when I was executing it in due to improper activity settings.
  • papayahed
    papayahed Posts: 407 Member
    This morning I thought I put on my jeans that were a size smaller and they felt really good, a little loose even. This evening when I came home from work I looked and they were the size I'm currently wearing. Dagnabit!!! Soon my friend soon!
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,393 Member
    edited April 2020
    Old dogs; new tricks?

    So with the Novel shopping patterns around here I've been eating "different" things I normally don't. Especially since Costco seems to no longer offer my favourite Rx bars based on dates, cashews, and egg whites. At a box+ a week, I'm not willing to pay the non Costco price for chocolate bar replacements!!!😹

    So lately it has been dates (Tunisian dates 🤷‍♂️) and "natural" California almonds, usually 10-15g almonds and 30g dates

    But I run out of almonds!

    So out came the bag of only slightly expired almond flour that has been sitting in the pantry for the past year or two!

    And an attempt to see how dates and almond powder would look in a food processor. (Powder). Add cashew milk. (Too wet). Add more almond and dates and a few oats (starting to look like batter).

    To eat as is or bake with maybe some egg?... nah, just spoon it with some yogurt!

    OMG, that's just over 1K Cal 🤯🙀🤦‍♂️😱

    And not THAT filling! (Not terrible, but not worth 1K

    I'm sure I've heard mention of logging before eating! 🤦‍♂️🤬
  • bmeadows380
    bmeadows380 Posts: 2,982 Member
    yikes! But I've been there :blush:
  • cesse47
    cesse47 Posts: 947 Member
    My granddaughter had Wed and Thur off work and was home both days. So, after two days of having my routines disrupted, and not getting in the exercise as planned, I thought I'd get back to it today ..... NOT HAPPENING!!

    I've been in lockdown for about 3 weeks. Last night the governor extended and tightened the lockdown to the end of the month. That's another 3 weeks. I feel stifled, confined, stagnant, and, Oh My God, Majorly BORED!!!

    Have not done exercise stuff for 3 days. Feeling guilty about that. I have logged all my food and beverage intakes. I did manage to post in my favorite threads both Wed and Thur. But, today I have no interest in doing so ... I've gone into them to read but no interest in posting. Very frustrating. Even maddening, because right now, I'm my biggest roadblock!!!

    Need to Kick this attitude in the butt and get back to doing what I know I need to do to move forward. So, giving myself permission to fluff off for today with the agreement between me and me that I'll get back on full track tomorrow ... immediately after weighin.
  • bmeadows380
    bmeadows380 Posts: 2,982 Member
    I figured the "blah" feeling I had yesterday was due to TOM, as usually happens the first day or two, and would explain why I vegged on the couch and watched a documentary I'd been meaning to watch for a couple of years last night instead of hitting the elliptical a second time.

    But I realized as I went to bed, that my "head" stinks; or rather, I was getting that taste in my mouth that I get when my sinuses are out of whack. And this morning, that taste is even worse. Which means I'm probably going to find myself with a head cold before the week is out.

    I have to go to the grocery store today; I'll pick up some clairton and see if it will clear it up as just allergies and not the beginnings of a head cold.
  • 88olds
    88olds Posts: 4,454 Member
    @PAV888 Not much of a cook and less a baker, but I’ve had some luck starting with 2 overripe bananas and 1 3/4 cups of quick oats. Starting with that, I’ve added various stuff 2 tbls peanut flour, or 2 tbls egg protein powder, some I’ve add maple syrup, some brown sugar, some chocolate chips, some kind of dried fruit mix we had around the house that I chopped up.

    But starting with those bananas and the quick oats makes a sort of cookie dough that is good to experiment with. I had to rely on my wife to tell me when the bananas were ripe enough. As a reference I’d say they were at least 2 days past anything I would have considered eating. If there is such a thing as too ripe, I’ve never gotten there.

    I’ve made mostly “cookies” because I think its easy. My wife added flax and chia seeds to a batch and made them kinda like brownies. I liked the cookie shape because I could easily control the size and numbers but my wife seemed to think that was over the OCD line.

    I put cookies in quotes because if I made a batch of these, gave one to my grandmother and said it was a cookie she’d fall down laughing.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,393 Member
    Hmmmm.... bananas sounds good, though that's a lot of oats without some liquid!

    I've had some luck in the past with using unsweetened apple sauce for bulk and to sub both for oil and some of the sugar in recipes.

    I'm more into not using spoiled food; but, my mom would use black decomposing bananas! 😱🤯
  • maureenkhilde
    maureenkhilde Posts: 850 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Old dogs; new tricks?

    So with the Novel shopping patterns around here I've been eating "different" things I normally don't. Especially since Costco seems to no longer offer my favourite Rx bars based on dates, cashews, and egg whites. At a box+ a week, I'm not willing to pay the non Costco price for chocolate bar replacements!!!😹

    So lately it has been dates (Tunisian dates 🤷‍♂️) and "natural" California almonds, usually 10-15g almonds and 30g dates

    But I run out of almonds!

    So out came the bag of only slightly expired almond flour that has been sitting in the pantry for the past year or two!

    And an attempt to see how dates and almond powder would look in a food processor. (Powder). Add cashew milk. (Too wet). Add more almond and dates and a few oats (starting to look like batter).

    To eat as is or bake with maybe some egg?... nah, just spoon it with some yogurt!

    OMG, that's just over 1K Cal 🤯🙀🤦‍♂️😱

    And not THAT filling! (Not terrible, but not worth 1K

    I'm sure I've heard mention of logging before eating! 🤦‍♂️🤬

    Almond flour does not have the same shelf life as say white flour or whole wheat flour. On average almond flour is really best if used in 6 months and kept in the refrigerator. I have put in freezer before, and something happens with it, but in refrigerator it stays fine. I actually had one in refrigerator up to 9 months. Coconut flour same issue. Any of the so called meals, I no longer buy I just use the food processor.
  • bmeadows380
    bmeadows380 Posts: 2,982 Member
    @maureenkhilde with all that going on, you've had a major victory in just holding steady! I do hope it all starts turning around for you soon.

    I agree completely that good physical therapists can perform miracles; but I've run into a couple of bad ones in my time, and they can make things worst. My best friend had fantastic therapists when dealing with severe back pain; they were the ones who actually found what was causing the problem after she had been to see several different doctors, and they got her fixed up and moving pain free in a short period of time.

    My dad, on the other had, had terrible therapists at the last session he was sent to - even though they were told he had a damaged back (had been broken and several herniated discs), they didn't do any X-rays and just started him on movements that actually damaged his back more. My mother put an end to those sessions quickly. The same people also made things worse for another person I'm acquainted with as well. So if I ever have to have therapy, I'm NOT using the local therapy group at all! Too bad, the Genesis group that the best friend used is too far away.


    Congrats on trying to lean to knit! I've never been all that interested in crochet, though I do know now to do a basic chain, but knitting was something I had wanted to learn. But around here, everyone crocheted, and I couldn't find anyone to show me how to knit, especially since I"m left handed. I tried using some books to self-teach, but couldn't really be sure I was doing it right. And now, with carpel tunnel, I can't hold the knitting needles anyway - my hands and wrists go numb. I have the same problem doing counted cross-stitch these days, too, so I haven't done that in ages.

    But I did purchase a hoop knitting kit, and had been meaning to see if I could learn to knit that way; that reminds me - I ought to dig that thing out and give it a try!

    Course, I also need to cut out that darned caftan for my aunt and get that doll for my niece cut out, too.....


    Today may be a very long dong work-wise; we had a lot of rain last night, though praise be that it doesn't look like we had flash flooding. But with the rain soaking the ground, the predicted high winds coming through this morning aren't good news; I"m expecting we're going to have trees down everywhere. I"m especially watching this one tree thats up on the hill behind my house. It's on my neighbor's property, but its tall and leaning downhill right toward my storage shed, and I think its tall enough that should it fall, it would hit my house as well. I hadn't really noticed it before when the leaves are all out, but its pretty noticeable now.

    What's worse is that there are a lot of little streams coming down off that mountain and some are coming down underground and then coming out at the base of the hill where my property sits. I have a ditch along the edge of the hill to catch this water and keep it out of my yard. My mother and I were looking at it this weekend, and noticed a place on the bank where a stream of water was coming out that we hadn't noticed before. It's coming down underground and then coming to the surface at the top of the bank and has cut a channel down the bank to the ditch. I looked up the hill where I think the stream would be flowing, and its coming right underneath that tree.

    I parked my truck elsewhere this morning; if the winds bring that tree down, it can hit my building; I don't want to lose my buidling, but as long as it tracks right across the building and not the attatched shed beside it, I won't lose much other than Christmas decorations and a few other odds and ends. If it hits the shed beside it, I"ll lose my lawn mower, a bigger pain. But I usually park my truck in front of that building, and I don't want to lose my truck - I just paid the darn thing off!

    A silver lining though: if it does hit my house, its most likely going to hit the front of the house where my dining room is at. That front wall happens to be the last remaining wall of the old trailer and that wall is why State Farm and the other big agencies won't insure my house - they say its still a trailer because that front wall looks like a trailer. However, if the tree takes that wall out and I have to rebuild it, if I have it built straight down to seam up with the addition's front wall so that the house now looks like a ranch style house, I've been told that State Farm would then ensure it, because it would then look like a ranch style house and not a trailer. Which in turn would enable me to get a decent sized insurance policy on the place for a fraction of what I'm paying now......
  • cesse47
    cesse47 Posts: 947 Member
    I love my granddaughter to bits!! I do!! But, enough is enough ... she had Wed & Thur off last week, then Sat & Sun this weekend. Today she's not going to work ... because "they don't need her today". Another day where MY routine is shot in the butt. OMG ... GO BACK TO WORK ...

  • 88olds
    88olds Posts: 4,454 Member
    @PAV8888 If the bananas are ripe enough there will be enough liquid. Surprised the heck out of me.
  • bobsburgersfan
    bobsburgersfan Posts: 6,274 Member
    100% whine: you would think I'd be over scale fluctuations after 2 years of doing this faithfully, but I still get so mad when I have an undeserved jump of almost 3 pounds overnight! :rage:
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    100% whine: you would think I'd be over scale fluctuations after 2 years of doing this faithfully, but I still get so mad when I have an undeserved jump of almost 3 pounds overnight! :rage:

    Nope. I do not think we ever find it easy. The difference for me is that I can let it go faster. There was a time it would ruin most of my day. Now it ruins about 10 minutes.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,393 Member
    Pffft.... Logic < Feelz

    (I sooo wanted to write that in another thread where both Novus and I have posted; but I suspect the person there is too close to an ED mindset to be able to handle logic)

    Curiously though, it applies to all of us, to varying degrees and at various times!!!!! :wink:
  • bmeadows380
    bmeadows380 Posts: 2,982 Member
    It's not like you guys have never heard me whine about my water weight issues...nope, I never do that....... :p
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    WHY ARE SHORTS SO EXPENSIVE?!?

    Geez I can buy pants cheaper than I can buy shorts. That makes no sense. I am desperately trying to acquire enough clothes for the soon to be blazing hot months and I am trying to keep the cost down because I am still losing. I really want a few pairs of cargo shorts so that I am not wearing athletic all the time but they are double sometimes triple the price.

    I am pleased with some t-shirts I bought from Amazon. They are their brand. They have a pocket and they are 2 for $13.