Women 200lb+, Let's Be Mighty this May!!!

This morning I actually had time to sit down and actually think about some things in my life. I've been on this weightloss kick for about 15 years and at one point I was 207 lbs and lost 60 lbs in which I got to 147 lbs. I went to school and put that first in which I gained weight. I don't have a lot of friends and the friends I do have are spread out all over the place. I'm a people person and love interaction with others so I've been trying to communicate with someone in my family, but honestly it is so much work. I've been putting so much energy into trying to communicate with her, find things in common such as exercising and just chatting, however it almost feels like a job. She doesn't answer, she won't text back, I try to be involved with my nephews, but I get the run around. So this morning after thinking about all this I honestly have lost sight of what's important. I lost the importance of me. I put so much time into trying to be involved and being accepted where it bothers me to no end that I haven't been fully committing my time to myself. It has literally drained me. So today I told myself that I'm going to focus on what's important and that's me and the people who truly care about me. I want to put more time into exercising and my schoolwork. So today is a new day and I realize I need to change some things about me. Honestly, I need to worry about the things I can change instead of the things I can't. Then when she does decide she needs someone or points out that I'm not involved with her kids, I can simply point out the truth. So today I'm taking my life back. I will succeed in this weightloss and I will succeed in getting my doctorate. Sorry for the long post, but I just needed to vent.

Name: Jane
Age: 55
SW: 286.5 (6/3/19)
GW: 175

4/30: 185.3
5/2: 183.3
5/9: 183.7
5/16: 180.6
5/23: 180.0
5/30:

Goals for May:
1) Reach my goal weight!! - Check. Updated my goal weight to 175 - maybe by the end of June I'll get there.
2) Keep logging - Check
3) Get 10000 steps/day - Check - been on a streak since April 3rd!
4) Finish a 9 mile run - Did it twice. Second time was harder. Today was a "rest" week - only did 5 miles, but next week is 10!! Yikes! Learning that there a big difference when you get past 7 miles. I need to increase my carbs before the long runs and maybe add some fuel along the way.
5) Stay well - Check

Dee here! How is everyone doing! Just checking in. I can’t believe I have lost 8 pounds in 16 days! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Motivation is needed...overeating at night these days....my goal is to walk 30 min a day and eat 3 meals a day...cheerleaders wanted!

Wow - this discussion moves so fast in a week! I've been reading everyone's updates and am delighted for everyone with their losses and NSVs alike.

I'm still plateaued it seems. I'm still counting and still going on the bike. I did 64km on the exercise bike this week at a fast out of breath speed. And I have a decent calorie deficit across the week but I'm still not losing. I've decided to keep going with what I'm doing. I do wonder if my thyroid will show up as needing adjustment in my next blood test at this stage.

May 4: 130kg / 287lbs
May 11: 128.5kg / 283lbs
May 18: 129kg / 284lbs
May 25: 129kg / 284lbs

@KeriA I saw you asked about sleep and water. I don't think these are an issue. My sleep has been the best it's been in years. Solid 7 hours a night. And I'm drinking 2.5-3.5 litres of water a day.

May Goal: 125kg / 276lbs (obviously I'm not going to meet this at this stage)
June Goal: 121kg / 267lbs
July Goal: 117kg / 258lbs
August Goal: 115kg / 254lbs

I probably need to readjust the rest of my goals as well. Regardless of whether I lose or not I think I'll keep posting on here. At least it's keeping my behaviour in check even if there's no positive impact yet!

shannag1 wrote: »

Motivation is needed...overeating at night these days....my goal is to walk 30 min a day and eat 3 meals a day...cheerleaders wanted!

You can do it! *waves pom-poms*

Motivation is unsustainable. Nobody can be motivated all the time. Even the person with the greatest job in the world sometimes wants to play hooky.

What you need is routine and discipline. Make stuff as integral to your day as brushing your teeth and getting dressed. And then do it even when you don't want to.

But also cut yourself some slack if you have a bad day. Pobody's nerfect.

@shannag1 what the others said. Also, what sometimes works can be to have some kind of 'end of eating' ritual like a cup of herbal tea, or cleaning your teeth, or getting into your pjs, close the kitchen door, put police tape across it!! Anything that works for your lifestyle to signal that you've eaten for the day and now you're winding down for bed. You'll bust sometimes but don't give up!

@gorgeous2343 even if they don’t reply everyone seems to read the posts.

@procolorer love reading about everyone’s gardening.

@changeforeverlj funny I go sourdough bagels for my daughter’s birthday breakfast. Hope you have a good week

@elainey13 I usually don’t lose for a few weeks and others here go through plateaus and other challenging times where they gain some. The point is getting healthy and figuring out what works.

@orangequilt I love the police tape idea.

This was my daughter’s birthday weekend. I made kalbi (short ribs) yesterday and today was bbq ribs with potato salad. Everything I ordered for her birthday tomorrow came today from the diary delivery. I don’t have to do any cooking for her birthday and we have leftovers to get us through the 1st part of the week so I hope to concentrate on my training chapters and exercise. Have a good safe week all.

I have been staying absolutely rock-solid at 266-7. I am putting this down to stress, as we have sold our house, with a set time we have to be out of it (7/19) and we are waiting to hear back on a bid for a new house. Also the COVID-19 stress, and, in the background, the ongoing stress of the three of us all having mental health issues and physical health issues. The only reason I haven't gained is because I've rigorously held to my eating plan because I can at least control what goes into my mouth.

So I'm not upset or angry, and I'm pretty sure once I'm in the new house and happily nesting and breaking down boxes, the weight will come off. Once gyms and fitness centers reopen, it will be even better, because I'll be able to work on my fitness and move in ways that are safe for my body.

@cesse72 – So sorry to hear about you and your families’ hardships! I hope things sort themselves out quickly so you can start getting things back in order.

@bluffgirl69 – I’ve been thinking about you and hoping you’re doing OK. I assume you’re still reading, even if you don’t have time or mindset to post.

@jspeyer – how did I miss that you reached your goal? Congratulations! I’m with you on the resetting to the lower goals. As I get close myself, it seems apparent I’m going to be able to go lower.

@shannag1 – I stand here cheering you on! Others have said the same, and it’s something I recently had a particular insight into as well – don’t wait for motivation. You might never start, waiting for motivation or inspiration. It certainly makes things easier…but I find when I just do things, I start inspiring myself! Momentum is better than motivation for making progress!

@gorgeous2343- I hear you on the relationship angle. I won’t speak for everyone, but the more I read or listen to overweight women, the more I find (and relate to) a propensity for people-pleasing to the point of pushing your needs to a priority level lower than others’ wants and desires. When you start adjusting your priorities, I think other people can adapt, but those who depended on your catering to them don’t seem to care or want to adjust. For me, I’m choosing to have faith that those who are truly in my corner will come around. And if they don’t, they were never truly a good friend in the first place. Waiting for everything to shake out is a lonely place, and I empathize.

@orangequilt – The anxiety about the scale number going down – I don’t think I’ve ever felt anything less than excited to see a lower number. But I can say it is just one number, and any feeling attributed to the number is something we associate with it. And here’s the hard weight loss work if you are working to change your thinking: you need to ask yourself why and really dig deep to find the real answer. I know a lot of people jump to the unwanted attention angle immediately and it certainly can be true or a part of it. Finding your answer is worth the work.

@changeforeverlj- so glad to hear that your tooth is better! Mine needs to be removed, and I really to want an implant to replace it but it’s expensive here. I did not mean to scare you, and I wouldn’t say everyone needs to worry about complications if they enjoy general good health. I know people with certain conditions do take prophylactic antibiotics prior to any dental work, including teeth cleaning. My Mom is one of them!

I also want to say thank you to your comments about the situation with my friend. I haven’t unfriended her or deleted her contact information. But the dynamic has definitely shifted. I would not be surprised if I never hear from her again, but I am surprised that I no longer care.

Height: 5' 6"
SW (09/08/2019): 239.2 lbs
May SW (5/1/20): 169.0 lbs
5/3/2020: 167.4 lbs
5/10/2020: 169.8 lbs
5/17/2020: 170.2 lbs
5/24/2020: 163.8 lbs

May GW: 163 lbs
GW: 150 lbs (then reconsider)

Goals for May
• Running: I continue to take it easy to give my body time to heal. Luckily this corresponds with allergy season – I’m taking two allergy meds and I still have problems when I’m out running. There have been days I’ve tried to push a bit, and my pace is still slow. Generally speaking, it’s my musculoskeletal system that is holding me back, not my cardiovascular fitness. I could carry on a slightly broken conversation for most of my 6-mile run.
• Water: Keep drinking water, at least 128 ounces a day – I did do better with this, probably met this goal more than half of the days of the week.
• Skin: Keep taking care of it, in hopes that it will gracefully shrink back in place. This I’ve been able to do – I even luxuriated in a salt scrub this past weekend.

I think I really need to reinstate the concrete, SMART goals that I had prior to the quarantine. I have missed the discipline I imposed on myself in order to try to achieve those goals. Maybe not discipline so much. But I feel like I’m out of a routine and I need routine more than I realized.

Ummm, so the scale. Since I’m a couple days late in posting, I’ll tell you that my weight this morning was 159.2 lbs. I stood on the scale staring at that number so long the display flipped to “Err” so I stepped back on and confirmed it: still 159.2. I have a whole lot to say about it, but I think it might be better as a stand-alone post.

In my area of Pennsylvania we are still under stay-at-home orders until June 4th. We’ve been told that on June 4th we’re moving into the “yellow,” which is not a full reopening but at least it’s something. I’m suspicious about the state saying this two weeks in advance of this date, when they’ve been using a scientific model to guide counties into different statuses of reopening. Either they’re caving to political pressure, or they’re going to retract it and extend the stay-at-home quarantine if it turns out that the numbers don’t support a reopening.

At the very least, my health system leaders have been preparing for our organization unit to return to work as of June 8th, but they’re not sure what that’s going to “look like.” My team was asked if we wanted to come back into the office ASAP or closer to the end of July. My team voted for working from home for as long as we could. I was probably the one person who was indifferent, only because if we are going to be training via webinar we can do it from home or from work. Truly, it would be disruptive to change things up before August. We are a week away from our resident training season – we have to train 450 to 500 residents in the next two months. On top of our new hires for all the other clinical roles in the health system.

So I promised good news! One is that, working from home I’ve been able to get through a certification process; I’ve finished one certification and am very close to finishing a second certification. Plus I still have a job and a full vacation bank – some of which I’m using today and tomorrow. As my manager said, it would make no sense economically to furlough me because there is something to do and they’d need to pay me for at least 8 weeks anyway to burn through my vacation time. My sister always worked from home and continues to do so, and my brother is a software consultant who works from home who had to take a substantial, but temporary, pay cut. So we have been fortunate in my family to not be in dire straits.

I did get to see my sister, her family, and my Mom on Mother’s Day at a physically distant gathering at my sister’s backyard. No touching, no hugs, but it was good to see everyone and interact. The following weekend, we celebrated my niece’s birthday with a physically distant birthday celebration in my sister’s backyard. This time, my niece’s godparents were there with their two kids. The kids weren’t that great about physically distancing. My mother brought her dog at my request. She has a Pomeranian and I know she’s not good about brushing her – she usually gets her groomed. So I brushed the dog’s hair for about a half-hour to 45 minutes, trying to get to her undercoat. Then my niece took the dog on her leash and ran around the house with her like she was doing an agility run at a dog show. It was hilarious and it did look like they were both having fun! My niece is 8, and she is a character. My mother’s dog was a puppy mill rescue adopted when the dog was 3. She is now 13 or 14 years old, and does not seem to have had fun for a lot of her life. Her early experience left her very fearful of humans, even the ones who feed her. She has an affinity for my niece, though – if my mom’s dog had any worldly possessions, she’d leave all of them to my niece for sure.

OK, I’ll end this one here! I really can’t believe there’s still a week left in May. Seems like this month should have been over a long time ago!

Keep up the good work, everyone! It has to be getting better from this point forward!

I'm technically obese again. I've gained one pound per day for the last 5 days.

I'm definitely not having 5000 calorie days so I know it's not fat, but it's seriously disheartening. I don't know what's going on but I'm really struggling not to cry about this. Maybe the fiber again? My stomach doesn't hurt but its loud lately.

I don't want to eat food anymore. It just wrecks my stomach and makes me sick.

@duebedm - Ugh! Workplace drama found it's way to your home! Your coworker is really unprofessional and I suspect will have an opportunity to learn the hard way on how to behave with clients. Hang in there and hold your head high. You are doing great.
@cesse47 - Don't worry about the diet right now. Just cope. You'll get through this and a week off won't set you back more than a week. You are a saint taking care of everyone.
@mmdeveau - Holy Maloney! You dropped a ton this past week! You definitely got your woosh! Within 10 pounds of your stated goal weight! How does that feel? And congratulations on your certificate achievements and being an essential, essential worker. Job security is important.
@sweetirish - Hooray for getting the IVF procedure booked. My fingers are crossed for you!

Thank you Everyone for your kindness.

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