My Turn to Overshare My Adventure

Kathikay54 · April 2020

You are an inspiration!

vickywatkinson03 · April 2020

Amazing story and huge congratulations! Xxx

lisajamesmac · April 2020

You look fantastic

springlering62 · April 2020

L010 wrote: »

Amazing ! You are an inspiration.
If you don't mind, may I ask you - How long did it take you to loose last 20 pounds. During that time, how much was you net calorie intake (total calories-calories from workout) .

It took me eight months to lose the first 68 pounds.

But I gained about ten pounds back on each of two extended trips. The next 20 (well, I guess you could say “40”?!) have taken nearly a year. The first time, the vacation weight easily came off within weeks. The second time, it did not, so I’m determined not to do that again.

I’ve spent most the past eight months at 2070 per day. This appears to be close to maintenance for me.

I’ve never eaten back exercise calories because I find a fixed number easier to keep up with.

I did increase to 2300 in February for recomp purposes, but cut back to 1900 when shelter at home started, to avoid gaining again. I’ve dropped slightly below my weight goal during shelter and am experimenting with raising it again. It’s a constant process of tweaking.

YMMV, depending on your own activity level. My aim during lockdown is to close my Apple “Move” circle (set at 300) at least three times.

nhaynie228 · May 2020

Your story is so inspiring! Thank you for sharing it with us!

springlering62 · May 2020

That you would wake up in the middle of the night, and realize that when you placed the order for exercise tanks, you had automatically ordered your “old” size.

WTF, brain?

springlering62 · September 2020

Hello! This is my two year anniversary check in.

When Covid started, I vowed to myself I would not regain the weight. I cut calories from 2300 to 1900 per day, and formed a plan to close my Move circle three times a day, which I’ve done every day except one.

I dropped into the 120’s briefly, but was overwhelmed (scared) of that number, so am currently hovering around 131.

I did a Dexa scan last October, and was honestly crushed to find I was at 29% body fat. I just did a new one Tuesday, and it has dropped to 22.1%.

In honor of the lovely, helpful, informative and forthright @annptt77, and her fabulously honest post at https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10809632/loose-skin-50lbs-loss-at-60-4-years-maintenance, I am truly going to overshare this time. (I didnt' want to butt in on her terrific thread.)

Weight loss has done some strange things to my now 58 year old body. Sometimes my stomach is flat and my butt has the droops. Sometimes, my butt is lookin’ good but my arms are creased in a network of fine lines. Then there’s the days my funbags look like sad zip-lock bags full of water. I have no idea what triggers all the constant rearranging of body parts. Maybe it’s that “flow of energy” we talk about in yoga all the time. Maybe it’s too much salt or potassium or sugar the day before, and it just parks in different places. Maybe its the Gods of Weight guffawing at my expense.

But overall, slowly, everything is diminishing. My droopy thighs and knees are no longer “balloon curtains”, but simply “swags”. The uncooperative midsection still spills out when released from its legging constraints, but now pulls out like a baby flying squirrel instead of Grandaddy Squirrel.

Planks in Tanks ? Let’s just say, one day I shall cover my belly in finger paint, do a slow lower, and create art. Or at least Rorschachs. (Please don’t try to “friend” me thinking I roll like that.)

Anyway, what I’ve found is that *my* body seems to have thresholds. At certain weights, problem areas seem to disappear or at least visually improve and mitigate. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes it seems like it’s overnight, sometimes it’s a slow process.

My skin is surprisingly elastic, even though I’m terrible about hydrating, and have a complete phobia about lotions and creams. I’ve been amazed at the resiliency of my skin. The network of fine lines, reminiscent of gift wrap tissue fiercely wadded into a ball and then flattened out, is slowly diminishing.

However, weight loss has accentuated my neck, my wattle, the angles of my face. I think it’s softening with time, but I’m so invested in it, it’s hard to judge rationally.

The really strange thing that I’m waiting to see if will change is my rib cage. I guess years of obesity and adipose (?) fat blew it out. I’m hoping that it will hug back in and not be so obvious.

So that’s the thing with weight loss. No matter how well we do, we find something to critique ourselves about, to pick apart. Although the body dysmorphia is pretty much gone (THANK GOD!!!!), I am still learning to recognize the thinner person in the mirror; to acknowledge that weight loss does not automatically equate to Cover Girl looks or sudden popularity and scintillating repartee; and to give myself some grace to still fail once in a while; and to grant myself self love to pick myself back up when I do.

OK, so here's photos. I know that when I look at other's photos, I sound creeperish, but I study them carefully to see how I compare and to judge where I've come from and what I can expect to get to. So lots of pics.....

My kids shared this with me the other day. Lovingly, of course.

Extended

Flexed. At @AnnPT77 so wisely pointed out, don't stress over the extra flesh. Many times it's muscle and not fat. If you pinch it and it's firm, it's part of the muscle.

Networks of fine weight loss lines appear, mostly on my arms, some on my thighs. These have diminished a lot in the past six months.

Standing straight up but not engaged

Engaged ( aka Sucked in, lol)

Relaxed

Engaged. Pet peeve rib cage is voluminous, probably bulged out because of obesity. It looks weird. I hope it retracts, but life isn't over if it doesn't.

Baby flying squirrel mode. It has gone down in the past few months. According to Dexa scan, there is .43 lbs adipose weight, and I carry most my extra fat in hips and butt, so I think this is extra skin versus fat. I'm hoping this will continue to go down.

You can knead this gut like play-dough. Endless hours of fun.

Odd bits of extra skin pop out in unexpected places. (I did have a reduction, so YMMV. )

Leggings doing what they are supposed to do. You'd never suspect the Doughboy hiding underneath. For this reason, I figure dressing is better than surgery to remove extra skin. And again, time is reducing the extra skin.

Wattle is another problem spot. It is what it is.

Anniversary photo

I celebrated my two year anniversary with a PR benchpress of 140. I lifted more than my weight!!!!! Props to Quicksylver and the other Ladies Who Lift. I have mucho mucho respect for y'all.

With my much loved trainer. OMG. Everyone should have a Jean in their life. Except that she's one of a kind and I'm not sharing.

Thanks for making it this far, if you did!

Love your body, and love yourself!

Sand_TIger · September 2020

You are amazing - and I love seeing how happy you are. What a journey!

AnnPT77 · September 2020

Thank you for (not-over) sharing! You've lost a good lot of weight - more than I - and I think you look wonderful. I can think of few 58 year old women in my life whose bodies look that good. And those arms, woman - especially in your bonzer-good bench press PR photo, and hugging your trainer . . . you look so strong, just excellent!

I think that's so useful, that you're willing to be real. I still - as I said on the other thread - think that "the real", even the less perfect parts, are not as extreme as what many women are expecting, at the start or part way through weight loss, even at the beginning of maintenance.

I'd bet you're finding - or will find, if it hasn't come up yet - that people who meet you for the first time now will have difficulty believing - will show visible surprise if/as they learn - that you were materially overweight for years, and have so recently lost weight, and have so recently pursued enhanced fitness. So many forces, cultural and personal, try to set low expectations for us, as women (people) of a certain age. We don't need to live down to those expectations, and you haven't. Good show!

P.S. The ribcage thing: Me, too. I don't know whether it's weight related, or just a strange self-image thing since I'm used to the stuff below the ribcage being so much bigger than the ribcage.. It's not like I can study other never-fat women's ribcages as they relax/slump, suck-in, etc. 😆🤷‍♀️

ETA: BTW, congrats on the great anniversary!

ggeise14 · September 2020

Thanks for sharing and way to go!

charmmeth · September 2020

Thank you for sharing! I think you look pretty amazing in the photos before as well as after; you have (I find) a great dress/style sense. I am 56 and working my way down to 75kg with the intention of staying there this time, so am trying to find a sustainable balance of exercise that I can keep up, bascially forever, wherever I am. It looks like you have this, which is really inspiring.
BTW i am in Germany at present and quite agree that the delicious breads and other bakery treats are a real challenge to keeping the calories under control. Today I have not managed at all, so will need to do some rowing after supper.. Fortunately, tomorrow is a new week!

Diatonic12 · September 2020

Mother and I are admiring your transformation and outfits. Stunning. There's so much smoke from the forest fires but she wants to take it back outside. She's no bigger than a peanut but wants to lift some heavy things.
Your trainer is amazing, too.

1poundatax · September 2020

Thank you for sharing your inspirational story! I needed to hear it today. You look amazing.

AshHeartsJesus · September 2020

Thanks for sharing! And I totally want your outfit 😎

JeanneTops · September 2020

Thank you (and @annptt77) for sharing this. As great as all your achievements are, I have to say that what I find most inspiring, are the times when you gained some weight back and then stopped regaining and re-lost the weight. That is a story very few people can ever tell and certainly not one I have ever been able to. In my opinion, stopping weight regain is the hardest thing of all to do. Weight loss, once you're on a roll, seems easy in comparison. Stopping weight regain is an enormous fight with your own negative thinking, your own guilt and self-disappointment and your own pessimism. Weight regain is what I fear the most - more than wrinkled or loose skin. And I've done it plenty of times. I would love to hear how you handled it.

AnnPT77 · September 2020

JeanneTops wrote: »

Thank you (and @annptt77) for sharing this. As great as all your achievements are, I have to say that what I find most inspiring, are the times when you gained some weight back and then stopped regaining and re-lost the weight. That is a story very few people can ever tell and certainly not one I have ever been able to. In my opinion, stopping weight regain is the hardest thing of all to do. Weight loss, once you're on a roll, seems easy in comparison. Stopping weight regain is an enormous fight with your own negative thinking, your own guilt and self-disappointment and your own pessimism. Weight regain is what I fear the most - more than wrinkled or loose skin. And I've done it plenty of times. I would love to hear how you handled it.

Can't speak for springlering62 here, but I don't really feel that way. I'm analytic to a fault, mostly. For me, weight managment is a bit of a fight with my internal hedonist - about balancing current pleasures with future benefits - but otherwise more of a fun science fair experiment. It helps that I live alone, and in the current instance, it's helped that we had stay-at-home directives (fewer brewpub and restaurant/social tempations for that inner hedonist). I have to say, though, I was already down 5 of the recent 10-ish pounds re-loss before the pandemic. It just got easier and more consistent in lockdown.

Speaking only for myself, taking responsibility for my own thought-patterns, and their behavioral consequences, is a huge thing. I work at that. I am very oriented to recognizing what is in my control/influence, and focusing on that; and have a strong belief that when I do something, it's a *choice* (unless someone literally has a gun to my head). To me, that's an empowering orientation. (YMMV.) At this point, I don't feel a lot of guilt or self-disappointment around food/eating. I make choices, the choices have consequences. I best own those consequences. At a certain point, it felt like time to re-lose a few pounds, for the good of my future self, so I had to b****-slip my inner hedonist a little, if you'll excuse the expression. 😆

Daisy_Girl2019 · September 2020

What a beautiful transformation - mind, body and soul. Thank you for sharing and inspiring us.

springlering62 · September 2020

JeanneTops wrote: »

Weight regain is what I fear the most - more than wrinkled or loose skin. And I've done it plenty of times. I would love to hear how you handled it.

This^^^^^^

This is my first time really down. I did try once in a bid to get health insurance to pay for a reduction. Lost the amount they said, and they said “oh, changed our minds. Not covered. “. I was so angry I stopped immediately. Boy, was that dumb. But I’m not the person to ask about yo-yo. I was a fat lazy gluttonous slug (said with a wry smile and a modicum of self loathing) for 25+ years.

Fear barely begins to describe the feeling.

I haven’t handled it yet. I see all the “back again” posts and pray that I can stay determined. I over ate some cookies (yesterday) and worry “Is this it? Was this all there was to it?” and fully expect to step on the scales and be twenty, fifty, all of it back up again. The right side knows it doesn’t happen overnight, the left side is like “You dummy! Look what you started.”

I can’t even bear to look at the Maintaining threads. I’d rather stay here where people are still fighting for it.

But what it comes down to is, I’m really lazy. I would sincerely hate to have to do this all over again, so I’m trying to stay determined to stay on track.

charmmeth · September 2020

springlering62 wrote: »

I see all the “back again” posts and pray that I can stay determined. I over ate some cookies (yesterday) and worry “Is this it? Was this all there was to it?” and fully expect to step on the scales and be twenty, fifty, all of it back up again. The right side knows it doesn’t happen overnight, the left side is like “You dummy! Look what you started.”

I really sympathise having had an Easter egg binge this year which was the final straw to my regaining. However, it was part of a longer pattern. I lost from 198lbs to 153lbs 2013-15, then "maintained" at under 170 lbs for about two years (though looking at my statistics, and expecially my monthly averages, I was gradually by the end of that time gaining back). I was back at 195lbs (88kg) this Easter. Five months later I am back in normal bmi and wondering why i didn't do this two years ago! But it just crept back on and I made decisions that didn't do anything to stop it, until I was back up to essentially my highest weight.

After this experience, I conclude that I need to persuade my brain that my "trigger" weight for responding and starting to track food again should be 78kg instead of 88kg. This time I am aiming to be maintaining at around 165 lbs (75kg), but to have a stricter top limit.

ddavenport6962 · September 2020

You look amazing - i am 57 too and i would love to look like ur looking right now - fabulous !!!
Thanx for sharing your journey it has been realy inspiring 😄😄😄

LINIA · September 2020

Love the sparkly and shiny workout attire and you really do get the job done ✅ Hope today is a sunny & pretty start to your weekend!

JeanneTops · September 2020

springlering62 wrote: »

JeanneTops wrote: »

Weight regain is what I fear the most - more than wrinkled or loose skin. And I've done it plenty of times. I would love to hear how you handled it.

This^^^^^^

I haven’t handled it yet. I see all the “back again” posts and pray that I can stay determined. I over ate some cookies (yesterday) and worry “Is this it? Was this all there was to it?” and fully expect to step on the scales and be twenty, fifty, all of it back up again. The right side knows it doesn’t happen overnight, the left side is like “You dummy! Look what you started.”

I can’t even bear to look at the Maintaining threads. I’d rather stay here where people are still fighting for it.

But what it comes down to is, I’m really lazy. I would sincerely hate to have to do this all over again, so I’m trying to stay determined to stay on track.

I've had those same thoughts in the past and, I'm sorry to say, did indeed gain it all back. So I no longer think I have any advice to give anyone. Someone else here though said something I do agree with: Think of maintenance as having to lose those last pesky 10 pounds. I will not change how I'm eating now. My weight loss has slowed down considerably and I plan to just keep eating this way forever. No letting myself think: Oh, it's ok to eat this because I'm at my goal. For myself, I know that is the beginning of weight regain.

Diatonic12 · September 2020

@JeanneTops I could be mistaken but I think it was @springlering62 who said it on this forum relating it to us, the 10 lb thing.

IronIsMyTherapy · September 2020

Wow, that's awesome. You deserved every minute of the "overshare" mic and stage.

That's truly inspiring. 👏🏼

lizh9 · September 2020

You look fantastic! Thank you for writing this post!

TiredMom2021 · March 2021

@springlering62 I see your posts in a number of forums and I'm always impressed and inspired! (I showed my husband one not long ago...I think it's in the "Halp...Heavy Lifting" thread and he said, "look at those guns!")

Anyway, I was needing some inspiration and had already read through the current couple of pages of Success Stories so I just skipped to random pages and read - how fun to read your story after seeing bits and pieces in other threads.

So, let me say: WELL DONE!

And thank you for sharing. I am 53 and, while not retired (I still have 3 youngsters at home), I have a lot more time to focus on my own fitness lately and I am SO seeing how beneficial it would have been (for my whole family) if I had prioritized this years ago. I'm so glad you've shared your inspiring story!

Janatki · March 2021

Inspiring!

NVintage · March 2021

Me too! I think exercise is the one thing that I am seeing in common with most people that maintain weight loss. Also, I am trying to find if there's any difference in focusing on healthier eating habits rather than eating the same foods, but restricting calories...

JeanneTops wrote: »

Thank you (and @annptt77) for sharing this. As great as all your achievements are, I have to say that what I find most inspiring, are the times when you gained some weight back and then stopped regaining and re-lost the weight. That is a story very few people can ever tell and certainly not one I have ever been able to. In my opinion, stopping weight regain is the hardest thing of all to do. Weight loss, once you're on a roll, seems easy in comparison. Stopping weight regain is an enormous fight with your own negative thinking, your own guilt and self-disappointment and your own pessimism. Weight regain is what I fear the most - more than wrinkled or loose skin. And I've done it plenty of times. I would love to hear how you handled it.

Spotteddingo · March 2021

Thank you for sharing. It is good to read the good and the not so of your journey and the pics are great! Very inspiring.

springlering62 · March 2021

Thanks, @TiredMom2021. Very kind words.

@NVintage I eat far healthier than before and am a wee bit more willing to try new foods, particularly vegetables. There’s a lightbulb moment when you realize half a pound of strawberries = a smallish candy bar or a single serving of cookies. And then there’s a bigger moment when you realize you’d rather have the strawberries anyway.

Once you can finally put some distance between you and what someone else here memorably called the Sugar Monster, you can retrain your tastebuds.

I still like the occasional carby sweet, but the desire for them no longer rules my life and has me making daily secret trips to the grocery store, or hiding candy when I get home to make it not “look like as much”. (As if my husband and kids were dumb enough to fall for that ruse. We only fool ourselves. )

When I pre-log meals, I calculate what’s the most volume and enjoyment I can get with the calories at my disposal. Big lasagna dinner scheduled? Then what’s the tastiest under 300 calorie lunch I can come up with, and will it tide me over til dinner time?

My Turn to Overshare My Adventure

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