Hi!

To piggyback off of your good happenings in 2020:

My personal blessings this year:
-Spending so much time with my parents. I moved in December 2019 to be closer to them after spending a decade being a 10-12 hour drive away, and it has been great to get to see them often.
-Remaining employed, and getting to work from home the majority of the year.
-Spending so much time with my dogs, something I wouldn't have gotten to do had I not been working from home.
-All the "little things" like trying new recipes, hiking new trails, and picking up a couple of new hobbies. I spent the summer rehabbing a few old pieces of furniture and I've recently been trying my hand at making greeting cards!
-Losing 35 pounds, which I completely credit to finding these forums and learning how to change my eating habits in a sustainable way.
-Buying a new car at the very end of the year - my first truly *new* car and I love it!

I made it through the holidays with only a couple pounds of "gain" which I believe is mostly food baby and/or water retention and should fall off here in a couple of days.

My goals for 2021:
-Lose another 40 pounds, which would put me right at the top end of the healthy range, then in 2022 I can work on the last 15 or so vanity pounds.
-Figure out the next steps for my professional life. I had an interview for a possible role that I was very excited about, but after looking at what that would mean as far as relocation, and being unsure of what I want my long term career to look like, I turned down the second round interview. I'd like to get some clarity as to what will make me happiest, whether that's a different role in my current career, switching to a new career field entirely, or even starting my own business.
-Make friends and date! Since I only lived in my current city for 3 months before everything got shut down, I have met absolutely no one here and I really want to change that. It's so awkward during the pandemic so I'm hopeful that things will improve enough to be able to "get out there."
-Find new places to volunteer. I was very involved with volunteering before I moved and I really miss the extra activity and the feeling that I was making a difference in my own little way. Again, this is something I have put off due to COVID so fingers crossed.

2020 saw me at my lowest weight ever, and I was proud of myself for the walking I got in and the distances I had worked up to, and I hope that when the weather clears, I'll be able to pick that back up. Its been the only exercise I've ever managed to be consistent about.

Working from home had its pluses and minuses - pluses because I was able to get those walks in that I woudln't have been able to do otherwise; being at home has helped me in the regard of activity.

And of course, the end of 2020 has the new romance.

Work stress is still here, muted back some, but still frustrating. But its teh start of a new year, so perhaps I can turn over a new leaf, so to speak. I tried in a meeting with the supervisor back before Christmas to explain how I was feeling in my job; we'll see if this results in improvements or not.

2021 will be an interesting year, that is for sure. I hope the job will improve, we'll see where the company lands in allowing work from home to continue even after social distancing is relaxed, we'll see where this romance of mine ends up leading us, and I can hopefully get into onederland - if I can get myself back into the groove.

Welcome back for the new year!

2020 is over and done with. It has been an interesting year. I lost some weight; I gained some weight; I lost some weight. LOL COVID has taken it's toll on everyone and everything. I am grateful that even though I work in a hospital I haven't contracted the virus. I was able to get my first series of vaccination two weeks ago and will get my second soon.

My cervical cancer came back after many years being dormant. I'm glad to say that all cancerous cells have been removed and I am cancer free again! It was a stressful few months but I was able to continue working on my health during that time. I stuck with my diet and exercise routines.

I also quit smoking. I have to say of all the things I did last year this one sucked the most!! I loved smoking. I have been smoking for a very very long time. I have quit a few times for things like pregnancy but I always started back up when I was able to. My motivating factor for quitting is plastic surgery. Nicotine causes wounds to not heal properly and cutting off all my skin will be HUGE wounds across my whole body. Those wounds need to heal properly otherwise I will have spent all that money for nothing and not get to show it off.

I know I could have been at my goal weight had I stuck to the plan but I also know that sometimes things have to give and during those beginning months calorie tracking is what gave. I took most of the month of December off. I went to Universal Studios and walked a lot but ate a lot. We went to Wisconsin after Christmas so the boys could ski. It was cold and terrible but my son loves it so I suffer through for him.

Here is to a great 2021. It's won't be perfect and it won't be "normal" but I am excited to see where this journey will take all of us.

Well, look at it this way....2020 wasn’t great but you survived it!....since you have held your weight for 9 months which is really a win, if you get back at it now, it will be like you are starting anew AND maybe you will lose 10 or 20 lbs really fast!....

Hi!!!

2020 for me was a year of sorrow, joy, and discovery. My mom died in August and I am still grieving her loss.

This was the first thanksgiving and Christmas without her. My heart has been heavy.

2020 was the year I began to care about myself. I began diligently logging my calories and even lost over the holidays.

I quit a toxic job and have begun to peel back my emotional layers.

Many days I’m raw and introspective.

2021 will be my year of self discovery. Who am I? Who do I want to be?

Well, I'm still here! I'm having a mildly successful, mildly unsuccessful diet break right now. Mildly successful because I'm learning that my body feels best somewhere between 1700 and 2100 calories, which is ultimately where I'd be totally fine winding up, and the fatigue/obsessive thoughts have been put aside just letting myself log more loosely. Unsuccessfully, I haven't made it to maintenance calories most days so I'm not positive I'm really helping my metabolism all that much with just a lower deficit. That being said, my weight has been staying the exact same so that's pretty cool.

I was planning on just having a short break through the new year but I'm going really hard on developing recipes for my home bakery and the looser restrictions in my brain are really helpful and give me a little more freedom. If I'm going to sell something, I need to taste at least a partial portion of it so I'll split a pastry or slice of bread with my partner. Most of what I'm making is porch dropped to other people to get multiple opinions on a product.

I'm going all-in on it as a business this year and not just making it a holiday thing. So far, I've gotten a lot of interest—enough that I could make as much if not more than I make at my day job if it stays steady and holds up over time. I'm not counting my chickens, though, and staying cautiously optimistic.

So, my main goal is to treat my body in a way that I'm able to keep up with a physically rigorous business. For me, this includes yoga and eating enough calories, which is something my diet break really taught me. Right now, I'm at my laptop for 4 hours working my regular job and on my feet in the kitchen for 6 or so most days, doing physical tasks like kneading dough and rolling pastry. This would have been impossible for me 78 pounds ago and now, while I get sore sometimes, it's 100% doable. I'm pretty proud of that!

emmyjaykay wrote: »

That being said, my weight has been staying the exact same so that's pretty cool.

Your post was so exciting to read - especially this line I have quoted - because it sounds like you have truly achieved maintenance! Even if it feels that you are not eating sufficient calories when you track the numbers.

I have yet to achieve a stable weight. It goes up a bit, then down a bit - so over a few weeks it is close to the same but that is only because that is the middle line of the up and down curve. I am always wondering if that is the best to hope for. The idea of just being one weight is astounding!

Good luck on the home business - the fact that you can do this and maintain your weight is pretty amazing too.

emmyjaykay wrote: »

Well, I'm still here! I'm having a mildly successful, mildly unsuccessful diet break right now. Mildly successful because I'm learning that my body feels best somewhere between 1700 and 2100 calories, which is ultimately where I'd be totally fine winding up, and the fatigue/obsessive thoughts have been put aside just letting myself log more loosely. Unsuccessfully, I haven't made it to maintenance calories most days so I'm not positive I'm really helping my metabolism all that much with just a lower deficit. That being said, my weight has been staying the exact same so that's pretty cool.

I was planning on just having a short break through the new year but I'm going really hard on developing recipes for my home bakery and the looser restrictions in my brain are really helpful and give me a little more freedom. If I'm going to sell something, I need to taste at least a partial portion of it so I'll split a pastry or slice of bread with my partner. Most of what I'm making is porch dropped to other people to get multiple opinions on a product.

I'm going all-in on it as a business this year and not just making it a holiday thing. So far, I've gotten a lot of interest—enough that I could make as much if not more than I make at my day job if it stays steady and holds up over time. I'm not counting my chickens, though, and staying cautiously optimistic.

So, my main goal is to treat my body in a way that I'm able to keep up with a physically rigorous business. For me, this includes yoga and eating enough calories, which is something my diet break really taught me. Right now, I'm at my laptop for 4 hours working my regular job and on my feet in the kitchen for 6 or so most days, doing physical tasks like kneading dough and rolling pastry. This would have been impossible for me 78 pounds ago and now, while I get sore sometimes, it's 100% doable. I'm pretty proud of that!

Where are you located at?...what state?.....I think you are doing a great job with all you have going on!...good luck in your business....the food industry is exploding with so many shut ins!

I was trying to decide the better thread to pop into, but MFP has done some major changes since I was last on, and I'm a little lost!

I know its' been a very long while, but 2021 was an extremely stressful year for me. There was no happy middle ground for me with huge ups and a lot of huge downs. Getting married, changing my name legally, changing jobs, dealing with my best friend's ill health physically and mentally, getting Covid and caring for my husband who also got Covid then followed that up with pneumonia, my best friend's death and dealing with all that from cleaning out her apartment to dealing with closing her estate with her brother, then the holidays, my husband having difficulty finding a new job which has us financially tight - its little wonder I'm dealing with a lot of stress!

And it's little wonder I regained every pound plus about 10 that I lost in 2020. *sigh* I'm back up to 285 lbs and angry and frustrated and very discouraged. One lesson I've learned from this is I can't lean on exercise - I lost that 60 lbs in 2020 because I was walking so much, but I can't maintain it. Life and time constraints just don't allow for it. But that was the only way I could find at the time to be able to eat enough calories to satisfy my brain and still be in a deficit.

Its also probably no wonder I'm tired all the time. I'm trying to get more sleep, but that also cuts into exercise time. And I still am in that boat that I absolutely hate, detest, loath - is there a stronger word than those to express my extreme despising - regular exercise? So getting back into a regular program, even if its just 30 minutes a day on my elliptical which I brought back into the house, has not worked. Getting my brain to stick to a deficit has not been working - that darned switch is clicked off again, and heck if I know how to get it back on again. Nothing I've tried this year has worked.

So here I am again, back where I was 2 years ago, trying to figure out how to get this weight off. I'm having to pull old clothes back out of storage because the new ones I had bought don't fit, and the disappointment with myself is also adding to my exhaustion.

BUT I'm a stubborn mule born and bred, so I haven't just completely given up, either. My husband is also trying to lose weight without much success, and since he is borderline diabetic, he wants to go strictly low carb. I'm just working on getting him to recognize portion sizes for now and pointing out the carb totals of what he is eating to get him to see that a low carb product is only low carb if you stick to the serving size; a whole bag of almonds is not, in fact, low carb, let alone low calorie. Its a learning process, but he's slowly coming around lol

Meanwhile, since I can't stick to my deficit, I'm trying a few things this year. First, he and I both are attempting to only eat one meal a day and do it at dinner time. I have clearly seen that the earlier in the day I begin eating, the more I end up eating total, because once I start, its very difficult to stop. I had already quit eating breakfast anyway, and now I'm pushing my first meal to as late in the day as I can stand it so that I have more calories in my eating window available. We are also trying to keep to a smaller eating window to try to minimize how much we are eating.

We are also trying to get in 2 complete fast days a week where we keep under 300 calories absolute max, and preferably lower than that, sticking to liquids only. On those days, I get calories from the unsweetened almond milk I put in my coffee, and the can or two of clear chicken broth that I might drink which at 30 calories per cup and 5 calories per cup respectively, easily keeps me below that 300 mark. I'm doing this because first, I do find that a long fasting period does temporarily dampen my hunger drive - its takes a bit before the ravenous mode kicks back in and I get to eating too much again. Second, the goal is to have a weekly deficit, so if I can limit myself 1 to 2 days a week to 300 calories or less, that means I have more calories on the non fasting days to play with.

So yeah, that means I'm playing now with intermittent fasting, OMAD and 5:2 to see how that works for me. I'm back up to needing to lose 100 lbs again, so I'm back to a 7,000 calorie deficit a week to lose 2 lbs/week for a while. What I've got set up is to eat 300 calories or less on Mondays and Thursdays, then 1800 calories on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and allow for more flexible 2200 calories on Saturdays and Sundays which are the days I tended to go off the rails the most. If I were to spread my deficit over every day, I'd be stuck at 1500 calories a day, which I've failed at staying at for a year now. When I was walking my derriere off, I was earning back anywhere from 300-600 calories a day, so I'm hoping by fasting 2 days a week and letting myself eat more on the other days, I can mimic that pattern and find a more sustainable method of losing weight and hopefully this time, keep that darn 60 lbs off!

Welcome back!….2021 has been a rough year for so many….I hope you find a way to take off the pounds you gained….we are still here on our journeys!….please check in more often as we have missed you and your posts….