I saw success in February (my Christmas gains are gone plus lost an additional pound) and intend to carry that momentum into March. Regular exercise and consistent logging have never been an issue for me. But the amount of food that goes in my mouth can easily destroy those efforts. I've felt in control these past two months. I'm back in the drivers seat and it feels good 🚘🏁

bebeisfit wrote: »

ridiculous59 wrote: »

I saw success in February (my Christmas gains are gone plus lost an additional pound) and intend to carry that momentum into March. Regular exercise and consistent logging have never been an issue for me. But the amount of food that goes in my mouth can easily destroy those efforts. I've felt in control these past two months. I'm back in the drivers seat and it feels good 🚘🏁

That's awesome that you feel in control and have ditched the holiday pounds. I am striving for that again. I've got the exercise going, but the food is what gets me in trouble. Logging it all is always an eye opener. The key is to not wait and then see the damage. I had a run in with some candy yesterday and it screwed up my day. Now the candy is gone from the house and I'm planning a few fiber rich, but super tasty meals.

I log my day in the morning while having my coffee because that's when I usually decide what we're having for dinner. Then I make minor adjustments later, if I need to. For me, at this stage of my weightloss, I find averaging out my calories over the week is a better tool. It helps me to ride out a bad day without the self-flagellation. I just have to suck it up on a couple of other days and my week is back in balance again.

Hi all! My March goal is to continue walking and to try to get to where I consistently hit 10000 steps a day. I have just started doing some strength exercises, so another goal is to keep those going and building on them.

March goals for me. Work out five days a week. Be more active on the weekends without being at the gym. Drink more water. Log my food to be more consistent with my intake calories. Stay under 1200 calories a day. Aim for a four pound weight loss. Take my vitamins. Work on unpacking the remaining boxes from the move. Work on decluttering as I go.

I'm soooo not a goal gal, so I was a little flummoxed about to put on this thread! We're finally getting some warmer weather here. (Michigan had a cold, snowy February, and I'm no longer a big outdoor Winter sports participant. Used to XC ski, but joints are iffy for that now, especially to go out solo, and none of my friends are XC skiers.)

So, with the weather change, I'm starting to do more outdoor walks near home. Winter is my lower-volume season for activity, generally, as on-water rowing is my big thing, and I do machine row but it isn't nearly as much fun. We may have warm enough water to feel safe later this month, but regardless it'll be pretty soon.

Mean time, it looks like I might be doing the Concept 2 Mud Season Madness challenge, if the aging body holds up. This is one of my least favorite challenges because it's so . . . inexorable? Inflexible? The idea is to do 5k on a C2 rowing machine or 10k on a C2 bike on at least 25 of the 31 days in March. That's not a huge amount of time (only half an hour-ish or so), but consistency and discipline are not my long suit, to say the least.

@ridiculous59, like you I used to do regular spin classes, in my case twice a week all year long, but don't feel ready to go back to that. So, my Winter splurge was a Concept 2 bike to add to the rowing machine at home. Both will sit mostly neglected in Summer, replaced by real boat and bike, but that's OK.

So far, so good, with the Challenge. I've been doing a 6 days on, 1 day off schedule. The "on" days alternate a 5k row or 10K bike (or a bit over), plus a cool-down. On the bike days, I've adding doing a 4-5 mile walk, if I like the weather (good so far). Most days (including the rest day) start off with about 20' of yoga and stretching. In total, this is a volume step-up from earlier in the Winter. I should and want to be adding in more strength and core, but that will come later (I hope 😉, we'll see).

I'm mostly maintaining weight, but have been keeping a tiny, tiny calorie deficit to (re-)lose a few vanity pounds super-slowly over the past year or so. At this point, I'm pretty close to ready to maintain maintain again. I lost from obese to healthy weight in 120s in 2015, and had crept up to mid/high 130s at 5'5" over around 4 years. My jeans were getting tight, and I hate to clothes shop! The same jeans are now loose (especially with the end of long underwear season!), I'm at around 125 pounds, and I'm not any more eager to shop, so will strive to hang out in this zone for a while.

I got my first Pfizer vaccine dose a couple of weeks ago, second dose scheduled for this coming Thursday, so I'm looking forward to that roll-out helping the community as a whole have a few more options at moderated risk, with some more time. (FWIW, zero side effects from dose 1, not even a sore arm.)

Lots of Spring bulbs popping up and into bloom in my yard, which always makes me happy. Hope y'all are having a good March, too!

CeeBeeSlim wrote: »

Hi. Last time I posted on a March I I was 116.8 - today I’m 115.4. I’ve been staying away from sweet treats even though I’ve been at the same calorie target.

@AnnPT77 - is there some form issue on the rower that would cause pain in the back of just one knee?

I can't think of anything that would be asymmetric, except for stuff that would be obvious to you (like a difference in right/left foot placement, overweighting/leaning to one side, or something like that).

It's certainly possible, though, to be a little more vulnerable to stress on one side vs. the other: One of my crummy knees is slightly worse (torn meniscus, arthritis), and I'll notice overload, technique problems, or the like via discomfort on that side sooner than the other.

One thing that could happen, that could increase stress on *both* knees, IMO (but maybe be felt more on one side if some pre-existing issue), would be letting the heels come up off the foot-stretcher plate at the catch (front end) in order to get shin vertical, then pushing off the drive from the toes or ball of the foot vs. being sure to get the heels down first and distribute the pressure over the mid-foot/whole-foot on the leg push part of the drive.

Getting shins *past* vertical at the catch might be a stressor, too, but I'm not flexible enough to do that! 😆

Since it's it's the back of the knee, you might also look at timing of the transition between leg push and body back-swing on the drive, to make sure you're not locking out your knees.

For the same reason, you might also look at how deep your layback is at the finish to check whether there could be overstress there, or as you transition from the finish through arms-away and to the forward body swing. I'm not sure what kind of rower you have, Concept 2 is what I'm most familiar with. There are straps for your feet, but you don't want to be using them either to catch your momentum/weight at the finish (which could jar your knees), or to pull yourself up from the layback (or to go back up the slide later, for that matter).

It should be possible to row smoothly without your feet strapped down, without a lot of power sacrifice. If you never do that, you might try it - slowly and cautiously at first! - to make sure you don't tip over backwards at the finish, or not be able to swing back up and then slide to return to the catch.

(We call this "rowing feet out" in case there are non-rowers reading, because in boats there are usually shoes attached to the boat rather than straps, so you do a similar drill in boats with your feet out of the shoes. The first time I rowed feet-out in a double with a collegiate rower, I fell over backwards into her lap on my first stroke! This is *not* good. Fortunately, though startled, she was nice about it.)

The forward body swing is a combination of momentum and core, IMO. Then the slide is passive, since the seat-rail is ever so slightly slanted: Gravity will take us back to the catch if relaxed, no need to put effort into the slide on the recovery, that's the mini-vacation. 😉 So, foot-straps are a backup safety device, kind of, not a central part of the power production.

Wish I had a more helpful answer - sorry!

@AnnPT77 Your response was extremely helpful - the knee that is “acting up” is one I had issues with years ago. Hmmm.

I do have a Concept 2 - and I think as a new rower, I’m rowing pretending I’m on an Olympic racing team. I need to go more slowly and power it down.

Thoughts for another post, but I’m finding that while it’s great that I’ve been more active since my late 40’s - doing things I never did before (strength training, rowing, etc) - I think my 56 year old body is trying to have a talk with me. Sometimes one sneeze during a deadlift is enough to cause a twitchy back!!! 😀

I’m days away from trying to find my old Jane Fonda video...

CeeBeeSlim wrote: »

@AnnPT77 Your response was extremely helpful - the knee that is “acting up” is one I had issues with years ago. Hmmm.

I do have a Concept 2 - and I think as a new rower, I’m rowing pretending I’m on an Olympic racing team. I need to go more slowly and power it down.

Thoughts for another post, but I’m finding that while it’s great that I’ve been more active since my late 40’s - doing things I never did before (strength training, rowing, etc) - I think my 56 year old body is trying to have a talk with me. Sometimes one sneeze during a deadlift is enough to cause a twitchy back!!! 😀

I’m days away from trying to find my old Jane Fonda video...

Oh my goodness.....Jane Fonda videos!! I used her "Pregnancy and Recovery" video faithfully before and after my firstborn LOL

Hmm, March:

I did finish the Concept 2 Mud Season Madness challenge, as of yesterday, though at the lower level (5k row or 10k indoor bike on Concept 2 machines, on at least 25 of the 31 days in March).

I went with a 6-day-a-week schedule, alternating the rower with the bike, mostly at moderate steady state, because this was a bit of a volume increase from February, didn't need it to be an intensity increase, too. Each of those at the needed distance takes around half an hour +/-.

Weather's been nice here, and I've decide I need to condition myself better to walking (something I don't do a lot of, because of sketchy knees, torn meniscus and some arthritis). Therefore, I've added a 4-5mi walk on each of the indoor bike days, and I think I didn't miss any on account of weather - kind of a miracle in Michigan at this time of year.

On the weight front, maintaining is maintaining, not much drama. My jeans, snug some months back, are now quite loose, really need to find a belt. I tried on my single pair that's a size down from the others, and they fit, albeit snugly (I can squat in them, though, and there's not appreciable muffin top). Still, I want to stay in the size I have most of, so my plan is to stay at the same base calorie level I've used to lose ultra-slowly for a year or so, but include more indulgent days in the mix more often. I think that will set me up for the higher social-eating and restaurant temptations that I think/hope will come within the next few months. So, sitting at around 125 lbs (I'm 5'5"), will try to stabilize around there.

Speaking of socializing more, I did get my 2nd Pfizer Covid vaccination, with very negligible if any side effects, and about 5 days into the 14 day wait for presumed full effectiveness. Still mostly just hanging around home, though, and expecting to keep doing so until local infection rates subside more. If the weather holds up, I'll probably add some outdoor meet-ups with friends, though. Did one walk and one garden visit recently with friends, which was nice. Also hoping the river warms more, so I can feel comfortable out on the water to row.

Lots of flower-y stuff in the yard. Here's a sample:


That's a double pink Hellebore, near-black Hellebore, 'Rijnveld's Early Sensation' Daffodil. There've also been a sequence of Snowdrops, Tommie Crocus, Winter Aconite, Rock Garden Iris, Spring Crocus, other Hellebores, and now Striped Squill and a blue one confusingly called "Spring Beauty" a common-name-twin of one of the native Spring ephemerals that hasn't shown up yet. I love these early Spring things, so cheering. A few of these Spring bulbs are naturalizing nicely, marauding way out into the lawn in numbers, and a few even into the neighbor's lawn next door (I don't think they mind?).

Hoping to hear more updates from others!

@AnnPT77 Thank you for sharing those lovely photos! Spring flowers! This year is going quickly to me at least - and keeping my fingers crossed that some real fun can be had this summer. I have 11days until “full vaccination” status - but concerned that things have opened up too soon here.

Anywho, I went from a high of 117 in March to a low of 113.4! The only big changes have been accepting a daily 10k step challenge from a mfp friend (my usual is 3-4K daily if I’m lucky) and I gave up sweet treats for Lent (even tho I’m still in my daily calorie goal). Could that have done it?

Ready for maintenance and getting back to strength training, but I’ll admit to an analysis paralysis. I get 1200 daily and my maintenance is about 1300 - so I get an extra slice of Ezekiel
Bread - oh well.

If one materially reduces carbs (in the form of sweets or otherwise), there could be a small scale-weight drop from lower average water retention. I always forget specific numbers, but each gram of carbs requires several grams of water in the body while the carbs are being metabolized. I think this could account for at least part of the weight drop from Lent changes.

@CeeBeeSlim, did you add exercise calories for the increased step count? Whether yes/no, an activity change could make a difference . . . a good sized difference if not adding calories at all, and even some difference if calories were added but they were underestimated a bit.

All of this stuff is estimates, though, and lots of things can make small differences. I'm finding I give the scale *trend* a little more attention in maintenance because of that, even though it's potentially more misleading during maintenance than during loss . . . I've had periods (multiple weeks) where even my trending app thought I was gaining when I knew I wasn't, and the longer term bore out my belief that the daily water-weight fluctuations were hiding ongoing very slow fat loss.

Bodies are weird. 😆

CeeBeeSlim wrote: »

@AnnPT77 Thanks for the feedback. No, I did not add any of those exercise calories back. Interesting.

I actually was doing ok - as expected - pre Lent and the exercise. Losing slowly, maybe .25 pounds a week - hoping to see 115. I was surprised that those changes yielded such a big unexpected loss and going down daily. That. Had. Never. Happened. It’s like my body reset itself. But I’ll take it.

Like you say, bodies are weird.

It sounds like you pretty much tripled your daily step count? Good for maybe a couple of hundred extra calories spent per day, maybe? For me, a 5-mile walk seems to be something in the realm of 11,000 steps, which for 236 net calories according to the ExRx walk-run calculator, which tends to be conservative, and that's assuming all level ground.

But sure, increase activity, keep food intake the same, a person's going to lose more weight. Couple hundred calories a day is almost 2 pounds a month. (I know you've seen more than that.)