Need to Lose 100 LBS -Robins Thread !

I've had a hard time binge eating the last couple of days. Not sure why. I did so great last week but this week at lunch I'm just wanting to eat and not stop. I feel like I'm craving something but I can't figure out what it is. It was definitely not the first 5 things I ate on Tuesday or the other 6 things I ate on Wednesday.

My plan for today is to chug 16oz of water before I eat lunch and see if that helps.

My goals for this week have been to fast 16:8 (eat between 11-7) and drink 100oz of water. Both I've been able to do, barely, and I think those goals are the only thing keeping me from gaining to much over these days. But I can tell I'm struggling because it's hard to drink the 100oz this week when it was easy last week.

Name: Jeanette
Age: 48
Height: 5' 1"
SW: 270
GW: TBD
April GW: Out of the 250 range or close to being out of it.

Weight tracking:
Start Apr 1: 257 (Last weigh-in was 3/28. I am using that weight for this number)
WK 1 Apr 4: 255.4
WK 2 Apr 11: 254.8
WK 3 Apr 18
WK 4 Apr 25:
Finish Apr 30:

Weigh ins: Every Sunday.
Measurements: 1st of every month. Since starting in March every measurement has gone down 1/2-1 inch.

Just a little bit about me. I used to be part of this group a while ago in 2014-2015 but then my daughter came along and well... life happened. I had a lot of success using MFP. Sadly over the years I gained back all the weight that I lost and then some. March 5th was a day that changed my life forever. I was standing in the kitchen talking to my husband and felt as if I couldn't catch my breath. I sat down, which helped a bit but I felt winded again as soon as I stood up. I laid down in bed for a bit but my heart began racing. I was scared, very scared, and asked my husband to call 911. Once at the hospital they did a lot of different tests; ekg, chest xray, cat scan, blood work, iv, covid test, steriod shots and I was hooked up to monitors. Several hours later it was determined that I had an infection in my chest. I was given antibiotics, an inhaler and was instructed to follow up with my primary within a few days. When I met with my doctor I gave her the results from the doctor. She diagnosed me as diabetic. That very same day I sat in bed as my beloved cat, Harvest Moon, took her last breaths. I was devastated. The next day was a complete blur, I was depressed. Friday I woke up and knew I had to make a change. I started logging foods on MFP but this time around I am not focused on calories. My focus is healthy eating (whole food, plant based - I have been vegetarian since my early 20s), reducing fats and watching carbs. I know, a bit ironic because vegetables are filled with carbs. I will explain more later. A few days later I added in exercise. Since restarting MFP I have lost 15 pounds. My energy is up. My muscles ache from all the exercise I've been doing. But best of all I went from blood glucose levels in the 200s (hospital tests), a fasting BGL of 168 to new lows of 111. I have a long way to go but I am extremely proud of the progress I have made so far.

After my diagnosis I didn't know what to do. Watching carbs and increasing fruits and veggies as instructed by my doctor doesn't work for me and my lifestyle. I know this from my round of gestational diabetes I had when pregnant with my daughter. I felt completely frustrated and didn't know how I was going to proceed. I searched and found a group on Facebook for vegetarians with diabetes. A lot of members recommend a book called Mastering Diabetes. I immediately purchased the book and am currently reading it. The plan of this book is to eat whole food plant based low fat. Right now I am doing a variation of this plan. I love cheese and cheese based dishes, I don't know if I can completely give it up. The first few days, adjusting to my new plan, were very challenging. I was HUNGRY all the time. By day 3 or 4 I began to get into a groove. I've cut down on rice, breads and pasta. (GASP!!! I am Italian and look forward to my Sunday pasta meal with the family.) I still eat these things but in moderation. I've been adding a salad in with most meals which helps a lot. I used to fill up on rice, breads and pasta. Relearning how to cook is my most challenging. I've been experimenting with new recipes and foods. Right now it is a trial and error of foods to determine what does and does not work with my body. I have blood work and a follow up appointment scheduled for later on this month. I am actually looking forward to it. I think my doctor will be pleased with my progress so far.

So far my NSVs:
1) My fasting BGL went from 168 to 111.
2) I have been exercising regularly and absolutely love it. I miss it on days I don't have time to fit in a workout.
3) I have been sleeping much better. My Fitbit sleep score is evidence of this.
4) I wake up feeling rested and ready to start my day.
5) I have cut out caffeine and honestly I don't miss it. (I used to need 2 cups of coffee to get my day started)
6) I have restored excitement for life.
7) My lazy days have become less frequent.
8) I have been reaching 10K steps most days. (Fitbit) My lazy days have been averaging 7-8K rather than 3-5K.

@trinati2001 That is me - carbs and cheese! Though I do love vegetables too. So far I have only read the prologue, chapter 1 and part of chapter 2. I like it but it is hard to say if I would recommend it yet because I am not far in. It is geared towards people with diabetes, gestational diabetes or at risk for it. It does push for a plant based diet whole food diet which is low fat.

Friday - Fitness (what are you doing to get fit? How are you preparing for weekend eating?

I'm thinking of going for one long walk and one short walk. I binged big time yesterday and have a lot of calories to count! Hopefully this weekend will be under control. Having fish and chips tonight, should be interesting.

JNettie73 wrote: »

@trinati2001 I was active in 2014-2015 but then my daughter came along and I didn't have time to keep up. I miss the thread. I often wonder how they are doing now.

I was also active here around that time, but under a different name I cannot recall now. Skinnyjeanz and I are still friends on here and she's still active and logging.

I hate the community component of the app, which is why I am guessing lots of people gave up as smart phones took over (oh that sounds weird to say). Its very clunky and not at all mobile friendly.

I'm back too! Been off MFP for over a year now. Only good thing I can say is that when updating my stats I realized that I weigh exactly the same as I did in March of 2020...way too much but thankfully no gain. I've never felt my age (74 in 6 months) until I got this heavy (250 awful pounds). I hope by the time I actually turn 74 to have lost a good amount of weight, even if it's just a steady but very slow lost it will be better. I'm very lucky not to have any major health problems but I'm afraid if I keep this weight on I won't be able to say that in the future. It's nice to see people I recognize on here. I've been reading back a bit. Karen @skinnyjeanzbound I never saw what you found out about Gunner's breed. @mnwalkingqueen I hope your job is secure, you don't need that stress added to everything else. Hope everyone has a good day!

@JNettie73 I think I’ve been spoiled by what the FREE MFP has to offer. There are multiple things about Noom that didn’t work for me. Overall I’ve dieted forever and have done a million different things: south beach, lean for life, weight watchers, MFP and Noom. So let’s just say tracking and dieting isn’t new to me. Here are some of my gripes with the last one being the straw that broke the camels back:

1.pricing structure is stupid- you have to say how much you want to lose and how quickly. They figure out how long that will take and then give you a price for that, all paid at once.
2. Tracking is horrible- lots of food have incorrect calories. Can not copy meals from one date or meal to another. A lot of foods are missing from their database. Can not build recipes for meals you make at home.
3. Goal coach- you pay to have a one on one goal coach. But it isn’t like a meeting with her. It is a once a week “email” with that person. They are supposed to hold you accountable to your weekly goal that you set with them but mine never followed up.
4. Group- the group coach is actually very good but there is just your one group. Very little discussion off subject. If you stop tracking and reading for a couple of weeks they pull you out of your group and you are supposed to get a new group once you start again...but that didn’t happen for me.
5. Too many goals- they would give you ideas and ask you to try out the goal. But I never had enough time to spend with one goal before they added in another one. Sometimes 2-4/week.
6. Updates to the app- when I first joined they had no way to track water. I asked if that was in the works and they said yes (currently in beta testing). Then my mom joined Noom and guess what...her app was way different than mine and had water tracking. I followed up with my goal coach and she said “we know change is hard for people so once you join we don’t make any changes to your app, just bug fixes” so I would never get new features. I reached out to their help desk and they were supposed to push the update to me but it never happened.

There are good things about Noom. I did think that their daily articles were overall informative.

Overall their strategy is helping you understand behaviors that leads to over eating (but not solutions for that behavior) and that you should eat more foods that have lower calorie density (weight divided by calories). Let me know if you want to hear more about that.

@trinati2001 Wow. I would not have liked any of that at all. My cousin encouraged me to join with her. I had asked what it was like and her response was "It's not like anything else out there." When I probed for more specific all she would give me is "They hit on the psychological aspect of weight loss and over eating." She was always reluctant to give me additional details about things like pricing, logging, community and wasn't very selling. I told my bestie about it and she joined. She gave me more information about it and seems to really enjoy it. It wasn't enough for me though to be convinced to pay for it.

JNettie73 wrote: »

@trinati2001 Wow. I would not have liked any of that at all. My cousin encouraged me to join with her. I had asked what it was like and her response was "It's not like anything else out there." When I probed for more specific all she would give me is "They hit on the psychological aspect of weight loss and over eating." She was always reluctant to give me additional details about things like pricing, logging, community and wasn't very selling. I told my bestie about it and she joined. She gave me more information about it and seems to really enjoy it. It wasn't enough for me though to be convinced to pay for it.

There was some really good information that I learned from them but I wished that their pricing was more forthcoming and that I stopped faster. It just never felt worth the money. But for someone new to dieting I could see it being helpful.

Going back to Robin's original ideas for th8s thread (below) I'll post my Tuesday update.

GOALS and IDEAS for daily posts (Not mandatory)

Monday - Check In (how are you doing? Had any successes or struggles this week-end?)

Tuesday - Goals (do you have any Goals you want to update us?)

Wednesday - Wishes (what do you wish? It can be weight related or not, can be realistic or not)

Thursday - Truth (got anything you need to fess up to or get off your chest?)

Friday - Fitness (what are you doing to get fit? How are you preparing for weekend eating?

Saturday - Success (what have you accomplished; focus on the positive of the week, NSV=non scale victories)

Sunday - Sharing (tell us a little about yourself....update your personal life)



Goals - this week I've added in a new goal...track before I eat. This one has always been a hard one for me but I feel like it is a really good habit to have.

I've started to use an app on my phone to help me track goals, Strides. So far I really like it. I'm still looking for an app that help me match goals to rewards but so far I've been telling myself if I get all my goals for a week I get a reward and that has helped.

Does anyone else have an app they use?