Women 200lb+, Let's Amaze Ourselves This April!!!

Name: Jessica
Age: 38
Height: 5' 6"
SW: 238.4 (5/10/16)
GW: 190
April GW: 226

Weight tracking:
Start Apr 1: 235.8
WK 1 Apr 5: 234.9 (-0.9)
WK 2 Apr 12: 231.4 (-3.5)
WK 3 Apr 19: 229.4 (-2.0)
WK 4 Apr 27:
Finish Apr 30:


April goals:
WK 3: all goals from week 1&2 plus track before I start to eat
WK 1 & 2:
- drink 100oz of water a day
- stick to a 16:8 IF schedule (during the weekdays)
- Take two 10 min breaks during work to stretch/yoga

This was overall a week of ups and downs. I had a couple of days where I binge eated. Thankfully because of fasting I wasn’t able to start eating until 11am. Fasting also stopped me from eating late last night, which normally isn’t an issue for me. But I had just pulled a new type of sourdough loaf out of the oven and I really wanted to try it. I had already eaten my base calories and some of my exercise calories so since it was in my fasting time I ended up going upstairs to bed. Guess what? Since I was away from the kitchen I was all of the sudden no longer hungry!! Fancy that 😁

I was really happy with the scale today. I forgot to weigh in yesterday before I started drinking water and I really wanted to be below 230. My only concern was that we had corned beef for lunch and dinner. So a high salt day for me. Even though I drink 136 oz of water yesterday I'm still feel a like I'm caring extra salt water in my fingers. So fingers crossed extra comes off tomorrow.

@MuttiNM very inspiring! The goals list is such a great thing to do! It’s great when you’ve achieved them without realizing.
@wanderinglight You’re pictures are so darling.
@JNettie73 I like the suggestion by @spyerj. While it’s mortifying I think we do have to remind ourselves that children aren’t coming from a judgmental/coitizing space, especially that age (5 and under). They’re curious on peoples’ differences and many times stating facts. Still hurtful when we hear the words. Just a reminder to yourself that you’re working on it and doing great to keep at it. Definitely take progress pictures. I have not done so but friends have with monthly (or whenever they realized differences if it wasn’t monthly). They used the same outfit in comparison. Having the same outfit helps me even without the pictures full body. While it wasn’t an official progress one I have a picture I can compare to. I’m just waiting for my next cruise for the same spot to compare (even though I could with just the outfit).

The weekend saw some new weight lows so movement on the scale is coming down. I did find out one of the meals I had, was horrendous on sodium. I thought it was a better choice but MFP was showing pretty high sodium. I won’t have it again when I go back to that restaurant. A bit light with exercise last week, trying to take care of the outside chores, husband wanted to go out to dinner at my usual time to go, the gym had a power outage when my friend and I tried to go, and Sat she didn’t have a lot of energy so didn’t do the full time she normally likes. Back to going daily this week as much as possible.
I also found my jeans to be extremely baggy in the butt. Have to wash them to see if they’ll stiffen a bit otherwise I’ll have to find my others to see if they now fit. I think I can pretty much pull these down without buttoning; so huge win there.

@goal06082021

"Edit to add: not to muddy the waters, but if you're looking into TDEE, you'll probably run across the term "BMR" - this stands for "basal metabolic rate," which is basically the number of calories you would burn in a day if you were in a coma. It's the absolute, bare-bones minimum number of calories your body requires each day to keep you alive. For most adults this is somewhere around 1000-1300 calories, which is why 1200-calorie diets don't work for hardly anybody except tiny old ladies trying to lose five pounds, because those are the people with BMRs lower than 1200. You don't want to eat below your BMR - at that point, your body isn't so much "dipping into its savings" to pay the day's "energy bill," it's more like "selling off possessions to pay the mob," where "the mob" is "keeping your heart beating and lungs breathing." Your body will divert energy away from non-essential functions like hair/skin/nail maintenance and digestion (since we're getting so little fuel as it is, we need to make what we have last!, is your body's logic here), higher-order cognition, etc."

Oh my goodness! This is so helpful and a great way to illustrate weight loss and the body's need for fuel. When I first started here, you pointed out that my thinking about food was ED thinking and you were so right. In March I dipped into a bad thought pattern and calorie intake of 800-1000cal/day with my lowest day being in the 600s. My weight loss all but stopped. Since the end of March, I have "practiced" daily and have gotten my cals up to 1500/day and I eat ALL of them. No more nutty thinking. Pre logging my food in the morning takes the anxiety out of the situation and my stress over eating has subsided.

A funny thing that I noticed... when I was eating very low calories, I was rarely if ever hungry. Now that I am eating more, I am ravenous in the morning! I hope this is a sign that my metabolism is healing.

I can tell you with certainty that I could not go through this without logging, and the support and education that I get from all of you. I am so grateful because this is life changing and that is no small thing.


@uyister

I am happy to here that you are safe and have done well with your exams. I hope you get a break for a while.

@MuttiNM
I really enjoy reading your stories. It amazes me when you talk about hiking and cycling. You have come so far. Amazing.

@speyerj
You are an inspiration and much appreciated. I like what you said ... " Comparison is the thief of joy." That really helps when I worry that I am losing at different rates than others.


Have a great day everybody.

HI everyone, I know that April is almost over, so I'm just going to jump in where I am and be SO READY to start fresh with you in May!
My current weight is 218, my goal weight is 130-ish, and my first small goal is to just get below 200lbs!

How is everyone doing? I managed to walk just over 8km yesterday, normally I do 5 each day so I'm pleased with my progress. Also did a fair amount of squats with my dumbells cause this arm flab is bothering me more than the belly flab at the moment. My thighs are looking much better though I'm definitely seeing a difference there keeping my fingers crossed for a drop in weight this week, I've logged all my food and water, I'm doing everything I'm supposed to be doing but I always get nervous about weigh in day.

@uyister
Wow you look amazing!!! 100 pounds! That's unreal I hope you're doing okay with the volcano evacuation that must be hard to keep up with your goals not living at home

So I had a horrible weekend and am up almost 3 pounds I think it's mostly water weight from the salt, so I'm going to try and keep it clean until it levels out again. It's crazy how fast weight comes on when you let go. Then it takes a couple weeks for it to come off again! I know it's natural to have ups and downs. I'm not going to have another weekend like that until it's absolutely needed. Sometimes you just need a break, but 3 pounds worth is too much. It was the booze! It's been the sunniest week ever, with complete summer weather. It's hard not to have a few beers.

Hopefully going to go for a bike ride by the river today, that's if I can get the bike in my car by myself haha. If I can't get it in the car, then I'll just ride around my neighbourhood. Then I'll take my dog for a walk as usual.

I hope everyone has a good day