@trooworld How exciting, new books are awesome!

@jjugar Is the Cancer Code new? I've only read The Obesity Code and haven't heard of that one until you mentioned it.

@raleighgirl09 I get a produce delivery then to Walmart pickup a lot, that's one way COVID has made life easier for those with mobility or time issues. I went to grocery shop one day and I'd added chocolate covered marshmallow cookies to all my orders when I didn't feel good and had to go back and delete them from my carts!

@Caitlingfry I hope you're on the mend and the steroids work quickly.

@TeresaW1020 Are you going to sneak the pizza stone in or make him pizza on it first so he can't say anything?

Saturday check-in
I went to the ER for steroids the other day and am still kind of bouncing back, doing a little then resting.

Weigh in Apple852hk
Week 4 - Apr 2021 Sunday
PW 138.2lbs (62.7kg)
CW 141lbs (64kg)
LTD about 37lbs (16.8 kg)
GOAL weight 121lbs (55kg)

Gained - ate over a dozen bars of chocolate. Finding things challenging. Will be more aware from this moment.

I feel like a fraud. I'm so sorry.

@raleighgirl09 For me, planning ahead is key for a successful week. I do get my groceries delivered sometimes, if I don't, I order them for pick-up. It's very convenient. I think it cuts down on impulse buying for me, too, and it keeps me out of the people-ly stores!

@caitlingfry It's good to hear from you, I've been thinking of you. I hope you continue to improve and get back to yourself soon. Do you have your sense of smell/taste back yet?

@fierce1alicia Happy birthday!!! Any loss during a birthday week is a win!

@TeresaW1020 YES!!! And yes, this week is mine to make of it what I will. mmmmm...Fathead pizza!

@Cornanda It is only a blip for you, too! Hang in there and make the best of this week.

@Katmary71 Yes!!! Unfortunately, I won't get them for about 2-3 weeks because of the backorders at the store, but I'll get them eventually. I'm glad you are resting up. Hugs to you!

@Jypsy1 Oh dear, that sounds like a very rough couple of weeks. I hope you are feeling better now!

@apple852hk Is it emotional eating or do you just like the taste of chocolate? Can you try drinking hot chocolate mix instead of eating a bar? That way you'd still get the taste of chocolate and it would be less damaging. You are NOT a fraud! You are just having a tough time right now. Hugs to you!

Hi all. I had a great day yesterday, I stayed on track and made the most of my Saturday. Today, I plan on doing some self-care and relaxing before I hit it hard next week. Have a great day!

My phrase for the year: CHANGE HAPPENS

@raleighgirl09 In All Things, Moderation sounds interesting. I'm adding it to my reading list.

@Katmary71 I believe The Cancer Code is Jason Fung's latest book. It came out last year. I'm finding it interesting. I always heard obesity raises your risk of cancer but didnt realize it's considered the second leading cause. Yikes.

Jason Fung has 2 other books that I liked as well; the Diabetic Code and the Complete Guide to Fasting. Even if you aren't diabetic or fasting he does a good job of explaining how different foods affect us.

@TeresaW1020 love the week 5 challenge and thanks for the reminder to finish April strong. That will keep me on track for the rest of the evening since my last weigh in for the month is tomorrow and I want to end with a good deficit for the month.

My "Do This" for the challenge will be getting to bed by 10pm. Everything falls into place if I get a good sleep.

Don't Do: start watching the news at 10 or let my husband beat me to bed. He snores.

@Jactop I like this challenge too, which is why I created it. I need all the reminders I can get to finish this week strong and hopefully end the month with a decent loss. You have two good do then and not that for this week! I’m always in bed before 10 pm except for last night when my hubby wasn’t feeling well and went to bed early. Then I partied until 10:45 pm watching YouTube videos.

@raleighgirl09 Good job on having a successful week! I think that if someone can eat all the things in moderation and it not negatively affect them that is great! I’m currently immersing myself deep into the sugar/food addiction world and many of those people would say there is no such thing as moderation when it’s a real trigger for you. Now about truly tasting your food and learning to savor each bite is such good advice! As a sugar addict, I find there are times when I simply inhale and really never taste the food I’m eating. My addiction takes over completely. It’s one of the things that I’m really trying to work on.

@trooworld Glad that you are having such a good weekend and yayy for staying on track!

Hi Team! Today was such a beautiful day. Hubby and I finished cleaning the porches and tomorrow we are going to the garden center to buy some pretties for my pots. I had a great day staying on track and I’m actually going to do this week’s F2F challenge and tomorrow, I’m joining a 5-day challenge on Facebook for sugar addiction. I follow a couple of the people running the program on podcasts and FB so I’m excited to see what they can teach me. I figure every useful piece of information that I can add to my weight management toolbox can help me get to maintenance and stay there. I feel right now that my weight loss journey has been a series of steppingstones. First, I found IF, which is great for me. Then I moved to Keto/low carb and that has been a real game changer. Now getting to the core of my addiction and learning that there can be real freedom is what I’m now going focus hard on.
2021 Word: TRANSFORMATION

Catching up on about a billion posts...

@raleighgirl09 I think I need to avoid the sodium too...
Thanks for sharing your epiphany when reading the book. I definitely save the best for last! My theory is if I don't, then I'll probably leave all the vegetables on the plate lol. But maybe there's a middle ground here for me. Maybe I ought to eat the worst thing on the plate, then the best thing, and leave the mediocre stuff and see if I still want to eat it! I can feel an experiment afoot...

@leonadixon Sorry that you're having a tough time. I wonder if you can dip your broccoli in chocolate to make it more appealing...?

@TeresaW1020 Oh wow your countertops are amazing!! I love your whole kitchen actually. Great to see that scale keeps moving down - you're doing great!
I feel like I need your chaffle recipe! I tried making them once but I really just made a mess.
I think your actions in getting to the core of your addiction really align with your word for 2021: Transformation. It's transformation of the mind and in the physiological sense. A really wonderful aim!

@davidji82 Congrats on yet another loss - I seriously don't think I know anybody as consistent as you!

@GabiV125 "We only fail if we give up" - I love this!!

@trooworld Yeesh, don't be angry at yourself! That's not the positive mindset you encourage in the rest of us! I am in the same boat with knowing what I need to do but just not doing it. I'm glad that you have a plan for next week to get back on track. We got this!
Saw your next post, and glad it was just water weight. Just another reason why you should not be angry with yourself!

@mlhopp93 Great loss! I hope you had a wonderful time camping "off grid"!

@kellyisonamission Good loss

@Jactop I love reading your updates on your 150 workouts in 150 days! Glad you were able to be kind to yourself and rest when needed, then make it back up later. That's a great NSV, if you ask me!

@RYcare @digger61 @19shmoo69 Good losses!

@caitlingfry Sorry to hear you haven't been well. Focus on healing first!

@fierce1alicia Happy birthday for last week! Definitely celebrate the small loss, they all add up in the end.

@Jypsy1 Wow, sorry you've had a really tough time! I get migraines sometimes and they are the absolute worst - how can light & noise cause such pain!? I'm with you on the celebration of a new week.

@apple852hk We are here for you, and we do not think of you as a fraud. We all have bumps in our roads, good weeks and bad, and we're all working on improving ourselves. Sometimes I find that I try to change too much too quickly and that's when I backslide. I go back to basics and have more success. That's where I'm headed this week: Basicton.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi all, I can't believe we are almost at the end of another month. It has gone too quickly! And I have done well on some of my goals, but not so well on others. Almost time for a reassessment of direction again.

I had a good weekend, though exhausting! I had Friday off work, and spent the day at home with my little family. In the afternoon I babysat a friend's kids while she had her eyebrows done - I think it's great that I was able to give her a couple of hours of peaceful self-care!
On Saturday we went out to my parents' farm to help them with their new house. My brother has moved back home where he will eventually take over the farm, and they've been living in the one house which obviously isn't going to work long-term. So a couple of months ago my parents bought a small transportable house to move into, but it needs some work. It was split in half to transport on trucks, and the ceiling beams on one half had sagged a bit so we helped them to jack that up and secure it together properly, and hubby did a lot of plastering patchwork on superficial cracks in the plasterboard. The carpets in the bedroom got completely coated in fine red dust during transport because where they live is at the end of a 50km dirt road. So we took out our carpet cleaner to give them a good, thorough clean and they came up really nice! I spent about 5-6 hours just cleaning carpets and I can really feel that in my arms now! There is still a lot of work to do before they can move in properly, but this was a big step forward.
I didn't sleep well that night, partly because their spare bed is so uncomfortable, but also partly because we had the toddler in a portacot in our room and I was really sensitive to every grunt & snore that he made, lol. He did pretty well and only woke up once crying, because he had rolled out from under his blankets and was freezing cold! So I cuddled & calmed him and popped him back in and he was fine until morning. He never wakes up during the night at home so I'd say he was just cold and confused about where he was, bless him!

When we got home on Sunday, we were all so tired that hubby & both had a nap! The toddler had slept in the car all the way back home but he was happy to just have a snack and play with his toys that he missed while we were away so a nap was just what the doctor ordered.

This week will be a little busy at work, but not too much I hope. I slacked off a lot on tracking toward the end of the week so that's my focus this week: tracking and controlling my portions. I think I did ok on calories over the weekend but I really don't have a reference point so it's just by feel. I even forgot my Apple Watch at home so I didn't even have a step count, which is a pity because I'm certain that it would have been high!

I hope you all had a good weekend, filled with love and laughter!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Goals for April:

Good morning Team!! I want you all to really focus on your goals this week. We all know what we need to do to stay the course and finish this month stronger than when we started. Think about why you are on this health journey and determine right now that NO MATTER WHAT this week will be awesome!!

@leonadixon I hope things turn around for you soon.

@TwistedSassette chocolate covered broccoli sounds disgusting (but probably isn't lol). At work we put all kinds of things down the line to see how it will taste chocolate covered but we haven't tried veggies yet. That could be a new trend.

@raleighgirl09 I understand the logic behind eating the best part first but I'm not sure I wouldn't still want more of "the best" after I ate the mediocre. I might have to experiment

@trooworld that's awesome that your husband helped with the salad. I remember walking home from work after a particularly busy day. My husband said he brought home a cooked chicken and a nice salad for dinner. That sounded like heaven after being on my feet all day, hungry and too tired to cook. I couldn't wait to dig in. When I walked into the kitchen there as a cooked chicken on the counter beside a bag of whole veggies and 2 heads of lettuce. I don't think I've ever been so disappointed in my life.

@TeresaW1020 keep us posted if you learn any new strategies to deal with your sugar addiction. This is day 68 for me with no sugar and some days are still a struggle.

I had another small loss this week and 5 weeks in the green for this month. I haven't lost for more than 3 consecutive weeks since the challenge started (or probably ever). I've never been able to get more than 2 good weeks out of any diet so fingers crossed IF keeps working for me.

I'm going to try short fasts (no breakfast or lunch) on my workdays this week. I seem to do better around chocolate with just some bone broth than I do when I eat. I haven't figured out why. Maybe my mindset if different when I fast.