NON WW & WW NEWBIES, OUR NEW LIFE, THE START OF SOMETHING WONDERFUL

Good morning everyone.
I had gone back to WW but came off it about a week later and came back here two days ago. Was so hungry and just not myself and realized how low I was eating my calories. Also, realized in the WW site that it’s not truly WW fixing the points. So I asked the coach about it since I noticed three different points for a product and they stated it is all “crowd sourcing.” So I asked about WW giving the proper points as opposed to anyone in the community. Like it used to be in the books and all. They said no we do crowd sourcing. So basically there is no verified food for points. So I canceled to never go back and stay with calories where I can truly verify it all. So far so good.

Hope everyone is doing great!!!!

@theslightedgeforever Yes, I am being mostly successful with the no sugar challenge. Counting today, I have had 7 zero added sugar days, 4 days of 5 grams or under, and 2 days with over 5 grams of sugar. So, I’m really happy with that and for the rest of the month I’m going to do my best to keep it at zero as many days as possible. I am also working at keeping naturally added sugars to under 15 grams a day, which isn’t really hard because I’m not eating fruit right now. I took the quiz and my results are: Instinctive Eating: 39
Overeating: 30 Restrictive Eating: 50 Not sure what I’m supposed to do with that info but it’s interesting.

@JediAwakens That is true about the WW points and you will find counting calories using MFP often has the same issues with foods being in the database that aren’t verified. That is why I switched to using Cronometer. They work very hard to only have foods that are verified so you can trust that you are actually eating the calories and macros you need to be eating.

@trooworld You have great goals that will for sure help you if you. I almost always go to the grocery store hungry, which is why I make a very detailed list and do my best to stick to it! Sounds like you are thoroughly enjoying your much deserved time off from work.


Hi everyone! So, I woke up this morning with a carb hangover. I’m not kidding that it’s the same feeling as drinking a bottle of wine. Weight was up, my mouth was super dry, and my face was puffy. I really didn’t even overdo the carbs, but considering it’s been a long time since I’ve had pasta, bread, and dessert at the same time I didn’t expect it to be different than it was. Today, I worked out, will keep my food super low carb, and drink a ton of water. We did have a great time last night as all 14 of us sat around and talked and laughed a lot. Having these kinds of evenings is worth the extra calories. I did my grocery shopping today and now plan to go sit and work on this new Bible study I’m doing. It’s soooo good!!

@jediAwakens Welcome to the group. I'm glad you found something that works for you. I take the approach that nothing is 100% accurate. I try to use only checked mark items on here. Even those can be outdated sometimes because I've noticed that restaurants sometimes change their nutrition info. I've learned to pick the one in the middle if I'm presented with a choice. That works for me if I stay within my carbs/cals. I think the biggest thing is finding something that works individually for each of us and sticking with it.

@trooworld Your habits look good. Well balanced is not always a good thing. lol I still need to lower my overeating tendencies and figure out how to loosen up some of the rules. Using more internal guidance versus external.

@teresaw1020 Good for you on the no sugar challenge. I got an email explaining the numbers. My numbers were Instinctive Eating: 34 Overeating: 49 Restrictive Eating: 40 My goal is to have Instinctive be the highest.

Interpretation of your score:

15 to 35 = Low tendency to eat instinctively
36 to 55 = Moderate tendency to eat instinctively
56 to 75 = High tendency to eat instinctively

Instinctive Eating: If you scored high in Instinctive Eating it is likely that your primary reason for eating is your need for fuel. When you eat instinctively, you simply don't think about food or eating very much unless you're hungry. You don't obsess over food because you don't need to. Instead, you trust your body to let you know if, and when, you need food, and how much you should eat. If you're exposed to food when you're not hungry you may take a passing interest in it, but you won't choose to eat a significant amount because you know you'd feel uncomfortable afterward.

You can eat anything you want when you're hungry, so you don't have to spend a lot of time deciding in advance what you're going to eat. You may consciously choose to follow a balanced diet, but you don't expect yourself to be perfect. You truly enjoy food and eating because you don't feel physically or emotionally uncomfortable after you eat. When you're finished eating, you live your life without thinking about food until your body tells you to.

Summary: In the Instinctive Eating Cycle, you are in charge. You make decisions in a flexible manner based on what you feel you need at the time.

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Interpretation of your score:

15 to 35 = Low tendency to overeat
36 to 55 = Moderate tendency to overeat
56 to 75 = High tendency to overeat

Overeating: If your Overeating score is moderate to high, it is likely that you often eat when you're not hungry and/or continue to eat past the point of contentment. You may have a tendency to eat because of external cues such as mealtime, appetizing food, or socializing. You may eat to distract yourself or cope with stress and other emotions like loneliness, sadness, anger, or boredom. Because you often eat to entertain, distract, reward, or comfort yourself, you may choose convenience or comfort foods and less likely to choose foods based on what your body needs. You may eat mindlessly, quickly, or secretly.

The amount of food you eat may be influenced by how much is on your plate or in the package. You might eat until you're significantly uncomfortable or until you're interrupted. You may feel stuffed, miserable, or even numb after eating instead of content and satisfied. When you eat food your body didn't ask for, your body will store the extra fuel until it is needed. When you eat because of external and emotional triggers, the pleasure and distraction are usually temporary, so you might eat again to feel better again. When you eat instead of meeting your true needs, those unmet needs will continue to drive overeating.

Summary: The Overeating Cycle usually feels out of control and powerless.

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Interpretation of your score:

15 to 35 = Low tendency to eat restrictively
36 to 55 = Moderate tendency to eat restrictively
56 to 75 = High tendency to eat restrictively

Restrictive Eating: If you scored moderate to high in Restrictive Eating, it is likely that you attempt to control your eating with diets or rules. You may be very structured or even rigid in your eating. You probably think of food as either "good" or "bad" – and you may think of yourself as good or bad depending on what you ate. You probably use external means to tell you when and how much you can eat, for example, portion sizes, calories, points, or grams. The number on a scale or how well you've been following the rules determines how you feel about yourself on a particular day. You may use exercise to earn the right to eat or pay penance for eating a "bad" food or for eating too much. While other people may admire your willpower and self-control, many of your thoughts, feelings, and activities revolve around food, eating, and exercise.

Summary: The Restrictive Eating Cycle is primarily based on the illusion that you can or need to control your eating at all times. An important part of your journey will be learning to trust yourself to balance eating for nourishment with eating for enjoyment.

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The Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle: If you scored moderate to high in both Overeating and Restrictive Eating, you may struggle with yo-yo dieting. This is a very common pattern because when you eat due to external or emotional triggers, the temporary distraction or pleasure can act like an engine that drives your cycle. When you decide you need to regain control, you switch into Restrictive Eating.

While you're on a diet, you often still eat in reaction to your triggers, but you eat foods that are allowed on your plan. You typically don't address why you're eating in the first place. Eventually, you begin to feel deprived, hungry, and/or worn out by all the time and energy it takes to follow the rules.

At some point you cheat, feel guilty, and give up, shifting back into Overeating, once again eating your favorite foods in response to the triggers you never dealt with in the first place. These patterns are so intertwined that when you eat what you want you feel guilty; when you eat what you "should," you feel deprived.


134/164 Yellow
38 min walking
50% water

@cbabie Yayyy on your loss! You might have been able to do better but you lost so embrace the win! Going sugar-free hasn’t been hard for me because the low carb diet is naturally sugar-free. It’s when I eat off plan that those pesky sugar grams show up. You can do it but you will have to give up certain foods to do it. I think it’s worth it!


@theslightedgeforever Thanks for sharing the interpretation of your scores. I put in my email address but couldn’t find anything sent to me. I totally agree with you in wanting to have the instinctive eating the highest score. The goal is to be at a normal weight, not obsess over calories and macros and just eat, enjoy, and live my life. Hmm wonder if that will ever happen? I’m at least happy it’s in the moderate range right now and that my overeating is low. It would be interesting to take this quiz every few months, so please post it again.

@trooworld How exciting that you ordered the Tonal. I sure hope you love it! Is there any kind of trial period in case you don’t? Will you give up the boxing once it’s installed? I hope the Habit Tracker works for you. I had one once but I kept forgetting to use it. I’m about as bad with the Fat2Fit habit tracker.


Hello! I woke up this morning all motivated to get some stuff done today. First I had a good workout that focused on the legs and booty. Next, I got out my Little Green Machine and steamed cleaned my light silver sofa that had developed a nice shade of red all over it from the dog. It’s not perfect by any means but it does look a whole lot better and smells nice. I’ve also done all the dusting, laundry, and after this cup of coffee, I think I’ll sweep the floors. The dog is at the groomers, so I haven’t had to deal with her barking all day as I tore up her little world. My eating has been good and I’m making a chicken bacon ranch casserole for dinner which is one of my favorite Keto meals.

@TeresaW1020 Yes! There is a 30 day trial period and if you don't like it, you get all of your money back. I had to give up boxing, yes, unfortunately. Both things were too big of an expense so one had to go. Haha, I know what you mean about the habit tracker. I've been using it as of yesterday though. Wow, that dinner sounds yummy after a productive day!

@theslightedgeforever Yeah we'll see, it's an experiment (the tracking app). I can't wait for the Tonal to come!!!

Hello all. I ate very well yesterday. Last night was our first Trader Joe's easy meal, we had an Asian Weeknight Feast: chickenless Mandarin orange morsels, stir-fry veggies, Thai veggie gyoza, jasmine rice and gyoza dipping sauce. It was really good, I'm happy to report! My husband cooked last night and he said it was easy to make, too. So yay.

My phrase for the year: CHANGE HAPPENS

@theslightedgeforever I agree that if we seriously make something a habit it’s much easier to do. I’ve been consistently tracking my food since August 1st. I think that is a record for me! I still have this hope that once I’ve been at my goal weight for a while and get better at instinctive eating then I won’t need to track. That will be nice!

@trooworld Good, I’m glad that you get that trial period to make sure you really love the Tonal. I imagine after 30 days you and your husband will know for sure. That Trader Joe dinner does sound yummy and how nice that you didn’t have to cook it! I don’t dare let my husband try to cook. I like to eat too much! He gets to do the dishes.

@renaegry Congrats on your weight loss and staying on track! I can tell you that there is a free and paid version of Cronometer. Right now, I’m using the free and don’t see why I would want to pay.

Hello everyone! It’s been a productive day. I went and in and did my training for the bookkeeper job and we finished early so I was home before noon. So, I spent time reorganizing and cleaning out the kitchen drawers and cabinets. Then I got on the phone to Consumer Cellular, who is our cell phone provider to find out why all their iPhone on their website said they were out of stock. Well, the very nice man informed me that most of them were out of stock, but he did have an iPhone 12 Pro Max available. I got the thumbs up from hubby and I’m happy to say that my new phone will be here in a day or two. My current iPhone is a 6s and doesn’t hold a battery charge long at all. So, I’m super happy.

@trooworld Good for you for tracking and eating well. The gyoza sounded good. I had to go look it up.

@renaegry Woohoo on the weight drop. You've been working hard at it.

@teresaw1020 Yaaay on tracking consistently since Aug. Congrats on the new phone. Mine was like that. I went from a 6 to an 11 I think.

I've spent the day decorating my dd's apt. I'm sure the neighbors loved me with all the hammering I was doing.

EDIT: I thought I posted this last night but evidently not.

151/164 Yellow but cals were over by alot
Rest Day
25% water

@trooworld How was your day with food and movement?

@cbabie The good is news is that you did that bike ride. Good for you. So how was your food today?

I'm leaving for Boston on Saturday so check in might be sporadic.

85/100 Red
30 min treadmill 20 min weights
25% water

@trooworld Crispy fish burritos sound amazing! What fun to watch a movie with a friend. What are you all watching?

@theslightedgeforever Have a great time in Boston! That is one place I always wanted to visit. My DH lived outside Boston for almost 40 years and often talks about it.

@cbabie Are you eating more than usual because of the amount of exercise you are getting with the bike rides? Because I know that if I do more exercising, I am much more hungry so it important to listen to your body. Just don’t eat sugar or peanut butter!


Hello! Well, my weight is up 1.4 lbs. Not totally sure why. Probably a combo of the pasta dinner party last week, starting a new weightlifting program, and calories too high several days this week. I need to keep them under 1300 it seems to see the scale move. On Sept. 23rd I’m starting a 100-day challenge to finish out the year. I only need to lose 22 lbs. to get to my goal weight. That’s about 1.50 lbs. a week. I don’t know if I can do it but there is no reason I can’t focus and push for it.