At Goal & Successfully Maintaining. So Why Am I Doing This All Over Again?
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BL and I went for a (safely distanced) walk through the (empty) Union cemetery yesterday after dinner.
I mentioned that his legs and bottom are looking thinner and he perked up and started strutting. But then he turned to me with a worried expression. “My face is getting thinner. I’ve lost my double chin.” (Truth! By golly, it was gone!!!!) “But when does my belly start getting smaller? Is there an exercise I can do to shrink it?”
Oh, boy, I thought. Here we go……..textbook MFP.
You can’t target weight loss. The body is going to do what the body is going to do, so you better be happy with what you get. Genetics can play a large part. Everyone experiences weight loss in different locations, usually the last place they wanted. Belly is usually the last- and slowest- and hardest- to go.
He looked at me thoughtfully (and disbelievingly) and said,”Oh well. I’ll be happy with the double chin for now”.
Note to self: Explain NSV in next lesson.
BTW dinner was grilled chicken, homemade Mac and cheese (yay, freezers!) and zucchini noodles. We couldn’t figure out why it was sooooo good and then we realized, we’ve been on quick’ish Covid rations for a while. Thank God for real food! Hoping our tests come back negative today because I swear this man will have a mental breakdown if he misses his Sunday apple fritter again. He’s been conniving all week how to get the bakery to leave a box outside for him. Fritter Withdrawal. Its not pretty.19 -
springlering62 wrote: »@talltrees500 , you mentioned discipline in another thread. Discipline doesn’t have to be unpleasant, or a chore. There’s a degree of discipline necessary simply to maintain habits, like making the bed, brushing your teeth, keeping the counter clean. If you can turn the discipline into a habit, it just becomes second nature. No time to even think of it as being a hassle.
This is golden. And so SO true. You really only need enough "discipline" to repeat the behaviour until it becomes a habit.
I didn't start working out until I was 48, prior to that my only deliberate exercise was walking. I quickly figured out that if I tried to schedule workout time in the evenings, more often than not I could come up with really great excuses why I just couldn't do it that night. But I also wanted nice strong bones so I knew I needed to work out. I switched to early morning workouts. There are no convenient excuses when I've just rolled out of bed for the day.
The first time I went on vacation after starting my new routine, I felt something was off. I MISSED my morning workouts. They got my blood moving and all the kinks worked out and I was kind of lost without them. They were now a habit.9 -
BL explained to me at length this morning why he’ll only need two pair of smaller pants til he “loses all his weight. “
Not a bad plan, says the lady who blew through four wardrobes.
Ugh, says the lady who’ll have to keep those two pair washed regularly.
Seriously, when losing large amounts of weight, the first few sizes take forever to drop. But then they start coming off boom! Boom! Boom!
Invest as little as possible in those interim sizes. They are going to be baggy and ill fitting much faster than your larger sizes were.
So many people reach their first goal and reset goal. I reset my own several times.
When I reached my original goal, I went a little crazy. There was no way I could even visualize myself getting any smaller.
But as I continued my weighing, logging, and exercise, the weight continued to fall off. To my joy/horror, I was out of those clothes within two or three months. I made the mistake of getting new clothes again, a little more cautiously, but I still couldn’t visualize myself any smaller. I eventually went from a 22/24W to a 2/4. I went from XL to S so fast, it was literally only a few months. I’ve salvaged some of those interim clothes to use as loose jammies.
The smaller you get, the faster those sizes are going to peel off.
Many MFP’ers report that once they do reach final goal, even though no further weight comes off, clothes continue to get looser as their body rearranges the furniture.
This is particularly true if you’re doing recomp.
BL ultimately decided to order four pair of pants. He guessed at his size, going down 4 inches in waist. I can already tell the new ones will be too big. That can be a happy discovery for him, although it’ll mean baggy drawers for another few weeks as he goes through the exchange process. 🤦🏻♀️
BTW, also noticed this morning that his shirts are hanging better, too. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 That’s a win!!!
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God yes clothes. Every season all new things. It is so bad and so many are still hanging around because work to donate. Even thrift stuff got expensive.2
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Thanks, Springlering62. Your post to tall trees was so inspiring….it was just what I needed to hear, too, as I am working to lose the last 20#.1
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springlering62 wrote: »BL explained to me at length this morning why he’ll only need two pair of smaller pants til he “loses all his weight. “
Not a bad plan, says the lady who blew through four wardrobes.
Ugh, says the lady who’ll have to keep those two pair washed regularly.
Seriously, when losing large amounts of weight, the first few sizes take forever to drop. But then they start coming off boom! Boom! Boom!
Invest as little as possible in those interim sizes. They are going to be baggy and ill fitting much faster than your larger sizes were.
So many people reach their first goal and reset goal. I reset my own several times.
When I reached my original goal, I went a little crazy. There was no way I could even visualize myself getting any smaller.
But as I continued my weighing, logging, and exercise, the weight continued to fall off. To my joy/horror, I was out of those clothes within two or three months. I made the mistake of getting new clothes again, a little more cautiously, but I still couldn’t visualize myself any smaller. I eventually went from a 22/24W to a 2/4. I went from XL to S so fast, it was literally only a few months. I’ve salvaged some of those interim clothes to use as loose jammies.
The smaller you get, the faster those sizes are going to peel off.
Many MFP’ers report that once they do reach final goal, even though no further weight comes off, clothes continue to get looser as their body rearranges the furniture.
This is particularly true if you’re doing recomp.
BL ultimately decided to order four pair of pants. He guessed at his size, going down 4 inches in waist. I can already tell the new ones will be too big. That can be a happy discovery for him, although it’ll mean baggy drawers for another few weeks as he goes through the exchange process. 🤦🏻♀️
BTW, also noticed this morning that his shirts are hanging better, too. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 That’s a win!!!
I kept a lot of too small clothes in the attic and as part of prepping to move have been going through them. I got rid of ones that had elastic ruined by the heat of the attic, ones that were just clearly too young (I'm 54), and crop tops. No matter how much weight I lose, I have no expectations that my very large fibroids will shrink enough to make crop tops a good choice.
I'd had them kind of sorted in "one size too small," "two sizes too small," and "this is a long shot but I can't bear to get rid of it." I've lost 30 pounds this year and blew by some of the "one size too small" already. But a lot of pants that used to fit me when I was last at this weight no longer do due to these fibroids. I'm still spending a lot of time in stretchy pants that I also wore at 20 pounds heavier.
I've also kept office clothes, which may be pointless, as at this point I would prefer to work remotely, as I did for 9 years before the pandemic, or work at a job that does not require nice clothes. I also fantasize about, if I do end up with another office job, dressing in monochrome like Rachel Maddow and just not worrying about wardrobe all that much. I do have a lot of scarves I could use for some variety.
While writing this it occurred to me to try on my gardening jeans, which I have probably not worn since April. They are nice and baggy, except for the waist. Thanks, fibroids. I may need to look into some maternity pants. My fibroids should shrink when my estrogen levels plummet after menopause, but I'm not there yet, despite my mother, aunt, and sister having gone through it when younger than I am.4 -
This is rather a random thought and I suspect this won't be the same for everyone, but although I gained back all the weight I lost the first time (which I've now mostly lost again), I actually still fitted (or squeezed) into the clothes I had bought at my goal weight. I think this was because I was still exercising and the weight came back in different places from where it had originally gone from. So for me at least the relationship between clothes size and weight is not straightforward.6
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speaking about clothes...I still haven't lost the 17lbs I gained over the last year so I'm going to buy 2 new pants & will save the smaller sizes I have in hopes of them fitting again but I'm not going to stress over it. This may be the size I'll stay though I've been working on it for a while now1
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There’s a lot to be said for timing.
I totally miscalculated how long it would take the chicken soup to cook in the pressure cooker last night. I forgot there’d be a (unexpectedly long) preheat and that I’d need a few minutes at the end to add and cook the barley.
As a result the soup wasn’t done til after 8, while the loaf of bread I baked was done and cooled by our usual 7pm dinner time.
You can guess what happened there.
Ironically, BL was able to stay within his calorie goal.
Me, who gets waaay more calories than him, not only went buck wild with the bread, but then said “aw, F It”, and pulled the giant bakery cookies out of the freezer.
While I constantly shower him with advice, BL has more sense than to say anything to me, bless his heart.
I keep waiting for his iron control to break, but it just….doesn’t. I think maybe I should ask him to create a post how he does it?!12 -
And so the student becomes the master
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springlering62 wrote: »There’s a lot to be said for timing.
I totally miscalculated how long it would take the chicken soup to cook in the pressure cooker last night. I forgot there’d be a (unexpectedly long) preheat and that I’d need a few minutes at the end to add and cook the barley.
As a result the soup wasn’t done til after 8, while the loaf of bread I baked was done and cooled by our usual 7pm dinner time.
You can guess what happened there.
Ironically, BL was able to stay within his calorie goal.
Me, who gets waaay more calories than him, not only went buck wild with the bread, but then said “aw, F It”, and pulled the giant bakery cookies out of the freezer.
While I constantly shower him with advice, BL has more sense than to say anything to me, bless his heart.
I keep waiting for his iron control to break, but it just….doesn’t. I think maybe I should ask him to create a post how he does it?!
Are you 100% sure the true answer isn't "honeymoon phase"?
You, you're beyond the successful eating/exercise honeymoon, maybe even heading into the 7-year itch or something?
Also, last I heard, you were interested in maybe adding a little body-meat . . . so, in that context, buck-wild bread and freezer cookies, on the rare day? Meh, IMO. As long as next day goes back on plan, anyway.8 -
@springlering62 I have so enjoyed reading this whole thread. You write so well, I can imagine it as a newspaper column! It has had me giggling
I only started my MFP journey in July. I needed to lose around 14lbs - not a huge amount, but I haven’t tried to calorie count for 40 years. I’d reached a point where I needed a new wardrobe. We were on holiday and I vowed to my BL that when we got back I was going to tackle it, but meanwhile just top up the wine glass and enjoy!
The only reason I mention this is that I noticed my BL suddenly stopped having chocolate biscuits after every meal and was giving himself smaller portions of food. He cut out snacks. (I wasn’t going to mention, but yes he needed to tackle his weight too). I didn’t say anything for a few weeks and then confronted him. Yes he had lost more weight than me! So annoying!
Anyway here we are. I’ve now reached my goal. I’m full of cold at the moment so not calorie counting or weighing, just trying to eat nutritious food. Bizarrely I am craving savoury foods and don’t want anything sweet! I am new to maintenance so will have to see if I need to continue to calorie log.
Very well done to both Mr and Mrs @springlering62 and I look forward to reading the next instalment.7 -
springlering62 wrote: »There’s a lot to be said for timing.
I totally miscalculated how long it would take the chicken soup to cook in the pressure cooker last night. I forgot there’d be a (unexpectedly long) preheat and that I’d need a few minutes at the end to add and cook the barley.
As a result the soup wasn’t done til after 8, while the loaf of bread I baked was done and cooled by our usual 7pm dinner time.
You can guess what happened there.
Ironically, BL was able to stay within his calorie goal.
Me, who gets waaay more calories than him, not only went buck wild with the bread, but then said “aw, F It”, and pulled the giant bakery cookies out of the freezer.
While I constantly shower him with advice, BL has more sense than to say anything to me, bless his heart.
I keep waiting for his iron control to break, but it just….doesn’t. I think maybe I should ask him to create a post how he does it?!
Are you 100% sure the true answer isn't "honeymoon phase"?
You, you're beyond the successful eating/exercise honeymoon, maybe even heading into the 7-year itch or something?
Also, last I heard, you were interested in maybe adding a little body-meat . . . so, in that context, buck-wild bread and freezer cookies, on the rare day? Meh, IMO. As long as next day goes back on plan, anyway.
I can second that idea. I was so good about my calorie goal the first months of weight loss (perhaps longer, I'd have to check my diary), never going over, not even a little bit. But two years later and I say "aw F it" a lot more often now
(while still keeping my eye on my average intake of course) 6 -
Are you 100% sure the true answer isn't "honeymoon phase"?
You, you're beyond the successful eating/exercise honeymoon, maybe even heading into the 7-year itch or something?
Also, last I heard, you were interested in maybe adding a little body-meat . . . so, in that context, buck-wild bread and freezer cookies, on the rare day? Meh, IMO. As long as next day goes back on plan, anyway.
That’s so funny. That’s exactly the phrase I thought of.
He weighed in this morning and was disappointed no further loss. I told him not to sweat it, it could’ve simply been that he only weighs once a week and this was his high-end day, could have been something salty he ate yesterday, or coming off a pretty substantial weight loss while he had Covid, he might need a few days to settle back in.
He grinned and said,”or that I haven’t exercised the past two or three weeks”.
And yes, I resolved to eat more calories, but it’s been messy with Covid. This past week I’ve averaged 2730.
I’ve often wondered, since beginning CICO, how I ate 10-12,000 calories a day (I sat down and calculated it and then did it again several more times in disbelief) and managed to hover around 220+’ish- with very little exercise. I must have one hell of an Energizer bunny metabolism, so I’m going to push the envelope for 30 days to see what happens.
I would caution, though, I also exercise a lot (because it’s fun and I love to move these days!) so my calories are outside the norm.
Have you ever taken the time to calculate what you ate on a normal day “before” MFP? It was staggering to me. My first self shaming thought was,”oh. So that’s why gluttony is a sin.”10 -
After nearly three weeks of quarantine and isolation, BL and I decided the first thing we wanted to do was go get the apple fritters we’d missed so badly, and have a pizza at Mellow Mushroom.
We both studied the menu beforehand. I was wanting a calzone and he wanted pizza. Yes, even at a pizza place, you can stay within calorie budget with a little planning.
We started with a garden salad (90 cal) for him, and a Greek salad (150) for me. No dressing. MM kindly includes calories on the menu, and their dressings were laden.
He saw gluten free pizza crust on the menu, at 200 calories per slice for pepperoni and was excited it was “lower calorie”.
I got a sausagefest calzone at 1320, and split it in two. (and immediately thought @callsitlikeiseeit would be amused. )
My half calzone would have made twice his three puny slices, and was roughly the same calories.
Photo does not do justice to the size (or lack thereof) of either. Believe me when I say, my calzone dwarfed his thin, sad little pizza.
Lesson learned. “Gluten free” doesn’t necessarily mean lower calorie. It was lower calorie because it was a teensy tiny little thing.
Same with many self-trumpeting low cal, sugar free or fat-free foods. It’s up to us to read the labels or ask questions about what we’ll get.
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BL did an annual historical event today. They fed him breakfast and lunch, so when he came home, he said,”I’ve only got 200 calories left. What can I have?”
I made up a batch of Trader Joe’s Tomato and red pepper soup, supplemented with a jar of puréed tomatoes. I threw in a generous pinch of herbes de Provence, and the rest of the basil plant on the counter.
2 cups of soup came to 170.
Added our usual side salad of mixed greens and an ounce of tomatoes, which came in at 30. (BTW. Walden Farms honey balsamic zero calorie dressing is fantastic. Highly recommend!)
Voila. A nice dinner for him at 200 on the nose. And calories leftover for me to enjoy a big ole soft bakery oatmeal and raisin cookie.
And the great news is, after I add some grilled and sliced Italian chicken sausages to the leftover soup, I have two great lunches for next week.
Now, if you’ll pardon me, I need to go tuck this bad boy into bed. He’s been pushing cannons around all day, and is about to face plant into his soup.
And then I’m going to enjoy some quality Kitty time with a chai latte and that cookie.
30 calories, y’all:
The moral of this story is be flexible, and ready to change it up on a dime. Basic staples like soups, puréed tomatoes, etc are great to have around to
prevent unnecessary calorie carnage.21 -
This is a 141 calorie, mixing bowl sized salad.
That’s a powerful alotta food for hardly any calories - roughly a pound and a half of fresh, tasty, nutritious, fiber filled food. It takes (me) half an hour to eat, providing mental satisfaction, and will fill the lucky diner up for hours.
Add a simple protein for 150 calories or less: 2 servings bacon, four ounces grilled or taco-seasoned shredded chicken, four ounces sliced top round steak, or a couple of ounces of grilled halloumi.
Also staggeringly good topped with feta and leftover balsamic roasted vegetables.
Never discount the power of simple and easy.
Do you know about volume eating?
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10563959/volume-eaters-thread/p115 -
BL and I both had very mild cases of Covid. His left him with a lingering case of “meh” and he just hasn’t felt like doing much of nothing for the past three or four weeks.
When he weighed in this morning, he was disappointed to discover he’d only lost .4 pounds since he weighed down in last week.
That’s ironically a good thing. Despite not exercising or doing much of anything, he’s held his weight static. That means he found his maintenance calorie level.
He’s not in a “plateau”. He’s in maintenance.
Maintenance is when the amount of calories you’ve set keeps you at a specific weight. You’ll neither “gain” nor lose in maintenance (although, in reality, maintenance can mean a variance of three or four pounds in either direction- usually due to water weight for various reasons- salty food, temporary indulgence, monthly, travel, muscle soreness).
He plans to start working out again next week, plus we just got a rescue dog who requires (madly loves) walkies, which should bump up BL’s steps, too.
Once that happens, he should be back in the groove of losing a pound or so per week.
And not gaining is always a win, right?!
“Walk me, hooman.”21 -
Lol! Your new rescue is adorable! One of my pooches decided to escape and take himself on a walk tonight... Took us a while to figure it out, but luckily, he literally walked himself along our normal walk route... on the road, even. He was quite pleased with himself... and we got a bit of extra exercise corralling him.
Thank you for sharing your BLs journey and posting such excellent reminders for even those of us who have been around for a while.
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Ive also discovered that my standard loaf of homemade bread weighs about 720 grams. Since most store bought breads have fairly similar ingredients, I use that as my basis to add simple yeast breads if there’s no specific calorie count, which there usually isn’t in grocery store bakeries.
So if my loaf has 1845 calories, I divide 1845 by 720, and the average calories per gram for an unsweetened yeast bread is 2.57. A 65 gram serving of yeast bread would be 167.
I’ve compared it to the few bakery breads that do provide nutrition and calorie info, and that’s proved pretty bang on the money.
That way I can buy a ciabatta, farmers loaf, white mountain bread etc pretty much anywhere, slice and freeze it, pull out a few slices for dinner and am easily able to add it to my diary.6 -
Whoops. That was intended for another thread. Don’t know how it got here. 😑1
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JustSomeEm wrote: »Lol! Your new rescue is adorable! One of my pooches decided to escape and take himself on a walk tonight... Took us a while to figure it out, but luckily, he literally walked himself along our normal walk route... on the road, even. He was quite pleased with himself... and we got a bit of extra exercise corralling him.
Thank you for sharing your BLs journey and posting such excellent reminders for even those of us who have been around for a while.
I can’t even imagine how worried you were. We live on a fairly busy street, and a lot of the city streets are shut down for a chalk festival this weekend, meaning even more traffic. I’ve had a death grip on my leash today. This guy was tagged “aggressive” at the rescue and after just a couple days I’m still not quite sure what to expect. But, aggressive, my *kitten*. My lazy fat cat is more aggressive than this.
Yours has a beautiful doggy smile!!!5 -
Re the "quality Kitty time" from Oct 2 - KITTY PICTURES!1
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Ohhhh, I gots kitty pictures…..kshama2001 wrote: »Re the "quality Kitty time" from Oct 2 - KITTY PICTURES!
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springlering62 wrote: »
“Walk me, hooman.”
Awww, congrats on the new addition to your family!
One of my former rescue dogs had quite an issue with aggression toward other dogs. Turns out he was not aggressive when handled by the incredibly expensive doggie behavioural psychologist I hired. In other words, his aggression was overprotectiveness of me.
Yours may not have developed enough of a bond yet to think of you as something it needs to protect. Perhaps something to watch for.3 -
Someone disagreed my cats? Them’s fighting words!
BL is back to exercising today. Yay!
Strangely enough, we went to a sound immersion at our local yoga studio. You basically lay still weith eyes closed, while someone sounds bells, chimes, crystal bowls, gongs, rain sticks, and even a didgeridoo over your head. The theory is that the reverberations of sound affect your body at a cellular level.
Whether you believe this or not (BL thought it was hokum til he did his first one), it is extremely relaxing. Best way I can describe it is like a massage for your brain.
BL commented this morning that he felt so much better immediately after the sound bath, like the dregs of Covid had finally left.
This is all a round about way to say, weight loss is not all counting calories and exercise.
People here often talk about stress affecting cortisol levels, which in turn affect weight.
Make sure you plan some time for self-care, too, whether it’s meditation, quiet time to listen to music, a massage (some of the small Asian shops do inexpensive and fabulous foot massages. I didn’t know this til a friend raved about it.)
Even taking time with a pet has been scientifically proven to improve stress levels. And it helps their hoomans, too, lol.
(Do not disagree the cat, dammit!)16 -
A huge part of my weightloss journey has always been spending time outdoors, usually with my dogs. I need that touchstone for my mental health and if for some reason I'm unable to get outside (we had a few days of -44C last winter and even I'm not diehard enough to go out in that!) I find myself feeling agitated. So yes, weight-loss is not ALL about counting calories.
Dissed the cats???? I'm a dog person through and through but I'd never do that 😉4 -
Yes! I totally agree that weight loss is about so much more than just counting calories. How one takes care of their own mental heath may look different to us all, but it’s still a part of everyone’s journey…be it music, outdoors, pets, sports, bubble baths, whatever! Kudos for bringing to attention its importance!5
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@springlering62 Love your thread!! I keep coming back for your wonderful insights, advice, and hubby's progress!!2
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Aw, thank you!@springlering62 Love your thread!! I keep coming back for your wonderful insights, advice, and hubby's progress!!
Not much news right now. He’s easing back into working out, but heads out Sunday for a huge reenactment event up north. I’m curious to see how he will do with days of presumable fast food and chain restaurants, but he knows now to study menus beforehand if possible, and has enough experience under his belt by now to make good choices, so I have faith he’ll do well.
And btw, many reenactors, him included, have uniforms to portray both Union and Confederate. Most do it because they’re interested in the history, the strategy, the weaponry and not in “taking sides”. (He’s also very knowledgeable about WWII aviation history, both Axis and Allies.)
What worries me is having to replace all these XXL uniform parts. He informs me not to fret, that few soldiers had well fitting cloths anyway. Most were clad in whatever the could get their hands on, so it’s more authentic the worse it gets.
🤔
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