Women 200lb+, Let's Start Strong This January!!!

@JoFaulkner1 Any weight-loss regimen works by creating a calorie deficit, that's just how weight loss happens - if you give your body less fuel than it needs in a given span of time, it's got to make up the difference somehow. These meat suits we pilot are running on 10,000-year-old software that worked great when we all had to walk several miles every day to scrape together 2000 calories' worth of food; God hasn't released the firmware patch that accounts for stuff like, you know, McDonald's drive-thrus.

If you think about it like a bank account it makes a lot of sense: it "costs" energy (i.e., calories) to be alive and go about your business; you "pay" your energy "bill" with food, but if you don't "deposit" (eat) enough food into your "checking account" (digestive tract), your body will have to pull from its "savings account" (stored body fat) to pay the bills each day. But your body doesn't want to empty all its savings at once - that's the emergency fund, we can't just dump that all at once, what if there's another emergency later??? So, if you restrict calories too harshly, your body starts finding other ways to reduce the "charges," diverting resources away from less-essential functions (and as far as your body's concerned, your heart and lungs are the only "essential" organs you have). Your hair falls out, your nails get brittle, your skin gets dry; your digestion slows down; your cognition slows down. Menstruation can stop, in bodies that normally do that. Your body does the equivalent of rummaging through the couch cushions and all the cupholders in the car for spare change, using other, non-fatty tissues for fuel, like muscle tissue. But, if you just short your body a little bit each day, it will use the emergency fund as intended, a little at a time.

If it's easier for you to maintain that small daily deficit by following rules (keto/low-carb, low-fat, paleo, wfpb, etc) rather than just counting calories, do what works for you, but ultimately no matter what method you choose, the mechanism behind it is the same as any other.

@justanotherloser007 I'll +1 your Best Cheerleader award, your posts are always so positive and encouraging! Hubs is well on the mend, thanks for asking I'm not thrilled about having my period back, but yeah it is probably a good thing, I guess, harrumph. (;

@wanderinglight omg I LOVE the "home is where..." signs. Do you still have your Etsy shop?

Hey all, well day 1 of my diet was pretty clean, easyish. Day two which was yesterday was harder. First thing in the AM my brother who is home from leave from the Army wanted to go get coffee at Starbucks. It's been hard balancing his want to go to places to eat he misses and my need to cook at home but we are balancing it lol.

So we wake up and go to Starbucks, I get a grande skinny vanilla latte, he gets his drink. Then we decided to split one of those protein boxes with the cheese and fruit, well I am sure glad we split it because wow, that thing is calorie heavy for sure! So I drink half my coffee and save the rest for today, and eat half the protein box. It was like 300 ish calories. I go to work that day and did really good. Got home and made a homemade dinner of roasted chicken thighs and roasted veggies and some garlic bread. I ate 1 pc chicken and a scoop of veggies and a piece of bread, 700 cals. WTF 🙄🥺 so basically because I had chips and salsa as a snack between my 11 am breakfast and my 7 pm dinner I was already over by almost 200 cals for the day. Which whatever its fine. I deliver for Amazon so I figured I worked that much off in my route that day.

I come home from work, my bf is ending his 4.5 hour video gaming session. I'm miffed because I asked him to just do the dishes while I worked and of course it's not done. So I'm hungry. Trying to get a healthy dinner cooked. Cleaning dishes and slicing veggies ECT. Basically we got in an argument because I told him he needs to lanag his video gaming time better, even if it's your "day off" lol, because I personally don't get days off. And also my work doesn't end when I clock out of work . . . I know y ladies hear me right 🤣💯

So while dinner is cooking we are arguing and I'm hangry and honestly not in the mood to hear his crap about him needing a day off lol. Dinner gets done we all eat, it was delicious! Not bad for my first semi heal hy family meal (mind u I was the type of mom to make frozen pizza 3 times a week so learning to cook semi healthy family meals between my work and life schedule is a goal of mine. Everyone is happy!

All of a sudden my brother is like what's for dessert 🙄🤣 I'm like shhhiiiid, I grab a Sara pee apple pie and throw it in the oven. I was completely satisfied after dinner, I really was. I have no idea why I grabbed a slice of pie and cool whip, I didn't even want it. However it did get rid of my headache I've had since day 1 of my diet, I think I am heavily addicted to sugar. I know I am lol. Soooo here I am at 5 am on day 3 trying to convince myself today is going to be better

I really think if I didn't get in an argument after work I wouldn't have ate the pie, who knows maybe I would. But I need to learn self control even on hard days. I also need to do meal prep for me at least. My family has a way different diet than I do and I can't eat like they do lol.


How is everyone else doing so far?

@thatbeautifulchick1988 - Give yourself some grace and ease into the change. When I started I set my goal at 1700 calories and even now I have my goal just above 1500. I also calculated my future maintenance calories at goal weight (about 2100). If I go over my goal but stay below maintenance I am still in a deficit and will lose and I don’t beat myself up. This is about making changes that you can do for a lifetime not a quick fix! You’ve got this!

My name is Sharon, and I am a wife, mother, teacher, and soon to be grandma.
Age: 51
Height: 5'8"

August 23, 2021 - SW - 420 lbs.
Today, January 3, 2022 - 359.4 lbs.

60 lbs. in less than 5 months. I'll take it.

Reasons for my motivation:
1. It hurt to walk, and got to the point that it hurt when I went to sleep at night. I am a very busy teacher, and I love my jobs, but it was going to be impossible if I didn't do something.
2. I love to travel, and I am planning a trip to Africa in June when school lets out.
3. I just found out that I am going to be a grandma, so I want to be able to keep up with the new addition.

January goals:
1. Stay within my calorie goal.
2. Work up to drinking 64 oz. of water.
3. Walk at least 5,000 steps daily.
4. Use the stationary bike 3-4 times a week.

2020 goals:
1. Get to 250 lbs. by 2023. (I haven't been that low in aver 25 years.)
2. Easily walk 10,000 steps daily.
3. Be fit enough to run a mile without stopping.

sandielewis2001 wrote: »

@thatbeautifulchick1988 - Give yourself some grace and ease into the change. When I started I set my goal at 1700 calories and even now I have my goal just above 1500. I also calculated my future maintenance calories at goal weight (about 2100). If I go over my goal but stay below maintenance I am still in a deficit and will lose and I don’t beat myself up. This is about making changes that you can do for a lifetime not a quick fix! You’ve got this!

Ty so much, I needed that! I def feel overwhelmed lol. Im going to try meal prepping and see if I hat he lds me over. Also I need bge bad at night. So going to try to eat earlier in the day and not after 5 or 6, in the past that's what helped me lost the most was avoiding food at night because for me, it doesn't stop with one snack lol.

Hi everyone.
I'm new here, have tried to lose weight several times but I am a bit of a tortoise when it comes to losing weight and so I get discouraged and stop.
I'm Erika, 37, mum to a teenage son (2 dogs and various other pets) and girlfriend to Dan.
I am a brittle asthmatic and have a prolapsed lumbar disc meaning I can't walk far and am also not able to bend, stretch, twist or lift on medical advise ... so I am relying on diet alone.
Sw Jan 2022 217.6lbs I would like to lose at least 50lbs to try and get some pressure off my back and potentially reduce some of my sciatic pain (it won't go fully as the nerve is crushed and it may not change at all but losing weight def won't make it any worse lol)

I would love to make some friends to help encourage each other along the way xx

@LynneM1980 temptations are everywhere, all the time. Don't be so hard on yourself for a weak moment. You accomplished so much successfully the rest of the day. Today is a new day to start again! My thoughts this time, baby steps, mindset that this is my new reality. You've got this!!!!

You do got this! Small steps is the winning way 😊💪

I weighed in today to see where I'm at and was please so see I've lost over two pounds already, I know the first week is a lot of water weight so I usually lose 8 or more but the numbers going down is still very motivating and exciting!

Last night I ended up eating dinner at 4 pm. My bf comes home from work at midnight and this is the time we usually watch TV and eat together nso I knew it would be a struggle. He always brings home food. I told him to grab me a small chili from Wendy's because it's the healthiest option there lol. I was actually feeling really hungry and went to bed at 7 pm to get rid of a headache so at midnight when I woke up and still felt yucky I knew I needed a few bites. Bless his manorexic soup he brought me a hot apple cider as well, my weakness!

I had a lot of calories left for the day so I took kna few sips of cider and a few bites, under half of the small chili and was please to log only 105 calories for half a small chili? Guess what, my headache went away and we watched the office lol. I was still under my calories for the day but since I had Asian food and Wendy's chili I knew or at least had a feeling I was going to weigh heavy so I pounded 2 bottles of water to flush out the salt at least.

9 nighttime tinkles later I wake up at 6 am hop on the scale and dropped over a pound since the prev day! Woohoo! I'm proud that I only ate a few bites and put the rest in the frig for a snack later. That's huge for me! I usually never stop eating til something is gone🙄

Small victories, small steps, lots of water.

Still battling headaches this is day number 4. Not sure if it's sugar withdrawal or what but I can't wait for my body to get used to it lol

Happy Tuesday!

Jesslan_Rose wrote: »

My father just passed away Christmas Eve from complications from COVID and I'm terrified I'll balloon back up to 400 lbs. I really need to find friends that we can encourage each other and support each other.

I am so sorry for your loss. Hopefully awareness helps you stay on top of it during your grieving.

Age: 61
Height: 5'4"
SW: 245
CW: 180.2 (12/28/2021)
1/4: 178.8
1/14:
1/18:
1/25:
GW for January 2022: 174.2
UGW: 145 by end of August 1st, 2022
My weigh-in day's are Tuesday's.

Goals for 2022:
- Plan what I will eat each morning and track everything I eat.
- Drink 6 glasses of water a day
- Read 1 book a month
- Clean out my Closet my March 1st.
- Reach my goal weight by August 1st
- Walk 3000 steps per day
- Try 1 new recipe a month.
- Update F2F Daily
- Keep up with F2F 40 things to do in 2022!

I'm keeping up with planning what I will eat every morning in MFP then stopping when I've eaten everything on the list. CICO is really working for me. Today is my husband's birthday, I will not be having Cake because I am determined to reach my goal wight by August and I can eat a little bit of cake after I get there but not much because I think my maintenance calories are only 400 more a day.

I need a good recipe for cabbage and shrimp if anybody had one.