Hello- I'm new

Hi all,

I joined MFP on December 28, 2021. I'm 5'10, turned 53 in November. I have been steadily gaining weight since about age 35 mostly in the tummy. Because I have a history of colon cancer in the family, I went to the doctor to get checked out and she said "No, you're just getting fat because you're over 35." Basically after that I just accepted that weight gain was inevitable. The weight crept up, over time, until in November 2021 I went for a checkup (different doctor) and was 204lb. When I finally took action, I bought a scale and on 12/28/21 it read 209. That's right inside the line of obese for my height.

I have been logging my calories on MFP daily. That was helpful in itself to see how many sneaky calories the things I was eating and drinking had. I've cut out sugary drinks, deserts and cut back portions. I do limited fasting by only eating within a 10 hour window (8:30am-6:30pm), though I do break that fast a bit with 4oz of tart cherry juice at about 8pm.

I get on the scale once a week. The 1st weigh-in after the initial one was 204. Experienced folks will sneer at that as "newbie weight loss." Yes, I know. Still, it was so encouraging to me for two reasons. 1 it meant I was downgraded from "obese" status to merely "overweight." 2. because at that point I wasn't even sure that it was possible for me to lose weight. That doctor's blunt statement still resonated and all I read is how it's nearly impossible for women over 50 to lose weight. So far the scale has continued to move down. It's slow, but at least it is going down. 1/11/22 was at 201.5. 1/18/22 was 199.8. 1/25/22 was 199.2. 2/1/22 was 196.9 and this week, 1/8/22 was 195.9.

I told MFP in setting my goals that I want to reach 140 and lose about 1.5 pounds a week. For exercise I factored in 0 since that's more realistic for me. I've never exercised formally. I have strong legs and arms from gardening and working around the house and helping my elderly parents. I also take care of my husband who has Parkinson's and is not very mobile. I'm up and down the stairs of our 2 story home what seems like 10,000 times a day but still my Fitbit says I average about 6,000 steps a day. I try to get him to do a 15 minute walk every day but we are not burning up the pavement on the pace during these jaunts. I've been trying to do a short brisk walk by myself in addition to our walk together. I work a desk job from home, 40 hours a week as well. We are looking to move to a 1 story house with a pool and if that happens I'll swim as much as possible. We're also trying to adopt a senior chihuahua, and if we get approved, I/we will be walking her 2-3 short walks daily.

Really appreciate the MFP assistance! Short term goal is to get to 173lbs, and out of the overweight range for my height and then keep working toward my initial goal weight.