✅ Exercise - 1 hour of Jazzercise and a neighborhood walk.
✅ Calories -
✅ Tracking -
Closed all my Apple watch rings today
1 Pass days used

Documenting consistency (if there is a P=instead of number its a Pass Day)
UAC: 1-2-3-4-P-6-7-8

According to my records, I've started the weight loss process so many times. What's funny is that when I would have any level of success, I would stop counting calories because "I got this". Clearly, that wasn't the case. This is one of the first times I've focused on understanding the habits of weight loss and what it would be like to be in maintenance. I'm not there yet, but am currently 3.5 pounds away. My new goals will be associated with staying within a certain weight range.

3/8

Exercise: 150 minutes
Tracking: yes
Calories: under
Pass days used: 0

March 8
Well over pass days in my learning month

Exercise: Trifecta again! 15 minutes MommaStrong, about 1 hour of walking (first I did my usual half hour walk, then joined my friend who I usually walk with, who had hurt her back, and we walked for half an hour VERY slowly), 20 minutes stretching
Tracking: Planned the day, mostly followed the plan, tracked EVERYthing. I think my original plan was a bit over calories, and then I had a few nibbles - finished up that delicious bakery bread and ate off my kids' plates at dinner
Calories: 214 over
Weight: Down 0.3
I am thinking of adjusting my calorie goal because it does seem like I can eat a bit more and still lose. But I'm not going to spend time on it this morning because instead I want to focus on the topic.

Great topic @biketheworld and thank you @MadisonMolly2017 @victorious55 and @TerriRichardson112 for sharing your journeys. I literally pored over the details of those journeys just now. It is so fascinating to see how other people did it! Relevant to my current struggles, I like the ideas of setting a higher goal weight for maintenance than you otherwise might have had. And Terri, I like that you got to maintenance and then continued to lose.

I don't have a nice graph of my journey, but here's my stats:
Pre-2011: I had was below 135 and had been maintaining at that weight for almost a decade (since just after college)
2011-2012: Pregnancy - got up above 200 pounds (stopped looking at 200)
2013: About a year later, at 173, started trying to lose weight. Got as low as 167
2015: Pregnancy with my son - got up to 200 pounds
2016: Stayed at 180 for about a year post-partum, then started losing and got to around 173
2017-2019: Hovered around 173
May 2019: Got serious about losing weight. SW: 173.5
July 2019: Weight 165.5
September 2019: Weight 157
Feb 2020: Plateaued. Weight still 157
July 2020: Losing again. Weight 152.5
February 2021: Plateaued. Weight still 152.5. Joined MFP and started tracking
July 2021: Losing again, slowly. Weight 150.7, but with a new scale that showed my weight 2 pounds higher than the scale I had been using.
Jan 2022: Bouncing around but overall slow loss: 148.6
March 2022: Plateaued. Today's weight: 149

@MadisonMolly2017 - I absolutely love your comment “ You do get to craft meals that make your heart sing.”

I couldn’t count the number of times I tried some diet with bizarre food or food that was horrible, only to lose a few pounds and then gain it all back plus some. I do overall choose wisely, but I also focus on portion control and I end up being so much more satisfied.

@Caroline_slowandsteady - you are only 14 pounds from 2011 weight! That is awesome and a huge win. Kudos to you.

Mar 8
Exercise: No, was sick today, again. Rough day.
Tracked all: Yes
Calories under: yes
(all 3 pass days used)

Thank you all for the inspiration and stories.

exercise? Yes
Headed out the door for a walk and hubby decided to come with because he was grumpy. I'm glad he came. He has COPD and any exercise he can do is good for him. But it slowed my walk and made it shorter.

within my calorie budget? Yes.

track everything I ate and drank? Yes.

I didn't have many calories left for dinner, so was planning the rest of the day, when grumpy husband realized son was grumpy too so we were going out for dinner. Applebees. It's hard to eat right at Applebees. They ordered waffles fries covered in cheese for an appetizer. Because of this group and goals, I waited until the plate was almost empty and then ate 3 small ones, half my salmon, all my broccoli and half my spuds.

Having any restraint with food is big with me.😇

Dropped them off and went to the gym in my street clothes. It had been a long day and I knew if I went in the house to change, I wouldn't go back out in the cold to go to the gym.

I barely stayed within my calorie goal, but I did and I was down this morning on the scale.

yes for 3
0/3 pass days used

Mrs_Hoffer wrote: »

What a terrific post, and such great responses! I read several last night and then came back and re-read again today!

❤ Thank you so much @MadisonMolly2017 @TerriRichardson112 @victorious55 and many others for sharing your stories - you all are so inspiring to those of us that are still working towards our goals!!

Your posts made me want to go back and look at MY journey graph in MFP.... and although my plan for the winter was just to maintain.... I have known this last 4-6 wks that my weight was slowly creeping up.

My graph clearly shows that in the 6-7 yrs I've been on MFP, I've lost weight at least twice before, only to gain it back again.





Today I'm up about 7 lbs from my lowest weight last fall. I'm so glad Spring is almost here because I need to get busy and get back to losing again!

@Mrs_Hoffer
I only see you gaining it back once…the second time you didn’t gain it all back!

We learn something new each time we diet, figuring out what works & doesn’t work for us.I’ve used things from the old WW program & another one called “Adventures in Attitudes,” for the past 40years.

And eventually we create our own path!