Good evening WNM! Welcome to all the new ladies! I think we're back to an all-girl team. Am I right? I promised a proper intro last month and never posted it. More on that later.
I'm Melanie and I'm from Kansas. I’m the other team Co-captain. Truly, Ashley does most of the heavy lifting.
My (short version) story
I was always was skinny (no, not thin, skinny, all knees and elbows). At 18, I weighed between 110 and 120 at 5"6'. Maybe. I got happy. Then I got fat. Well, overweight. I found myself weighing in about 230 and my six sixteens were too small. I bought a couple pairs of 18 pants from the thrift store and joined MFP.
I lost ~70 pounds in about a year and was pretty pleased. But I wanted another 20 off...and it didn't move. And things got a bit crazy with my husband's family (we won’t talk about that—it always leads to crazy-pants ranting)...so I decided to maintain for a bit. Instead of maintaining, I gained back most of the weight. So...now I'm here and working on losing 60 pounds (40 of the 50 I 'found' and the 20 I never lost).
My special snowflake challenges
I'm fairly significantly asthmatic (on meds all the time), have terrible allergies and connective tissue issues (not enough collagen, too stretchy, lots of joint slippage). Last year ended with me in physical therapy because of the slippy joints—one of my shoulders slipped, refused to relocate and…well...frozen shoulder. I finished official PT but I said I would continue doing PT exercises to the tune of about 30 minutes most days.
August 2020, I acquired some vertigo problems (or, maybe they just got worse). After adding some meds, adjusting my diet a bit, and stopping coffee (so sad), I’ve got it mostly under control, with only intermittent episodes (like Monday). Needless to say, if I'm dizzy, I'm not walking or doing anything else.
The point behind saying this is not woe-is-me, it is that a lot of exercise people promote is bad (anything high impact), and sometimes dangerous, for me. Sometimes people get down on themselves because they don't do the stuff everyone talks about HIIT, Insanity, stair steppers, etc. I not only don't do those things, I shouldn't. But I should exercise.
Outside of PT, I’m not exercising much. I do get about 30 minutes of walking at least during the week because I have to walk to and from my car for work and all around the building to get to anyone I need to see or the ladies’. I try to get a walk in otherwise but frequently fail (because I'm lazy, because the job gets crazy...because because because). Weekends are a mixed bag; lately not much.
My 2022 Goals
• I want to be in better shape, regardless of weight (PT has shown me how out of shape I've gotten).
• I have a closet full of size 10's that I want to wear.
• Back to Wedding Weight (165) before the end of the year. Maybe lower...
Daily goals:
• Walk at least 30 minutes a day. (I plan to start participating in the step challenge again)
• Consistently do all my PT exercises and the extra hip flexors and core exercises I've added.
• 100 oz of water or non-alcoholic liquid a day, mostly water.
• Cut down on sugar and junk food (more on this shortly)
I want to congratulate all our losers for April! Small losses add up. Don’t get discouraged if you ‘only’ lose half a pound or pound. I am super proud of all of you! 😊 And several of you have maintained, which is terrific, too. Not seeing losses or not seeing the losses you want can be disheartening. Don’t give up! Think of all the things you have accomplished…you can do anything you put your mind to!
I've been on support all of April because I just wasn't getting anywhere and didn't think I would. My MIL passed away six weeks ago. While I was not close to her (not an actively antagonistic relationship like some MIL, just not close), my husband was. He is struggling and I'm trying to be supporting in his grief but he is weird. We all grieve differently. So April was a bit crazy and I was just not in the right headspace to work on weight loss or healthy habits. I quit logging. I quit doing pt. I wasn't walking consistently. This will change in May. I'm logging again. I've done pt twice this week. Walking isn't great but it will pick up. If I don't post steps by Tuesday...somebody yell at me!
Welcome to the team newbies! I’ve sent friend requests to all of you (many have already added). Looking forward to getting to know you all!

melaniedscott wrote: »

Good evening WNM! Welcome to all the new ladies! I think we're back to an all-girl team. Am I right?

Nope I am a guy!

melaniedscott wrote: »

• Carbs: I don't know how I feel about the carb issue. No, I do. I LOVE carbs. I'm a veggie/fruit girl. Feed me the carbs. I generally could care less about protein. So that's hard. But, there is a list of veggies (under 6-7 g per cup serving) she says not to bother counting. For me, that's anywhere from 25-50 carbs a day that I wouldn't count. Maybe I can do it. Maybe. I'm feeling jealous of Ashley and her guac and tortilla chips...
• Water: Heck, yeah! I carry a 33 oz bottle of water every where I go (and I drink it and refill it, just to prevent any smartkitten remarks about carrying it not being the same as drinking it).
• Exercise: If I'm doing the PT even 5 days a week, that's 150 minutes, so exercise is easy.
• Walking: I've talked about that...I can add a 15-20 minute walk every day at work. I need to. I will.
• Sleep: I wake up without an alarm and wait for it to go off. I'm frequently not ready to sleep until late (unless vertigo forces me to). I don't sleep well and am always tired. This will be challenging.
• Stress relief: I think I need to add the stress relief stuff but I don't know what it will be. Meditating? Journaling? IDK. We'll see.

Those are my thoughts. What are yours? What do you think? Does this sound reasonable? Could/would you try it?

I am doing most of these already, so am right there with ya. For stress relief, right before bed, I read some non fiction books, for an hour or so, it actually helps a lot for me. I tried music, gaming and a few other things but nothing like a silent room and a good book!

melaniedscott wrote: »

Target 100. Author recommends six things to increase weight loss and improve health: 100 carbs/day (max), 100 ounces of water/day 100 minutes of exercise/week (that's only 15 minutes a day!), 100 minutes of extra movement/week (I repeat!), 100 minutes of extra sleep/week (this one is a struggle, for many reasons), and 100 minutes of stress relief/week.

Could/would you try it?

Yes, I would try it BUT with some. . . well . . . limitations?

Carbs: I don't know if that's even doable for me! I checked my log for today: 249 grams! I could commit to monitoring. Staying within calorie limit and not hungry is overwhelming most of the time so I gave up on balancing nutrients a while ago.
Water: I don't think that should be a problem. Ever since one of the challenges I drink much more water than I used to.
Exercise: No problem with this one. My weekly average is above 300.
Extra movement: I think extra is included above, but this time a year I am getting a lot of additionalextra while doing yardwork/gardening.
Sleep: Well, here is a BIG issue. I have problems falling asleep and staying asleep. I get hardly any deep or REM sleep. I started doing yoga right before bedtime and it helps to some degree. I sleep in a cold, quiet, darkened room and still not getting enough sleep. I would LOVE to be getting 100 extra minutes of sleep! I might try to go to bed a bit earlier (I try to turn off the light at 10.)
Stress relief: yoga, knitting, walking, gardening.

To summarize: carbs & sleep. To work on, improve.
I need to check if that book is available in my library.

melaniedscott wrote: »

When you say gaming ... Board gaming, gambling, rpg, video, ccg? That's a pretty big spectrum. Dance Dance Revolution? Guitar Hero? D&D? Poker? 18XX? Magic? Minecraft?

Or do you mean Resident Evil ,Devil may cry, the last of us , days gone…..sorry I’m a gamer too! PS4/PS5 and the Switch

5/3 🌺 🌸 🌺
1) Spiritual - Bible/Morning Devotion 🙏 ✅
2) Fitness - Follow WkOut Plan (Barre/Peloton) 🚴 💪 ✅. I am working at getting back in shape, it felt great to work out yesterday! Back at it today!
3) Weigh Daily (Challenge and my own tracking) ✅
4) Nutrition - Post All FOOD in MFP ✅
5) No Drinking Wine w/Dinner or after. ✅

My love..


Have a great HEALTHY day!

shnkrnrynn wrote: »

Oh me too !!! I am on the second walk through(hehe) of Death Stranding

Haven't gotten to try that one. Just finished DMC5 and The Last of Us 2.

Weighed in today 5.4.2022

Cw: 249.4
Pw:250.3