Hey hey! We're almost halfway through September!! How is everyone doing??

@Megan_smartiepants1970
@cosmiccurves
@taylok23
@tishsmith101
@swimmom_1
@gerripo
@baconslave

Did I miss anyone?

I've been getting my runs in. I want to get a shirt made that says "look like walking feels like running" lol! My last run was one where you up the time run (I'm doing couch to 5K). Last week was run

1.5 minutes / walk / run 3 minutes

UG I thought I was going to die! Then this week was

Run 3 minutes / walk / run 5 minutes

I was tempted to stick with last week's sequence for another week because it was so hard to get through the 3 minutes and it's been REALLY hot here. Like 104 with the humidex. - If you don't know what the humidex is, consider yourself lucky. The humidity here makes everything feel WAY hotter and way more gross and difficult in the summer and WAY colder in the winter. blech.

In any event, my friend bless their heart who is also SUPER fit, just came on by and said "so. are we running today or what?" And so... off we went. We don't plan to run together because we both have busy lives but every now and then they seem to just stop by at the perfect time to get me out there. And they talk to me the whole run to keep my mind off of how difficult it is cause heaven knows I can't talk and run! #blessed

Mary 65 now, from Pennsylvania.
Heaviest weight 255 lbs, twice. :-(
UGW-122 lbs. I was there in 2009/10 and kept it off for 5 years then got lazy.

My goal is to continue with what seems to work for me. 1000-1200 calories, low carb 15 Net +/- 3(My body seems to not do well with carbs. It doesn't know how to burn them and hangs onto them way too much!), minimum 70 + oz of water, 2 meals/day on my days off(3) and 3 meals on my work days(which are long), exercise on my 3 days off. My weigh in day is Sunday.

9/14/20 SW-255 lbs
5/3/21-240.5 lbs Emergency Gallbladder surgery
5/14/21-232.2 lbs started MFP and Low Carb/1000-1200 calorie while recovering
6/1/21-228.8 lbs
7/1/21-222.2 lbs
8/1/21-212.0 lbs
9/1/21-200.0 lbs
10/1/21-191.4 lbs
11/1/21-181.8 lbs
12/1/21-176.2 lbs
12/26/21-165.6 lbs
1/1/22-168 lbs
2/1/22-157.4 lbs
3/1/22- 155 lbs
4/1/22- 156.4 lbs :-( 4/6 & 4/7 most recent lowest weight 147.6 lbs.
5/1/22- 158.8 lbs :-(
6/1/22- 152.2 lbs :-)
7/1/22- 157.4 lbs :-(
8/1/22- 167.2 lbs :-(
9/1/22- 175.2 lbs :-( Its been a bad few months. I've been eating too many carbs, including healthy ones.
9/4/22- 175 lbs Back on the rails. Staying on track better this month so far. Today had a wedding that was planned in 2 weeks for a girl at work. They were going to get married on zoom and in 5-10 minutes of a conversation at a work party 2 weeks ago, it became a work party wedding. We all brought a covered dish and a coworkers husband married them a block from where they live by the river. Very hard to calculate calories but I think I did fairly well except for a piece of cake. But you have to sample the cake. Its required! LOL!

9/11/22- 173.6 lbs :-) Finally started to drop, be it slowly. Had 3 days off. Did my elliptical as usual 180+ minutes each day, 12.76 miles mini um.

swimmom_1 wrote: »

9/11/22- 173.6 lbs :-) Finally started to drop, be it slowly. Had 3 days off. Did my elliptical as usual 180+ minutes each day, 12.76 miles mini um.

180+ minutes a day!!! Dude! I can't imagine wow! I'm working on getting my butt out there for 30 minutes every other day. Glad you're feeling back on track! what a great feeling.

@gsp90x I’m going the wrong way on the scale! I’ve gained a couple and seem to be holding. I swear getting past this hump feels impossible and I feel like this has been my set point weight. Like @baconslave, I seem to gain and lose the same pounds settling in around 135. I made it down to 120 a few years ago but it didn’t last. I’m short so would like to be closer to 125 but have put on a lot of muscle so I’m not sure I’ll get there without a lot of restriction that I’m not willing to do. I’ve been feeling hungrier and overate today in general so I need to get back to my mindset of only eating when truly hungry. Today was not that. I just finished P90x and have started a new 2 week weight and HIIT challenge for a change of pace. I’m hoping to get down to 130 by month end so we’ll see!

SW 171, 1 mile 16:02
CW 167.5 (mostly water weight flushed out after my flight home)
Sept GW 168, 1 mile 15:30
The trainer would like us to do 1-2 cardio and 4 strength workouts per week. I think I can manage this:
Sun walk/jog (with trainer) + bowling ✔
Mon strength (with trainer) ✔
Tue rest day
Wed strength (with trainer)
Thur walk/jog
Fri walk/jog + strength
Sat bike ride

Swapped rest day to Tuesday/today as my shins still hurt from the Sunday jog. I increased my protein and decreased my fat % going forward but leaving carb where they are for now. Already beat my weight goal for the month, I think my body is ready for change

Today will be 5 weeks on low carb and while I was initially steadily losing, over the past two weeks I have gained a couple of pounds. Going to go back to the basics and see where this is happening. I know that fluctuations are normal, I just don't want going up to be the new trend. Still no acid reflux and still feel super clear and sharp mentally, which is nice since that means I am still getting those benefits. Now I just gotta figure out why I am having those small gains!

Week 2
SW 171, 1 mile 16:02 have not timed again yet
CW 169
Sept GW 168, 1 mile 15:30

Sun walk/jog (with trainer) + bowling ✔
Mon strength (with trainer) ✔
Tue walked/jogged-more knee pain ✔
Wed cardio & strength (with trainer) ✔
Thur rest day ✔
Fri walk/jog planned
Sat Walking and kayaking planned

Using some KT tape to help with my knees, heading out camping later today.

I hope this group is still active - I could really use it....

I'm going to share my story and you'll understand why I had gastric sleeve surgery and post-op have turned to a modified (for bariatric protein requirements) keto diet.

Before my surgery I was a slug. A total waste of space. To make matters worse, my husband was an enabler. I would be watching TV on the recliner, 10 feet away from the fridge, and would ask him to get me a drink and he would do it. Or, I'd be in bed and would summon him into the room to get me something on the nightstand less than 18 inches from me and he'd do it. He did ALL the cooking... ALL the cleaning...in fact, the only thing I DID do was my own laundry. I wouldn't even do his laundry. I cannot believe how lazy and selfish I was and I can't believe that he (Mark) not only tolerated it, but contributed to it. So it shocked me and him that after my surgery, I started getting back to the me I used to be 15 years ago. I clean constantly. Mark jokes that if he doesn't keep moving, I'm going to throw him in the trash. Even though we have a great dishwasher, I want to hand wash the dishes, dry them right away, and put them away. Also, I can't stand a drop of water in the sink. So, when I'm done doing the dishes and putting them away, I clean the sinks and dry them - every single time. One night the ice machine spit out one more ice cube than I wanted, so I put it on the top of the garbage disposal entry (the rubber part) to avoid water in the sink. Mark came up to me as I was sitting in the living room and said "I hate to say this, but I must warn you.... there's an ice cube in the sink and a real ball-buster is going to catch it and all heck is going to break loose" - so funny. Anyway, all of that was to set the stage for how I was and where I'm at now. Last weekend, the first thing I tackled was cleaning the master bath... wholly crud it was a mess! I came out of there telling Mark "I am a pig!" Mark was so pleased he went in there a couple of times just to look at the clean bathroom. Next, I spent hours and hours going through every single drawer, closet, master bath cabinet, shelf - well you get the idea. I went though EVERYTHING and got rid of about 20 bags of clothes for charity, most of which still had the tags on them. I had so many clothes that even after shedding that much, my closet still looks full.... and even though I told you it's been 15 years since I've cleaned anything, to drive home that point, I'll confess that I uncovered 2 Blockbuster membership cards! How embarrassing. I also went through the kitchen cupboards and got rid of an espresso machine (I can't have caffeine anymore) and literally 22 water bottles that had straws built into them (I can't drink out of straws anymore). I also got rid of a pretty nice fryer that I can't use anymore and that Mark stopped using when he bought a great fryer that is big enough to fry a turkey. I also dug out my 25 year old food processor and put it neatly on the counter and have already used it a couple of times. We already have a Kitchen Aide professional grade stand mixer and a Vitamix that I never touched before that I've also put to use. I asked Mark for a new food processor for my Anniversary present which is in October ( 20 years)… so he's on a mission going through Consumer Reports to find the best one, specifically looking for power, functionality, and ease of cleaning. That's just the way he is when he goes to purchase something, thus the quality of the appliances we have and the cars we drive. In fact, he bought me a new SUV type Subaru Outback - totally surprising me by doing it all himself and "hiding" my old car and having the Subaru delivered and put in the driveway without my knowledge, and then calling me out to the garage to unveil it. I was so shocked that I could only say over and over "You bought me a car?" - he was so moved by my reaction that he cried - and he NEVER cries...it's funny, that was my daughter-in-law's same reaction when on Christmas, we boxed and wrapped my old car keys and gave them to her. When she unwrapped them, she said those same words, jumping up and flying into my arms to give me a hug. Kind of making Mark jealous as it really was his idea to give it to her since my son bought a car with a stick shift that she doesn't know how to drive and they only had one car. I truly hope none of this comes off as bragging, I am only trying to give you an idea of my re-birth since surgery. On my birthday, along with my presents, my husband gave me a birthday card and wrote in it "I'm looking forward to having adventures with you again" - that made me cry. We used to travel a lot, anywhere from week long vacations, to long weekends away and all of that stopped when I became too big to fit into the plane seat, spilling over onto his seat. I also couldn't walk anymore for any length of time. Our last trip we took was to Niagara Falls in Canada and we went on a bus tour. It got so bad that I had to wait on the bus on quite a few occasions because I couldn't manage those big steps on and off the bus, not to mention all the walking involved. I'm crying now just thinking back to that trip. We did drive to Branson Missouri last year to meet my dad and a couple of members of my family (we usually always take a week of vacation to spend with them somewhere) - anyway, Mark checked the weight limits of several things only to find out that I was, expectedly, too big to participate in, specifically zip-lining and a helicopter tour he surprised my grandson and my niece with. Another embarrassing moment was when we went to the Dixie Stampede which has the exact same set-up as Medieval Times. My dad, trying to be protective of me and my situation, went and talked to the staff and arranged for us to take the service elevator to our level and then told them they needed to take out a chair and space the chairs father apart so I could fit comfortably, presenting me like an object the models on the Price is Right present something, saying "Look at her" - how humiliating. I was such a waste of space and was quite sure I wasn't going to live another 10 years , if that. My quality of life was ZERO. I bought some beautiful place mats and matching napkins for our dining room table - when Mark questioned that I came at him with a very good point... our current placemats and napkins were over 20 years old and completely outdated. This weekend I announced my plans to Mark. I am going to clean that deep freeze that's in the garage and put it to good use for my new way of living. Meal prep items and unstuffing our jam-packed kitchen freezer and also getting some of the items out of the fridge and into the freezer to avoid spoilage (I was surprised to find out that you can freeze almost anything, including butter, cheese, and milk)… we have a Food Saver that's collecting dust that I'm going to put to good use (which I have now completed since the writing of this post). Next, I'm going to put away the rest of my clothes that I couldn't finish last weekend, there isn't much, but I am going to finish it this weekend (which I have completed since the writing of this post). Finally, I am going to go through my hundreds of cook books and get rid of most of them. (Most of them are WW, a lot of them are Suzanne Somers and her "Somersizing" theory-based cookbooks) - that I've haven't gotten to yet, but I am going to do it - it's only 10:00 a.m. on Sunday. I used to walk, at the urging of my dietician 5 minutes a week - you read it right, 5 minutes a WEEK, not a day. Now I'm up to 45 minutes a day. I also do fully body strength training with dumbbells 3 times a week. Anyway, if you're still reading (which I doubt you are considering how long this post is) - I put all of this in writing not only as a way to "purge" as I found it very cathartic, but also to maybe motivate someone - even one person - to not give up on themselves and fall down the rabbit hole like I did. Don't let yourself get as bad off as I was. Keep moving, keep fighting, keep living.... you're worth it. I love you all - so much support here it's amazing. Thank you for letting me vent. ❤️

@Jacki916W thanks for sharing your journey and encouraging words


❤️ Karen