Women 200lb+, Let's Creep It Real This October!!!

Happy Friday!!!!!!

Linda
40 years old
5’7”
SW: 300
CW: 226.8 (I know I usually weigh on Saturday but I'm not sure how the food situation will be over the weekend so I did one this morning)
Prev Low: 195

I’m only .4 lb away from where I was last Friday before the birthday shenanigans so I’m pretty happy about that. Since it did the 4 lb in 3 day thing I was concerned…. I knew it would come right back off but you know how it goes when you get in your own head for a hot minute.

We are invited to a fall fair tonight at a friend’s elementary school and supposed to eat a quick dinner with them before heading over. I know she mentioned chorizo fries (which are a HUGE weakness) so I know my dinner will be a bit high tonight. I’m not going to beat myself up over it though. Instead I’m going to just be sure I don’t mess myself up the rest of the day.

I know I mentioned the crazy holidays yesterday so…. Being as it was National Noodle Day yesterday we did pasta for dinner. Today is National Frappe Day so I made myself a 75 calorie version at home for that as well.



This weekend we have my work’s Family Day on Saturday and then a kids birthday party on Sunday. I’ll be trying to avoid all the cake and sweets that seem to show up at both of those events. Thankfully the party is just next door so if I decide I need to walk away for a moment or switch off with my husband in watching the kid that’s pretty simple this time around.

Hope you all have a FABULOUS weekend if I don’t check in again before Monday.

Good morning everyone!

177.4 this morning, which is all good.

Today is lots of high-intensity dance at the gym, can't say I'm looking forward to it, but it will be good. Then after, I can reward myself with a trip to the zero-waste store to pick up more dishwasher soap and refill my shampoo bottle.

Last night, we did our normal pizza/beer/Bake-Off Friday night, and that was really great. I've missed our normal Friday night routine. I ate maybe too much yesterday, a little over maintenance, but only by about 50 cal.

I have an enormous sweet tooth. I learned yesterday, after a coworker brought in donuts, that as much as I love a frosting-filled donut, the frosting on top of those makes it too much. Too sweet. Lesson learned. I was happy to listen to my body that said TOO MUCH SUGAR GIRL and eat my planned egg whites and chicken and veg after.

Three day weekend! Today will be gym and cleaning, tomorrow unknown, and Monday will be a big sourdough baking day, if I can resurrect my starter from the fridge. She's on the counter now, I hope it's warm enough for her. I usually make a big batch of english muffins and hamburger buns and biscuits, and then the starter goes dormant until I need her again. It's that time of year where I can have my oven on, finally.

My coworker gave us a pomegranate tree branch that fell in the storm, so I took cuttings, and we're watching them carefully for signs of root growth. The branch also had some tiny roots on it still, so I stuck the whole thing in the ground after I took the cuttings, it would be a miracle if it grows, but hope springs eternal, etc.

Tag party time!
@pamperedlinny busy weekend! But it sounds like a lot of fun!

@justanotherloser007 best of luck with schrodinger's UTI, lol. I found that when I felt like a UTI was coming on, cranberry pills and enough water seemed to help, which is anecdotal, but that's what I've got. I hope it works for you.

@KacyCarpe hi, welcome! I love the granularity of your goals, reminds me of @kenziestabes's goals, in that they're so specific you can really dig into whether this one is working, if not, how to modify it, etc. I found a new pillow (for me, a memory foam one) increased the quality of my sleep so. much. Happy October!

@DianaGetsFit512 hi, welcome! I've been where you are, post-baby, looking to lose some baby weight. Twice, actually. And if there was one thing I would tell my past self, desperate to lose that post-baby weight and in a hurry, it would be this:

You just went through, and are still going through, a lot. Small children are cute little energy sinks, and despite what inspirational articles tell us, you don't have to "bounce back" to pre-baby weight, you don't have to spend your free time exercising maniacally to "get rid of the mom pooch" or whatever.

Still, I get the impulse, and so if I can tell past-me one thing it would be: focus on the easy habits, the ones that would help you most without stressing you out. A possible action plan:

1. focus on sleep. Babies don't sleep well, so guard your own sleep time like it is gold. Get your partner to take some baby time if you need to sleep, or try to work out a sitter for a mid-day nap if you feel run-down. Sleep helps weight loss so much.

2. work at increasing fruit and veg. Not only do they have fewer calories than other snacks, the fiber makes you feel better and, TMI, be more regular.

3. if you are having one of those days where you're hanging out in front of the fridge every hour or so (BEEN THERE SO MANY TIMES), starving, try to pick a snack with protein. Protein keeps you satiated better than the leftover mashed potatoes or whatever (AGAIN BEEN THERE SO OFTEN). A couple pieces of rolled-up deli meat around some pickles or something has saved me from just picking at things in the fridge. Still does, sometimes.

4. gentle movement can be just as effective as high-energy movement, if you do it more. There's nothing wrong with walking being your exercise if that's what you like to do. I know that is @justanotherloser007 's main exercise. And babies love to hang out in strollers, and it's a great way to listen to a podcast or some music and get some vitamin D.

5. if you'd like to track your food, go easy on yourself at first. Focus on just getting everything in there, even if the amounts aren't exact-exact, like eventually you'd like them to be. Way more important to log everything, even the little fun-size kit kat you took from the halloween bowl (ME TALKING TO ME, YESTERDAY LOL), than to hyper-focus on weighing absolutely everything and miss the little bites you didn't weigh. Food logging is a habit, and an important part of that habit is being honest with yourself about what you're eating without judgement for yourself. Just because you don't log that one halloween kit kat doesn't mean it didn't happen, so log it, it's fine. You're learning how to feed your body the way you'd like to even when you hit goal weight. It's a big science experiment, and you want good data, so log the kit kat, it's fine.

As you go along with these habits, you can improve them- increase movement time if you get the chance, log more accurately by weighing and measuring everything, refine what foods you like that also keep you fuller, find new recipes that you like that incorporate more veg, like @pamperedlinny putting veg in with her pasta to bulk it out.

But for now, go easy, get the habits established. And give yourself a lot of grace. The first couple years with babies is so, so hard on caregivers. And keep checking in here, we've got you.

For another challenge, they're done taking people for this month, I think, but next month there's one I'm in called Fat 2 Fit, with weekly weigh ins and the teams compete against each other. If you love a challenge and don't think it would stress you out, that's a thing for you.

I didn't mean to write a novel this morning, apologies.

Have a great day, everyone!

@CupcakeCrusoe and @DianaGetsFit512 re: walking! I see lots of momma's with strollers on my daily walks! I love them! Of course, when the babies get a little older... they start getting all squirmy in the strollers! So cute! I have to add something else about walking: watch those stress levels plummet!!! There is a lady named Jem I see every day, and she is there because she has PTSD. She is absolutely dedicated, and she is there because her therapist asked her to be a walker. It helps soooo much with mental attitude, with stress, etc. me and Jem and my dog Frank like to do early mornings. Because I live near Houston TX and this place is so hot. So in summer I like to walk before the sun comes up. I like to have 2 hours or more. That is unnecessary unless you are super stressed, then I would say "skip TV and walk it out!" because it will save you a ton of money on meds and therapists. My .00000002 cents. I have had depression since I was 13 (I am 49 now) and perimenopausal so I must have some sort of decompression on a huge scale. TBH I just don't miss TV at all, and since I now have added stress of helping my in-laws who both have dementia... I mean, I just have never seen anything really lower the stress levels like walking. I do pray while I walk, but that just makes it that much better!! Good luck!!

I am struggling to log food etc during the work week. Last week was going to be the start of my regular hybrid work schedule but I ended going in to the office an extra day which meant missing an aquafit opportunity that morning. Also it is hard cooking at home as well. So I have been varying between 245 and 246 depending on whether we got take out or not but I am basically down to where I was before I started the job. Which is a win. Next week I should only be in the office 2 days and can have a normal exercise schedule with aquafit 3 days a week.

My youngest is on a restrictive diet and they aren’t following it completely but they have upped their exercise and are drinking water instead of milk. They do well except for eating out and take out. It would be hard to meet up with friends without ever going out to eat. We were doing better limiting take out until I started back to working full-time. However they don’t believe what the scale is telling them. The scale said they lost a lot the time before last and then they got on the scale again this week in the afternoon with clothes on and didn’t believe that our scale could be right. It showed another 10 pound loss. They are now back in onderland. Well it hasn’t shown a big loss for my husband or me so I think the scale is fine. They are supposed to be trying to lose and even though they haven’t been perfect with diet and exercise they have made changes that are really showing up on the scale. I can see it too. I am really glad. I think they can turn their health issues around if they just keep improving their diet and exercising. Once they started being in charge of their own diet they were eating so much junk and with their job they could afford take out a lot. They loved milk and didn’t drink water. They were too old for me to tell them that this wasn't healthy. So the doctor had to in the end. Now they can’t drink that much milk because it has sodium in it. It is nice to see them drinking water now. They bought a bike and will be joining the Y now that they can no longer use the work gym (their employer just laid off a lot of people including them) but they have a settlement so they can afford the gym for now. This makes me very happy.

Okay I started reading all the posts then had to skip to the last page.

@pamperedlinny I feel like if I don’t gain from October through December I am doing well. The year before last was bad but I turned it around and made some progress since. I have been able to lose some years during those months and I am hoping that even with a new job I can make some slow progress before the end of the year. I actually don’t go to an aquafit class. Our Y also only has a few classes at a weird time now. I have been doing aquafit so long I don’t need a teacher leading me. In fact I have lead classes when the teacher couldn’t make it before. My husband just do about 50-60 minutes of exercises on our own early in the morning when not many are in the pool and the open area is reserved for water walking. Your Moroccan Lentil with Chicken sounds good. I replaced my broken slow cooker for an instapot which I haven’t gotten used to using yet. I miss my slow cooker.

@DeshotelK small achievable changes is the way to start. I am struggling to log right now too. One thing I found that helped me was making sure I checked into the thread regularly. I put in my monthly goals for a while but don’t have to do that now.

@sbortnick that is great that you have built in walks during the work week. Nice that your stickers did the trick. I love Halloween treats.

@CupcakeCrusoe I love going to tea and my youngest just found a new place that involves a ferry ride. She told her friends she went with that I would love it and the offered to go with me. How sweet is that for a bunch of young adults to offer to go with an old babyboomer like me. Have a wonderful birthday! That is a big commute to the gym. I though it was bad when we had to quit the closest gym to us and go farther to the Y since there was too much crime at the gym. But it is only about 10 minutes more.

@kenziestabes I have been doing much more stairs too lately. 6 flights up to the office on in office days and up and down to and from my basement office the other days. I am still not used to the ones at the office and the stairs in my house are hard to do too. I am not sure why. They are harder than the ones in the office except they are only 1 flight.

@justanotherloser I love sweet tart candies too. We are limiting cheese to lower salt cheese due to my youngest’s dietary restrictions so it has helped keep us from eating too much of it lately. Fresh mozzarella and ricotta are lower in salt. My triggers are sour gummy bears.

@cosmiccurves I liked the goal of walking 5 days a week even if only for 10 minutes. I have been going to aquafit 3 days but struggling to walk on the other days.

@Diana1getsfit512 I was able to lose my pregnancy weight with my 1st but not with my 2nd and 3rd. I did all the wrong things like stopping weight training thinking I needed to do cardio instead etc. I really am rooting for you. It got really bad when I started working full-time again and was too busy for taking care of me. Make a few healthy changes that you can prioritize and achieve then go from there. We can't do a good job taking care of others if we don't take care of ourselves but I know how hard that is.

Linda
40 years old
5'7"
SW: 300 lbs
Sept 25: 226.4 lb
Oct 4: 230.6 lb
Oct 8: 226.2 lb

I'm finally below the pre-birthday shenanigans weight!!!!! It took a week but now I'm able to breathe easier and not focus on the backwards movement. I'm sticking with hoping I just don't gain anything thru the end of the year. If I can get below 220 lb by year end I'll do a happy dance but I'm not going to deprive myself at celebrations and holiday gatherings either. I'm just going to try and stick closer to overall maintenance. I'll have some lower at a loss days and some over indulgent days balancing each other out.

This week is National School Lunch Week so the schools here are doing special lunches... Chicken & Waffles, Walking Tacos, Asian Chicken & Veggie Dumplings, Hotdogs with Chili & Cheese... plus additional options for sunbutter & jelly sandwiches, Turkey or Ham charcuterie boxes and other goodies not normally on the menu. Therefore, instead of my daughter only buying lunch once a week I'm letting her buy every day this week. Actually, I'm kind of jealous of some of these lunches.

Also in food news, my office family day had ordered way more food than needed so I was sent home with an entire pan of smoked pulled pork. I made fried rice and I topped a few baked potatoes with some but I froze a bunch of bags with about 4oz in each so if you have any great ideas on how to use multiple pounds of pulled pork other than sliders, pizza, fried rice, nachos, ramen or quesadilla I'm all ears. I used small bags for each single portion and it filled an entire gallon bag plus I have 2 portions still in the fridge. That doesn't even count what I and my friend ate before I portioned it out. Please spam me with recipes and ideas!

Tonight we're supposed to hit Zumba class but after the craziness of the weekend I am just exhausted and think I might take a mental health break for dancing today. Tomorrow is ladies bible study and Wednesday is my daughter's volleyball so unless I do some at home exercise I won't be at the gym for me again until Thursday so I'm hesitant to miss tonight. I just feel so burnt out. We didn't come home from the neighbor's birthday, which was supposed to be 11am to 2pm, until about 6:30pm. It was fun but the exhaustion is real.

Before I forget! If you're wondering what "food holiday" we have today.... it's National Angel Food Cake Day but I'm not planning on baking any cakes today so no food holiday celebrations just yet.

@KacyCarpe I love your focus on habits!

@DianaGetsFit512 Post baby is hard. You already have so much going on and changing all the time as they grow. I’d like a new challenge too so I’m all ears.

@CupcakeCrusoe I’m always a bit jealous of your pizza Fridays. Now I’m even more jealous of your sprouting pom tree. Hoping it takes off and grows well!

@KeriA I have a Ninja Foodie XL so it’s a pressure cooker, slow cooker and air fryer all in one. Maybe you can set things on the slow cook function of your Instapot. Also, if you can find an afternoon or time on a weekend to do meal preps that you can freeze and pop in the slow cook or pressure cook on days that homemade isn’t feasible it could make it easier on dinners. Especially with soup/stew season upon us.

A little late to this post but looking for some accountability. I’m so disappointed in myself for gaining 30 pounds this year but ready to turn things around. October goals are to get back to basics and start honestly tracking my food and make better food choices. I’d like to get down to 175 by the end of this month. SW 182.5 UGW 140. Favorite October treat is anything pumpkin spice and Halloween candy. Goal for the holiday months is to find some non food traditions.

I did not check in last week. I was logging food however. It's been crazy insane still hanging in there of course.
I feel bloated so i decided to go back to low carb for awhile. My work and life schedule has been insane but I actually meal prepped yesterday so that's a plus. I am on my 8th shift and have two more before I get that one day off. Hopefully one day I won't have to work so much,but hey i am not there yet.

I will not do a weigh in until Oct. 31st however my sw this month is 221

hang in there everyone i hope to reach at least 75lbs down by the end of the year Im currently at 68lbs down this year.

On my walk today I saw two jack-o-lanterns at one of the playgrounds (on my 5 mile walk). I had to wonder if a fastidious mom was like, "Look, imma get you some pumpkins but you CANNOT make the jack-o-lanterns here and make a mess in MY yard!" Oddly enough, they left the jacks on the picnic table. It just kind of cracked me up, because my family didn't do holidays and I wonder what my family would have been like if they did.

Me and the hubby have a Halloween non-food tradition: Halloween store shopping. I start hearing about Halloween stores in August, sometimes July. He starts telling me the dates that they will be open, he begins speculating what they will have. We end up watching at least one "show" about the monsters, animatronix, special effects etc. This past Saturday, I think the hubby was about to cry when he wailed, "I haven't made it to one Halloween store yet!" And he listed how many we have in Houston and the surrounding areas. He likes to hit as many of them as possible. Odd fact, we usually don't buy anything! I know right! For all he likes to check out all the things, it is all window shopping.

Last year was the first Halloween that I didn't have to look in the plus size costumes, and while this frees up more options for me... The cute steampunk outfit I bought that was a size 12-14 swallows me now. I still don't know what size I am, but I think I am around a size 8. I am mostly small right now, except sometimes in the chest area I still have to hit the medium shirts. Of course, when I wear a medium shirt, it ends up being loose in the waist and tight in the chest - but it is what it is. When I am doing patterns, most patterns use a B cup to make all their shirts. So, I have personally never met a B cup person. I have met lots of A's and C's and up! Haha, just like normal sizing! Literally, never fits anybody.

I noticed that when the majority of ladies get to normal BMI in the MFP threads, they are a size small. If they are muscle-ly they are extra small. That kind of bent my mind when I figured that out. I am 16 lbs more than my high school weight. I was 133 lbs at 5'3 3/4 tall (I was very happy at this size and had never been overweight before then). 141 will put me in "normal BMI weight". As of today, I am within 8 lbs of my goal. My stupid scale still has body fat % in red. Whatever! Stupid thing is never happy!

Thanks for the welcome!!

So I’m attempting to cut out coffee since I’m more addicted to the creamers than actual coffee. Plus this time of year there’s so many tempting flavors and just want to try them all. Was feeling good and thinking I got this then dipped into the Halloween candy bowl not once but twice. Ugh! Stupid snickers and reeces haha did track it and yeah it pushed me over but right now just trying to get back to honestly tracking. What helps you walk on by without dipping in the bowl?

@CupcakeCrusoe love the coloring book idea! So doing this! Also nice way to keep my hands busy and not stuffing my face. Also thanks for the tamale pie recipe. Looks delicious.

@pamperedlinny happy belated birthday!! Hope you had a nice surprise for dinner tonight. Ladies movie night sounds like so much fun! Do you know what your watching yet? Of course I’d go for the tamales!

@justanotherloser007 haha smart mom pumpkin guts get everywhere. Have fun Halloween browsing. Are you dressing up this year? I must have missed the veggie post but yeah I need to eat more veggies. Hope you figure out the cause of the hives soon.