Hi there, @StrawberryJam40, and welcome! Also, happy belated birthday.

Hmmm, is a birthday a slip, or a celebration? At my age (67) I figure every year is a victory - especially as a cancer survivor and cancer widow - thus birthday's are worth some festivity, to me. Usually there's food and drink involved, realistically. (Experience suggests that the majority of my days will lead to the majority of my results anyway, so I don't worry much about that rare day or few in a year.)

I'm kind of an iffy MFP friend, more active here in the Community than on the friend-feed side of things, but I do accept friend requests. I still log my food most days (in year 7 of maintaining a healthy weight, after previous decades of overweight/obesity), log my exercise, answer DMs and stuff, but don't chat much over there.

I'm not all poetical like that nice Mr. Taratoot, but I'm also a human powered watercraft fan: I've canoed most of my adult life, but nowadays mostly row. It's those skinny boats like in the Olympics, except mine goes reeeaaalllly slooooowly by comparison. I also like to ride my bike on the trail system here (Michigan). Unfortunately, it's Winter here, my river is frozen, my trails are snowed, and I'm doing machine rowing and stationary biking so I don't have to start from zero in the Spring.

I'm with you on the knee pain: I have some arthritis, possibly not as severe as yours though, and at least one torn meniscus. I hope you find what I did, that getting stronger/fitter and (especially) lighter made a huge improvement. Much less frequent/severe pain or even discomfort these days!

It took some experimenting to figure out which types of exercises my knees could handle. Rowing (which many people don't realize is a leg sport) and cycling work for me, things with impact or torque don't (like aerobics or running). Some cautious experimenting may get you some good, fun options. I hope so!

55-60 pounds in a year sounds realistic, potentially: I lost 50-ish pounds in just under a year back in 2015-16, though I admit it was too fast for my own good for a while there. I've been up and down since, though all in a healthy range and the same jeans size. Currently in my Winter "slightly up" phase, working on "slightly down" slowly.

I hope the IF works out great for you: Finding that personalized approach that can work long term . . . that's nearly magical. I wish I'd made the commitment to a healthy weight decades ago, TBH. Better late than never, I guess!

Wishing you success . . . do keep posting, here or elsewhere in the Community. It's been surprising to me how much commonality there is in challenges and strategies, across all the age groups.

Currently in my slow season at work. Things will start moving again in mid March.

I did a couple walks today.

First I went into town, stopped for a bagel. I had two bagels. First bagel was a rye bagel with pastrami. Also comes with cream cheese, red onion, tomato, and green onion. And because why not, I got a plain Everything bagel to take home. Next stop was the post office to pick up mail. Final stop was by the co-op for some veggies to add to a bean salad I made later and some different flavors of n/a beer. I'm doing taste testing. Distance was approximately Pi miles (3.14).




Then I went out and took care of my raspberry canes. I pruned out all the primacanes from last year. Selected some of the floracanes from last year to become this year's primacanes, and tied them to the wire. I should have taken a "before" picture, but I did get the raspberries done.



It was a really nice day. The sun was out. It was relatively warm. I figured I better get back outside and enjoy it as the rain will be back tonight or tomorrow. I can do indoor chores tomorrow. So back outside I went for another walk! I forgot to turn on my tracking device until almost a mile into the walk, so I'm not sure how long it really was. I logged the last 2.34 miles.



Did YOU get moving recently?

Let's hear about it!







.

I am getting over my fear of getting back on my bicycle. I rode a half mile to a local establishment and back; neighborhood streets only.

When I worked, I was a year-round bicycle commuter except maybe one day a week when I would do truck errands on breaks, the days when the streets were covered with wet leaves for a few weeks, and the odd day when we would have ice/snow. Well, then in the summer, a motorist failed to yield right-of-way to me while they were turning. I was hurt a bit, and I've been skittish to get back on the bike.

I enjoyed my short ride tonight. It was still somewhat warmer out; it will cool off tonight. Monday night "they say" we might get some snow. I'm thinking about my next hikes.

WARNING!!!! Check your base calorie goal daily for the next several weeks.

I just noticed this morning that mine reset itself. It has done this at least two other times that I caught and reset manually. I don't use the guided set-up. I sent a support ticket. Please do the same if you experience your goals changing without you changing them!


Last time I noticed within two days. This time was over two weeks ago. It started the day I got off the Colorado River - 25 April. It changed every few days, sometimes up and sometimes down, but generally up.

I set it back to the goal I know works for me. It explains why my weight wasn't responding the way I would have expected - my goal had changed without my knowing. Just be aware.