NON WW & WW NEWBIES, OUR NEW LIFE, THE START OF SOMETHING WONDERFUL

Good Morning All,

I am a former WW Member and have decided to transfer over to MFP Premium. I am hoping to have some success on my journey to good health. I am 65 yr old and last year I lost over 20 lbs via WW but life threw my family some curveballs with my husband's health and as a result of the stress I just went off plan and ate whatever!!! What is shocking how FAST I gained weight back that I had lost and plus some more lbs but it took me what seemed forever to lose weight!!! I am new so I welcome you all and encouragement and support 🙏

@thecat You had me at “it all comes down to health”!

I am 63 and followed WW on and off for many years and lost and gained the same 10 lbs over (and over) several years. It’s a decent program but after a few decades I’m done with points and prefer good old fashioned science based calorie counting (in MFP). And, I do believe all food choices are acceptable but maybe not all are beneficial for my own weight loss or healthy living. We have to find what works for us.

So, I am came over to MFP Premium last Oct. 2022 and am down 9 lbs. I have 5-7 to go to my ultimate goal. I prefer this app for many
reasons and this group seems to be very supportive and that’s what we all need!

I joined a gym nearby and am doing barre and
Zumba gold (lower paced dance) and ready to
rock my July goals 😊

@thecat Good morning and welcome! It's so hard to lose the pounds but it sure does come back quick, doesn't it? The good news is that you KNOW you can lose the weight as you already proved you can. You just have to make the healthy decisions now. Again, welcome, I'm glad you joined us!

@cbabie Yay for making it! Oh that sounds like fun. Did baby girl enjoy it? That's cute about the children's bread. I wonder where she got that from? Thank you!

@Michieb125 Welcome to the group! Good to "see" you. I also was on WW for years and years and had very little success. Congrats on your success on MFP Premium! And great exercise efforts.

@theslightedgeforever I'm glad you got settled in okay. Yes, I had vertigo. It was terrible. I hope your highlights turn out okay with a new person, that would make me nervous lol. I would like to see The Little Mermaid. Yay for daily tracking! Sounds like you are doing well. Wow, 102 oz of water! Awesome.

Hi all. Welcome to the new people. I did WW for years and years and now I am using the Healthi premium/pro app, which is what the screenshots of my tracker are from. It counts "Bites" which are like WW points, but since I am a pro member, it also counts some of my macros. I like it a lot.

Yesterday was okay. We did not go to the Olive Garden, that was homemade food but I didn't feel like adding in the recipes so I just used those entries. We are having to put in great efforts with our dog training and it is upsetting the house lol. Major changes. Dogs in their crates while sleeping (they usually sleep with us), so we didn't get much sleep last night because they didn't like it.

Water yesterday: 30 oz

My phrase for the year: "Every choice is another chance to change my health for the better."

Thanks for the very nice welcome. Quick hi before my DH and I head over to my adult son’s and DIL’s home today for a family BBQ. Not even sure of the menu but I can always moderate as they are also on a health journey right now so I expect good protein and fresh salads (not mayonnaise ridden sides). I made a gluten free cream cheese fruit tart piled high with strawberries and blueberries for the holiday. Will slice thin for 11 guests.

I use MFP for calories and macros although I don’t hit all of the macro goals each day - I am more focused on daily calories and averaging my target range over a week.
I look forward to learning from you all.

Hi everyone - and new people! Yay and hello 👋


So I did exercise this morning! I’m still flu-ey in the head but am pleased I did the full half hour, then a small bit of strength after.

I did read back through - hard to remember what I was going to comment/respond to tho. I’m heading out in a bit but maybe later…

@Michieb125 That's good that your son and his family are also on a health journey, that makes it so much easier! Your tart sounds like what I make on the 4th of July, I call it a cookie pizza. That's good you are focusing on the overall calorie average, not the daily amount. I think that's better.

@theslightedgeforever Seriously. I have been low for so long on water. I'm going to try to drink more today. Yesterday, at one point later in the afternoon, I was so thirsty I just chugged a whole glass lol.

@Tamevv Yay for your exercise session! I think fairy bread sounds fun.

Hi all. I didn't overeat yesterday but still managed to eat the wrong things and end up over my macros/"bites" for the day. This happens all the time. My husband doesn't help things by bringing home desserts from the store or making desserts. He said he would make healthy desserts (I am prediabetic) but he never did.

Water yesterday: 30 oz

My phrase for the year: "Every choice is another chance to change my health for the better."

It's that time of year......

https://startofhappiness.com/how-to-conduct-a-personal-mid-year-review/

@cbabie Hey nothing wrong with Christmas in July lol, sometimes I watch Hallmark Christmas movies in July! I'm glad baby girl liked it. Wow, 4 weeks and she starts school? Unbelievable! I am doing pretty good with the tracking, overall.

@theslightedgeforever Thanks for the link. Ugh. I'm not impressed by my efforts so far.

@Michieb125 I think it helps to check in. Yay for the scale going downward! Your food sounds yummy. I do agree about strength training. Don't ask me if I do it. :P I have good advice that I don't follow.

Hi all. I did not track one thing yesterday. I don't know what happened. To make things worse, we got these cookies from a cookie store. I think I will freeze mine. I'm going to track today but it won't be pretty.

Water yesterday: 40 oz

My phrase for the year: "Every choice is another chance to change my health for the better."

I’m alone here today but it’s the day after a holiday midweek so I went back and read a few more posts to see who is posting here and some of you have been ‘together’ a long time, that’s so great.

Enjoyed our 4th of July BBQ yesterday and I abstained from wine and apple pie so I’ll take it as a big win. Gotta cut calories somewhere!
BUT did have (too many) potato chips and a big burger with all the fixings, so I am going for a lighter day today. Orgain protein shake for breakfast, and PBJ with fruit jam on thin Oroweat bread for lunch. It’s grilled Talapia and black bean salads for tonight’s’ meal and lots of water today. Will save some calories for apple slices and popcorn as my mid day and nighttime snack with the Ted Lasso show later.

@Michieb125 I love parades! Yay for your 3 miles. I hope you enjoyed your mani/pedi, those are relaxing. Is this your first Barre class? Good luck! Yes, we've been here a while lol. BUT we always love new people as well. I'm glad you enjoyed your 4th. That is a big win! Sounds like you are going to balance everything out nicely.

@theslightedgeforever I don't have a plan. The only way I will be able to stay within my points is to figure out the points on each recipe BEFORE I go shopping for the ingredients. Once I buy the ingredients, that's what we are having (unless DH throws a monkey wrench into the situation). I just pretrack and if I go over, that's what happens. I have some time tomorrow morning and I may use the time to figure out the bites on recipes for next week. I'm basically having to pretrack my entire week to do this. Congrats on your loss and doing well your first week there. Water is always a struggle for everyone, isn't it? I'm challenged by it right now. Add to my challenges lol. Holiday cupcakes sound dangerous. That's good you put them in the freezer.

Hi all. I was running late yesterday or I would have been here. We had a good 4th, sat out in lawnchairs on the walkway in front of our condo for a couple of hours. Grilled some hot dogs. Enjoyed the day. Yesterday was work and today is too, but luckily I can work from home for most of the day (I have to pick something up later today for work). I woke up with a headache. I took some Ibuprofen, hopefully that will take care of it. Have a good day!

Water yesterday: 40 oz

My phrase for the year: "Every choice is another chance to change my health for the better."

@theslightedgeforever I don't know that I have a choice but to pre-figure out the recipe bites. It took me 5 minutes to build 1 recipe yesterday. I can't do it on my desktop computer, Healthi doesn't let you use their website to track or build recipes, so it takes even longer than it should. I made a meal plan for next week. I added a few recipes and used some that I had previously built. It still took a while. With all this, I may still go over but I have a better chance of not going over. Wow, that's a lot of exercise in one day! Great job. Keep working on the water.

Hi all. I gained 4.2 lbs this week. I am so sick of gaining weight. I know I only have myself to blame but it is frustrating. I am 10 lbs from my highest weight.

Water yesterday: 40 oz

My phrase for the year: "Every choice is another chance to change my health for the better."

@trooworld Does Healthi have a section to enter snacks? So you know how much you are currently spending on snacks. So you can start reducing the points on those. Even by 1 or 2. Everything adds up. Other options could be smaller portions. For instance on the Buddha bowl you had for lunch, could you eat 1/2 or 3/4 of that and then eat other 0 point foods to make up the balance of the meal. I had to do that a couple of times this week with some macaroni bechamel that I made. Once it was a 1/2 portion and then once 3/4 portion. I added some salad instead and it satisfied me and I wasn't hungry. While I wanted to eat a whole portion, I want to be thin and healthy even more. This is how I've been planning my meals everyday this week. I put in everything I want to eat that day. Putting in a yummy snack for me on some days. Then I look at my total and if I've gone over my carb count, I see how many over. Then I start reducing portion sizes to get it to down where I want. Sometimes I'm still over 10 or so but I think I can still lose weight with that.

@michieb125 I vote you get one or two at a good bakery. I agree with you on the whole foods/disease thing. I'll be 60 in February. Yummy Papa Murphy's. Yes on the high/low balance. I want to lose weight the way I'm going to maintain so nothing is off limits for me. Just either smaller portions or less often.

Today was gym day. 57 min. Cardio/strength training/stretching
Food: Under 12 carbs Over 100 calories
Water 5 bottles.

So excited: no exercise planned on the weekend. I'm tired.

This is what I came up with for a meal plan. the "Nut X PP" is the amount of points each recipe has. The Olive Garden Salad is homemade along with the dressing being homemade.

Good afternoon all -

@theslightedgeforever we’re close in age and the whole health thing is super important to me now. I also like your suggestions around portion control while still eating and enjoying what you want. I pretty much do the same thing. I don’t deprive myself but I am usually able to stop at the calorie or carb limits each day, or if over slightly, then average out my goals for the rest of the week. As you mentioned earlier, new lifestyle habits are what we want to maintain. I am so there for now! Good job on the exercise and reminders to us for more water!

@trooworld your honesty about food is appreciated and insightful. I believe small changes over a long time will turn into better habits for us. In other words consistency with good choices. Of course we need treats but I now read labels and will not eat processed products made with corn syrup or sodium that’s sky high. Once I researched these it became easier! I would rather bake something with organic ingredients or make a stir fry myself. I really like your meal plans! The one thing I might personally tweak is perhaps cutting the potato salad portion in half or two-thirds and add in fresh green beans for nutrients and they are also filling but zero pts. You could save 250-350 calories if you want.

@cbarbie you were moving with cleaning and staying active with the little one! At least you know you need to make time for yourself first so you can take care of those around you. Never easy especially for women of all ages.

I’ve always been fairly active and healthy compared to some others at my age. But…..always about 15-20 lbs. over a good BMI or the CDC suggested guidelines for weight/height. This year I am committed to get closer to my goal weight by my birthday day in October followed by my annual physical. Need to give my doctors a reason to smile lol.

@trooworld You said "I am a food addict and eat what I want most of the time. This has to stop. I don't know how but it has to." So the first thing is to change your thoughts. You can start saying I USED TO BE a food addict but now I am..............(fill in the blank) Research has shown the brain can't distinguish between what is reality and what is imagined. So you keep telling your brain that and it says, if you say you are. So instead of either/or with processed food, how about slight reduction. Start there. How about substitute one processed snack that you would normally eat and substitute something healthy. I've done the whole buy fruit and throw fruit away thing. I know how that is. So I started buying 7 oranges and would have an orange at night while I watched TV. Otherwise I was snacking on crackers, chips, or popcorn. It became a habit until I came up here to my dd's house. I've switched to having one fruit with my breakfast and then one fruit with my salad. So let us know what day you are ready to do this. One day this week. So you have time to buy the piece of fruit. Hide it in case your hubby eats it. That's what happened to me. So the next time I bought double the fruit and then he didn't eat any and had to throw away. Sigh. So I buy him a little and now have him trained to stay out of mine. You want more go to the store.
You know every little tweak we offer is said with love and support. Because we want you to succeed in your journey. That's great that you got started on figuring out your points with your main meals. Another thing you can add to your journal is coming up with options to reduce ordering out. I have the same problem when I'm at home with dh/ds. I have no good reason other than some days I just don't want to cook. They say let's order X I say okay and I stay fat. So I had decided that when I return I will cook more. I'll still allow myself to order out a couple days a week if I want to but that doesn't mean I have to order from same place that they do. I'm learning which restaurants have healthy options that I think taste good. I don't need to go with the flow anymore. Otherwise they will take me right over the waterfall to my death.

@cbabie Yaaay on walking 6 min on the treadmill. Is that the breakfast burrito recipe I sent you? I keep saying I'm going to make that. I should do that while I'm here with dd so I can fill her freezer a bit. So when you make it again reduce the spices or take out 1/4 of the mixture for you before adding the spices.

@Michieb125 You sound like you have a great attitude. Keep working towards your goal and you will have a great birthday present. I'm learning to just focus on today. Then next day I analyze my meal and see how I could have made little tweaks for next time. Always learning.

@gemwolf110 I noticed your weight loss on the newsfeed. Great job.

So my little exercise free weekend didn't really turn out that way but oh well. Yesterday went to Mall of America and I walked 11000 steps. My watch even registered a 20 min walk in all that. Today we went to one of the state parks and saw some bison and then went on a 30 minute hike. Very nice and peaceful.

Food: Yesterday we always go to the same place and I usually order same thing. Cowboy burger/fries. But I ordered the Black and Bleu salmon salad.

Today was a pizza buffet place and I threw in some green beans for health and still managed to stay under calories by 42 but I'm over my carbs by 1. I call it a win for the day.

Water was not good with all the traveling last two days. Needs work.