CaliforniaRower Member

Oh! I love these photos! So inspiring! I just started my Planet Fitness membership yesterday. I'm 5'8.5" (last I knew!) and 53 years old, stuck in a dreadful perimenopause going on 5 years now. CW: 180.5. Again. : ( GW: 150 I could bench press 125# in college, and I weighed 125 in college. I was a lean fighting machine!…

@monkeefan1974 - You are STUNNING! SO pretty! Wow! I'm inspired.

I decided to just go cold turkey and start eating clean. Today was Day One. Feeling great about this decision, but it's late at night and to prepare mentally for tomorrow, I Googled "Before/After Photos" for my height. Ended up here...then I read one of my own earlier posts in this thread and realized I have been here…

Thank you for this polite and helpful response. Although I am familiar with how much an ounce is, and I suspect I was fairly accurate, it is true that I will not use a food scale - if it got to that level and I had massive weight to lose, I'd opt for bariatric surgery, I suspect. I cannot imagine the inhumanity nor…

Wow! You guys sure do get vicious around here! I wasn't "blaming" the computer system known as MFP for anything. Blaming an inanimate object? Really? I was making the point that I didn't chart anything more than what seemed normal, e.g., "a 6" banana." No, I didn't get out a ruler. It might have been 5.5 or 7. (There are…

Dr. Fuhrman's website talks about this side effect. As a kid, my mom fed us only healthy stuff. (I thank her for that now!) But I had so much gas kids teased me! I was a vegan for almost 5 years, and this was a problem then, too. So here are two suggestions that might work for you: Indian health food stores have the…

Dears, thank you sincerely for all your lovely, helpful perspectives!

Yep, it's Satan. And the fellow demons are named "Sugar" and "Excess Carbs". I love your playful post! I've never had a diet Coke in my life, and only twice (in emergencies because there was not even water available) have I even had regular Coke. I just can't figure out how any human can drink soda (pop) of any kind and…

Thank you, @sydkins432 and everyone else, too.

I read this twice, the second time with tears in my eyes. That's EXACTLY what happened, and I fumbled. Thanks to the ASTONISHING support I got here, I'm 100% back on track today (about 75% yesterday) and I hope to not let it happen again. THANK YOU!

OK, OK! I respectfully withdraw my "great idea."

Hi EB! Just now reading about this diet and its potential. Where's your blog? I'm interested in opting into this choice for six weeks. My goal is to lose 25 lbs, perhaps more.

Thank you, Blankiefinder, for the best quote I've read in forever!

Well, perhaps you all are right, but 2 weeks on MFP and my scale didn't go up or down by more than .8, after losing 6 lbs right away (month 1) got me bummed. I LIKE weighing daily, but I noticed that it was causing me to feel like weight loss is hopeless for me, so I ate some bad things and now I'm trying anything I can…

The problem is, Tigger, that last month despite enormous dedication the scale barely moved - 6 lbs total - and I was so sad I snapped into some of my old habits.

Thanks, Ash. It's the fact that the scale does NOT move that has me considering this radical step. I'm a numbers person and if I gain even .2-.4 oz between first-thing-in-the-morning weigh-ins, I am sad and mildly obsessive for the whole day! I know that's illogical.

Astonishing! Terrific!

Wow! How inspiring! Keep up the good work!

Welcome back, Chris! I get the "shame" part - I went on vacation and slipped for a month myself, and now I am guiltily coming back. The supportive comments I've received in the forums reminded me that most people screw up on this process of permanent weight loss, and that it matters more how many times you get back on the…

Thank you all for this encouragement. I'm glad I reached out! I'm stepping back on the path today.

I take a natural iron supplement, probably 18 days out of the month (because I forget!) and I find it has helped a lot with the dizziness, but the weakness CERTAINLY holds true for the first few days. No idea why this happens to our bodies - must serve some random purpose. I keep reminding myself the reason so little is…

@ngagne - thank you! Great idea! And everyone else, thank you too.

Oh! But my TDEE is FAR more than my allotment on MFP. So if TDEE = 2000 and MFP = 1200, I'm at a theoretical 800 deficit. How can I not be losing?

That's REALLY interesting, Tina. Thank you for sharing this ray of hope!

I suspect that THIS hormone drama is WHY "middle aged women tend to gain weight." I was fine yesterday, exercised twice, felt pretty happy, like the worst had passed, was eating right and then I felt sick to my stomach after I'd completed my final entry, so I ate toast to try to calm it down...and then another piece when I…

I really love (and occasionally eat) Ezekiel bread when I need/crave/want bread. The rest of the time, I find in my own case that weight loss is hastened if I avoid it. I suspect that's because for me, it takes longer for bread to move through my system, even the beloved Ezekiel bread.

This post brought tears to my eyes. I can totally relate. Thanks for writing this.

Wow, this one sentence really struck me hard. I'm 50.5 and that's what I keep saying to myself: "This is a LOT of work. We aren't doing this again. Period."

Well, I limit myself to 6 semi-sweet chocolate morsels when I'm dying for sugar. I eat them only if I am under my calorie limit for the day. And I savor each one. What I have found out - to my astonishment - is that "sugar addiction" is really more just a bad "sugar habit" that is caused by (in many cases!) not eating…

You n me both, Winner. I didn't even notice this kind of insane food craving until pretty much the day after my 50th birthday when my clock suddenly said, "Oh, gosh! Let's start perimenopause. Ready! Go!" It's been SO weird. I could have eaten 6x my body weight and now today, I'm human again. SO annoying!