WinterSkies Member

I haven't been active on MFP in several years, but I was in the Hogwarts Challenges back in the single digits! I was so, so excited to see this post today and submit my application. Hoping I'll be accepted back!!

If you want to try strength training by bodyweight training (i.e. no equipment required), check out darebee.com. They have loads of fun workouts and programs, and it's all free.

I'll second this. I lost 45lb between April 2015 and May 2016, and then basically took a break from logging all summer. I'm only just getting back into it now. I found that I was getting really tired of thinking about calories all of the time, and I wanted to see if I could better follow my hunger cues and make good…

Every morning... I'm a data geek, so I like to see how things like time of month, salty meals, etc. affect my weight.

-Toast with peanut butter and bacon ....mmm. My husband thinks I'm wasting bacon. He's nuts. - Canned tuna with chopped up dill pickles, mayo, and Sriracha... the mayo is normal, but I've gotten weird looks over the pickles and hot sauce.

When I started on MFP in 2015, my daughter was about 9 months, and was nursing pretty frequently. I had a decent amount of weight to lose (60lb), so I set my calories for 2lb/week loss. I think it had me around 1850. I then added back in 300 calories per day for breastfeeding. As she reduced her nursing sessions, I reduced…

I use a mix of full and lowfat products. For butter, coffee cream (half and half) sour cream, yogurt and soft cheeses, full fat all the way. We buy only 3.25% milk as we have young children, so I will drink that on occasion when I really crave a glass of milk. I have found that the full fat options for most things taste…

That's probably the water weight coming off :smile: It's fun to see that big drop, but don't get discouraged if things slow down after this. Also, recognize that certain times of the month will have you showing a weight gain (water again, sometimes 2-5lb, at ovulation and when you get your period). It's tough to see the…

I am in total agreement here! How did I not notice the amazing butter flavour of my mother's shortbread cookies before? Oh, because I was busy stuffing 5 of them in my face instead of thoroughly enjoying just 1. And wow, good chocolate is amazing! I won't even bother with the cheap "milk chocolate" any more. It's not worth…

I think it's all hormones in the end. I've had a lot of different experiences. Highschool, I didn't suffer much. University (gained a bunch of weight, went on birth control), had 1-2 days of cramping each month that were fairly painful, though I've never been one to take painkillers for them. Had my first baby, and the…

I exercise specifically so that I can eat more :) I'll usually leave myself a buffer of about 100 calories to make up for inaccuracies in counting and exercise estimates, rather than calculating a percent to eat back. If you are eating at a large deficit already (e.g. you're down at 1200 calories/day) and you don't eat…

+1 to the above! You're probably feeling bloated from water retention (excess sodium perhaps) and your body isn't used having that much rich food all at once anymore. I know that I react far differently to sweets and rich foods now that I limit them in my diet! Keep the math in mind when you start to feel this way - to…

Awesome work! I too got a thrill out of passing the obese/overweight line. Now, I'm 9lbs to "healthy" and I can't wait to get there :smile: Good luck in your continuing journey!

Going out and buying new pants.. and finding out that I can fit in a size 8, down from a 16. I don't think I've been that small since I was a teenager! Sadly, this means I really need to ditch all of the 14s I've been wearing and actually buy some more pants.

The starving feeling was my life for the first three months- my daughter nursed non-stop in the evenings until she found her thumb at 12 weeks. I think I was ALWAYS hungry. It's totally normal, as nursing full time can burn at minimum an extra 500 calories per day, or more depending on how much your baby is taking in. The…

This. I weigh each ingredient in grams as I toss it in the bowl. Make sure you look for database entries that allow you to enter weights in grams, and add each ingredient separately.

Give weighing all of your food a shot.... I was shocked by the peanut butter and cheese serving sizes once I started weighing. And most of my fruit is much larger than the generic entries in the food database (e.g. 180g apples vs. 154g, 120g bananas vs. 80g). The bagels my husband eats for breakfast weigh 130g, not the…

90% of weight loss is in the kitchen. We are very similar in size, and I have my cals set to 1590/day to lose 1lb/week. While I like to think that my portion control is improving, I do know that if I didn't weigh my food 2 days a week, I would wipe out at least some of my weekly deficit. It could be that you're losing at a…

I bought a new scale last fall, and it showed me at 5lb higher than my old one. I feel your pain! What you need to keep in mind is that it's the downward trend that matters, not the absolute number. Give it a few weeks, and when that downward trend continues, pat yourself on the back. You can do this :)

I agree. At the very least, wait until your doctor gives you the all clear, but as others have said, waiting another 2 months or so might be a good idea. You are still establishing your milk supply, and restricting calories now can cause problems. Your body is still healing from birth, so strenuous exercise is not the best…

I'm in Winnipeg as well.

This. As long as my weekly deficit adds up to about 3500 calories, I'm not too worried about how the day-to-day numbers look. Log it, see if you can learn anything from the experience (e.g. did you identify a trigger that causes you to over eat?), and move on with today. Recognizing and coming to terms with the fact that…

Feel free to add me... I have a 3.5 year old and a 17 month old. I've been actively trying to lose since last summer, so I'm about halfway to my goal now, with about 30lb to go :smile: It's been pretty slow and steady for me - spending time with the kids is definitely a priority!

Yup... ounces is just an imperial measurement, and grams are metric. You can easily convert between the two, so as long as your scale was calibrated properly when it was manufactured, the numbers will be fine.

My toddler can eat her weight in spaghetti, so she'd appreciate it! I have been fortunate that I've never been in the position to need to use a food bank, but I can imagine that the items in your pantry would definitely get old after a while. It can't be easy to never know what you're going to get.

We had a whiteboard in the kitchen with the week's menu written on it, so you always knew what was for dinner :) I guess with 4 kids, two working parents, and umpteen activities to cart us around to, my parents had to be organized! lol It's so interesting to see how different people's habits and schedules are!

Time of month could be a big one here. I "gain" a couple of pounds midcycle (ovulation), and then up to 5lb at the end of my cycle. It's just water. The "extra pounds" usually disappear within a couple of days, but each time, any weight I've lost is masked. It does make for a nice drop on the scale twice a month :smile:…

Lol... it amazes me how people can get by without planning! My parents always had a menu planned out, and now I do the same thing. I've got two young kids, so our house would be chaos if meals weren't planned in advance. Our weekly menu is "planned" on the weekend, before we go shopping. It keeps us from buying too much…

Another geek here... caretaker of 3 cats, D&D player, RPG addict (just bought the first two Witcher games from the winter Steam sale, but I have to wait for my husband to get bored of Kerbal Space Program lol). Also enjoy lots of table top games. Feel free to add me!