yourfriendlaurie Member

I also wanted to add that the #1 change this time (when I've succeeded) vs. all the other times (when I've failed) is that I. do. not. give. up. Period. Giving up is NOT an option. It's literally not. So if I have a bad week and I eat all the things or I get stressed at work and dive headfirst into a stuffed crust…

I feel your pain. I can say that I was in this starve/binge, lose/gain cycle for years and years until I was finally truly ready to change and then I just did. I wish I had a better answer. The answer is to track your food and eat fewer calories than you burn, but you know that. The emotional answer is harder. You have to…

Congrats! I got LASIK about 8 months ago and was so nervous but it's been amazing. Quick recovery (took a few days to feel 100% normal and there was one day of terrifying semi-blindness immediately after surgery) but within days I had 20/15 eyesight (better than "perfect") after decades of glasses, contacts, astigmatism. I…

Another REALLY helpful thing is to take VIDEO of yourself! Even if it's a video with your phone of yourself spinning around in front of a mirror. It feels silly but you will be amazed at the difference when you compare it later. Sometimes with a photo you can think later that it was just a bad angle or flattering lighting,…

I'm 5'4" and started at 250 (also a pear-shaped body). For the first 50 lbs no one noticed and my clothing size didn't even really change (so proud of myself for sticking with it anyway!), but after about 195 I started noticing a big difference and by about 180-185 my pants size was dropping regularly with lots of…

I always go alone. The few times I've gone with a friend it was really awkward to be honest. We end up just talking and not working out or I want to work out longer than they do or they run way faster than me on the treadmill and I feel self-conscious or there's only one free machine and we have to decide who gets it, etc.…

I've always weighed 2-5 lbs more at the doctor's office (clothes, shoes, and often later in the day after eating) vs. at home (no clothes/shoes and on an empty stomach first thing in the morning). This has been true over the years at a variety of doctor's offices and with a variety of home scales. So you're probably…

Congratulations, you look amazing! A trip to Disney World this summer was motivation for me too and it was such a relief to be able to walk 16 miles over 2 days without feeling like I was dying and to fit on every ride with ZERO problems!

I've lost almost 60 lbs in the past year. The first three months, I did zero exercise and I ate fast food and processed frozen food every meal of the day. Sure it's a lot of sodium and not a lot of nutrition, but the way I was eating before was worse. Eating processed/packaged food made portion size and calorie counting…

I have the same experience. I think partly it's that my full-length bedroom mirror is at a flattering angle, but I also think there's some psychological aspect to it. My mom used to tell me that when you try on clothes in a dressing room, you should cover your own face in the mirror so that you only see how the clothes…

(Not that you looked old before haha.)

Also, you look SO much younger now, wow! I worry sometimes that I'll look older when I lose my "baby fat" face but that definitely didn't happen to you!

Wow, you look amazing! We're similar start height/weight. I like your approach of weekly weigh-in and taking a day off sometimes, that's really interesting and so cool that it's worked for you! 90 lbs is an incredible achievement!

Oh and you can order that identical drink at Starbucks since they have cold brew iced coffee and they use Torani sugar free syrups as well.

This has been such a struggle for me! If you live near a Trader Joe's, their cold brew coffee concentrate is delicious (specifically the cold brew version in the blue jug). It's so good that I drink it black now over ice, but it's also delicious with Torani sugar free salted caramel syrup and a splash of half and half or…

I think you have to experiment since everyone is different. Personally, the benefit for me is massively decreased appetite/cravings (so much lower calories). The downside is dramatically lower performance in the gym, even on pretty easy workouts. It's been about a month now but maybe that will get better with time. For…

Congratulations, this is an incredible achievement!

I buy these high fiber pitas that are really good and are supposedly 60 calories per pita, except that I've started weighing them and the package says they weigh 37g but I've never seen one that weighs less than about 46g. That's an extra 15 calories! Not that big of a deal for one item but I've noticed this problem on a…

My recommendation is to either weigh yourself daily and use one of the trend apps mentioned (I love Happy Scale) or weigh yourself monthly. In the beginning, daily with an app is probably better since you're still figuring out what works for you and don't want to go a whole month without feedback. Weighing weekly is the…

Oh, and tracking is everything. If you miss tracking a meal, go back and add it later. If you fall off the wagon for three days and don't track at all, WHO CARES? A year is 365 days - 3 days is less than 1% of that. Just immediately get back on, right now, today, with this thing you're eating right now. And the next time…

When I first started, I didn't have time to prepare any meals at all much less figure out how to make "healthy" meals or freeze casseroles for the week. I ate fast food. I ate Lean Cuisines. I ate packaged protein bars. I did that for about 9 months and lost 45 lbs (1-1.5 lbs/wk) (you'd probably lose faster since you have…

I can confirm that 3 definitely works! :)

I do if I'm hungry, sometimes I don't if I'm not. Usually I am and I do. I've lost 41 lbs so far with 84 to go. Edited to add: I know a lot of exercises listed in MFP dramatically inflate the calorie burn count though, so I would be wary of trusting them. Mostly the only exercise I do is very slow walking and from the…

I'm similar! I've also lost 41 lbs so far and it's also just from walking and counting calories. I'm 5'4" and started at 250 lbs and am now at 209. I walk 3-5 times a week on the treadmill for 30-45 minutes at a time and for eating I've averaged 1565 daily calories (after subtracting exercise). I've lost 1 - 1.5 lbs per…

I'm 5'4" (and a half haha). I started at 250 but have been as low as 125. I've spent most of my adult/teenage life between 135-150. Right now I'm 210. My ultimate goal is 125 but the last weight I remember feeling confident and getting lots of compliments at was 175 so I will be happy even when I get there! Feel free to…

I watch TV shows and movies on my Kindle Fire. I choose exciting/scary shows because I need something that really draws me in to distract me. TV dramas are good because they're usually about 45 minutes, which is how long I try to work out, but I also like movies because I stop halfway through the movie and am then excited…

My goal is 1200 so I may not be helpful, but my actual average over the past 6 months is 1550 and my average over the past four weeks (with the holidays) was just under 1750. It varies week to week. I've lost 33 pounds so far even at that number (I'm 5' 4.5"). I'll send you a friend request anyway!

This is such a great post because the feelings and thought you describe are so relatable! Especially this: "By week 3 it hit me, just how slow and long this was going to be! That there was NO magic weight loss method, I had done 3 LONG weeks and I was still not skinny was my way of thinking, no one could even tell I had…