vanmep Member

A few strategies I use: Evening hobbies- started piano lessons, quilting, yoga Big cup of tea - few calories, warm and comforting, fills my belly for awhile Leave some calories for after dinner snack Low calore snack options - popcorn, popsicles, cheese nips crackers with laughing cow cheese

I don’t depend on motivation. I’m just doing this now. I started by committing to it for one year. Now, it’s just what I do.

Love body pump! Just be aware though that there is a significant difference between what they advertise as calories burned and what the Fitbit reports as calories burned during a class.

Thanks for the encouraging post! It is very easy to bring the focus to the negative and see only those “soft spots.” Let’s all be excellent to ourselves and to each other !

I have set my goal at 2 pounds per month and actual average is a little less than that. I wonder why you are asking this? It would be very different for each individual so I feel like there wouldn’t be much value in this kind of data.

I switched to temporary maintenance at the beginning of December because a lot of my exercise comes from riding my bike to work which I won't be able to do for the winter months. Plus I wanted a little practice for permanent maintenance. I was doing great until last week when everything went to *kitten*. Last year I…

I wonder how many cartwheels you did in 2017? Maybe that needs to be a goal for me! I haven't done a cartwheel in 40 years I bet. I mean it wouldn't be hard to do more in 2018 than I did in 2017! I am also wondering how you go about learning the choreography for a boyband single? Do you just copy what's happening on…

It's probably a good idea to figure out a strategy for dealing with these situations because they come up all the time in life. When people talk about a lifestyle change vs a diet I think this is what they mean. I used to have very detailed, rigid plans for how I would deal with what/how I eat and exercise, then when the…

This might be a really good opportunity to observe and learn some things about yourself and your relationship with food. Pay attention to your thought patterns and habits and how they make you feel. What compels you to eat? What makes you feel guilty? What goes through your mind when you are pigging out? How do you feel…

I have had the same thing even though i do try to meet my fibre goals. I wondered if it could be because I am eating healthier food, there is less junk to be disposed of? Just a theory.

I’m doing a temporary maintenance too. I decided to set my calories for about 100 short so that if I go to a party I will have about 700 calories to play with on a weekly averaging system. I continue to log everything and it seems to be working really well. I think I will do this until the end of February and then get back…

Tim Hortons medium regular - 105 calories and totally worth it. Just one per day

It’s exciting that you have found something that seems to be working. I also am a slow loser (sounds so bad but works so good :blush: ). Sometimes I read the posts about losing a bazillion pounds in a couple of weeks and I wish I was them. But then I go back to my sustainable diet and my enjoyable life and it's all good…

Thanksgiving day is long gone (Canada)

I love the gradual, thought out approach! Congrats to you!

One of my favourite things about MFP has been that it tells me exactly what I need to do to achieve my goal. In the old days I almost always had a feeling of nagging guilt about every single thing I ate. These days, if I eat a donut it's because I know it fits within my allotted calories for the day and I thoroughly enjoy…

Lightly sweetened apples and cinnamon oatmeal packets have 4 g of sugars and very portable if you have a microwave at work.

I just read a quote " it's a slow process but quitting won't speed it up." Neither will not starting

Two things that help me when I feel like this - it took me twenty years to get to this weight so even if it takes 5 to get it off I will be going at lightening speed in comparison. And the next five years of my life are going to go by no matter what, so I might as well do something healthy and useful with the time or I'll…

I have a lovely vintage book called "The Complete Calorie Counter." It has every food item you could think of and nobody can edit it. If you twisted my arm you could probably convince me to sell it to you for $25.99 + shipping. I might even throw in a pencil and a paper. :smile:

What do you REALLY want right now?

Fifteen months. A lot less than it took me to put it on!

On days when I am super hungry I eat. I focus on making healthy choices about what I am eating and worry less about calories (I do log everything). To me it is just as important to learn to care for my body's needs as it is to learn not to eat when I'm not hungry. One of my goals is to rewire my brain and my relationship…

Who are you cheating on?

I am actually aware that positive reinforcement is not an effective tool for change. I don't disagree with shaming because it is negative. I disagree with it because it is ineffective. When people are shamed they tend to either get stuck or go to extremes of doing what they are shamed for. There are effective strategies…

There is a wide space between shame and coddling and I think a healthy response to overeating will fall somewhere within that space. Shame, for the most part, is a negative and debilitating emotion and results in paralysis or reactivity. It rarely results in making healthy changes. Occasions of overeating are a part of a…

Cheating includes lying, sneaking and stabbing in the back. I would never do that to myself. An intentionally undisciplined day however, is another story.

The LAST thing you should do is be ashamed of yourself. That is the way to set up an unhealthy relationship with food and an unhealthy emotional relationship with yourself. Shame also is not an effective tool for change. Recognize that these kinds of blips will happen for the rest of your life and figure out a healthy way…

I've lost 26 pounds but I'm pretty sure that I have actually lost 50 because I've lost most of those pounds twice just because weight loss is not linear LOL

Awesome!