JulieSHelms Member

Here are my slightly off-putting NSVs for today. Yesterday, a friend's husband who I haven't seen in awhile said, "Wow, don't take this the wrong way, but you look GOOD!" and today a store clerk asked me if I was single. In all my 50 years I've never been complimented by men on anything physical and to have these two…

Today we had our sheep sheared. It's a lot of hefting around very heavy animals (200+ lbs). My husband said he noticed I was doing a lot more of the heavy work with no problem--7 months gym time paying off in a practical way! (The photo is of the shearer, not me.)

2 NSVs for me today: 1. I put on a pair of knee-high stockings for the first time in years yesterday. And you know what they did? They went all the way to...my knees! For 30 years those darn stockings always stopped mid-calf. :smile: 2. This will seem really lame to most of you, but I ran a mile on the treadmill yesterday,…

What size frame do you have? I'm large framed which shows up in wide shoulders and huge rib cage, but I think my lower half is probably average. Don't know if it's related but I have a long back and extra vertebrae too. Dense bones...never thought of that! How did you have that measured? So maybe the BMI chart isn't the…

THanks! For the first 60 lbs I just cut out carbs (<25 g/day). I have PCOS and am insulin resistant, so I've known for a long time that carbs were a problem. Then that stopped working weight-loss wise. That's when I joined MFP (and Planet Fitness) and started counting calories. That got things going again and I lost the…

Final goal reached!

Goal reached! I'm 50, 5'8", large frame, SW 300, GW 175. It took 17 months, 17 days. I know I could stand to lose a little more, but I was so sure I would never actually reach this goal! I may slowly try for about 10 lbs more, but I'm pretty satisfied here. This is what I weighed on my wedding day, 27 years ago, but have…

SW 300 CW 178 GW 165 5'8" These pics also show how badly my teeth shifted during weight loss. At SW (2014) they are straight, by -90 they are way out of alignment. I got (clear) braces about 10 lbs ago and they are starting to look better again.

@AnnPT77 --thank you for your response. It is extremely helpful. So what I can glean from this is I definitely am not at my goal yet--maybe 20 lbs yet. The skin thickness you describe is what I have around my neck and arms, definitely not my stomach, thighs and butt. My loose skin there has chunk to it, but it's weirdly…

Like 4 days now. :smile: I know there could still be some tightening up, but it's pretty obvious I have some new friends stuck to me for the rest of my life! it's not so much that I am fretting over the extra skin--I'm actually pleased it's not worse. I just want to know how to calculate the weight so that my goal is…

I guess I would like a number to "aim for". That seems easier than not having a specific end point. Like running a race without a finish line. But since its been 30 years since I've been at my current weight, I'm not sure where that point is. I'm carrying my weight much differently than I did in my 20s, so comparing to my…

Thank you everyone for the confirmation that if nothing else, these feelings are typical. Maybe there is some deep-seated expectation that when you lose so much weight you will somehow be a different person, but inside you are the same--so did a change really occur? This week I experienced something that I think helped…

I had my family trained that whenever they borrowed my car they put the seat back for me afterward. It was easy to know the spot--all the way back. So I got into my car, and whoever borrowed it last had put the seat all the way back for me--and I couldn't reach the pedals! Now, I have to retrain them all. :smile:

Uggh, just googled this and can't find any place that does this within 3 hours of me. I'll ask my regular dr. and see if he knows of a more local place.

Thanks for sharing the pictures. My stomach looks similar but my loose stuff is definitely thicker, so I suspect more fat. I just don't want to get any thinner up top. My boobs are already a major casualty here! And no, I've never been pear shaped. I'm broad shouldered, and as a dressmaker once told me at 21, I had the…

I have learned after being on this weight loss journey for two years (and 120 lbs down) to listen to my body. Normally I am satisfied with my allotted calories. But maybe once every 2 or 3 weeks I am unusually hungry. So I eat more--maybe 200-300 more calories. And I learned that true hunger always precedes a drop in…

It is that determination that will carry you through! I started at 300, now 180---MFP has been an amazing tool to aid this process. Best of luck!

When I was a kid I loved Betty Crocker's Noodles Romanoff. I've tried about 10 homemade recipes and none of them quite get it! But it's been 30 years since I've seen it. And BTW, Chef Boy-Ar-Dee changed the recipe for Beefaroni and it aint the same. I sent them a strongly worded letter begging them to switch it back. They…

I bumped into someone in the gym today that I haven't seen in a year and a half. He said he didn't recognize me till I smiled. :) Similar thing happened a week ago. A friend I was meeting at the gym was talking to another person when I walked up. I realized I knew the other person, so started chatting with her. Afterward,…

Was trying on some tops in a store today. I am currently a Medium down from a 3X. So this one top was an M and it was too big. I kind of giggled as I went to retrieve a Small from the shelf and take it into the dressing room. I put it on and it fit...and all I could think was--if I'm wearing an S, what are the small people…

I also have PCOS and agree with everything TmacMMM said. I would add that exercise should include strength training (weights) in that 45 minutes. I've lost 118 lbs, despite a doctor telling me that women with PCOS cannot lose weight. It just isn't true.

Lol! Funniest post I've seen today!

I lost my first 60 lbs with no exercise at all. You can do it with just diet. Then when I did start exercising is when I had much larger loss in inches--it really tightened things up. But you can certainly get a good chunk off, if not all of your weight that you want to lose, just by counting calories.

I experienced the same thing when I started out with resistance training--that my dominant right side was weaker than my left--made no sense to me. After about 6 months (and I've mostly shifted off machines to free weights) the right is now just slightly stronger as I would have expected (though I work them out equally of…

I've lost 118 lbs. Almost to maintenance. If anybody wants encouragement for the long haul, feel free to friend me.

I had NO luck with electrolysis at all. I was going bald on top and growing lots of chin hair. After about 10 electrolysis sessions with no improvement, I finally quit. Also had a few hairs on chest and a very boy-like happy trail. Finally got referred to an endocrinologist (this was 15 years ago before I was diagnosed…

I want to thank everybody for their responses. I've read each one carefully and it just overwhelms me. It encourages me that my thinking is fairly typical, though needs to be dealt with or acknowledged, but isn't a disaster. Several of you mentioned something I didn't even think to say--trying on clothes and feeling like…

Thanks, Carmen! And I'll have you know, those thighs up there are all from you inspiring me on SQUATS! ;-)

I wanted to update this now that I have lost another 23 lbs since I first posted it. I've lost 468 sticks of butter (-117 lbs), and I have about 8 lbs to goal and re-evaluation. SW 300 (Feb '15) CW 183 GW 175 5'8" Age 50

So for someone trying to lose weight (ie fat) is there value in strength training while still in a deficit or should it wait until they are done?