Secretnotes Member

At 5' 5.5", I hover around 134-137, but I noticed the fat location and distribution changes considerably with my fitness level. During summers at this weight, I'll be a size smaller because I'm boating, swimming, gardening, weeding, etc. So it isn't so much what I weigh, it's the way I stay there.

I meticulously track my food intake because if my dosage is off, it can make a very mild difference to what my body burns each day. If your hypothyroidism is under control with medication, and your levels are in the normal range, you should have little difficulty dropping weight. (Fair warning: It's as painfully slow for…

I will do what works for me to maintain my weight (which happens to be calorie counting). I just wish others were not so insistent that I'm not doing it right and I should be doing it their way.

Yes. This is my third time in maintenance. Two "weight creep" episodes were enough to convince me that I need a structured record so I can spot the trends.

You have to find what works for you. I hope you can find a way to make your plan work. For me, I either count the calories on MFP, or I count the pounds going up on the scale. I can't avoid numbers.

Eat to live. Not live to eat.

I have reached a weight where exercise needs to take over to redefine what I see in the mirror and the scale is only a tool to keep me from regaining. I don't want to force my body to get down to an arbitrary weight that makes me crabby trying to maintain it. What's the point?

Just add some plain walnuts, a sprinkle of dried cranberries, shredded carrots, some chicken or boiled egg for protein, and I'd be ecstatic!

Cream of wheat with milk (add a couple scoops of PB2 or PB Fit for flavor if you find it too bland).

Nice sentiment.

I hit the thrift shop's "dollar" sale and picked up five pairs of jeans in preparation for my next goal size, which is an 8. (From 18 to 8, Yeah!) All of them still had original store tags, so someone who had yo-yoing weight probably donated them. Anyway, I washed them, thinking how tiny they looked. On a whim, I tried…

Congratulations! Those "whooshes" are wonderful!

Feel free to add me too!

Calorie reduction and half an hour a day on the elliptical does it for me, with a daily walk for about twenty minutes to burn out the dog's energy. I initially lost 45 pounds, now I'm working on the last 10. Don't believe the elliptical readout for calories burned. It's a vanity measurement.

I have chickens, so in my experience, no amount of vinegar, cold water, etc will ever make boiled fresh eggs easy to peel. It's a crap-shoot. I use eggs that are at least four weeks old, cook them 15 minutes in my rice cooker using the basket with a couple cups of water in the lower chamber, and they are perfect every time.

Our relationship with food is very like a monetary spending budget. It's always going to require lots of thought in the form of planning and tracking if we don't want to end up too heavy and bankrupt.

I eat about 75% of the extra calories MFP "gives" me and I've been dropping pounds faster than I ever have! Think of the 1200 as a "net calories" goal rather than an absolute. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10569458/why-eating-too-little-calories-is-a-bad-idea/p1 has an excellant explanation.

Good morning Sunshine!

My version of a "spring rolls". It's a mixture of sauteed mushrooms, asparagus, chicken, snow peas, and onion wrapped in a softened spring roll, then 'fried' in an air fryer for about eight minutes. Then I make a dipping sauce from rice vinegar, bragg's aminos (or soy sauce), and a bit of sweetener.

My blood pressure is in the normal range. My cholesterol has dropped. I no longer have that saggy puffy thing on the inside of my knees. My flexibility has improved.

We went to Texas Roadhouse the other night. I had my meal all planned out (including a Michelob Ultra or two). The menu said the green beans had 90 calories. What was served was this small bowl of green beans drenched with butter and garnished generously with bacon bits. I didn't eat it since it looked like a scary calorie…

Word. There is always an alternative that you will like. Experimentation is part of the fun of finding a nutritional balance.

Four years ago, I went into a shop and noticed the cutest t-shirts. I asked the clerk if they had any in larger sizes. She eyed me up and down critically and said "Sorry, I don't think we carry anything in your size". I was about 160 at the time, down from about 185, so her attitude was devastating. Two years later, I was…

Well that's extremely disappointing. I get fewer options with the premium option on this website than I used to get free with caloriecount.com before it went kaput.

It's a baked meringue -3 egg whites, 1/2 tsp cream of tartar, 2 tbsp splenda mixed until eggs form a peak, then piled on a cookie sheet with a central indentation and baked at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. While the meringue is baking, I dice an apple, sprinkle it with cinnamon and sweetener, then cook in the microwave. When…

Same question/request and I can't seem to add any instructions to the recipe (unless I'm missing something?). Currently it's just a way to list a bunch of ingredients.

I don't see it as an addiction, but evolution predisposes us to like sweets in an effort to make us store fat for times of famines. Daniel Lieberman, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard, explains it well.

Move it! Move it! Move it! Drop and give me ten. Put down that fork! (How's that?)

Cream-of-tartar is high in potassium too. I make lo-cal meringues with it. Spicy Low-sodium V-8 is also high in potassium (1000 mg per 8 oz serving) but I've been having a difficult time finding it in the stores. (I can get it from Amazon.com.) I only up my intake of potassium when I have leg or calf cramps, which is a…