michelle7673 Member

I started back on MFP about 2.5 weeks ago, and until yesterday I was only walking -- but walking for me is hiking in my very hilly neighborhood or going up my 15% grade field. I break a sweat after I get warmed up and my heart rate is elevated, so it's more than just casual walking. I made a conscious decision to start…

Rice cakes rock. I just had one. Wait. No. That was an ice cream sammich. Seriously, I ate a lot of them once-upon-a-time. When I was cutting weight for rowing I would top them with squished kidney beans and then salsa. I think they were so popular just because they were a non-bread "base"; I think that role has been taken…

Good on you! Welcome!!!

Lots of good advice here. The truth is that you ARE losing at a decent rate; if you were working out for a month before you started logging, it is entirely possible that you lost a few at the front end (hence not seeing the "bonus pounds" at the outset). I'm a lawyer, so I get the work/stress/time demands challenges. In…

I'm having a toasted corn english muffin, with 1/2 tbsp butter and a teaspoon of honey from my own bees (there's not much of that left as I don't have the bees anymore -- they were eaten by a bear!!). And espresso.

It is, at most, a 1:16 scale model of Dr. Oz's lack of shame. In before the next "lose 20 before Halloween but not because of the costumes" shows up with color-coded tupperware for the Peep Cleanse.

I agree with the recommendation that you start on 1200 (high in lean protein and vegetables) plus a good basic multivitamin while you consult further with your doctor. The difference between 800 and 1200 is less than a pound a week and that's with 100% tight logging compliance at the 800 level. You'll be losing several…

Super genius! I do a bit of that in my head, but you're right -- seeing the "over" calories isn't fun!

I do track fiber and shoot for 25 plus. I don't net out the calories, but I find that if I eat more fiber, I'm more satisfied and I tend to lose more consistently -- in addition to health reasons for eating it.

It looks like they sell the meat by the half or full pound a la carte. Turkey, chicken, burnt ends, pulled pork -- you should be able to get a good posting value pretty easily. Honestly, as delicious as those sides sound, as you won't know what fat is in them (hence the deliciousness) -- if it were me, I'd just eat the…

This. I think you're probably more like "moderately active" if you count it that way (no adding and subtracting exercise calories). I'm reminded that ALL of these calculations (TDEE, exercise burn, even calories in any given food) are nothing but predictions and averages. ALL of them. The laboratory is your own body. If…

If you can step on the same scale a handful of times in a row and get different numbers, that should tell you something about the imperfect nature of scales, right? :wink: I will actually weigh myself a couple of times -- maybe both weekend mornings -- and to be honest I take the lower of the two (or three). WHEN I'm using…

THIS is a GREAT idea :)

I agree with all of the comments above :) You look great, and you're building a curvy/strong figure, not a teeny willowy one -- both are great but they are different. Other people's expectations have NOTHING to do with what is legitimately healthy for YOU. I would recommend that you take a fresh look at where you are…

Thanks! I've done strength programs before (madcow, 5x5, things like that) but I am very detrained. I am a natural hourglass with a lot "up top", so I was interested in a program that was aimed at helping to enhance that figure type. I did start Venus Index quite some time ago, which is pretty shoulder-heavy IMHO and not…

Awesome post. I have wondered whether it's the "the fat cells fill with water" thing, or that cyclical water retention masks the loss, or whether the hormones somehow get released in "waves". But whatever it is, certainly weight loss isn't linear when you look up close, and while it's really hard to resist the urge to…

That's my natural tendency, and while I always have coffee in the AM, sometimes I eat a bit, sometimes I don't. It works well for me to have a big meal at night; that way once a day I fill my belly to the satisfaction point and so I rarely feel deprived. "Six small meals a day" was a living hell for me, as I was never…

The really quick and really dirty answer is that having at least some controls on intake is best. Do the calculations to lose a pound a week, log your exercise, eat back maybe 75% of your exercise calories. If you don't have a lot of time, and you have tended not to be exercising while trying to lose -- it's going to be…

Luckily my SO is also athletic and health-conscious (more so than me at times), and we go through phases of eating well at night or not-so-well. But what makes it work to some extent is that I don't eat a lot during the day (a bar for breakfast and salad for lunch) while he eats a more typical sandwichy-type lunch and…

I could swear we just did this thread...?

I've been thinking about this. I'm not going to say "get rid of them as friends", but perhaps "how about adding a few new friends who love you for who you are, and respect your choices, and don't try to make you feel bad because they feel bad"? Keep your current friends. But I bet, over time, you'll gravitate more and more…

Getting a trainer session is a great idea for lots of reasons and this is just one more :) I promise it will be fine -- people really are in their own zones at the gym.

the things people say/and the things people do/are all about them/and not about you :)

Look, I get it. I've been there. But consider this, please: If your focus is how you look, and not the number on the scale -- 12 or 13 pounds lost the right way (even if aggressively) is going to look better than 20 pounds crashed off. More of it will be fat, which means it comes from your waist/hips/whatever and not your…

If you were in bed for two weeks with an injury, you're not fully recovered yet, and that would affect both your activity level (which was probably truly lower than sedentary, which I think of as a healthy normally active person with a desk job) and very likely swelling. I am not sure you can use most of that time as any…

Sasha and alla y'all - first of all totally cosigned on the "hourglass girl" problems. I can be in great shape and I'm still just an AWFUL runner (I say "I have 38 Double Damn good reasons not to be a runner") (though it's more like DDD now). You know -- your rate of loss over five months is quite good and right on target…

Yes -- the jeans I was wearing when I hit the 40-lb loss mark two years ago :) (((note -- I was about to put a :( on the end of that sentence -- but I switched it to a smile. That is my small victory for the day.))) OP, you don't have a "horrible body shape" -- you're you -- and you're beautiful and will be even more so…

THIS.

I don't think of them as "failure days". I think of them as potholes in the road. The car is still going in the right direction. It will just take a little longer to get there. And I avoid them as much as I can but recognize that I'll hit a few :)