Thanks for the support, guys. I’m still feeling a bit nervy about all of this, it’s a pretty big change for me. I’m a terrible eater, and don’t exercise nearly enough. But it’s baby steps for now. I’m starting with eating breakfast, where I normally don’t, and trying to substitute “white” foods like potato for more greens like leafy salad veg.
I’m a little annoyed that I didn’t weigh myself before setting up my WW page (my scales were broken), my weight is about eight kilos heavier than I thought it was. But I’ll just put that down in my weight tracker for next week’s weigh-in, and then after that I’ll work on getting it down.
I haven’t been walking home from the train station of late, because it’s been muddy, but I’ve finally got some wellies and I’ll be doing it tonight. The wellies should give me a couple of pounds of resistance as well - they’re damned heavy
After the excitement of last week’s almost 4 pound loss, I was disappointed to gain all but a pound of it back this week - despite strict adherence to the program. Please let it be what passes for a “monthly cycle” at my age.
Doing WW, they suggest you should only weigh yourself once a week, at the same time of day, so you aren’t bothered by any day-to-day fluctuations in the week. My weigh-in will be Monday morning. But I’m so tempted to weigh myself every time I see the scales in my dining room, I want to know if anything’s happened yet.
What say you, weightloss dopers? Stick to the once-a-week or give in to temptation and have a little peek?
During previous weight loss attempts, I weighed myself everyday, sometimes 2-3 times a day. My emotions fluctuated with the scale. When my weight was down, I was ecstatic, felt motivated and successsful. When my weight was up, I felt like a failure, felt like I was doing a lot of hard work for nothing, might as well eat a cheesecake.
During my recent and successful weight loss, I deliberately limited myself to 1 weekly weigh-in, at the same time every week. I saw consistent success and my happiness wasn’t tied to the scale as much.
It has to be whatever works for you though. Can always try both and stick with what works best for you.
I can’t find the article now, but in one of the early weight loss club threads I posted a link to an article that claimed that people who weighed themselves daily kept the weight off better. I will look again later when I have more time.
I’m discouraged, disappointed and disgusted. I’m back up to 179.5 Missed a bunch of my walks this week because it was raining (but yay rain, we really need it)
Here’s the thing, I’m a musician, a singer. You know, the front person who’s standing in front of the band and supposedly wowing the audience with my vocal prowess and charm and wit or something.
The private club my mom belongs to hired us for an event and just so happens that they had decided to start taping all of the events so that members who were unable to attend could see the show.
And so I got to watch 1 hour of me performing. Some close up shots and some farther out full body shots. I realize that I’ve been fooling myself that I’m not that big. Just a little chubby, you know, a few extra pounds. But the pictures do not lie. I look huge. I don’t look like the glamorous jazz singer that lives in my brain. I look like a big fat middle aged woman trying to be a singer. I am embarrassed by how I look. (and I’ve got three gigs this weekend so I’d better get over that really quick)
Watching that DVD of me was horrifying and yet I look back on my life and realize that I’ve been trying to lose weight since I was a teenager. I’ve been successful at times but most recently, I’ve spent the last 10 years or so trying to get smaller but only actually getting bigger. Right now I’m larger than I’ve ever been in my life.
And I don’t know what it’s going to take. I don’t know what mental shift needs to happen to make this work for me. I feel like I’m missing a crucial secret that’s necessary to gain the focus and determination that it’s going to take. Really, I know how to do it. It’s painfully simple and yet I am not successful (because I can’t seem to stick with it for any length of time) so I’m sure it must be a mental thing. What is wrong with me?
Enough whining already. I’m just freaking out a little.
I reached my personal goal of 30 mins on the elliptical machine Wednesday. I’ve noticed before, that after a couple of days resting muscles they seem stronger.
Then yesterday, I suddenly became Superwoman. I listened to my favorite music, and just blasted on the elliptical. I’m not kidding, instead of the usual 100 strides/min I averaged in the 130’s!! I pumped away at it as fast and hard as I could maintain, with 30-45 sec slowdowns from time to time. It felt amazing! Doing this took away the boredom, and instead it became a rush! The weird thing is, although I was sweating and breathing hard, it was almost easier to maintain for 30 minutes than the slow, plodding approach. It took me 4 hours to come down from the high.
Three months ago (and 27 pounds ago) I literally couldn’t sustain one minute on the same machine.
Wednesday was another kind of challenge. Attending singles mingles at my age has been agonizing. Last year I went there once a month or so, but became demoralized and hadn’t gone for the last 6 months. Overweight single women are treated poorly in SB, especially in middle-age. (Seriously, if you’re overweight, you’re okay to sleep with, but not okay to date.) I’m really bad at smalltalking and approaching strangers - yes, I’m shy, believe it or not - so that just makes it harder. Anyway, I went last night, dressed nicely in new clothes that fit, and even noticed some attention (from the creepy ones, admittedly, but hey, that’s a start). There were a couple of men there I knew from other places, so I spent the evening talking comfortably with them. One of them commented on my weightloss right away! That’s the first time anyone, anywhere has noticed, and it felt great. He even seemed a little surprised that I’m still trying to lose more, which felt even greater. While I’m not yet a supermodel it seems that I’ve moved up to the ranks of the “regular middle-aged women” category from the “hopelessly freakish middle-aged women” category. That pleases me more than I like to admit. The good thing is, I didn’t have to overcompensate with wit and charm in order to be noticed, so I felt comfortable just being myself for the first time there.
It really helps my confidence to have a few clothes that fit well, even at an intermediate stage of weight loss.
I’m not sure how I’ve managed to lose the extra pound in the past week after last night where I ate two or three rice krispy treats, a roast beef sandwich, a burger and hashbrowns from Waffle House, and a good four or five rum and cokes but I am not complaining, nor do I regret it.
This week: -1. YTD: -13. (And, I should give myself credit for it, -30 pounds or so from my top weight.)
I’m just about ready to start trying on some of my smoking era (pre-fat) clothes again. I don’t want to do it too soon because if they don’t fit, I’ll be bummed – but I do know that a lot of the fat clothes really are too big at this point. I wore a skirt with an elastic waist the other day and had to safety-pin the waist because it was way too loose – and it’s not just that the elastic is starting to lose its snap. There’s one skirt that I love that I know I wore to my cousin’s kid’s wedding in '99, when I weighed, I think, maybe five pounds less than I do now. I think I’ll wait a few more weeks before I try that puppy on.
A bunch of people at my clinic started this “weight loss challenge”. Everyone puts in a dollar each week at a weigh-in, the person with the largest number of pounds lost for the last week gets half the week’s pot. The other half goes into a jackpot for the person who’s lost the highest percentage of body weight over the eight weeks.
I’m referring to it as the [nurse’s name] Campaign of Terror ;).
I won the first week, down 6.5 pounds. Yay, me!
I’m down 19.5 since January 1. This is 71.5 pounds lower than I weighed March 1, 2003 when I began dieting. I got pregnant February 2004 and went up to 238. So, I’ve lost the initial 66, gained 48, lost 15. That’s a total of 119.5 pounds. That’s a whole person.
I was a little disappointed to have a peek-weigh-in yesterday, and find that it didn’t appear that I had lost at all.
But then this morning, the scales were showing 500g lighter. It’s only half a kilo, but it’s a start. And my rather infrequent menstrual cycle started to show its ugly self this morning too, so it looks like I’ve been retaining a bit of fluid this week anyway. I’m really quite chuffed at the moment.
I want to do this. I had a bit of a blowout over the weekend, going out for lunch with the fam, but I’d been saving points so I could do that, and then yesterday I ate under points as well as going for a 20 minute walk. Losing that tiny bit, it makes me want to lose more. I could kill for a fried bacon/egg sandwich right now, or a roast beef & gravy roll. But I want to lose the weight more.
I haven’t weighed myself in a while, but my pants are looser. I haven’t done great on eating this week, since I had a vacation week, but I did run a total of 22 miles, plus an hour of Spin class and an hour of Boot Camp class.
I start a new job tomorrow. Exercise might be more difficult to come by until my new schedule gets hammered out, but at least I eat a lot less during the work week.
What I mean to say at the end there, is that I lost an additional 15 over and above what I weighed before. I started at 256 and now weigh 184 (making it 120 lbs lost total).
I seriously overslept this morning, so I missed going to the gym. True weight is therefore unknown; I used the scales at in the men’s room here at work a couple of minutes ago, and after having eaten and drinking as usual so far today, plus being fully clothed and pockets loaded, it said 232. That usually translates to 225 in my skivvies at the Y.
I have a to report. I went to a weight loss surgery support group meeting last Wednesday, and I walked up to the Bariatric Coordinator who runs the show to brag.
Me: “I want to show off to you. This is the first shirt I’ve bought with a single X in the size in about 20 years.”
Her: “Well, you wasted your money. Next time, get a Large. And get some new pants, too. We don’t want to see your butt.”
Silly victory - my BMI* is normal! Yay! I’ve been thinner than I am now (hooray for mono!), but have never actually seen evidence of a healthy weight.
Anyway, current stats:
5’4"
172/147/135
I’ve been doing Weight Watchers Core program (no counting, it’s great). My goal weight is subject to change, as I’ve always been overweight so I’m not sure what would be a good weight. I just set it a bit below the recommended weight for my height and age (25), and thought I’d just see when I got there. I can tell now that it’s not going to be too low, but I may want to lose a few more when I get there. We’ll see.
*I realize BMI may not be an accurate way to determine a healthy weight, but I think it is for me. I exercise, but am not particularly athletic. A BMI of “just barely healthy” seems correct for where I am right now.
I always try to be fashionably late to the party, but I’m making up for lost time. I joined the YMCA yesterday and will be embarking on a 4 day a week workout with emphasis on cardio to get me started.
Today is going to be a lot of reading about healthy eating. I mean, I understand the most basic point - less calories. But there is of course a great deal more to it than that. So that is what I’ll spend today working on. Perhaps I’ll even call the YMCA up again and see if they have a dietician I can get in contact with.
it seems that I’ve moved up to the ranks of the “regular middle-aged women” category from the “hopelessly freakish middle-aged women” category. That pleases me more than I like to admit. The good thing is, I didn’t have to overcompensate with wit and charm in order to be noticed, so I felt comfortable just being myself for the first time there.