Welcome to the club sandra_nz. Good luck in your upcoming loss. 
My abs are still a bit achy from my 9:30-10:45 cardio class. Ow. Ow a lot.
However, today is totally an awesome day for me. My weight-tracking program has projected my weight by Christmas to be my initial goal of 165. I think I’ll go down to 156 before I stop, just to make it 100 pounds lost.
Huh, well, according to this site that’s not so wiggy, people can have the disease and show no symptoms (not sure EVERYONE is damaged by gluten, it looks like just sufferers are potentially damaged). Still, after giving up fast food and transfat and all the other beneficial changes I’ve made, I’m willing to risk a little for whole grain toast with peanut butter for breakfast!
I won’t have official numbers from my surgeon’s office until next Thursday. But as of this morning, my scale has me down another 2.5lbs from last Friday. This makes a total loss so far of 71lbs.
I’m not skinny and beautiful yet, though. 
Gingy, those ab workouts are a bitch, aren’t they?
The plural of anecdote is not data, but my coworker who has very bad arthritis has experienced significant improvement by going on a gluten-free diet. (Of course, she also went all organic, sugar free, etc., so I don’t know if it’s just the gluten.) Anyway, she can get her wedding ring on for the first time in years. Personally, though, you can have my gluten when you pry it from my cold dead hands. Bad enough that I have to somehow survive on 20 points a day, you can’t have my wheat products!
My mother was told years ago (by a quack ‘healer’), that she has a gluten allergy. It was suggested to her that if she cut out all forms of gluten, she would lose weight. Well, DUH. No bread? No pie or cookies or cakes? :rolleyes:
And in a stunning bit of news, my very first 5K is tomorrow and I’m scared shitless. Thankfully it’s a fun run, so at least if I die, other people will still have fun.
Wow! Good luck. Tell us how it goes.
Wow- I’m proud of you! No matter how fit I get I think I’ll always feel like if I tried something like that I’d fail in some truly horrific or comical way!
p.s. that’s the same info I’ve found when trying to research the gluten thing. I’ve been virtually breadless for the last 5 months- perhaps I should have a little nibble, huh? 
I’m sure I’ll still be alive at the end of it. I think the only failure in a fun run is death.
Also, I have to start somewhere, right? I do that distance on the treadmill or elliptical machine, so I should be able to do it on city streets surrounded by a bunch of other people who are like-minded. Or who will at the very least kick me out of the way of oncoming trampling feet if I fall.
Go, Gingy! Go, Gingy! Go, Gingy! (now you have to picture me doing a ridiculous dance that no white woman in her 40s should do, even if she were skinny and gorgeous!) 
OK, due to a low-grade virus - worse than a cold, not as bad as the flu - I had a very low-calorie week. Usually I forced myself to eat a little lunch, but I didn’t finish lunch and couldn’t bring myself to have dinner.
I’m not recommending this as the best way to lose weight, but hey, since I was sick anyway, I might as well take the good with the bad.
I’m mostly better today, so I should go back to eating regularly.
Good luck Ginger! Report back on your success.
August turned out to be a good month.
I worked up to (bicycle) commuting to and from work three days a week. That plus a little playing around with the kids on the weekends put me over 200 miles per week. Unfortunately, I cracked a spoke nipple and my rear wheel threw itself completely out of true to the point I’ll have to rebuild it.
This means that I’ve been out of the saddle these first two weeks in September. As a result, my September numbers are going to suffer. I’m weighed in this morning at 230, less than half my previous rate. I’m hoping it increases a bit once I’ve got the bike repaired.
Report Card:
May: 295? -> 279 (-16)
June: 279 -> 260 (-19)
July: 260 -> 248 (-12)
August: 248 -> 233 (-15)
Down another 1.5# but have to continue exercising as much as I did on vacation (walking up and down hills).
I am just joining in this thread, so forgive me if I re-cover some topics you guys have already hit.
I am a short guy. 5’6". I was an athlete in high school. Wrestling, baseball, lots of working out. That helped my beautiful teen bod stay in preemo shape!
But I was already developing problem eating habits. I had a lot of “issues” as a kid. My brother died, my mom went crazy, my parents split up, neither parent was interested enough to care where I was, so I was pretty much emancipated at 15. One thing that gave me comfort was the feeling of being full. I would eat a MINIMUM of 2 servings of everything. The full feeling left me satisfied and feeling a little drugged. In fact, I think it became a sedative of sorts. I could cram my gut full and drift off into a sweet bliss where I did not have these troubles.
My eating habits only got worse and the combination of getting older and getting real world responsibilities led to working out fading into nothing. In my late teens I also added alcohol to the mix, in large quantities. I was not an alcoholic, but a binge drinker, if you will allow me to make that distinction.
So I steadily packed on pounds over the years. Sure, I had fits and starts of different diets and work our programs, but they always left me fatter when I failed.
At my worst, last year, I would go to McDonald’s in the morning and get a McMuffin combo, 2 McGriddles, a sausage biscuit and some cinnamon thingies.
After getting married and having children, I decided I wanted to live and not be dead at 40. The FIRST step was getting a good shrink. She helped me admit that I was a binge eater and I had to get to the bottom of what was causing it. I was still eating to anesthetize myself from the pain of my childhood. The eating was getting worse, and I was out of control.
I got control of the binging last year. I think. But then I was still 35 and fat.
I have been doing weight watchers for 9 weeks, and have gone from 230 to 210. I feel great. It is a good start. My goal weight is 160. I am running several times a weel and I am up to 4 miles a run now. My first 8k run is the Richmond Suntrust Marathon pre-race 8k.
I decided I wanted to live. I faced the demons that made me want to be fat. I faced the demons that rationalized my eating. I chased off the demons that required gluttomy to silence them. I found out that when they were gone, I kind of liked “me”. “I” deserve to live a full life. I need to be healthy to do that. My family needs me to be healty.
Let me shout this out…
YOU GUYS CAN DO IT! YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!! YOU DESERVE TO BE HEALTHY!! YOU WILL NOT BECOME BEAUTIFUL WHEN YOU ARE THIN — YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL NOW!!
God bless you all on your journeys. Reading your posts has been inspirational to me.
I did not die, and I did not come in last. I am in fact very proud of myself. I took it easy partially so that my friend Jason could keep up with me, he was having shin splints.
Woohoo on not dieing! And Woohoo on not coming in last! And one last Woohoo for finishing!
newcrasher, welcome aboard. Good luck in your losing.
…soy uno perdidor…I’m a loser baby…so why dontcha…
nevermind
Way to go Ginger!! Getting to the finish line upright and smiling is the important thing…not coming last is pure gravy!
I had a good morning at the scales. Down another 1.2 pounds. So the score so far is 22 pounds lost, 44 to go.