This weekend will be a huge challenge. I’m chaperoning a retreat with some teen girls for a work-related thing. I’ll be there the whole weekend. Not only will I have the temptation of food, I am also seriously depressed which is when I am my most vulnerable to overeating.
**olives **will you do any exercise while on the retreat? Aside from whatever is part of the plans for the retreat (hiking or whatever)
We’ll be doing Pilates and walking on the beach, and my Coach told me to bring a jump rope, so Og knows what he’s going to have me do.
Today was walk downstairs backward, and then back up, 17 times.
I’ve been sticking to my exercise and diet protocol really carefully, but my weight hasn’t budged in days. Apparently my body just wants to be 140 pounds, because this is the same place I got stuck last time.
Stupid body. 
What you guys all said. In fact, I am considering putting my scale away for a month. I’m overly-attached to the number and it’s actually quite contrary to my strength goals. I’m sure I could just dehydrate myself to the point of losing that 3 pounds, but that wouldn’t actually mean that I’d lost fat, you know? If I keep or increase my level of activity and eat smart (which I mostly have been doing), then going by how I feel and look should be more important than that number. My original goal weight was 8 pounds below what I am now, and my stretch goal was another 5 beyond that. I don’t think that will happen.
At least not if I want to keep lifting heavy.
How far is that from where you’d like to be? Maybe what I said above applies to you, too…?
Thanks lorene. I’m about 15 pounds away from goal weight/fat percentage (I’ve lost 46 in the past 18 months). I’m just frustrated because I really don’t want to have to do another round of the very low calorie cycle and if I don’t get off this damn plateau I’ll need to. I keep reminding myself to have faith in the plan and not to panic, but it’s not helping.
Please don’t be stupid like me, I’m doing a crazy crash diet that just for weight loss, not for long term health. My long term healthy diet starts in a few weeks, whether or not I’m happy with the number on the scale.
So you guys can probably help. I like a drink, sometimes 2, to wind down before dinner. That’s it, no wine or anything else. What should I be drinking–“hard” liquor for a lower calorie count.
And yes, I know I shouldn’t even have it, but I do 
I don’t see anything wrong with an occasional glass of wine. I understand that one glass a day is fine and may even have potential health benefits. Personally if I had to pick a hard liquor, I’d go with tequila or spiced rum. For tequila if I’m drinking it straight, I’d want Patron. It’s expensive but worth it to me.
[QUOTE=lorene]
I am considering putting my scale away for a month. I’m overly-attached to the number and it’s actually quite contrary to my strength goals.
[/QUOTE]
This is what I’m thinking when you describe the issue. You may have reached a point in your fitness where weight is no longer a useful measurement of your success. You might consider setting goals related to clothing size or measurements, or even just purely fitness goals - i.e. run a half-marathon in X minutes.
Day 53 of clean eating. I survived the weekend at the beach house. I’ve decided to eliminate impulse/stress eating by scheduling junk food a week in advance at minimum. So I’d been planning on pizza and an allotted sweet. I had pizza and S’mores (GREAT CHOICE.) These teens had horrible eating habits, wanting stuff like instant mashed potatoes and they brought ribs - I had a salad instead of ribs, and I passed on the ice cream in favor of the S’mores. It was really satisfying to have a treat without any guilt or feelings of unhealthiness attached to it. So all this stuff was in the house but I did not overindulge. For fitness I did some beach running, Pilates, and on Sunday morning my Coach asked me to do burpees in deep sand. Ooooof! I did 40. Between that, hide and seek and cleaning the enormous house before we left, I came home lighter than I left.
Yesterday’s workout was also a triumph - 100 flutter kicks without stopping. I just decided I was going to do them all, and did them. I surprised myself.
My mood has picked up a lot. Thank goodness. That depression was terrible and I wasn’t sure how much more I could take. On the 19th I’m looking forward to supporting a new non-profit, Hike for Mental Health, on a five mile hike in New York state. The proceeds will go to mental health research. That will be my furthest distance yet. I can’t wait!
I’ve been thinking of trying this thing - Vegan Before 6. The idea is you eat vegan until 6pm. Part-time veganism. I think I could do that. My only concern is finding a suitable protein replacement for the dairy I consume - could I ever truly give up greek yogurt or cottage cheese at lunchtime?
I’m in my last week of Maintenance! I become an official Lifetime member this weekend when I go to my usual meeting on Saturday. It feels weird to finally be at The End.
I’ve also taken up running. I talked to a friend at work who runs and he thinks that my knee pain isn’t from the running, it’s from my attempt at Couch to 5K and the sudden stops and starts. So I’m doing a quarter-mile each day to start, then as I get comfortable, increase the distance, then work on speed. My goal is to get to “satisfactory” military standards, which is 1.5 miles in 17:15, by the end of the summer. (This factors in my age.) I think I can do it if I keep up with it.
The other big news is that I saw the plastic surgeon Monday, and she’s agreed that I need skin removal. However, she’s unable to do abdominoplasty, liposuction, or much in the way of any real cosmetic work, so that leaves a panniculectomy. It’s a lot of risk for a problem that isn’t a major one; infection, poor wound healing, bleeding, and tissue necrosis are real possibilities, and it’s not like my gut hangs to my knees. She wants to see me in December to see how much I’ve improved physically, which gives me roughly six or seven months to think about it. I’m not sure that the risk justifies the benefit, especially since the excess skin is annoying, but that’s about it. But I’m open to any input.
Yesterday, due to an unfortunate laundry miscommunication, I had to wear jeans that I hadn’t worn in a while. They were a little tight, not “hide the women and children” tight but “somewhat” tight. When I put them in the hamper last night, I realized that they were down a size from my current jeans. Since my current jean size was getting tight a month ago, I consider this to be major progress.
Go me!!
In my completely uninformed opinion, you are right, it’s probably not worth the risk. But you don’t have to rush into a decision, that’s good. And super congrats on finishing Maintenance!
Yay! And LOL @ ‘‘hide the women and children.’’
Day 54. I was able to button yet another pair of pants today without sucking in my gut. I tried putting peanut butter in my oatmeal this morning and BLEEECH! I didn’t have much of a breakfast. Then for lunch I tried to eat a wilted salad that was delicious until I left it out on the counter overnight. That also wasn’t very good. It’s not my luck in the food department today.
My fitness assignment today is 100 kettle bell swings and 100 ground-release push ups, broken into 2-3 sessions. So I did 33 GR push ups this morning, and I did the first 13 in a row with no rest! It was honestly the fastest I’ve ever been able to do them, by a significant margin. I also got up at 5:30am and watched some videos on burpee techniques, because I am determined to master the burpee!
Congratulations to you!!! 
You rock, MsRobyn, well done!
Double-post! I need some lunch inspiration. But first, the rules: I’m doing WW and although I’m not technically low-carb, I’m trying to minimise my carb intake. I don’t eat bread, potatoes or pasta. My husband makes the lunches each morning whilst I cook breakfast, and it needs to be something that can be easily assembled rather than cooked each morning. I need a good dose of protein at lunch so I’m not tempted to snack over the afternoon.
My current lunch salad (which I’m bored with) is 30g chorizo, 30g greek salad cheese, raw spinach, pepadew peppers, tomatoes, red onion, 1/2T pinenuts, mushrooms, with herb & garlic dressing. It’s done me well over winter but I’m feeling like I need a change of flavours.
I’m thinking about batch-cooking up some chicken thighs and drums with some seasoning and then freezing portions. I’m happy to eat them cold for lunch (no facility for heating food). I haven’t made meatloaf in years but I was thinking that would be another meat dish that might work well with frozen portions - anyone have experience of that?
I’m also thinking some cottage cheese might be good, but I’m not sure what to mix it up with? I’m not a fan of celery but maybe there are some other veggies that go well with cottage cheese? Again, it would need to be something that doesn’t take a lot of prep. Chopping tomatoes up, fine. Cooking green beans, not so much.
Also, I’m in the UK.
Have you ever eaten cottage cheese sweet? I ask because my best friend was brought up eating it only savory, and I was brought up eating it only sweet, and we were both pretty astounded at the other’s preference!
I love cottage cheese with a packet of Splenda and fruit. Blueberries are probably my fave (and low carb), also strawberries. Any fruit is good, though!
I haven’t, but I am intrigued by the idea and will give it a go - thanks!
High five! That’s awesome.
As for the loose skin…there are frequently posts on Reddit about this, in the weight loss sub-forum. One woman there has written a lot of very informative posts about the procedures and I know she is open to PMs and the like. In addition to being an overall great motivation, the bloggers Runs For Cookies has information about her surgery.
olives, I am so freaking impressed by all you have done. While it sounds like you probably look different, what shines through for me is how diffierent you sound/feel/present. It’s very inspirational and I’m about to embark on a 40-day Clean Eating challenge starting on Monday. I’m scared! But I love a lot of food that is considered ‘clean’, so it’s not like I’m eating twigs and grass. I’m just leaving behind crackers and chocolate for a bit.
So I tried the cottage cheese with fake sugar and blueberries yesterday. I’m…not sure. There’s something about the texture of the cheese curds that I find odd with the sweet. On the plus side, I had that around 10.30am and I felt it helped keep my appetite under control for the rest of the day.
Today I had my ‘new’ lunch of roasted chicken leg and thigh, with a smaller version of my usual salad and I put the cottage cheese on the salad in place of a dressing. Tasty!
I’m also on day two of no Muller yogurts. The ones I was eating (fruit corner) were around 20 carbs a serving and I was having one every lunch time.
Cottage cheese and pineapple is the classic around here. I also like it with fruit cocktail (is that an exclusively USA thing?). We can get fruit cocktail in single-serving bowls which is a nice amount for a lunch of cottage cheese and fruit. I drain off the juice/syrup though as it will curdle cottage cheese. You’d think something already curdled could not curdle further but it can. (Say that sentence three times fast before breakfast!)
The cafe downstairs sells fruit cocktail pots, so I might give that a try. I think the blueberry to cottage cheese ratio wasn’t right, I’d rather more of a 50/50 between the fruit and cottage cheese.