Just thought I would let everyone know I am down to 145 lbs. In this thread I made the statement I was down to 152 lbs. that was on March 1st. It is now the 27th. It isn’t coming off as fast as I would like it to. But hey I’ll take what I can get. My clothes are fitting looser, that is always nice. I have tried on size 12 and they are still a little to tight. I started out with 172 on the doctors scales in December with clothes on and without clothes 145 now. If I count 4 lbs. for clothing that leaves me a difference of 23 lbs. Yeah!!!
SIR, YES SIR!
So I’m down 1.4 lbs this week. I can’t help but think I’m doing something wrong, but according to the WW leader I’m doing everything right. I’m even earning 5-6 activity points in a day.
Fneh.
Well, I went to work today with the goal of not snacking like I normaly do and not taking a break. It didn’t work because two people didn’t come to pick up there food so I ate one of the sandwhiches. Hopefully I should do better this weekend because I am going to be somewhere where i don’t have constant accsess to munchies! Good luck to everyone! Keep up all of the good work.
Sorry! I meant to add the phrase Semper Diet! to** lorinada’s** reply! 
(Yeah, hell! I know it’s lame, but I’m old and allowances must be made!)
Q
I went to 7-11 to get a diet coke and some gum, and as I approached the door I could hear someone calling me…here, lorinada…lorinada, come here…. I thought maybe my mind was playing tricks on me, but as I entered the store it got much louder. Here, lorinada!. I thought maybe I was going crazy. I got my coke, picked my gum out, grabbed a box of kleenexes and went to check out. The beckoning became so loud it was nearly deafening. At the counter I could barely hear the clerk. RIGHT HERE! RIGHT HERE, LORINADA! That’s when I spotted the source of the noise - a fresh box of sirens, also known as Cadbury Creme Eggs. I bought one to silence the noise. I didn’t want those 7-11 clerks going insane.
Oh well, as good as I’ve been for the last almost 3 months, surely one happy little creme egg won’t hurt.
See, for me, one would hurt - I’ve been fighting so hard to break the sugar addiction. A Cadbury Creme Egg would kill me - because it wouldn’t be just one. I’d decide that I should buy four, and I’d eat them all in an hour.
So, no Creme Eggs for me this year, as much as I’d like some. Instead, the only straight sugar I’ll continue to have is the one spoonful that goes into my one cup of coffee in the morning. sigh
Well, maybe it did hurt me, too, cuz I got on the scales yesterday morning for weigh-in day and I gained 3 pounds! But, the egg may not have had anything to do with it since I also didn’t exercise all weekend (cuz I was busy doing around the house, so at least I wasn’t vegetating) and “that time of the month” is fast approaching. sigh
First of all a big hug and a cheer for those who are working so hard to lose weight!! 
You are inspirational! The more you work at this, the more you learn about your body, the closer you will get to your goals.
I wish you glowing health, bodies taunt with fitness and loose clothing forevermore!
I’m reading some of the struggles and wish I had good advice or sound wisdom. I had tried WW, I had tried counting calories, counting fat grams, and then there was my brilliant idea of an all Swedish gummy fish diet, but that lasted only a day in tenth grade and mainly made me queasy. I’ve been dieting since 9th grade.
Five years ago I tried a new diet which has changed my life, silly as it sounds. I went from 155-160 to around 125. I have kept the weight off for five years, and today am at 124 (at 5’5’’). It has been a learning process, but I have found that changing the diet to fit me has served the best.
Just a few reminders:
-You are a strong, powerful person, but sometimes food seems to have the control. There are many ways in which you can get your power back, you just have to find the one for you! My sister eats boatloads of vegetables and proteins to cover cravings for sweets, I go ahead and eat the sweet, but I stop when I’ve had my limit. shrugs
-Habit helps. Making a habit of saying ‘no’ to treats when you’re not hungry becomes second nature, and makes it so much easier the next time.
-If you break your diet, you are still a great person. What you weigh and how you eat has nothing to do with who you are. This was the hardest one for me…
blush I apologize for babbling, just wanted to try to encourage in my own weird way!
Your encouragement is much appreciated Lady of the Lake. I haven’t checked in this week because I only lost one pound last week (sigh). I’m feeling a little discouraged but definitely not enough to give up.
I’m curious which diet worked for you. It seems dieting doesn’t help me much. The only thing that seems effective is exercising religiously (30 minutes EVERY day).
That just shows how different each person is, and reiterates LotL’s advice to find a diet [and exercise program] that works for you. I exercise 6 hours a week, including weight training. I’ve gained 70 lbs since I got married 9 years ago.
My update: I’ve lost another half a pound. That makes it just under the 20 lb mark! Last week was my “time of the month,” so naturally I didn’t notice any weight loss then. My goal for this week is to drink plenty of water.
Well I need to check in as well. I’ve been a very very bad girl. I started out great, but this weekend, we started painting the house, and yesterday, I dropped a board on my foot, so now it’s all swollen and bruised and I can hardly walk. 
I probably won’t be able to excersice for the better part of a week.
But I’m sending good thoughts your way!!
Lsura - Have you tried Splenda? I am not an artificial sweetener type person, pink and blue makes me hurl, but Splenda is damn terrific. It is hard to believe, but it is almost (99.99999% IMHO) identical in taste to sugar.
On another note, anyone have any tips for breaking plateus? I have been stuck between 190.x and 188.x for the last 7 days, sliding up and down between the two. Now, I know that really isn’t bad but it is a significant change to the amount I’ve been losing during the course of 7 days. It seems I am stuck.
I have been sticking with less than 1600 calories per day and have been exercising at the gym 3x’s a week minimum (usually 400 calories burned each time at the minimum) and playing competitive volleyball 2x’s a week. My exercise and eating has not changed, but the weight loss seems to have stalled.
Help?
MeanJoe - who is going to the gym in an hour and is going to crush the treadmill to his will and burn more calories! Hoo-Hah!
Unless you have an extremely slow metabolism, you’re not eating enough. Check out the link I posted to calculate your base metabolic rate. You take in fewer calories than that per day, and your body thinks you’re starving, and stalls.
I would also suggest that you start some weight training to ensure that you’re not losing muscle. The more muscle you lose, the more your metabolism slows down, and the harder it is to lose weight.
Based upon the software I use, my metabolic rate (fluxuates) around 2800 per day. I’ll check out the link you provided, when I can find it in 4 pages of messages!
My gym days consist of 3 miles on the treadmill, alternating walk/run which current is .25 walk @ 4 mph, .75 run @ 7 mph alternated for 3 miles. Upon finishing the run/walk and cooling down/stretching, I do weight training (mostly barbell, upper body) work for 20-30 minutes. The treadmill usually results in about 420 calories burned and then the weight training around another 200.
Should be on the third page.
**
What’s your specific lifting program?
I should say, it sounds like the software you’re using is calculating how many calories you burn per day, given all of your activity. The number I’m talking about is the number of calories you’d burn by lying in bed all day.
Alright, per Ultrafilter’s web site my Basal Metabolic Rate calculates at 1886.2. This is in significant contrast to the software package I use which calculates it at 2883 today.
The software, DietPower, derives your metabolic rate by tracking your caloric intake (from food you entered) and calories burned through exercise (from exercise you entered) and of course, based upon your weight and weight info you’ve provided over the previous 30 days.
My initial inclination here is to trust what I’ve been using as it considers far more variables than the BMR which only requires height, weight, and age and does not appear to take into consideration other factors. I do not mean to say that Ultra’s is wrong per se, just that it seems to be very “general” similar to the most basic BMI calculators. There are far more accurate BMI calculators too that take into account more variables.
Anyway, to reach my goal via the DietPower recommendations, I should eat 2300 calories today, leaving a net of 500 calories which over the course of 7 days equates to 3500 = 1 pound. I myself choose to stay at or below 1600 calories, thereby so far attaining a much faster weight loss than is projected based upon DietPower’s recommendations.
Any-hoo, that is just more info for consideration.
See my last post for an explanation of the difference between the two numbers.