Hi there. If there is room for one more, I'm up for this. I have really been enjoying reading this thread. I've been reading for a while now, don't know what time it was that I sat down at the computer! But I'm so glad I found this. Y'all are very encouraging.
And it is good timing for me. I started at the first of the year and had trouble getting going, but by Febuary started to lose and bought a treadmill. I had to get down to a completely unacceptable level of calories to lose at that time, but I figured that if it was the only way the pounds would come off, then I would do it for as long as I could. I lost 50 pounds before I just couldn't live with so little anymore. And then kept trying to tell myself that it was ok; at least I wasn't gaining it back.
Well, 2 weeks ago, I realized by the way my clothes were fitting that I had started to gain again and sure enough. Checked the scale the next morning and I was up 10 pounds. That was motivation enough for me to want to really get back on track.
Unfortunately, I've been sick for nearly the whole 2 weeks! Just cold symptoms, but it has really got me down with fatigue and general yuckiness! So I haven't been able to exercise, but I have managed somehow to get the 10 pounds off as of this morning. So I guess I'm ready to move forward again and hopefully keep losing.
I probably need to buy a new scale. And I definitely need to get over being sick and start exercising again. But for today, I'm eating a somewhat sensible diet, it has carbs and protein, but no refined sugar and no grain products, not even in tiny proportion. The grain thing doesn't have anything to do with my weight loss decisions really. I do lose better when I severely restrict carbs (or include a little more carbs but restrict calories down to almost nothing). But I have also learned that I have other issues with certain carbs. So for the sake of my health and my gut, I'm not eating any grains for the time being. I probably ought to try to get tested for celiac disease at my doctors office. Apparently, you can have this problem and not find out at a young age. I guess it is like a lot of other things that medicine has been learning exist in milder forms than they previously thought. But that is ok, I feel like a far healthier person overall when I avoid grains, so it doesn't matter too much if that is normal or not or if the doctors test tells me it should work that way. I'd rather be able to feel healthy most of the time than to be able to say that I eat like everyone else. Maybe I should look at the grain problem as a learning tool. Now I should be able to apply that thinking to eating less or avoiding a certain food the next time I'm at a party or a potluck and want to eat whatever everyone else is having that looks good. If I can avoid certain foods because of grains, then I should be able to avoid or cut way back on certain other ones for weight loss, right?
I'm at 205 today and I want to lose some more before my December Disney trip! And I want to be able to walk, walk, walk all over the parks and not have to make my kids wait while I rest on a bench a bunch of times!
Thanks for listening!
It's great to see this thread continuing. Congrats to everyone on their weight loss and good luck! 
