I want to FINALLY win at losing

[roxymama]

I know what worked best for me on vacation was to still eat the "good stuff" that I really wanted to eat, but I would either find a "share" buddy or two to help me eat it which prevented me from eating ALL of whatever it was. Or (evily) I would talk someone into ordering something I really wanted and then beg them for a bite or two. Or I would just not finish whatever I ordered. The hardest for me was those big character buffets because my eyes are always bigger than my stomach. I just stuck with one plate, and focused more on eating slowly and taking lots of pics between bites, so I could get to that hungry point faster, than depriving myself of that puffed french toast that I would have dreams about for a year if I didn't have some. Oh, and I'm always less inclined to be hungry when it is hot out...so maybe that be the same for you.

Hope that is a little helpful. Also HAVE FUN!

 

[jaelless]

OK back from vacation and so tired but happy hat my lil princess declared it over and over again "BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!!" that made it all worthwhile. We swam a bunch, I got sunburned, she gor brave enough to go down water slides, and I did not over indulge. I never deprived myself, and yet I stayed under my calorie goal every day. I think my stomach is getting smaller because it did not take much to fill me up. Lots of walking also helped. I am not sure but I feel like I am eating lots more than I used to, yet calorie wise I am doing fine. Lots less stress now that the app does all the calorie counting for me.

 

[jaelless]

I am completely totally and horribly frustrated right now. For a week now I have been counting calories, staying under my allotment, getting my 10,000 steps in, and instead of losing the 1.5 lbs the app said I should I gained 3 that is so unfair of my body to do that to me. How am I to work against that???

 

[DisPup75]

OK back from vacation and so tired but happy hat my lil princess declared it over and over again "BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!!" that made it all worthwhile. We swam a bunch, I got sunburned, she gor brave enough to go down water slides, and I did not over indulge. I never deprived myself, and yet I stayed under my calorie goal every day. I think my stomach is getting smaller because it did not take much to fill me up. Lots of walking also helped. I am not sure but I feel like I am eating lots more than I used to, yet calorie wise I am doing fine. Lots less stress now that the app does all the calorie counting for me.

Welcome back! Sounds like you had a super fun time! I'm glad the little one had such a great birthday!!

I am completely totally and horribly frustrated right now. For a week now I have been counting calories, staying under my allotment, getting my 10,000 steps in, and instead of losing the 1.5 lbs the app said I should I gained 3 that is so unfair of my body to do that to me. How am I to work against that???

Scales can be terrible things, right? There are lots of reasons that the scale can be up even when you are doing everything right. Chances are pretty good you are just retaining some extra water weight. Vacations do it to me even when I make great choices - heat, extra salt on restaurant food, being in a car or plane. It is usually gone in a week or so along with another pound or two.

 

[Kriii]

So glad the vacation was fun! Hang in there! DisPup is right, lots of reasons for small weight fluctuations. Perhaps the food at Disney has a lot more sodium than you usually consume in. I was at MK for a day a few weeks ago and my legs and hands were very swollen the next day, which isn't typical for my unless I've eaten a lot of salt. Focus on healthy eating and exercise. I've found that seeking help from a dietitian has been beneficial. Perhaps that would work for you as well? You definitely have support on the Disboards! Hugs and hope tomorrow is better

 

[Kriii]

I thought of you first thing this morning when I stepped on my scale. Between last Wed and Friday, I gained 6 pounds. Between Sat and today, I lost four of it and I'll bet more will be gone tomorrow. My point is, even though it can discouraging it really is normal for weight to fluctuate day to day. I hope that you are feeling better about the post Disney weigh in because it really does sound you had a normal fluctuation. Hope you are feeling better about things today.

 

[jaelless]

thank you so much for the support Kriii it means a lot. Today the scale was a bit kinder. It is so tempting to just give up when you try so hard and see no results. I have to continually tell myself that I am looking at the big picture, and to keep making good choices that I will see eventually. Last night I so wanted a piece of birthday cake, I had all sorts of excuses for telling myself it was ok, even went to fridge to get a slice, but I managed to bring to mind my lil princess and how much I want her to be proud of me, so I grabbed a sugar free fudgesicle instead. Its those little things that will add up in long run, it is just hard making those choices LOL

 

[roxymama]

@jaelless I am so glad you had a good trip! I would not get too stressed out about the lbs fluctuation. You are eating less/healthier and that will pay off in how your clothes fit, how you feel about yourself, and your health (that you cannot see on the scale or in a mirror.) Keep doing the good things! I agree with what everyone said about the bloating and water retention. Don't fret yet!

 

[jaelless]

ok I am curious and have a question for all of you who use my fitness pal. I get my baseline calorie allotment, but then my activity increases that allotment. Does weight loss work better if stay just at the baseline allotment or the activity allotment? Is the baseline too low so body thinks it is starving and refuses to let go? I am trying to figure out which level to follow is best.

 

[jaelless]

I keep losing track of the day. I think it is still Tuesday. I am on vacation until Friday so my sense of time a bit off. I have enjoyed being home with my kids so very much. We have taken it easy, mostly because it has been raining here most every day. I had been fighting off urge to cook, but tonight I gave in and made some as healthy as I could get them, savory zucchini muffins. They are mostly zucchini, mixed with low fat cheese, chopped onion, bisquick, eggs, and skim milk to hold them all together. I baked them until they looked done LOL and oh my goodness they are yummy. I limited myself to two. I made sure to do extra steps to burn extra calories. I even pulled out my step to walk on while I watched TV. Of course since it was something new in the living room the lil princess and the two kittens had to investigate it which made working out challenging but still fun. I am trying to put more of an effort into making sure my daughter does healthy stuff too. Less junk food, better food choices for her, as well as more physical activity. It is up to me to make sure she stays healthy as a child so that when she becomes an adult she will be able to still be healthy.

 

[DisPup75]

ok I am curious and have a question for all of you who use my fitness pal. I get my baseline calorie allotment, but then my activity increases that allotment. Does weight loss work better if stay just at the baseline allotment or the activity allotment? Is the baseline too low so body thinks it is starving and refuses to let go? I am trying to figure out which level to follow is best.

I think (at least for me) that weight loss works best if I sacrifice fast weight loss for more daily calories. I'm not sure I buy into the idea of the body refusing to let go but I know for a fact that if I go too low, particularly for more than one day, I'm setting myself up for some sort of binge.

So I keep my MFP tracker set to lose a pound a week which gives me a baseline of 1650 (it helps to be tall!). I earn an extra 300-400 calories a day from walking and averaged out over the course of a week I eat almost all of them. I just checked my stats. Since I started on June 15th, I've averaged 1927 calories a day and I've lost 9.4 pounds - so about 1.25 pounds a week. I do record everything. Good, bad, and ugly.

I keep losing track of the day. I think it is still Tuesday. I am on vacation until Friday so my sense of time a bit off. I have enjoyed being home with my kids so very much. We have taken it easy, mostly because it has been raining here most every day. I had been fighting off urge to cook, but tonight I gave in and made some as healthy as I could get them, savory zucchini muffins. They are mostly zucchini, mixed with low fat cheese, chopped onion, bisquick, eggs, and skim milk to hold them all together. I baked them until they looked done LOL and oh my goodness they are yummy. I limited myself to two. I made sure to do extra steps to burn extra calories. I even pulled out my step to walk on while I watched TV. Of course since it was something new in the living room the lil princess and the two kittens had to investigate it which made working out challenging but still fun. I am trying to put more of an effort into making sure my daughter does healthy stuff too. Less junk food, better food choices for her, as well as more physical activity. It is up to me to make sure she stays healthy as a child so that when she becomes an adult she will be able to still be healthy.

Great job! Muffins sound delicious and healthy!!

 

[Kriii]

Such a good idea to keep busy while watching tv, so that you don't become tempted to mindlessly nosh!

 

[jaelless]

It makes getting my steps in a lot easier. I like the shows Bones and Castle and TNT plays them every afternoon/early evening. So during one of the shows I will do steps and focus on show instead of the stepping.

Today lil princess and I did some back to school shopping. WOW the lists the schools give for classroom supplies is beyond belief. I remember I only needed some paper and pencils. Now the list includes hand sanitizer and ziplock bags LOL it's ridiculous. After that mess we got new school clothes and a Disney board game that we are about to play. Wish me luck

 

[jaelless]

grrrrr how come guys lose weight so easily??? Here I am trying my best to lose just 1.5 lbs a week and my ex just texted that since last month he has lost 18 lbs. That's 4.5 lbs a week. I think he is full of it LOL he also claims to be drinking 4-5 liters of water a day. I cannot even fathom that. I thought drinking 3 liters a day was good. So what do I get from his bragging? Extra dose of motivation He comes to visit our son once a year so I have 11 more months to improve my health more than he does. See we had this horrible divorce and extremely nasty custody battle over our son, it didn't stop until son was about 8 yrs old. It took another 4 yrs for us to talk amicably (not my fault, I played nice, he played dirty) and then another four before we became tentative friends again. So now I can handle being friends with him, but I still want to beat him at something. it irks me that he is winning right now and I am not. BTW totally not having a pity party, I am not in bad mood, just good natured competition he knows nothing about LOL, everybody finds motivation their own way, this just happens to be mine at the moment. Is good cause hopefully it will keep me out of the cinnamon pecans I have. I indulged a bit last night. Whatever motivates me, even if it just lasts a moment, is totally worth it.

 

[Kriii]

No justice huh? At least those pecans are a healthy food! Your post reminded me that your original post talked about job stress and you have the history of divorce stress. Not sure what other stresses you have and not trying to be nosey, but do you have a way to reduce them if they are significant? You probably know already, being a nurse, but stress from anything increases your cortisol levels and makes it harder to lose weight. Even lack of sleep can do this. Maybe some "me time" doing whatever relaxes you might help?

 

[jaelless]

Stress is just part of my life now. Single mom, two kids (one in college and one just starting elementary), nurse, student, and two kittens LOL. I haven't had me time in over a decade. Logically I know son is old enough to watch his sister and let me go off on own, but I feel guilty about that, so no fun, so no do that. As much as I have enjoyed the heck out of summer and getting to play with my daughter so much, part of me is looking forward to her going back to school so that I can get a couple of hours to myself during the week. Hopefully I can do something healthy with those hours and not just nap napping is so good though. Going for a walk would be much better in long run. I will get to do something kind of fun, at least to me. I get to take a couple of classes at college with my son shhhhhhhh its a secret that I am his mom in class LOL I think it will be fun to see my son in action. He and I are both going to be getting a paralegal degree. I asked beforehand if he was ok with me taking same classes and he said yes as long as I don't call him boo in class.

 

[Kriii]

Just checking in to wish you a good week

 

[jaelless]

thank you very much Kriii

hmmmm haven't planned anything for this week. Just a bunch of normal stuff, grocery shopping, laundry, tidying up home. Small person and me are going to try and make monster rocks later today LOL saw the idea on Pinterest and thought she would enjoy making them. I love Pinterest, I find so many fun things to make, as well as lots of healthy ideas. How did we exist without Pinterest before LOL

 

[jaelless]

frigginfrackinfruck three weeks dieting, following the calorie allotment completely, getting at least 10,000 steps every day, and the blasted scale still hasn't moved. According to the my fitness pal app I should have lost 4.5 lbs yet not a single lb lost. I took an assessment sponsored by my hospital and it says I am very healthy, my heart age is almost 10 yrs younger than I actually am. How is it that I can be so healthy and yet not lose weight. When i was in 20's I was slender, yet I had to starve myself to be that way. I am not starving myself now, I am trying to do this a healthy way, but it isn't working. I am very frustrated. Not giving up, just irked immensely today.

On different note I never knew how hard to was to paint rocks LOL up to 2 coats now and they still don't look perfect yet. I want them to have a nice smooth coat like the pictures on pinterest before I add the googly eyes. I am in a autumn frame of mind and so ready to enjoy the next season. Bring on the pumpkin spice

 

[DisPup75]

frigginfrackinfruck three weeks dieting, following the calorie allotment completely, getting at least 10,000 steps every day, and the blasted scale still hasn't moved. According to the my fitness pal app I should have lost 4.5 lbs yet not a single lb lost. I took an assessment sponsored by my hospital and it says I am very healthy, my heart age is almost 10 yrs younger than I actually am. How is it that I can be so healthy and yet not lose weight. When i was in 20's I was slender, yet I had to starve myself to be that way. I am not starving myself now, I am trying to do this a healthy way, but it isn't working. I am very frustrated. Not giving up, just irked immensely today.

On different note I never knew how hard to was to paint rocks LOL up to 2 coats now and they still don't look perfect yet. I want them to have a nice smooth coat like the pictures on pinterest before I add the googly eyes. I am in a autumn frame of mind and so ready to enjoy the next season. Bring on the pumpkin spice

That's got to be frustrating! You've got a healthy attitude towards it though. And it is good news that you are in such great health!! Are you weighing/measuring the things you eat? It can be really hard to eyeball portions. Cheese and peanut butter are the two things I'm most likely to WAY under-estimate. Maybe also time to look at what you are eating? I'm not very good at it myself but my results are usually far better on weeks that I eat pretty "clean" than they are on weeks where I stick to my calorie goals but eat a lot of processed foods.

The rocks sound fun! And adorable.