March/April weight loss challenge

[Catrin]

133 pounds today - finally heading the right direction

[Tabby]

136 ...

thanks for your time

[channlluv]

227.4

Not watching what I eat, and only 30 minutes on the treadmill all week.

I may donate my body to science for people who study metabolism.

Roxy

[GLC1968]

Roxy - I think you might not be eating enough when you are watching your intake. 1400/day? And you weigh 227? That's not enough, particularly if you are exercising! 1400/day would barely sustain me on a sedentary day - add in a heavy training load and I'd be chewing off my left arm.

When you drop that low and up your exercise, your body holds on to everything for dear life. AND (more importantly) you feel deprived. You make up for the deprivation by eating the wrong things (I did the exact same thing!) every once in awhile and it makes staying consistent really difficult. This is why when you don't track and you don't exercise, you also don't gain - your body relaxes, kicks in the metabolism and keeps you at a steady state.

Weight loss (or fat loss) happens when we can walk the careful line between fueling our bodies for activity and limiting our calories for weight loss in just the right amounts. Some people can hit that balance intuitively. Some can hit it with just an average amount of effort. Others (like probably you and me), have to really dial it in to get it right.

My theory is that some of us have bodies that are incredibly adept at survival. As such, they are very quick to dial up or down our metabolism based on what is going on in our environment at the time. If there is a surplus, we can rev it up and not gain as fast as some. If there is a shortage, we slow it down and not lose as fast as some. This means that back when we had to hunt and gather our food, our ancestors were the ones who survived the droughts or the harsh winters. It also means that in the world of plenty we live in now, we have to really do battle to get lean.

Anyway, that's just my little theory. To win, you must eat more, but not too much. And you must exercise consistently, but not get hurt. Balance. Balance that you can sustain over the long haul because loss (and gain) are not quick for us. They will happen, but you must be consistent and patient.


That said - my weight this week has also not really changed. This is pretty amazing considering that I've been a human vacuum the past two weeks and pretty much eating everything in sight (until today, thankfully). Anyway, put me down for 149 for this week.

[Blueberry]

I've been fluctuating, but put me down at 226. Still slowly headed in the right direction.

[Possegal]

I've been AWOL for a bit. SORRY. Catching up now.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?...lE&output=html

[Possegal]

think surgtech1956 could share her secret for loss between Mar 18-Mar25?
Yowzer!

That may have been my fat fingers.

[Tri Girl]

thanks, Posse!!

[limewave]

I had a super-stressful week last week. I don't handle conflict/stress well. I ended up spending 3-4 days in bed eating everything in site. I haven't done that in a long, long time. I wish I could break that habit. I think in some ways I have, as I don't do that every time I get stressed out anymore. A more manageable level I can go for a walk/run/bike and help relieve some of that emotional baggage. This situation was too much and it left me paralyzed.

I don't even want to get on the scale after that mess. Yesterday I managed to get myself back on a reasonable diet. Not a weight-loss diet, but a balanced one anyways. That's my goal again today. I just need to get my feet back under me until I can focus again on weight loss.

Life. The never-ending roller-coaster.

[nolemom]

Here's hoping this is a much better week for you Limewave. I find that sometimes the best I can do during a very stressful period is to minimize the damage. I am 1 1/2 pounds away from reaching my "normal" weight after a very stressful last summer and fall. I hope that you can continue to focus on the positive on the progress you have made . The older I get the more I realize that I have very little control in my life but can only focus on my responses to the *%*% that happens.

[surgtech1956]

181.5# sorry to post late, but I keep forgetting to do it on Friday.

[channlluv]

Muirenn and GLC, thank you for that input. Little bit of an eye-opener there, and I needed to see it. It makes total sense the way you put it, GLC. And Muirenn, thanks for the link. I'm going to go check it out now.

I can say that my husband says I'm a lot skinnier since walking five miles each day (even with the five days off because I felt like I was going to injure my calves). I'm back at it this weekend, and will walk tonight.

It's hard getting on the bike lately -- I'm trying to work on my writing during the afternoons when I used to bike (working on a couple of contracts), and I have my daughter at night, who does not have a bike that can keep up with mine, so she doesn't like to ride with me. I'm thinking I need to let her take the Ruby Comp and I'll ride the steel frame MTB, but I'm a little scared to let her get on the carbon bike. I'm afraid she'd get going really fast and lose control and get hurt. Like mother, like daughter, you know? And it goes fast. Still, she needs to learn sometime.

Her dad suggested I take her over to the grassy area at the park to let her get used to the posture and speed, and she said, full of exasperation, "WHY would I want to ride a ROAD bike on GRASS?" Like, really, geez, parents. Insert rolling her eyes here.

She's thirteen. Yeah.

So I'm enjoying the treadmill, especially since we got the Google TV set up and I can watch Netflix. I'm on episode 31 of Veronica Mars. Buffy is next. And then maybe Merlin. I can get caught up on the cool YA TV shows I always wanted to watch, but couldn't, and get in shape, too. Win-win.

The weight, I just don't know. My therapist says I need to release the emotional baggage from my childhood and the weight will just peel off. Has that ever worked for anyone?

Roxy

[Possegal]

I totally understand Limewave. I tell everyone that the way I've dealt with my nephew being killed is to 'take to my bed with chocolate', said like I'm joking but in reality, that is exactly what I did. I told my sister that I can hear him somewhere just laughing and saying - don't you go blaming your bad behavior on me. In reality I'm kind of thinking I may need to go find someone to talk to about all the things I'm dealing with, or not dealing with as it were. Just filed my taxes and for someone that usually files on Feb 1, that's a bit of a bad sign.

Today I packed my lunch for work for the first time since December. I wanted to shout it through the halls. Baby steps I guess.

Never-ending rollercoaster indeed.

[azfiddle]

I don't think I posted last week... been a big spike on the scale lately and I need to get back into the routine.

115.4 is actually down from earlier in the week, following the 73 mile event I did Saturday (post ride recovery / water weight!)

[Trek420]

169.4 this morning. Thanks for the motivation, gals.