This week I discovered that if I wear my new "I give up, I'm fat, I have to have jeans that fit to go to work" jeans three times before washing them, they stretch out enough that on day 3 I need a belt. I am now only wearing them to work or when I have to look a little bit nice and I am wearing the largest size of old jeans at home or on casual errands (groceries, library stop.)

I am also still working on decluttering bad habits at the grocery store. I've been doing some research on calories and exercise, which is making me get a little more realistic about what I can accomplish. However, in light of what I am learning, I think the next bad habit I need to declutter is watching YouTube videos on the couch. If I ride even slowly on the stationary bike for an hour (which on average is less than I watch YouTube) every day, I will burn enough extra calories to lose almost a pound a month. Which doesn't sound like much, but that's ten pounds less this time next year. Poco a poco. It should also help my aerobic fitness at least a little.

I am at 1/4 of my goal.

Mostly due to a rapid drop while I was most sick, but it is all mostly Covid related. I still have no appetite and chocolate doesn't taste right. I'm too tired to want to drink alchohol. I have been continuing to focus on eating fruits and vegetables and just not buying processed foods except for Dh (and store bread, but just regular bread, not bakery goodies) I did buy a box of sugared, high fiber cereal as comfort food.

My goats are dried off, so my dairy consumption is way down.

Thought I would check in here.

I have gone up and down a few pounds over the last month, but right now I am at -17 from my high weight last year. Hey, that is pretty good progress! And, in one more pound I will be at my first goal. That one pound has been tough to tackle for some reason.

SubC, stopping the gain is the first step in reversing it. Good job!

I am at -14 pounds now. Feeling good and thanking God for helping me stop my old habit of putting food first. My first milestone will be at -18, which puts me at an almost 2-year low. And way more clothes fitting.

Good morning. Back on this.

After doing yoga every day in September, I just...stopped.

But I have gotten back to it - so far every day this year.

I am also working on my food choices - the easiest place to do that being the grocery store. The less packaged food I buy, the healthier my choices are, and the less packaging I have to process and recycle or take to a trash receptacle. I'd like to think it helps with the grocery bill, but it's winter, so I'm pretty sure focusing on fresh fruits and veggies instead of grocery clearance and discount carbs is going to be more expensive. But maybe not if I eat less.

I do have dried veggies to snack on in the pantry - I need to remember that and eat them instead of hoarding them. Like hiking, where they remind you that your water is more useful and easier to carry inside your body - so stop often to drink.

Anyway, after five days my weight has finally stopped going up. I got Birdy's doctor report this week from ddil and it included his weight. I need to lose an entire Birdy. It took Birdy 20 months (from conception) to get that big, so maybe I will set that as my goal to get that much smaller. Slow and steady.

I have not been posting, but will be updating here as I declutter the pounds.

I am currently down 13 pounds from my high weight this year - which I think was in October.

I am glad because some of my clothes are fitting that did not fit before. I have 5 more pounds to hit my first goal and then I will be at my lowest weight since spring of 2023.

I did yoga yesterday!

A whole week! And so far every day in September! I really don't want to break that streak! (Although the arrival of the new baby will probably break it.)

Good morning.

My weight is holding ok and I made relatively good choices this week. I really need to do better about evening habits and dinners.

I also need to figure out a way to replenish my energy after school on Friday that feels like a treat or a reward but is not the bakery section at the grocery store or wine. I needed to stop for groceries on the way home yesterday - not a good idea on Fridays! And I succumbed to donuts.

I have done yoga six days in a row this week even with school starting, and today will make 7. So even though I'm having a bit of a slow start with my coffee, I'm committed to getting the mat out this morning so I can tell you I made it a whole week!

I've been getting a lot of exercise on the stairs at school, and my knees don't hurt! So that alone tells me my fitness level is improving.

Hey there, SubC. I did mean under 200. Major typo there! I'm getting closer to my goal of being under 200. I'm up to walking 2 miles each time I get on the treadmill which is helping the stubborn pounds come off. My goal is to walk most days of the week, but I know that my body will sometimes not allow that. I'm ok with that, as I know my limits. I know I probably shouldn't focus on numbers, but for some reason I do.

Goodwin,

I just saw that you posted here. I hope that "under 100" was a typo and you meant "under 200".. Unless you are very short, under 100 is not a healthy adult weight.

I am trying to focus on the good choices and removing - "decluttering" - the bad choices and obstacles to healthy decisions rather than the actual numbers, although I have a clear range of actual numbers I would like to see, because that is the weight when I felt my healthiest.

I started September off with yoga this morning. I would LIKE to do yoga every day, but I want to set myself up for success because that leads to better motivation, so my goal will be to not skip two days in a row unless I am sick or traveling.

So, I haven't posted in this thread, but I wanted to join in, because I'm on a never-ending quest to declutter my waistline. I've been very overweight for most of my nearly 43 years on this earth. I had an RNY gastric bypass in 2007. I initially lost 70 pounds but gained it all back with interest. So at my heaviest after all that I was at 340 pounds in 2015. I started at that time to try harder to lose weight. I started keeping a daily journal of my calories on a free app. I also started walking. Throughout the next 4 years, I was able to increase the amount of walking I was doing to a little over 3 miles several days a week. I had lost 170 pounds. Then I injured my foot while walking and ended up needing surgery on it. I got depressed and gained some. My weight kept creeping up. It didn't take long with my binge eating to get up to 264. It was not where I wanted to be. Then I ended up having to have significant back surgery in April of 2023. I had a 3-level lumbar spinal fusion. The doctor told me if I didn't lose some weight that we'd be seeing more of each other. I took that to heart, and have been working on it ever since. I'm back on the treadmill and have been counting calories for a while now. After a lot of hard work, I'm currently down to 208. My goal is to get under 100 by the time I go on vacation out of the country on October 8. I know I will gain some while on vacation, but I want to get back on track as soon as that's over. I want to get closer to a healthier weight for me. It's not easy, and I know what it takes. Sorry for the long, rambling discussion. I just wanted to get it off my chest.

My weight went up when I was visiting my son, but is almost back down to before we left - so it took me a week to recover from 4 days of excess. Which is not bad.

I went to the grocery store yesterday, and I looked at the bakery discount. They had a six pack of these donuts I just love, and I was tired from open house, and I really wanted them. But I reminded myself that I would eat all six on the way home if I opened them, and that if I could wait and didn't open them, there were already other treats at home that were less bad for me, and that I was supposed to be avoiding the bakery section, and I did not buy them.

Not buying things that make you feel good in the moment but have long term negative effects for the win!

I am working on shifting my mindset from "I deserve a donut" to "I deserve to be healthy."

Lila, I am sorry you are feeling discouraged.

My weight has finally budged down out of my yo-yo zone. The key factor seems to be Dh being gone, when Dh is gone I hardly cook, so I eat a lot of light snacks and raw food and few meals with almost no sauces. Also, I don't want to go anywhere, so if I run out of a packaged food, I just stop eating it. Also, the things I feed myself are good, but not so good I want to keep eating them after I am full. Dh cooks late - so by the time dinner is ready i am super hungry, and tasty, so i eat too fast and too much.

Also, I think I need to never buy anything from the bakery discount section again.

Anyway, I have to renew my driver's license in the fall. Four years ago I gave up and raised my weight (I should have done it eight years ago, but then i still had hope.) if I can stay on track, I will be close enough to what my license says to not feel like i have to raise it again. Small victories.

Good heavens. I am up 4 pounds from my high weight in June. And I didn't even eat everything I wanted to. This is not good.

I mentioned on the other thread that I am starting a few sessions at the gym next week. Hoping that will help me feel better enough to exercise, and TRY.

I feel like a hamster on a treadmill.
Except an actual hamster on an actually treadmill would probably get more fit.

Got groceries today. 4 kinds of fresh fruit and salt. (I was out of salt)

Veggies are coming in from the garden, milk and eggs are coming in from the barn, we have plenty of carbs in the house.

I have camp this week. I will not be able to snack during camp and I am going to work on packing healthy lunches. The fresh fruit is for those and breakfast.

Lila,

I am right there with you - I know exactly what happens when I quit trying. I am still not back down to where I was before vacation.

If I don't pay attention all the time, the weight piles on, the stuff piles in, and the basic needs of the household for cleanliness and supplies fall apart.

Yesterday I did well, choosing carrots and watermelon for snacks.

well, my denial was brought to reality when I saw a note in a journal of what I weighed last fall when the clothes fit. I said earlier that I didn't know why they were so tight since I had not gained since then. Bull! Liar in my head! The note confirmed that I weighed about 15 pounds less!! Ahhh. I just trundle along not noticing, sticking my head in the sand... no more.

I went to the doctor this week and told him how awful things are with the long covid and how I have gained weight. In fact I gained 4 more pounds since I last posted. Even with what I think is "trying" and not indulging very much. It makes me think if I DID indulge and stop trying, I would be over 300 pounds in no time. Anyway, a fresh start, wearing the fitbit and on a new medication the doctor prescribed for me. This week I lost 4 pounds and my first goal is to lose 20 more. Then basically everything will fit.

4/24 pounds gone

We will get there, SubC. We are trying.

I don't know how all my clothes are so tight. I think I have not gained from when the clothes fit. Maybe just bloated. Will lay off salt and sugar.

It is raining and I just want hot drinks. I had some black coffee earlier.

I am meeting my step goals on fitbit. My general, doing nothing at home, day off number of steps per day is in the 2000s. That's how lazy or tired I am. So the first few days I set my goal at 3000. I was able to do that with the vibrating hourly alarm on the fitbit that tells me to get up and move. Yesterday I set my goal to 4000 and I did that, so will try for 4000 a day this week until that gets consistent, then increase.

I figure if I can keep my movement going, the food part will get easier.

Lila, I am plateauing too. It happens. Just keep trying to replace bad choices with good choices. Even in a very small way.

I'm sure the moving around more will help.

I think I need to start taking my waist measurement, because I (hope) I am probably increasing my muscle tone with all the outside work, and adding muscle adds weight, but it is healthy weight.

I did put on my "fat shorts" from last year that at one point were the only pair I could wear, and they were loose, so that is good. Not loose enough to do my closet clean out yet though.

I am trying so hard and getting nowhere 🙁

250 - 254 - 253 - 254....

I hope the fitbit will help. Obviously I am some kind of sugar addict as well and I threw away some candy I had here. I just need to make better choices but it is hard when I am stressed. I am definitely moving more with the fitbit and step goals.

I will try that, SubC... I do think of things as someone else's, sometimes, but can do better about it. Also, I like the planning of "I will eat x and y today" so that I have something to focus on eating that is healthy, instead of gravitating towards the junky snacks.

I do think thing where I think "I have to eat everything I have that is junk food and THEN I will start eating healthy tomorrow, and not buy anymore junk." So I eat a ton of junk in a day. But then later in the week I crave cookies or chips and buy more. This, I need to get a grip on.

Most of my clothing is very tight, and I am panicking a bit. I admit this week I spent a few hours looking at clothes on Amazon, and ended up ordering a few things to try. I will probably send it all back, but might find one item to keep. Mainly it is stuff I could layer over my shirts to look nicer and dress things up a bit. I have too many sweater cardigans so was looking for lightweight things for summer. Amazon is not going to get me good quality clothes, but I just want to look okay.

I found this one item I LOVED and was about to buy it when I realized it looked very similar to the one I donated because that dude made fun of me in it, and then I was sad because I did love it and I wish I had kept it, but in fact if I had, I would be to self conscious to wear it... so, I didn't order that thing. Anyway. The cycles my brain is in!

So nice to know someone is thinking of me in the evening!

So the connection of this to decluttering is to remove the items and triggers that cause you to snack. But you have other people living in your house. So that is hard.

Also try to replace foods and habits. Like the tea for snacking.

I have been using two mental tricks. Whenever I look at snack food I think "that is Dh bag of chips" or "those are Bean's cookies." Not when I want to eat it, when I buy it, when I unpack it, when I open a cabinet and see it - it helps put my brain in a space where that food is not something I can eat. Because it is not my food.

Also, I tell myself I have to eat things - like "I have to eat these carrots and a banana today" then when I want to eat, I already have a healthy focus on something to eat. And there is less room in my stomach for the other things.

And I'm sure that it helps that now that it is spring I am very busy doing physical labor.

SubC, not going great. I am about 3lbs heavier than when I started. I am eating out of avoidance and feeling low. I do think of you in the evening and try to drink tea instead of eating a snack.

I am on a bingey roll right now, feeling weird and having time to do things but not doing them. Here is my problem. Today I have eaten:

2 mugs of coffee with oat milk and honey
one egg scrambled with green onions and butter and cheddar, with a slice of thin wheat toast, buttered, and an orange

leftover cold latte

5 small squares of thin crust cheese pizza and two breadsticks, and Coke

4 chocolate chip cookies, 2 Dove candy eggs (larger sized ones), and a mango

a slice of cheese, half a Cadbury fruit and nut bar, 3 or 4 potato chips

I might have mindlessly eaten a few more things but I think that is it, and this is before dinner. I have a real problem with sweet stuff and junk.

How is it going Lila?

I am still doing well at the grocery store. Mostly avoiding bakery clearance and various snacks on sale.

I'm keeping too busy to snack much and the physical labor demanded by spring is helping. I moved the nuts to the back of the basement pantry, stopped baking except with Bean and I send everything home with him, and only buy Dh and Bean treats I don't like. My weight is trending down again.

Like the hoarding, the biggest helpers are "don't go to places that you will be tempted, don't bring it home" and "keep doing something."

Perhaps we will have "the great wardrobe project of 2024" by the end of the summer.

Fresh start is working. I am just trying to say no to junk most of the time, and drink more water. I stopped putting sugar in my coffee. Down 1 pound.

1/25

Okay, time for a fresh start.

I can't even remember where I started on this thread, because I was too embarrassed to share my actual weight, so I only posted pounds to lose. I need to be accountable so I currently, as of this morning, weigh 250 pounds. This is not the highest I have ever weighed, but it is close to the highest in recent history. My goal is 225, at least short term, if I could maintain that weight I feel so much better and many more clothes fit. I got down to maybe 230 a few months ago. So I am starting again, today, cutting out 90% of sugar and sweets, and junk. And trying to move more and take walks.

0/25

Wow, that's great SubC, to not really gain from that trip! Excellent.

I am in bad shape about back to where I started. My doctor says my TSH is very high and my ESR is elevated, inflammatory markers high and my blood glucose is 102, a bit high. I really need to edit the way I have been eating, and start moving more.

Easter is a hard time to cut sugar but I am cutting it on Monday. Back to black coffee, maybe a splash of cream but nothing sweet.

This morning it looks like the weight I gained at my son's house was basically water - because it is gone already! probably more salt in the cooking. A pleasant surprise.

I stopped at the grocery store yesterday and bought fruit, nuts, cheese, mushrooms, and some easy vegetable ravioli. I resisted everything in the bakery section and the discount Easter candy.

We are keeping a lot less in the fridge these days. Dh likes it. I need to clean the freezer out soon before I start milking goats again (mid to late April).

Well, I got on the scale this morning, and much to my pleasant surprise, I only gained 3 pounds at my son's house.

Time to get back to work.

Lila,

When you are that sick, you don't keep many calories, but you don't move much either, and your metabolism cranks down for survival. Sadly most of the lost weight was probably dehydration.

I stayed close to my new set point for a while, but I have been at my son's house for 5 days, exiting meals with rich sauces and lovely fluffy cakes. There is no scale there, so I have no idea where I am, but I am not optimistic. Probably starting all over again.