300+ Countdown to Jan 1, 2009 !

   T O T A L   L O S T   I N   2 0 0 8 :   9 9 3 . 9  L B S   

       LINK to *NEW* Jan 2009 / Jan 2010 Thread 

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      We share a long journey.
      January 1, 2009 is coming ... IS HERE ! 
      What progress we'll make ... WE'VE MADE !
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~ THE 2008 300+ COUNTDOWN CLUB ~
      Counting down to JAN 1, 2009!
 1. Post your 1st of month weigh in.
 2. Check your updated number below.
 3. Let me know of any corrections.

.......................... GROUP WEIGHT LOSS ..........................
SW: 320.0   JAN 1st 2009 185.0     Lost  135.0  bigbrett22
SW: 340.0   JAN 1st 2009 173.0     Lost  167.0  danielle_20077
SW: 343.0   JAN 1st 2009 275.0     Lost    68.0  denise07
SW: 326.0   JAN 1st 2009 280.0     Lost    38.0  freethrowtommy 
SW: 354.0   JAN 1st 2009 328.0     Lost    26.0  humorpam
SW: 329.0   JAN 1st 2009 295.0     Lost    34.0  korali
SW: 329.0   JAN 1st 2009 221.0     Lost  108.0  laurabow
SW: 370.0   JAN 1st 2009 286.0     Lost    84.0  mnic
SW: 442.2   JAN 1st 2009 392.0     Lost    50.2  mwiowa
SW: 325.0   JAN 1st 2009 267.0     Lost    58.0  punkrockriot
SW: 315.0   JAN 1st 2009 226.0     Lost  100.0  renaer14
SW: 317.0   JAN 1st 2009 311.0     Lost      6.0  shnitzel (tracy)
SW: 465.0   JAN 1st 2009 220.8     Lost  244.0  sun123
SW: 385.0   JAN 1st 2009 336.8     Lost    52.0  sunnyone24
SW: 305.0   JAN 1st 2009 234.5     Lost    70.5  Tina_4792
SW: 367.0   JAN 1st 2009 299.0     Lost    69.4  topeze
SW: 576.0   JAN 1st 2009 447.0     Lost  129.0  velvetkiss 
SW: 325.0   JAN 1st 2009 255.0     Lost    70.0  watchmeshine82
SW: 355.0   JAN 1st 2009 287.0     Lost    68.0  wobbley
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Thanks Mwiowa (hugs) and agree about everyone.  Ive been fortunate for a while but when my plateau hit a few weeks back and continued, remember those who have hung in during low loss months was very helpful.  And the complete fall of the horse is exactly my concern - Ive past history of it.

The month weigh-ins have also helped for me doing my weeklys. It reminds me its not about yesterday, tomorrow or this week but its accumulative. Helps me balance focus off a particular period when things may seem slow. 

The chilly days are here unless in TX, its just Ike aftermath.  The temp normals out after early morn til later night but the desk fan is officially off :D.  Got a can of PB from someone and planned to return it because of the weakness I have although Im able to balance calories.  I realized prior PB or nut weeks have surprised me not to interfere with loss and than after a few days of PB again, my loss has bumped. Coincidence maybe but Im paying close attention. Im normally extremely low fat.

I have been MIA as I have been working on getting registered for classes.  The sodium issue has finally gone away, for now, I just have to keep a good eye on my sodium intake.

Glad to see everyone is doing well!

 

I was pleased to see some tangible proof that I am getting healthier today!

Last year I had a lipid panel done and all was normal except HDL, which was only 33 and they wanted it above 45.

Today, HDL was 46! Triglycerides were down too though they weren't high to begin with. Strangely, total cholesterol and LDLs were both up 30 points though still within the normal range... don't know what to make of that but I am pretty happy about the HDLs and the Total:HDL ratio was down as well. Yay! Diet & exercise works!

Ive actually had low cholseterol even at my heaviest but wonder if my diet may have affected it.  Trying to recovery financially from my summer of vacations, eggs are an easy cheap regular that I eat much of.  Im thinking Im fine but am open to what testing would show. 

Thats great news with the HDLs Denise. Not good or bad but Ive noticed the weirdest thing. I can see the veins on the backs of my hands. I was so used to having chubby hands with not a vein to be found. In fact, Ive been a problem patient when it came to finding a vein for drawing blood.  I was used to it. 

I was wondering about the diet factor too.. before I was dieting I was using things like smart balance instead of butter and really didn't eat a lot of meat or cheese regularly. Lately, though, I have been using real butter and for a couple of months earlier this summer was eating a lot of low carb ice cream - the kind with only 80 cals per serving but plenty of saturated fat. Yesterday I had a cheeseburger for lunch and taco bell for dinner. I really need to eat better, I have been too relaxed about the non-calorie components of my food and maybe that is why my LDL went up :( I am going to clean up my diet!

That is funny about the veins. I have noticed that my hands look older, but then, I AM older. :)

Denise, great job on the HDL changes!  That took a lot of work to get. 

So, I had gone to the doc and gotten diagnosed with Acid Reflux.  And I've been wondering if all the changes I've made have influenced that.  I mean, I think about what I used to eat compared to what I eat now and wonder if my stomach sometimes still prepares itself for the old way of eating.  I'm not really sure, but curious.  I know that any of the weight loss surgeries have issues with being careful about a lot of foods.  Not sure if it's the same thing.  So, she gave me a script and 10 days of samples.  I started taking it that week and should have lost weight but instead gained 2.6 lbs.  I thought it might be the meds, so I decided to finish them and see.  Well, I wound up gaining 5 lbs total despite my good calorie eating.  Finished the samples and my weight started to drop back down within 2-3 days.  So today, I'm .4 lbs above what I was 2 weeks ago.  I'm figuring it is in fact the medication, so I might find an alternative but might just be more careful about things known to bother me. 

Just frustrated that I lost 2 weeks.  But, I'm still set for my under 300 goal.  Think that was part of it...under 300 has been my main goal for so long that getting to 310 made me feel 300 was right there.  And then it started to disappear and get farther away!  But I'm right on track again, just have to push a little harder to make sure I meet my goal!

Original Post by liza413:

Just frustrated that I lost 2 weeks.  But, I'm still set for my under 300 goal.  Think that was part of it...under 300 has been my main goal for so long that getting to 310 made me feel 300 was right there.  And then it started to disappear and get farther away!  But I'm right on track again, just have to push a little harder to make sure I meet my goal!

 I have definitely noticed that whenever I am approaching some milestone that I am excited about, that it gets delayed. It took extra long for me to break the 300 barrier also, and to a lesser extent ALL of the 10-lb benchmarks since. I think it is some kind of psychological rebeling! Does anyone else notice this?

Anyway I was all exited about getting below 260 and now I seem to just be sitting right there at 260 again after my 258 weigh-in. I don't know what is going on, it is weird. I do think I need to eat cleaner and not just watch my cals. I have been stepping up the weight training so my trainer thinks I gained muscle... maybe that accounts for a little, but something else is going on.

 

velvetkiss-good to see you. Hope all is well. Good luck with registration. I am doing finals right now and than on my way to registration for my next set of classes. Fun fun.

Denise-great to hear about the internal health changes. We get so wrapped up in the physical changes the internal changes are great to find out. I hear ya on cleaning up the diet. I focus so much on my calories that I have noticed I don't always get my daily values of fruit and vegi's and such. I have been eating allot of protein with carbs like rice mixed in and granola kind of things. I do notice the rebellion of the pounds when I get close or hit a goal. Sometimes I get stuck and others I go up a pound or two, but in the end it almost always levels out with a huge drop. Muscle is a ridiculous thing. It annoys me to know end I hate the hanging skin look so I up my weight training and then the pounds start coming back or I am stuck for what seems like forever. Good luck you're doing awesome.

Sun-I have to agree, the weekly and monthly weigh ins are nice. You don't focus on the day to day as much, especially on those days you may go up a pound or two, but level out on the weekly weigh in day.  I to have had problems getting veins to show up and now I am noticing them all over. My hands, arms, legs and feet have just exploded with them. Little scary I'm starting to get my family trait of veins sticking out. Along with veins though I am seeing my bone structure. I've never felt my bones stick out as much as they are starting to now. My collar bones, hip bones, ribs and even my jaw bone has started to really protrude. Kind of nice to realize I did have a bone structure under all the fat I was carrying around.

Liza-I know the frustraition, I completely lost August. Good thing is though you do know what was causing the weight gain and now you can look for alternative solutions, maybe something urbal? Good luck, you can do it! Look how close you are!

 

Ok ladies and gentlemen I have hit a milestone and I am thrilled. This morning I hit 229, I am in the twenties! Life is sweet. I have officially made my way to the 18/20 size in everything even those weird skinny pants that are ugly and would never be worn anywhere, but is still nice to know you can fit in them. It's so weird my feet are actually getting skinnier, my bones are protruding and every piece of clothing I own is about to head straight for the dumpster. I am actually borrowing clothes from my mom till I make myself go buy new clothes I even hate to go to the thrift store and buy anything right now I seem to out grow it in about two weeks and after a month it's in the junk pile. Little frustrated with that money is so tight with school tuition. Can't complain to much though what an exciting thing to know I am getting closer and closer to my goal and feeling better than I ever have. I have so much energy, Sunday could not of been any more productive. I am loving my apartment! I got all my curtain rods hung and curtains up, pictures on the wall, everything dusted and cleaned, two walks, a little shopping and lunch trip with mom and I even got a makeshift shower put up (I have an old tub with no shower, but a hand held shower head). I have been walking to work every day and those days that I don't I walk an hour in the neighborhood. Oh and I am so excited one of my goals has been to rock climb I found out that there is a rock climbing wall in a sports store in town that you can climb for free. I figure this is a great way to get started learning what I need to learn with supervision from people with experience, and than once I am comfortable I want to start planning a trip to a real rock. I am excited to be able to get my goal experience without killing myself. :)

Good luck everyone!

-Ang

I am beginning to wonder if I will ever hit 300.  I got to 320 a week ago,  and then this week I am back up to 325.  That is getting a bit frustrating and discouraging.  The only thing I can think of,  is that I do pretty intense hydrotherapy now,  and am building muscle,  so perhaps the extra weight right now is muscle weight?  I am hoping that is what it is.  In fact, I worked up to 28 minutes doing the "bike" in the water,  along with weights being added to all my other exercises in the water.  So,  that is a good amount of increase in exercise.  What do you all think about it?

humorpam-sounds like muscle to me. Lighten the weights and focus on cardio, you'll see an amazing change. You'll get there, don't give up! Good luck.

Ang

Well,  the hydrotherapy program is set up under the direction of the physical therapist,  under the orders of the pain specialist,  so I just do what they tell me to do,  so that hopefully,  I will begin to function better on a day to day basis with less pain. 

humorpam- have you talked to them about your concerns and what you are trying to achieve? They might be able to change things up for you. Muscle is good when dealing with function, but bad when your watching the numbers on the scale. Talk to them about it and see what they say.

-Ang

Pam, Ive been floating a bit with my weight lately. Today good - again saw 260 twice.  You will break through 320 but sounds like your being delayed (like me) - sucky, but just remember to hang in there because your breakthrough day is coming!  I suspect your toning up and the numbers arent reflecting the good your body is tightening up.

A delay CONGRATS to you Ang - 320s awesome! I do the same with my upper body.  I already have skinny girl arms (well, outside the unmentionable that somewhat hangs below it ;P).  Bottom - not so much YET.  Weird, my boobs thought lighter are heavier.  I actually dont go braless (alone at home) because it puts pressure on the skin across my collarbone and yes, I now have collarbones.

Oh, and cheek indentations.  I was saw in my reflection the slight indentation on the side of my face - had to draw it with my finger on the mirror to confirm but there it was.  Time to face it body, your running out of fat up top, time to start pulling more off the bottom!

Thanks Ang and Jayne for your advice and encouragement.  I will talk to the therapist today when I go for my hydrotherapy.

Sun-thanks, correction 220's, I am so excited I hit 227 this morning my goal is to hit 224 by Saturday and than I will officially be 10lbs away from my 100lbs loss goal.  That is to funny I do the same thing with every part of my body my shape is changing so much. I know what you mean about taking it from the lower half I'm noticing a difference in my thighs and my feet and ankles, but I'll be darned if it's not coming off my butt as fast. My lower stomach is becoming a problem to, but we'll get there congrats  on the 260 that is awesome!

Pam-good luck today!

Thats great, Ang!! 

Here we are, one week from weigh in.  Lets make it a good week!

I did hydrotherapy today and it went well.  I talked to the therapist and he said that I have probably increased muscle and therefore pounds but that it would level off after after 5 to 10 pounds,  and then I would start seeing the weight go down.  He suggested that I keep track of measurements for now instead of weight and I would probably see the measurements go down even if the weight is going up.  So I will keep doing what I am doing and see what happens. 

Sun and renaer14,

I hear you on the bone structure! I never realized my cheek bones were so high! Now I feel a little freaky everytime I look in a mirror because my face just doesn't look like me! My collar bones stick out quite a bit, too, as do my scapular bones (shoulder bones on the back). Additionally, some of my muscles are starting to show like my biceps and delts and lats.

And veins, oh my! Yep, I can now verify I have veins in my hands and in my knees! Big veins, at that.

I did finally bust 221, I've gotten as low as 218, but then I'm back up to 220. Everytime I get to 218 (I've been there twice), I start getting the munchies and don't want to exercise and start to gain again, then I have to go and lose that weight again, too! The good thing, is last time I went through that, it only lasted a week and when I munched, I mainly munched on high fiber foods like granola bars (the good kind, not the chocolate coated kind--about 140-180 cals and 2-4 g fiber), natural almonds, and figs. So at least my munchies were not dreadful for me and after 3 granola bars, I really did not want to eat anything for a good 3-4 hours!

It's finally gotten cool enough for me to do weights again. My weight machine (Bowflex) is in an upstairs room of my bungalow so it gets warm there in summer, and I'm too cheap to air condition it! It was the first time I've done weights since 6/14 (I keep worksheets), and the good thing is I was able to do 12 reps of all the same resistances I had ended with, except I was able to increase the resistance on a couple (I did a couple of reps, and then was like, hmmm, too easy, let's increase and see if I can do it).

Wow, I would have thought with that time lapse youd have to have worked your way back aovermy and way to push yourself. Today weighin 259.0.  I was hanging at 263-5 mid month with 261 last Thursday but then 263 again so seeing that "5" was special on a weighin day.  My goal is to hang on to it until Oct 1 well probably Oct2 because thats my Thursday).

I do the same aovermy with the upstairs. For years Ive told my daughter, summer means camping out downstairs (not like she minded sleeping in the TV room watching TV late).  Just today downstairs getting the mail, I thought "Hey, its cooler out there!".

I found out today that tomorrow night is a reunion for a job I worked from -88 into the mid 90s. I started there at 145 and left Im assuming low/mid 200s.  Even though Im heavier (but not much :D), I feel SO much thinner and more confident than I did then.  Probably because I was on a steady climb gaining weight.  I think a lot of it also is not being out of control with weight gain. Im debating going because its $30 and Im broke but I might.