Monday, June 6th 2016

Diane, so sorry to read about your SIL. Hope Shrinking Nerd is doing okay with the news. Cancer is a miserable beast. Wishing you strength to get through what you need to get through. 

Gosh I am sorry!  This is a difficult path to walk.

I'm so sorry to hear about your SIL!  

Oh Diane what a stressful situation you're in right now. Nothing like heaping it on, is there. Sending you strength my friend. 

Hi all!  In a bit of a rush, so just know that I've read all of your posts and am thinking of you.  Diane S, so sorry about your SIL  Sending hugs!

Food was off kilter this weekend, and the chicken in me didn't want to get on the scale this morning.  Today, back on track.  Saw my former doc at baccalaureate yesterday, and she never even noticed my loss.  All that anticipation for naught!  :)

Hope Monday is a peaceful day for all!

Hugs, Mary

Back up to where I started when I saw Dr. C three weeks ago.  Bad eating weekend, but I'm back on track again today.

Going to defer getting set up with new nutritionist to when I'm back from vacation, as this week will be filled with the stress of packing, etc.  I am determined to get into a groove that will work for me in the long term.   Also part of my plan, at least for the summer months, will be getting back to the gym.  I lost all of my weight with no exercise, but I think that I will need to add it to my maintenance toolbox in order to be successful.

I guess I have my whole life to get this "right" right? :)

Jen

I'm right there with ya.  I'm very frustrated by it.  Feels like I have to be 100% perfect to get the weightloss down.  It means saying no to social outings, or being superhuman and ordering something like a side salad and water if I do go!  It means eating lunch at my desk every day, not snacking at all, and making healthy dinners.  And if I do all that, I might lose weight.  But one toe outta line and it all VANISHES.  Boom!  I'm actually nearly a pound over where I started.  After 5 weeks of hard work and 8lbs. lost, 8 days of vacation packed it back on.  My body truly feels set on this weight.  

I'm looking forward to hearing the guidance your nutritionist gives you.  I'm back on my diet plan today, and probably through the rest of the week.  I'm reserving my opinion until the end of the week.  I'm back at the weight I maintained fairly easily (10lbs. above where I'd like to be).  So if I truly gained back this weight so easily I will have to reevaluate.  Doesn't make much sense to fight tooth and nail to have such weight swings when I could just putter about this weight.  But I also have to be careful that this is not just me not wanting to put in the effort, hence the waiting period.  

What say everyone about set points?  Do you believe it?  One side of me says that at one point I had a "set point" of 277 or even higher!  And no way I'm accepting that!  On the other hand, I do feel like it's very difficult for me to lose weight at this point.  On my vacation I continued splitting my meals in half.  I did have a couple glasses of wine each day, but I also walked more.  So I really don't know what to think.

All that's to say....RIGHT THERE WITH YOU.  This sucks.  I'm sorry.

Here it is another Monday. The last Monday of the school year. A very hectic time of year for me. I am feeling very behind in my end of the year assessments. I have 3 more reading assessments to do, but I am feeling very fulfilled and satisfied that each and every one of my students is reading within grade level range! That is quite something, especially when I started the year with several of my third graders reading at a first grade level. Whooo hooo!

Okay, weight and eating. It is what it is. My goal of maintaining control was met in some instances, and then again, not met so well in others. I ate what I ate and I own it. I was feeling a little steeped in disordered eating behavior. Booooo me!

Onward.

EASY WEIGHT GAIN. Good topic. Here's my take on it: As formerly obese people we must realize that our set point is our highest weight. Your body will work hard to get back to that weight. Maintain a lower body weight for a long time the body will gradually recalibrate and your set point will become lower. The 3500 calorie is what it takes to gain a pound is utter BS for us. Yes, we have to burn a damn 3500 to lose a pound, but we are very efficient users of calories when it comes to the intake of calories. There are studies that show as a population we require fewer calories to maintain our weights compared to those who have never been obese. Sucks, but it's the truth. So, yeah, I can gain a damn pound eating 2700 or 2800 extra calories.

Vacation eating? Screw it! I have to work extra hard to NOT gain weight on vacation. To me a 2-3 pound gain is a total win. If I eat poorly I can expect to gain at least a pound a day. I estimate that at least half of those are inflammation pounds due to my body's reaction to the quality of the foods I often eat on vacation (even the high end restaurants with good quality food use levels of salt and rich sauces I wouldn't normally eat. So I'm not saying fast food really, just different from my norm.) The water pounds come off quickly.

Our weight is reflective of what we are willing to do to manage it. For me, weight is fluid. It is not a static number. I have begun to realize that weights fluctuate - sometimes more broadly than we'd like. Right now I'm not feeling the drive to put in a lot of work to maintain a lower weight. I'm okay with that on some levels and on others I'm not. I don't know why that is, but I know it is the truth.

I'm happy to at peace with my truth. I can appreciate the work we all must do to "protect our skinny". It is not easy. There is sacrifice on some level for us all. I have been bitter about my lot in this weight game, but can no longer afford to be. I keep up the good fight because I want to eventually come out on top of this. To keep working on it is all I know how to do.

Happy Monday, comrades!

Happy last Monday of the school year!!!!  Way to Go on your students reading level...awesome!!  Hang in there!  It will be over soon!!!  It's really never over for us, though...is it!!! lol

I like everything said here.  Well, I don't like it (I hate it) but totally agree.  

A couple of things I believe to be true

-I gain weight easily and have to fight tooth and nail to lose it.

...Which leads me to the next though

-I agree with your "efficient calorie users" (woohoo for us--not) and I think the 3500 calories may not tell the whole story.  I don't think I could physically eat 5500 calories or so I theoretically would need to gain 1 lb. per day.  I'm not sure I could eat 3500 calories a day period.  When eating "intuitively" I'm somewhere in the 1600-2000 (max) range. 

-Agreed weight fluctuates.  And I'm trying to find some level of acceptance in that without making it an excuse.  A fluctuation is one thing, a trend is another.  My weight easily fluctuates within 5lbs. swings.  Trouble is when the high end of one "fluctuation" becomes the low end of another.  Must have it swing back down!  Not just up. 

Right now I'm still having to decide how much I'm willing to do to maintain at a lower weight.  It really sucks right now and I'm beginning to think I don't want to put forth the effort necessary to be "just" 10lbs. lower.  I'm happy where I am--I just really cannot let it get farther out of my hands.  Being 10lbs. lower puts more room between me and where I start to feel out of control.