Weekly Weigh In

[Move.It.Move.It]

I am weighing myself every Monday morning and I am going to log my results each weigh for accountability and support. Please feel free to join in.

Start weigh                   125.5 kg 14/12/2015

Now                              124.2 kg 11/01/2015

Loss this week             200g

Loss to date                 1.3kg

"Slow and steady wins the race"

[Grigonic]

@etvete
That's what I'm doing already
I have breakfast at 6.20
Then yogurt and some fruit at 9.30
Then lunch at 11.30
Then a snack around 3.30-4
And dinner at 6.30-7

The problem is the size for dinner and meals on weekend when I;m home
Cause at work you eat what you've got and suck it up
🙂

[AuroraKat]

@Grigonic - first, congratulations on losing 30 pounds! That's a lot of weight! 

It seems like you had a lot going on the past few months. Stress, special occasions and various life circumstances sometimes lead to weight gain even in folks who have always been thin. Here's my mom for example - she has never struggled with her weight, ever. All her life she's been within the normal BMI range. However, her weight does sometimes fluctuate within that normal range. When stressful times happen, she can put on about 5 lbs (she's a 5'4", so that's a significant enough gain that she goes up one dress size). When that happens, her attitude is generally - oh, look at that, put on a few pounds, time to be more vigilant about what I eat. So, she eats a salad instead of rice for dinner. Has a smaller breakfast. Goes for an extra walk with the dog. Within a month, the weight is off and she's back to eating at maintenance. Because she has never been overweight, she doesn't have to measure or track her food - intuitive eating is a great skill to have. 

The point of the above story is that everyone gains weight once in a while. Life happens. The key is to catch yourself before you put on too much. And, looks like you did just that, which is probably the most important step. 

You asked about motivation. The thing about motivation is that it's fleeting. It comes and goes. What you are seeking is discipline. If I had to rely on motivation alone to lose 110 pounds over the past year, I would never have lost the weight. Never ever. I am "motivated" about 20% of the time. When that happens, it's awesome - I kill it with my lifts, have an awesome run, research and make yummy low-cal recipes, the works - I ride the motivation wave! The other 80% of the time, I'd rather sit on my butt and watch Netflix than lift. Or, I'd rather have a nice cool bowl of ice cream than the fruit bowl I budgeted for. On those days, I rely on discipline to get me through. I lift while watching Netflix because it's my lifting day. My lack of motivation doesn't change that. I eat the fruit over ice cream because I only have 100 calories left for the day. If I really want the ice cream, I will budget for it the next day. I mean, the ice cream will always be there for me to have. I'll just have it when I plan for it. 

It's like working. Am I always motivated to go to work? Heck, no. But, the paycheck at the end of the week sure does help. With weight loss we have to put in the work first to reap the benefits later, much like building a career. 

Have you looked into intermittent fasting? This way of structuring my eating really helped when I visited mom a few months ago. I couldn't resist her homemade meals (nor did I want to!), so I skipped breakfast, had a very light lunch and saved all my remaining calories for dinners. Even though my goal was to maintain weight during the three week visit, I ended up losing a few pounds. During this time, I didn't weigh any of my food, though I did try and log everything most days. If eating throughout the day is making you hungry, maybe intermittent fasting will be better for you. Also, make sure you get plenty of protein and some fat with each meal - these tend to keep people fuller longer than simple carbohydrates. 

[justMonica]

My weekly weigh in update....

Start weight on January 4            160 lb.

Weight on May 17                          132 lb. 

Current weight on May 22            129 lb.

Goal weight by June 21                 128 lb.          

Loss to date                                     31 lb.

I'm obviously really close to my goal. I started drinking a ton more water in the last week too and out of nowhere, dropped 3 lbs in the last 5 days! I'm still on a 750 calorie deficit and will switch to a 500 deficit in the next week. I log my food religiously and make sure I'm at that deficit. Now that I'm close to my goal weight, I'm trying to slowly add in those extra calories so that I can get to maintenance and as close to my TDEE (around 1900-2000) as possible.

[A_Lurker]

@Grigonic- I'm kind of with @AuroraKat - don't worry about motivation, work on the discipline.  Set a goal for each day and work on meeting it.  If I remember from your first posts you were eating fairly low calories and looking for fast loss.  (If I'm wrong, my apologies.) Now that the wedding is past work on consistency and discipline in your daily routine.

We have a running step goal challenge each month.  Lots of people use it for other targets.  Why not join in and work on a daily goal with us.

If weekends are worse, consider pre-packing your foods for the weekend as well and as you said it - just suck it up.  I tend to skip breakfasts though on the weekend and have a larger lunch.  Then I'll do a snack while dinner is in the oven and have a larger lunch.  Drink lots of water in between as sometimes hunger is really just thirst.  Although I admit that no matter what I'm always slightly hungry no matter when and what I ate.  You just have to get the discipline in place to ignore it.

[KateFitbit]

Still the same, and I crushed all my step/exercise goals last week. It's all about the food for me. Too much over the weekend. It's a new week though and I'm feeling good about it.  

Last week: 198

This week: 198

Start: 202

Goal: 137

[Dominique]

@justMonica: kudos for the impressive results! You had set yourself a tough goal (32 pounds in 24 weeks) and were able to reach it 4 weeks ahead of schedule, well done!

[Dave001]

Starting weight:
1st Jan 2017 142kg (313lbs)

10th Mar 2017 126.9kg (280lbs)
16th Mar 2017 126.3kg (278.5lbs)
23rd Mar 2017 123.9kg (273lbs)
1st Apr 2017 123.3kg (272lbs)
10th Apr 2017 122.5kg (270lbs)
17th Apr 2017 120.9kg (266.5lbs)
25th Apr 2017 120.0kg (264.5lbs)
10th May 2017 118.8kg (262lbs)
16th May 2017 120kg :up_arrow:

23rd May 2017 118.4kg

Target weight:
100kg (220lbs)

Yes! I'm back to travelling in the right direction. Thank you everyone for your words of support and encouragement.

[tamado]

Start 265 lbs 09/27/2015
This Week 158.6 05/23/2017
Last week 158 05/15/2017
Maintenance mode
Loss Range 105 lbs +/- 5 lbs

I'm pretty happy this week.  I am just coming off of the "May Long" (Victoria Day) weekend in Canada.  It's the first summer long weekend and back up at the lake seeing friends we haven't seen in a while.  It's easy to celebrate with food and drink but I kept it in check.  I also love cooking huge breakfasts at the lake.  I made waffles or french toast every morning along side my healthy baked eggs (crustless quiche kind of thing filled with vegetables).  I seem to be able to eat a waffle section with some fruit or french toast made with healthier bread and get away with it.  I don't eat much else for carbs on a day when I have eaten that for breakfast either.  I only drank four beer but a fair bit of whiskey and way too much of my homemade irish cream (I'm lactose intolerant so made with coconut milk - SO GOOD).
Anyway, a balance of just enjoying life but in a mindful way.  We didn't use the quads much - we hiked the quad trails instead!  We cycled, we walked, we played.  We got the boat in the water and fished - too cold to ski still.  
So, I am happy to basically have maintained my weight again despite what could have been an excuse to go off the rails.

[Baltoscott]

---

@Grigonic wrote:

@etvete
That's what I'm doing already
I have breakfast at 6.20
Then yogurt and some fruit at 9.30
Then lunch at 11.30
Then a snack around 3.30-4
And dinner at 6.30-7

The problem is the size for dinner and meals on weekend when I;m home
Cause at work you eat what you've got and suck it up
🙂

---

Suck it up, suck it up, suck it up ... yep, I do that some, and it works 😉

Hi @Grigonic -- your work vs home problems are similar to mine.  When I'm at home the full fridge is hard to resist.

i agree with the concept of little changes.  You said you want to eat more veggies.  Good idea, that.  Instead of two eggs + sausage and toast maybe a three egg spinach tomato onion scramble with a bit of cheese and a cup of grapes.   Have the sausage half as often as you do now.  When you do have toast try some avocado slices and tomato slices on it.

For me, Ice cream, and baked sweets like cookies, or banana bread, coffee cake etc. are very hard to stop eating once I start.  Like the "bet you can't eat just one" potato chip campaign (and I can't) those things often turn into calorie bombs -- and little containers just aren't satisfying.  I've started to get out of the habit of having dessert every night which cuts back some, and on some nights I've tried new dessert "concepts."  Example, my wife baked a dozen strawberry muffins a couple of nights ago.  Awesome.  They look healthy, brown, moist ... but crap they are 240 calories and not even the size of my fist.  I ate one -- and wanted two more!  Suck it up!  I drank a glass of ice water and managed to avoid the binge. Last night I was smarter.   I had 1/2 a muffin covered with 1/4 cup of plain unflavored yogurt and seven strawberries.  It was great.  I felt satisfied and had no desire to go for the second half of the muffin or the other eight we still have.

[Move.It.Move.It]

Hi @Grigonic

I am doing similar to @Baltoscott. I am filling up on lighter calorie food to stop me feeling hungry, Last night I cooked a beautiful pasta dish and I bulked up the chicken sauce with cauliflower that I blitzed in the food processor first. I went easy on pasta and had a large, delicious, calorie friendly meal that left me satisfied. Check out a website called "Full Plate Living" - it has lots of great ideas for what it calls "powering up" your food with fibre to reduce calories and increase satisfaction. My go to at the moment is cauliflower, I adore cauliflower rice.

There are a couple of things that I cannot do otherwise I lose the plot.

I do not calorie count. Every now and again I count for  week to keep a check on myself. If I calorie count for long periods I become obsessed with food and start to think about it all the time. I try to eat with hunger as the focus.

I also cannot weigh myself everyday as this does the same thing.

[Pamala]

No loss this week, but no gain either.  I'll take it!  I did not log last weekend.  It made me tired all of a sudden.  I have to remind myself this is a lifestyle and not a life sentence.

SW January 31- 79.8

May 16 77.5

May 24 77.5

GW- 70 kilos

[tink053184]

Your honesty motivates me. You are not the only person in this boat. For me, just reading your post is helpful. Today is a new day. Let's do our best just for today.

[Grigonic]

@Move.It.Move.It
@Baltoscott@AuroraKat
@A_Lurker

Thanks for you all's input.
I will definitely try all your ideas.
I've did count calories January, February and March.
I stopped since beginning of April cause after all I wont be counting for the rest of my life.
For the last couple days I've been doing good.
I went worked out Monday and Tuesday and I hope to do it today and tomorrow cause friday me and my wife are leaving for a quick trip until Monday.
Food wise I've been doing pretty good too. 
For example last night woke up around 3 and right away I told myself I won't eat anything. So I just had some water and went back to bed.
So I saw this though back in January when I started again I cut back on food and I had the same issue about being hungry all the time and wake up midnight to snack on something.
SO that whole month was hard but February and March once my body got used to eat less I was fine.
Now pretty much happened the same I kinda took April and 2 weeks in May off let's say.
And now when I start to cut back again my body is doing the same thing.
Just gotta push through. Didn't expect though that creating a good habit takes months and creating a bad one takes 1 week 🙂
Anyway I will try to get back on track.

The main issue though is this.
Like I said earlier there is this cool store what has some of the best smoked and cured meats.

I can't go there every day or week so I try once a month and when I go I make sure to get a lot of things so it lasts. SO at the end the fridge is full and you're always thinking about it and you fight through.
But after couple days you start thinking, man those products will start getting bad I need to fix something or use it faster so they don't go to waste (I hate to waste stuff cause we all know what it takes to work and get that paycheck and waste it, it's for sure not what I intend)
So I start eating a little more so it won't go bad. And after 2 or 3 days eating a little extra my body gets used to that and when I go back to small portion the hunger is unbearable.
So I start drinking more water and snack on fruits and carrots but is like air pretty much.
Even when I go to our store what's right at the corner of the block. Let's say I planned to go get some veggies.
I always end up getting more. I will get some fruits which is not bad. But there is a sale on steaks going on so of course I can't miss that. SO i used to buy the steak and freeze it but you know the meat was already frozen once and when they sell it it's thawed already and if you freeze it again it looses it's taste and texture.
So I stopped freezing it and you gotta cook it that same night or next. 
And you already had something planned for dinner but now you gotta work around this and make sure you use that nice piece of steak you just got.

@Baltoscott I love sweets. My dad loved it too and my brother loves it too and my whole family on my dads side. It's definitely genetics here involved. 
But I stopped eating them long time ago on daily basis let's say.
Now I still have it but it's when we go out and eat every now and then will order one, when it's my birthday or my wife I'm definitely the one who takes care of that cake.
I'm eating it by myself pretty much for the next couple days.
Last couple nights after dinner me and my wife both would have a sweet tooth and thank God we don't have anything around the apartment or it would be BAD.

Well thanks everyone for the support.
I hope next time I will be shorter, cause as usual I like to get in details (but I do it so you know the whole story).
I hope anyone can give me some advice for the highlighted portion.
You all have a great day and thanks for everything.

[AuroraKat]

Start:            253 lbs

Last Week:  142.4 lbs

This Week:  142.4 lbs

Change:       0 lbs

Total Loss:  - 110.6 lbs

Goal :           125

Mini Goal:    141 lbs - I will be considered "normal weight" according to BMI charts

So, didn't lose anything. I am not surprised. The past couple of weeks my body gave me quite an advance on my weight loss. I lost over 6 pounds during two prior weigh-ins, which is insane for my current weight. So, I am not surprised if I don't see a loss again next week. 

This experience is making me want to try daily weigh-ins. I think I'll try to do that for the next week and see how I feel about it. If I start getting fixated on the scale, I'll just go back to weeklies. I'll report back how it goes next Wednesday!

This weekend I have a race coming up. It's a Memorial Day 5k. I am treating it as a fun run because I have a more serious trail race coming up during the first week of June. I look forward to it!

@Grigonic - I think it's fair to say that we all face the struggles that you describe. I live next to two amazing French bakeries. I love sweets and seeing all the wonderful pastries is a constant temptation. But, again, here's where that discipline comes in. Instead of buying a whole lot at the meat shop you like, buy enough for a meal or two. Come back to the shop more often, if you'd like to get more. Yes, it's an extra trip, but there are benefits - you'll get fresher stuff and you won't be tempted by the major stash of goodies you have going in the fridge right now. 

Same for the steaks on sale. Meal plan for the week and work them in, if you want steak. But, if they don't fit into your meal plan right now - pass on the sale. You know that's not the last time they'll go on discount. 

You have a lot of flexibility with your meals if you follow "calories in, calories out" way of eating. Calculate your TDEE, pick a deficit that's reasonable (maybe a pound per week? maybe even half a pound? progress is progress!) and then plan your days around the calories you have. There's no reason not to eat steak or cured meats, if that's what you like, you just have to make a meal plan and make sure you don't go over your calories. 

In the end, that's really all it's about - eating less than you burn. It's simple, but definitely not easy. It takes patience and discipline to cultivate new habits. I've been at this for a year now and I can tell you that it gets easier the longer you do it. Keep working at it!

[Kimbur96]

I know it's now weigh in day but I just had to share that the scale is moving again and I finally cracked the 150# barrier. 149# this morning. Doing a a little happy dance. Thanks for listening and being so supportive and motivating.  🙂

[Baltoscott]

---

@Move.It.Move.It wrote:

Hi @Grigonic

I am doing similar to @Baltoscott. I am filling up on lighter calorie food to stop me feeling hungry, Last night I cooked a beautiful pasta dish and I bulked up the chicken sauce with cauliflower that I blitzed in the food processor first. I went easy on pasta and had a large, delicious, calorie friendly meal that left me satisfied. Check out a website called "Full Plate Living" - it has lots of great ideas for what it calls "powering up" your food with fibre to reduce calories and increase satisfaction. My go to at the moment is cauliflower, I adore cauliflower rice.

---

@Move.It.Move.It -- I just had cauliflower "rice" for the first time a couple of months ago.  I loved it!   Found this link for making it for anyone interested.

[justMonica]

@Kimbur96

Congratulations on passing the 150 line! I passed the 130 line last weekend and was 129 on Monday. Although it was short-lived (up to 130 today), it felt good to getting over that hump.

Here's to the both of us! Keep on truckin'.....

[Kimbur96]

@justMonica Congratulations! I know once I cross the threshold of a weight even thought i may bounce back up a little that I am headed the right direction. Great job to you!

[Move.It.Move.It]

Congratulations @Kimbur96

Oh Happy Days

[etvete]

Ultimate Starting Weight	265 lbs
Current Starting Weight	199 lbs
Last Week's Weight	192.1 lbs
Current Weight	191.2 lbs
Weekly Change	-0.9 lbs
Mini Goal	180 lbs

I somewhat expected this after losing over 4 pounds last week. It brings my 4 week average to just about 2 lb/week. I am hopeful that it evens out though because having a huge week then a small week is irritating and I can't tell if there is anything significant that I am doing between them to cause the teeter totter effect. In the end, I am still losing which is all I can ask for.