OOPS! I ran out of the house early this AM, and forgot to post this...hope I didn't mess up anyone's day.

Today at WW we talked about people when they get to goal, and maintaining their goal weight.
Well, that was good for the four people in the room who were close to goal or maintaining it. But, you know what, I am so far from goal it's as if I live in NY and my goal is in Calf. I really can't see my end goal, don't care about my end goal (well, I care, but it seems unreal to me right now) I have to concentrate on my 5 lbs goal a month, and my NSR goals weekly.
So I came home and recorded them again, just for me, just to remind myself, that THESE are important and to adjust them if I needed to.
I gained this week, .2 of a pound ( )
but I know why, I haven't been eating my normal number of points all week. You have to eat to loose, go figure.

So where's the homework? Here it comes:

1. Review your goals even if only mentally and write them down for you and for us.....accountability.

2. If you've been loosing give us your secret, if you'be been gaining or not loosing, let us help you figure out what's up.

3. Then, the question of the week, there was an article in our paper this week about people who weigh themselves daily stay on track better. What's your take on this? What do you do?and why? How does it make you feel?

Personally, I can't weigh daily, I would drive myself nuts with the numbers. I get obsessed when I see numbers that aren't what I think they should be....so once a week, at WW and that's it. I even had a new scale and put it high on a shelf I can't get at, because I would start weighing in the AM and PM. So I weigh once a week, on the same scale at the same time...in the same clothes. I think it gives me a more accurate idea of what I am doing.

Have a great weekend.

Cathy

GREAT and NEW ideas AND ways of looking at things that I for me hadn't considered. Thank you for sharing them with us.

I still can't weigh myself everyday, when I say obsessed I mean obsessed with the numbers. If they would go up, I'd stop eating...can't do that. So I am impressed with the number of people who do weigh everyday and for the reasons they do it. Thank you for sharing those ideas.

For those people who have large numbers of pounds to loose 50+, I have found that looking at the END goal is just too far away, too big and too awesome. We all have to break that elephant down to something more manageable. So that's why I was taken aback by the talk of goal weight and maintainence. I can't think about it. I have to focus on the next five or ten pounds. My 90 pounds is just to far away for me to think about the END...my end is the Thursday AM I weigh in each week. I hope that doesn't sound too selfish or self centered, because I do understand and envy those who have reached their goal...but I guess I thought that lecture would have been better spent on those that are there rather than a room filled with people who are just looking at the next 1 pound off. Oh, well, we all gain something from everything we hear.

Goals
I want to fit back into 90% of the size 10 pants in my closet. I was a solid size 10 for about 6 months in 2004, bought a whole new wardrobe during major life changes, and now I'm back solidly into the 12s. It's very depressing to think about how much money was spent on the very nice clothes that are just sitting there now.

Problems
I've been in the working world for a year now, and I still can't figure out how to work exercise into my day. I tried after work, but I ended up eating out so much because I got home late. I tried in the morning, but I was so tired when I got home from work that I couldn't get anything done.

Food is getting back to normal. We get produce delivered every week, so there is always something to cook. We're trying to save money right now and try not to eat out very much. I think my biggest struggle is portion control - I ALWAYS want "just one more", or "just another scoop". I'm working on that and I see it getting better. I've maintained/gained less slowly in being home for the last two months. This is good, but not great news.

The Scale
I haven't weighed myself much since April, and have paid the price for that. I dread getting on the scale, because I never have any idea of whether it has gone up or down. I had gained 10 lbs from August '04 to April '05, and then another 10 from April to August '05 while I was traveling every other week for work.

quote:

Just wanted to encourage you that some of those same strategies that the maintainers are using might be good tools for your toolbox on the weeks/times that trying to lose isn't realistic but they might help you maintain the loss you've already achieved. Just a little food for thought.

- Peg

Bingo.

Homework:
1. Review your goals.
My goal currently is to stay within 3 pounds of goal and try to bring more carbs safely back into my eating plan while excersizing 6 days a week. I have been doing well with trying to encorporate carbs, and balancing out the extra calories by trimming other places. The excersize is going well right now (I ran atleast 20 miles this week). Staying near goal is going well too, thankfully.

2. If you've been loosing give us your secret, if you'be been gaining or not loosing, let us help you figure out what's up.

First, ditto to everything Denise said. Lately my "secret" is different than it was 9 months ago, but not that different. The things that work for most people, work for me, if I work them. If there is one big secret to the entire weight loss game it has to be learning to harness your own desire in ways that work for you. I also believe (in other words, this is true for me) that if you say you want something and don't actually do anything to get what it is you say you want, then you probably don't want it,and that is really allright. Go find out what you really want!

3. About weighing daily. Short answer: I do it because it has taught me how to balance my body. It works for me.

Lynne

quote:

Review your goals even if only mentally and write them down for you and for us.....accountability.

Goals
-Continue doing as much eating in as I can. I really feel better and more in control of what I am eating that way.
-Keep challenging myself with this workout bike workout. It is not fun, but I know I can do it.
-Take vitamins
-Listen to myself when going out to eat.

2. If you've been loosing give us your secret, if you'be been gaining or not loosing, let us help you figure out what's up.

I have to say that changing up my workout has done a lot for my mental and physical health. I really am challenging myself and feeling MUCH better.

3. Then, the question of the week, there was an article in our paper this week about people who weigh themselves daily stay on track better. What's your take on this? What do you do?and why? How does it make you feel?

I do weigh in daily. It is something I am just curious about every morning.

I weigh every day I'm home. I've never packed my scale and taken it on vacation.

quote:

If you've been loosing give us your secret...

I don’t think that there is any big “secret”.

Losing weight some weeks is pretty darn easy. We’ve all have those weeks when we are VERY excited about some plan or another. Every day we are REALLY motivated and excited to be trying one of 17 different recipes for oatmeal. We feel like we’ve discovered oatmeal and can’t figure out why everyone doesn’t eat this nutritious food which is also so delicious. Every day is perfectly on plan and apples for snacks are sooooo tasty! Who knew that there are 37 different kinds of apples? And every new kind we try is more delicious than the last. Everything is going so right. We enjoy exercising and we’ve got time and energy and we feel so great. We’ve all had weeks like that and it is pretty easy to lose a pound or more during those weeks.

If there is some “secret”, it is to eat the oatmeal, even those mornings when you would rather have a donut AND a #3 McBreakfast. I guess another “secret” is to eat the apple, even when you’d rather have a cookie. Because many/most days, I’d much rather have a cookie for a snack. What was I thinking? Apples are NOT that special and wonderful. Only some kind of health fanatic moron would choose an apple at 3pm over a cookie or candy or chips… So the “secret” is to eat the apple, even when you’d rather eat cookies. The “secret” is to do what you gotta do… despite lack of motivation and inspiration.

Sorry the “secret” isn’t really exciting.

Actually, I think another "secret" that actually might really be a secret… is to think about maintenance... a LOT... No matter where you are in the process.

All I cared about from the very beginning was maintaining my losses and never going back.

To lose a pound a week, I had to create a 3500 calorie deficit. Realistically, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do that every week, week in and week out. Actually, I didn’t create that kind of calorie deficit most weeks.

There were weeks and months where I didn’t have it in me to lose at all. If I only had two skills, losing and gaining, I was going to be in trouble. Maintaining and not gaining weight back was a CRUCIAL skill to learn… even though I wasn’t at my “goal” yet.

I weigh daily and I find that it doing so gives me a lot of useful information about how foods impact my body. Because I have borderline hypertension, which is caused by my body retaining fluid (edema), it is helpful for me to see which foods cause fluid retention (most are obvious, but not always).

I've been weighing daily since I got my Tanita digital scale (about a year and a half). Before, I could not find a home scale that worked right or didn't go out of whack on a regular basis (though I'd never invested money in a good one), so I primarily used the "doctor's scale" at the gym once or twice a week.

I much prefer weighing daily. I'm usually able to use the data I receive from weighing daily without letting it impact me psychologically or emotionally. I note my weight in my journal every day.

I weigh at least a few times a week and often most days.
When I reached goal my first time, I stopped weighing and figured 126 would stick if I was pretty careful. HA!
Joke was on me.
I saw that the number went into the low 130's and then I REALLY started to avoid the scale. I had to get up to about 140 to realize that I needed to weigh regularly in order to keep myself accountable. It works for me. When I weigh frequently, I tend to eat well knowing that I am getting on the scale the next morning. It is not just calorie control, but salt, water and junky carb intake too.
I am back at goal and work VERY hard to stay there. I weigh myself, measure food and generally act as diligent as I did when I was in loss phase.

P.S. I have talked with many people who are thin and at goal. With very little exception, they are careful about food and weigh weekly or daily. The idea that people are natuarally thin is not something I am finding as I talk to people who are thin- they work at it- the scale seems a good way to stay "real."

I weigh in every day. It helps me stay on top of things and I do change things up even if I know it's just water retention.

I find it much easier to get back into range if it's only 2 -3 pounds that I'm battling.

I was at WW this morning too and for me it was a helpful subject and great timing since my friend made LIFETIME today!!! She has lost
162 pounds, so it is possible. It has taken her a little over two years and she did not set her "goal" weight until this summer...she too, worked on mini goals.

My goal is to get back to maintenance weight and then re-evaluate. I am continuing to work on my Halloween goals.

I have been on maintenance since January 05 and am up 3 pounds from my goal as of today. I lost 1 pound this week and it felt good to be journaling EVERYTHING that goes in my mouth! That has been the secret for me this week and in the past I did better when I wrote what went in my mouth.

As for the scale, I do weigh daily. I have tried to stop, but that makes me anxious. I don't let the number ruin my life, but it does gear me up for the day. It is usually no big surprise if I am up because I know what my eating was like, but for some reason I need to see the number to help me that day. My friend who lost the 162# doesn't even own a scale...she only weighs in at WW. I truly think it is a personal decision, but if the number determines your mood, then it could be a problem.

quote:

Today at WW we talked about people when they get to goal, and maintaining their goal weight.
Well, that was good for the four people in the room who were close to goal or maintaining it.

Just wanted to encourage you that some of those same strategies that the maintainers are using might be good tools for your toolbox on the weeks/times that trying to lose isn't realistic but they might help you maintain the loss you've already achieved. Just a little food for thought. Now my homework:

Review your goals even if only mentally and write them down for you and for us.....accountability.
Keep working on my 5 point plan through the holidays. I am not worried really about losing but do not want to arrive on New Year's Day 'behind the 8 ball' as Denise and KD say.

Weighing: I, too, only weigh once per week on the same scale at approx the same time of day. Not the same clothes though. If I can't get to that scale, I don't weigh (it's at my office). I feel like I would just get too bogged down on the nitty gritty of which foods do what to my weight and I think that would derail my goal of eating a wide variety of foods and letting everything sort of come out in the wash. I do notice my clothing in between and whatnot but I'm really hoping to eventually get down to a couple times a month like SheltieGuy does. I am really dedicated to not being obsessed about the number on the scale and looking at this from a health/feel good perspective instead. If I felt this good and felt like I was eating the right stuff most of the time and I wound up at 5 lbs or so more than this, so be it. So far I think I'm at a 'set point' and my body seems to be coming back to it on its own.

Peg

quote:

...Personally, I can't weigh daily, I would drive myself nuts with the numbers...

Ditto. In addition, for me, daily weigh-ins aren't sustainable in the long run. I would eventually get bored with it, and completely stop weighing myself.

I officially weigh myself on the 1st and 15th of the month, and enter it into a spreadsheet. With that frequency, I haven't missed a single weigh-in since I started in January 2004.

(I sometimes take random, unofficial, peeks at my weight in between official weigh-ins.)