Hi everyone, hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Easter/ Passover.

Well I have hit a small obstacle, lol. My husband kindly bought me a new digital scale to encourage me, and I much prefer my old calibrated Taylor scale as this new one shows I am 3 pounds heavier than I thought I was!

I was quite upset as I was thrilled to be below the 160 threshhold, but I know it's not the end of the world. I'm just not sure if I should record my new weight this week and get the increase over and done with, and "start over", or keep using the old scale to measure my progress.

 I would love to check in on here too.  I am 39 yrs old and started taking Alli on Saturday.  So far so good. :)  I am scared to weigh myself.  DH always weighs me when I start diets and I am emberassed to ask again!  lol  I need to cook up some healthy foods to have on hand so I don't reach for the bad stuff my son has around.

Question: If you are eating a low fat meal do you still take a pill? 

Welcome, Sunny. :)

It's good to get a base weight so you have a starting point and can look back later to see how far you have come.

If your meal has 5 grams of fat or less, don't bother with Alli. Otherwise, take it with every meal. If you are eating under 5 grams of fat per meal, though, watch that you are not replacing the calories with carbs. It's also important to remember that our bodies need a certain amount of healthy fats to work properly.

 Hi everyone I'm Delane - I'm sure you've seen me posting on other threads but I thought I'd jump in on this one since it seems people are a little more commited to posting here.

I am 32 (yikes, how did that happen?) stay at home mother of 3 - 8 year old twins are in school, 3 year old girl is at home all day.  I bartend on the weekend and excercise like I'm possesed.

Last year I made a lifestyle change with my husband, joined a gym and was doing great - down to 160 from 185...until I tore both of my achilles tendons in a step class which led me back to the start.  I put 10 lbs. back on and was feeling pretty bad about myself.  Well, it's a year later and my ankles while not totally healed are at about 90% so I joined a different gym for renewed motivation and started taking Alli to boost my diet.  I'm about 2 1/2 weeks in and doing great!  Already almost lost the 10 I gained and my goal is 140 - which is my wedding weight almost 7 years ago.  Once I get there I'll re-evalute if I can go further but slow and steady wins the race right?

It's been great reading all your posts, especially the "all the time" contributors, you know who you are :)

I read the posts everyday and continue to look forward to seeing how you all are doing!

 Hi Delane!  I can totally relate to injury.  I was doing so well the Firm exersice program until I went to heavy with weights and did my shoulders in.  My massage therapist told me to lay off so I did and now I am having trouble getting back into it.  I hope to start walking soon as the weather is improving.

As for my breakfast, I have a yogurt and coffee. I don't think I need Alli for that.  Thanks for the advice.

Welcome to the group, Delane. Sounds like you are doing really well. :) Keep up the good work.

Sunny, just make sure you are not eating all your calories in the afternoon and evening. Spreading your calories to times when you need them most can help in your weight loss.

 Welcome Delane,

I am also 32...with 3 kids, all boys, 2, 8, 12...My best friend just started a step arobics class, and she says it is killing her...I will have to tell her about the torn achilles...Great job on already losing 10 pounds!

I weighed my goal weight today, 155, but my check in is tomarrow. I leave for a disney cruise saturday morning, I am so exited, but am a little nervous about all the eating that will happen...I also am going in for a hysterectomy on the 12th of may, so I will be in bed for at least a few weeks...So I am sure I will still need alli for a while..So I have a lot of obstacles coming up, so it will be a challenge to maintain my weight, but at least I won't have to worry about losing weight...well, unless I gain it all back on my cruise...  ;)  joking, ...kind of...

 Wow! Congratulatons on reaching your goal.  I haven't set a really low goal yet because I've always failed so I figure I'll take baby steps all the way there.

I think I've read the majority of your posts and I think I knew that you were leaving on your cruise soon...it's funny how you get to "know" everyone here when you've never actually met them :)  I hope you have lots of fun but be careful.  I don't know if you've ever been on a cruise but food is available all day everyday.  I'm sure you'll do great!

Good luck with your surgery - just think you'll have lots of extra time to post on here all the time!

Talk with you soon!

Delane

 Delane,

Thank-you! I set much smaller goals when I started also,  I beleive my first goal weight was 174. Once I reached that I thought I would try for 164, a healthy BMI. Then when I got there, I decided to go for 155. I think I am happy at this weight, maybe go for 145 later. I just want to focus on mainataning for now...

This is my first cruise...I have heard about the food...my mom has been on a lot (she is taking me, my bro, and our kids on this cruise) ...She has always gained weight on them, but was able to keep her gain at about 3-5 pounds.So I am definately a little nervous!! I have checked out the sample menus they have, and i know they have a light menu available, and sugar free desserts...so this will definately be a test for me!! Eat the healthy food, splurge occassionaly, or eat my weight in pizza and ice cream (which is available ALL day) Knowing that I have to check in the day after I get back from my cruise will hopefully keep my motivated....

Anyways, I look foreward to getting to know you, I check the message boards everyday...

 Hi everyone!  I'm checking in to say that I've "checked in"  ie. weighed in.  Uh, 1 pound?  1 POUND!!???  Now I know I don't have hundreds of pounds to loose and that "slow is healthy" but I go to the gym everyday - for 2 hours!  And besides my little carb overdo 2 days ago (and it wasn't even that bad, I don't know why I'm beating myself up over it) I've watched my carbs, my salt, eaten my protein and fiber and drank my water.  A year ago I was at this weight at my lowest and I feel like I have this number barrier that my body just won't let me get past and get into the 150's.  I long to see that number even if it's 159.9 and the scale is taunting me day after day.  I have one more week until I'm going away for a girls weekend - spa, shopping, EATING.  I really want to see that new set of numbers on the scale before I go to keep myself very motivated to not overdo it. 

I hope everyone else has had a wonderful successful week!

 Dalene,

I completely know what you mean.My body got stuck in the 160s also, my weight just did NOT want to budge, and I started to get very frustrated!! I switched things up a little bit, ate more fruits and vegetables, did more weight training, different cardio, and slowly but surely it budged, usually 1 pound at a time....but I am finally at 155, which is a nice healthy weight for me that I feal I can maintain. I have been down to 130 before, but I had to practically starve myself to stay there...pretty soon I just couldn't take it anymore and ended up gaining ALL my weight back + some!

Keep up the hard work, and you will get there!!

 Oh, I remember being stuck at 160 3 years ago.  I was doing WW and was stuck for a month.  I got frustrated and ended up totally falling off the wagon when the fam went to Florida for a 10 day vacation.  It was a fantastic vacay and I enjoyed every bite.  Trying to be careful but for sure not really caring any more.  I gained all of it back, all that hard work I had done for 2 years, wasted.

Just keep going!  Again, lots of fruits and vegetables and change the workouts frequently.  I would have done things so much differently if I knew I would be this big again.  lol  I should have cared, I shouldn't have given up.  This time I won't.

Good luck!

 Thanks for the words of encouragement Crystal and Sunny - this would normally be my "give up and have a plate of ribs" time but I'm going to look forward and go do my 2 hours at the gym tonight.

What do you think about this: I have coffee addiction in the morning I'm not really willing to break but I've curbed it a little.  I have one cup in the morning with 2 Tbs. of FF French Vanilla creamer and 2 Tbs. of full fat, full sugar creamer (instead of countless tbs. of full fat everything).  Now that typically gives me 120 calories and 3 grams of fat, not to mention all the carbs.  Anybody else have a routine they can't seem to break?  I'm thinking that cutting this out might help me get over my ridge.  Thoughts?

 I have at least 2 cups of cofee every morning. I switched to sugar free vanilla caramel creamer, it has the less calories than the fat free, it still has a small amount of fat in it, but I usually need more fat in my breakfast anyways. Coffe is the one thing I can not and will not give up!! I used to use the full sugar/fat creamer AND tons of sugar...I also haven't been able to give up pop...I did switch to diet pop, and I try to limit my pop to my meals, but sometimes I still find myself drinking multiple cans of pop..and a 44 ounce...I think I am addicted to caffeine ;)

crystalmamabear:

 I have at least 2 cups of cofee every morning. I switched to sugar free vanilla caramel creamer, it has the less calories than the fat free, it still has a small amount of fat in it, but I usually need more fat in my breakfast anyways. Coffe is the one thing I can not and will not give up!! I used to use the full sugar/fat creamer AND tons of sugar...I also haven't been able to give up pop...I did switch to diet pop, and I try to limit my pop to my meals, but sometimes I still find myself drinking multiple cans of pop..and a 44 ounce...I think I am addicted to caffeine ;)

 Yuck - I hate the sugar free stuff - I'd rather not have it than drink that - maybe that's what I should do, buy a container of that cause I'd never touch it :)