Ren - 2 pounds in two weeks sounds pretty good to me. If you keep going at that rate you could drop ten pounds in a little over two months. They say that if you lose slowly, it will stay off. I dropped 18 pounds very quickly three years ago and put it all back plus some for good measure. This time I am going for permanent loss.

SilverMoonsong - congratulations on your progress. You are a real inspiration. If I can lose that amount I will be very happy. I have a subscription to Weight Watchers France on-line. It is easier to go with that because it includes many of the products I buy locally, otherwise I'd join LoseIt. It looks good.

I have started some daily dancing - fifteen to twenty minutes. Really slow pace, but it is keeping me moving and I find the music motivating. With lots of snow and ice outside and temperatures only reaching a high of -6 degrees C and lows of -14 degrees C (21 F/7F) today, it is good to have some inside exercise. I am also walking on the walker, so keeping that going as well.

It is too bad that the mental energy that goes into playing the daily FT quizzes doesn't burn more calories!

Thank you! I still have a ways to go, though. If the Weight-Watchers is what works for you, then by all means, use it! I tried several different things before finding LoseIt.

Dancing is fantastic! And yes, start slow, but keep moving. By the time it warms up, you'll be ready to get out and start walking.

If I burned more calories on FT, I'd spend more time sitting in the chair playing quizzes and less time at the gym.

Rennnnn!!!! Stick it out!!! It takes about 4 weeks for your body to get used to the change in diet, and then things should start moving in the right direction. In the meantime look on it this way: 2lbs less to worry about, and the first baby step on the way to the new you!

It took me three weeks on the weight-watchers diet before the weight began to come off, and even then it was usually about 800g à week (about 1.5 lbs). However, after a year and a half, the weight that came off so slowly has stayed off! I still need to lose a bit more, but so long as I don't start putting it back on I reckon I'm still in a win-win situation!

The key is most definitely sticking to it! Take it slowly, and remember any loss at all is better than a gain, eh?

Go on, I know you can do it!!!



Sounds as if you are keeping your motivation high, pitengy! Little and often, that's a great way to go! You use a treadmill? It's gotta be better than the stationery bike! I hate mine with a vengeance and am really finding it hard to force myself to pedal away this year, though last winter I 'cycled' for 90 minutes every single day that I couldn't get out for a long walk. It works, but I so much prefer walking, and have been wondering about getting myself a treadmill. Anybody got any experience on one to convince me either way?

Santana: I like the treadmill or walker that we have now. We had a non-electric one for a long time, but I did not like or use it because it took an incredibly effort to get the thing going and to keep it going. For someone more fit, I guess that's part of the point of the exercise. For me, it was disuasive.

Some months back my family upgraded to one with an electricity-driven belt in hopes of encouraging me to be more regular. That made all the difference. I just have to hop on, push a button and walk. Now that I am retired I am actually using it. When I build up endurance, I will be able to increase the slope and resistance, but for now I am walking on a zero slope, just as I am when walking outside. I actually get in the car and drive to somewhere flat to do my walking.

The males in the family have created a workout room in the basement with weights and a bike like yours. None of them appealed to me and hence I avoided them like the plague. The treadmill is a good beginning solution for me, since I am way out of shape and as stiff as a board.

Welcome LadyC, I hope you don't mind my keyboard is very touchy, and I have to shorten some names.

I confess, it's been cold here and I haven't exercised as I outlined. Until yesterday, I was doing well on my food portions. My brother, the traitor brought in some Twizzlers for me. Not as hi cal as some things, but still un-needed extra calories.

Looking for a few bucks back on my tax return and plan to make use of my gym membership. Walking in a pool is easy on the joints and burns calories faster. Only the gas money has kept me from it.

Two days until I see my actual weight, that may scare me into fasting!

A tiny slip up with three quarters of a pound on this week ... which is neither here or there

I was a pound down earlier this week, but don't think I will be tomorrow when I weigh officially. My husband came back from a business trip to Paris with a small box of chocolates for me. I looked longingly at it for a bit and told myself I would resist, but my resolve lasted all of twenty minutes. I told myself I would just taste one since he went out of his way to find some he thought I would like. Unfortunately it was delicious, so I convinced myself that just one more would not hurt. A few chocolates later, I decided it would be better to get rid of the temptation at one go, so I ate the whole box. (You didn't think I was going to throw them away!). I am stepping a lot today in hopes of making up for it, but am realistic enough to know that I undid most of the week's efforts in a single day. It is a good thing that he is also retiring, so there will be no more chocolates coming home.

I will have my 'official' weigh in on Friday when I see my trainer. I should have the scoop on pounds and body fat lost.

No loss, no gain. The chocolate did indeed undo the efforts of the rest of the week. But it was tasty. The temptation is all gone and I am being wise again.

Sometimes you just NEED to splurge a little. Then, you get back on track and realize it wasn't so bad after all. Just walk a little more to counter the chocolate

I agree about the splurge. I got my weigh-in, I gained a pound!

The nurse said it was water weight, don't they always say that?

But I go again on the 21st so I'll buckle down and see what I can really do. No rain, so no excuse.

There is something to be said for maintaining too. Then using a strategy.

We can do it!

So here's my quarterly update with my trainer:

When I first weighed in with her, I had already lost weight, so my body fat % won't reflect that loss.

My overall weight loss is 55.4 pounds.

Since November, I've lost 29 pounds. That's ~10 pounds a month, which is perfect for a healthy weight loss.

My Body fat%... in November, I was at 44%. Today, I came in at 36.8%, for a loss of 7.2%.

That is pretty darn awesome

Oh, and just so you know (because it was an awesome day and I felt like I earned a treat), I had a small bag (1.5oz) of Dark Chocolate Mint M&Ms. So you see, having a sweet isn't all bad!

SilverMoonsong: That is absolutely amazing! Congratulations. You are inspiring and you deserved every M&M! I bet they taste better now than they did before!

We are still freezing cold here, so outside walking isn't possible. They say we might break the freezing point sometime on Monday, but even that is pretty cold for me. I am keeping up with my indoor exercising, but it is not quite the same.

I have a cooking lesson with friends tonight at a local French restaurant which has been planned for weeks. The food will not exactly be calorie free, so I have balanced off the rest of the day with low fat yogurt and cereal.

Cooking is a passion that I am trying to channel into dishes that are lower in calories and fat. I am an avid pinner of recipes, so I can still look at the pictures of the lush desserts on my Pinterest board, but am trying to cook from my grains, vegetables and "guilty free" boards. Last night was a lemon and garlic baked chicken, which was tasty, but relatively low calorie.

I've been going to the gym for a couple of weeks now and so far I haven't missed a day.

According to my scale I've lost about 4 lbs., which is great! But the best part is how much more energy I have. I don't feel tired all the time and it's much easier to get up in the mornings.

And no, it doesn't bother me at all if you call me LadyC. I rarely use the full name myself.

The cooking lesson wasn't as detrimental as feared. Three hours of scuttling back and forth to watch the chef demonstrate, finding ingredients, whisking and stirring like mad, and then hurrying between the kitchen and the dining room to finish dishes and to serve the different courses to our invited guests had to use a ton of calories - it certainly killed my feet.

The dishes themselves were also not as calorie-laden as I had expected and were a good lesson that a little bit goes a long way. The starter mini towers of low fat fresh cheese and horseradish with cucumbers, scallions and tomatoes interspersed with smoked salmon and steamed zucchini only used one and half slices of salmon and half a zucchini between two people. The saffran risotto (cooked in low-fat broth) used only 30 g of rice per person (normally I would cook eat two to three times that amount) and the veal was in very lean, small portions. Even the dessert was only mildly naughty - sautéed apples, pears and clementines with three spoonfuls of a pistachio sabayon on top.

I really wasn't even hungry for dessert and would cheerfully have skipped it, but was leery of offending the chef. I think the pain signals from my feet were drowning out those that normally would have been whispering "another bite, another bite".

Hobbling out the door at midnight, six hours after the start of the lesson, it was good to see that I can still indulge in gourmet cooking from time-to-time, but in a body-friendly way.

It would be nice some time in the future to be able to double-wrap an apron and tie it in front like the other students. I would also love to reach the point that I can follow LadyC's excellent example and join a gym and whittle away the pounds. Walking is about all I can handle at this point, but hopefully I'll get there. I know the idea of having more energy is really attractive. It is very motivating to be able to read about the successes of everyone.

Penance for the cooking lesson meal, I headed out into the freezing weather yesterday for a 30 minute walk.

YAY! Good for you

I've done a good job of being proactive with regards to my treats. If I know I want to have something, I'll plan for it, and do the exercise ahead of time. It takes a while to get used to doing it that way, but once you have it turned into a habit, it becomes a very positive way to look at how you eat. Instead of doing penance for eating something, you instead 'earn' a treat.

Some great results! I didn't expect to lose much, but I had been really watching the sweets.

Not giving up at all, I need the bost that exercise and weight loss gives me.

Anyone can shorten my user name also, I've kept the same one forever.

We're getting some drier weather, it's such a rollercoaster here in the winter.

Exercising ahead does sound more sensible SilverMoonSong. I imagine it also serves as a deterrent. It is good advice! I'll try, but it may take a while to get into the swing of it.

Postal, keep up the good work. Winter here is also a little crazy this year. We've had almost two weeks of bitter cold. The weather service predicted a return to warmer weather yesterday, but it was still below freezing in the afternoon. We are at 600 meters, nearly 2000 ft above sea level, so it stays colder than lower down. The Bise, which is the cold north-north easterly wind, is supposed to pick up and snow is supposed to move in tonight. It is definitely not conducive to sticking my nose, much less the rest of body outside.

We are lucky to have good heating. My heart breaks when I see the reports on television of the huge numbers of people who can't afford the high heating bills and have little or no heat in their homes, plus the growing numbers of homeless on the streets and in their cars. It is really sad.

I'm 9 stone 11 this week

Jane, you do an amazing job maintaining your weight loss. I hope I do as well when I get there.


Some good news - I just had my annual wellness exam with all my blood work.

My blood pressure was 122/80. Watching my sodium intake has been the biggest factor in bringing that down. I was never *really* high (145/90-ish), but always just enough for the doctor to say something, so this was a huge win for me.

My cholesterol is 139 (down from 148 last year). My HDL, LDL and Triglycerides are all within the 'normal' or 'optimal' range.

My glucose is normal. Diabetes runs on both sides of my family, so I've been tested since I was 12. I seem to be the one who always bucks the trend, and I usually run a little on the low side. I actually have to watch what I eat so I can keep it high enough for all the exercise I do.

The only note I had from the Doc was that my B-12 is low, so I have to go in to talk to her about possibly getting on a higher dosage vitamin or getting extra boosters of just B-12.

Congratulations Jane on maintaining. Do you work at it constantly?

I think the reason that I put back on what I lost a few years ago, in addition to the stress and lack of exercise, was that I stopped weighing myself regularly. Only going by being able to close the zipper doesn't cut it, especially with stretch jeans. My personal preference in clothes, even when I was pretty slender, was for layered sweaters and tunics. These cover a wealth of sins and make it easy to ignore the pounds slipping on. Before I knew it, I had bumped up one size, then another and another... Aiming for the top of the size chart is not the most desirable of targets.

Great exam results SilverMoonSong, especially the blood pressure. You are especially lucky to have bucked the diabetes trend. One of my nieces is struggling with this now.

-2.2 pounds this week! A combination of watching the snacks and portions, planned exercise and going up and down the stairs incessantly because of the bathroom work! I hope to work toward an average of 1 to 1.5 pounds per week.

That's FANTASTIC!! I think your goal is absolutely attainable, and perfect for a healthy weight loss that will be easy for you to keep off.

Hi Everyone sorry for not coming in for a while ... had to go away for a month or so and it was hard to get on FT on just the ipod.
It was tricky to eat well while away - I tried most of the time but did have to have some crap here and there but the scales have only gone up a kilo or so! yay!

I've been home a few days and have been very strict on myself foodwise and already feel better .. one of the things I'm strict on is getting my 5 veg and 2 fruit a day and for me it really helps my general wellbeing.
Was also hard to regularly exercise but there was lots of walking involved which must have helped.

So back home now and eating well and doing lots of exercise .. not formal stuff but it's a busy time on the farm so there's hours of work there each day!

I probably have five kilos I'd likely to lose but in reality it'll probably be tricky to get there. My husband doesn't want me to lose any more(35kg lost) but a bit more wouldn't hurt!

Look forward to watching everyone's progress! And it doesn't always matter if the scales aren't going down .. results can be shown elsewhere .. clothes, waist measurements for example.

Copago, it is great to have another good role model. How long did you take to lose the 35 kg?

Between a bad cold I came down with three days ago and all the dust from the bathroom work, I feel pretty rotten. When I am sick, I crave crunchy, but most crunchy foods are rich in calories and low in nutrients. I am trying to limit myself to carrots and saltine crackers with cucumber slices and balsamic vinegar, but would love to have ideas for other satisfying, crunchy snacks.

I also forgot to exercise yesterday, which must sound ridiculous. I don't have a fixed time, but generally try to do my walking at the end of the morning or early afternoon. I was busy with something, so told myself I would get to it later. Just before bedtime I realized that the day had gone by without getting on the treadmill. I did not have the heart at that point to start, so I skipped a day. Before that I'd been regular and had lengthened the sessions to 20 minutes at a go. I'll be sure to fit it in today, so that I don't skip two days in a row.

Knowing that I will be reporting in here is a positive incentive to sticking with it!

Yes, I've been working at it constantly for almost 9 years now
9 years ago I was verging on 14 stone (probably more!) and had absolutely no quality of life at all. My wake-up call was when I was told that I was going to have fully-blown diabetes if I didn't change my eating habits quickly. I chose cutting back on goodies, over injections every day - best decision ever, with the support of all my Funtrivia friends and my wonderful parents
I'm just under 9 stone 11 pounds today, losing a quarter of a pound

I took about a year to lose it but the last 5kg were pretty slow - I wouldn't even call it a plateau .. I had just found my level.

Would a muesli count as a crunchy snack?

Jane, nine years is a remarkable achievement! You must be really proud. I went part of the way down some time back and kept it off for a couple of years, but things got stressful at work and I let it lapse. Now I have about 5 kgs more than when I started down last time. When I make it this time, maintenance will definitely be a long-time commitment.

One of life's quirks is that the pounds slide on with so little effort for me, but I have a son who looks like he would blow away. My husband and other son are also on the light side. Perhaps they are secretly offloading their extra calories to me while I sleep?

Copago, I am encouraged that you were able to lose that much in such a short period. I thought it would take much longer. If I can be anywhere near that achievement a year from now, I will be pleased.

Muesli sounds like a good idea for crunchy. I had not thought of that. Someone on the Pinterest website posted a recipe for a no-butter pizza-flavored popcorn that I also thought sounded good. I will definitely give them both a try. Any and all tips are always welcome. I'm still at the stage where I am craving something between meals. I'm trying to ensure that the snacks I do eat are reasonable ones.

Postal, how is your walking going? We are much warmer now, which makes moving around easier, so I am getting one walk in each day. It is not far, but even with that I am starting to feel a small difference, especially in my knees which had gotten pretty stiff from perpetual sitting.