Val! You're amazing! I can't believe how much you're dropping when you go to maintenance!

I can't believe it either. I have no idea what is going on...all I can think of is that having less body fat, perhaps my body's metabolism has shifted so I don't need to conserve as much, given that there is less to conserve, and that the feeling satisfied easily thing is happening for similar reasons. Add weight lifting on to that too. The Tanita scales measured my BF at 27.4% at the gym today...still high, but I think those scales tend to register more than calipers and other methods do..still, it is finally under 30% which was a major goal. I don't think too low BF is necessarily a good thing at my age. I would like to aim for 23%..

Anyway, lets just hope this lasts, eh. I am eating carbs again now, but trying to keep them well under 100g a day and thus under control. I think I need to eat a few carbs for the weight lifting as I get lousy results without them. I am wary of them as I don't want to trigger anything, but so far so good, that hasn't happened. Anything too sweet appears to be self-limiting as it makes me feel a bit yukky.

Val,
It sounds you are getting same results I am. I switched over to a maintence plan, since I was close to my goal and I have lost more weight in the last couple of months than I did the past few years. SOmething balanced and clicked. It's wonderful. I haven't even started my weightlifting or running yet.

I got glutened, I think. Or it might be I can't handle corn either. In either case, I've got diarrhea again and I gained 2 pounds. Maybe once I get all this food stuff worked out I'll be able to lose weight. *sigh*

I am just like the rest of yall, slipping on the holidays. I am doing mostly lc with an emphasis on lower cals and smaller portions. Good to see all of you still hangin in there!

Well, my 2 pound bounce is gone and so is the diarrhea. I might have found a way to judge whether I've eaten something that disagrees with me: I gain a couple of pounds!

I'm eating stuff like coconut milk yogurt (or kefir really, it is pretty runny), meat, veggies, squash (kambuchi is really tasty!), dates, a little honey, almonds, almond butter. My intestines are a lot quieter now. Not so much gurgling, wind, and other unpleasantness! Horray!

I'm still using a little splenda but I am off the aspartame. I am hoping to get relief from my muscle/joint/tendon pain by finding the right foods to eliminate. We shall see...

I tried eliminating splenda to see what happened re aches and pains...well, nothing happened, so I was back using it again a month later. I can't say I use a hug amount of it anyway- mainly in a cup of tea. I was using it in the lemon curd, but haven't made that for a while as I have been eating a whole egg at breakfast.

Still 145 this morning, so that must be the new weight. I am trying to eat a bit more so as to start increasing weights when I lift but I have decided I still want to continue losing if possible as I need to get my BF% down from 27.4 to around 23.

Okay so I recently changed my goal weight. Although I am not THAT close to goal, I think that I will need to be less than 160 to be at a good body fat level. My sister and I were talking and she said that she didn't think that I would stop at 160 after all the work I have done and am continuing to do. It's true. I want it to finally look like I know what I am talking about (I always knew what was good and bad, but it just didn't appear that way! LOL)

You've lost 63 pounds! You're well on the way! Go PB!

My ache & pain report today is: Jaw is improving hugely! Wow, happy about that. However knees really hurt tonight. :\

PB how about some before and progress now pics?

Good afternoon all! Happy New Year!

I've been traveling, haven't been able to do low cal or low fat.. eating in restaurants all the time is difficult.

My New Year's "promise" to myself is to cut all of my portions in half, and not take seconds. I only drink my wine when I'm with g/f, and even then, 1 glass is sipped and no 2nd helpings. I could care less if the bottle is half full. I've also decided to go the healthy route and do SoBe, which is very similar to PSMF, only my caloric intake will be at 1,200-1,400 daily. I'm also going to beef up my physical activity. This is nonsense, working on the internet all day. Going to plan 30-45 minutes of some sort of activity just for me.

Val, I loved that photo of you and your GD's. And I love your wood floors. I like the knotty wood.

Nancy, good luck on your coconut flour. I use soy flour for the same reason. Just healthier.

We were in Vegas for New Year's, and on the way home on the flight, some idiot behind me coughed and sneezed without covering her big mouth for 4 friggen hours. Needless to say, I got deathly ill. Then after coming back from Vegas, had to get back into the car and head to Orlando for a long weekend of my partner in marathons. Fortunately I was too ill to eat loads of scrumptious foods from Emeril's and Wolfgang... My portions were small, and deliberate. I did enjoy comfort foods of pasta with shell fish, and seafood gumbo's..... And of course, I had to have bread to soak up all the broth from the mussel dishes I ate.... But as I said, I was really too sick to eat full dinners.. Shared most of my meals with my partner. Thank Goddess she keeps her calories at 1,200-1,400 on a daily basis.

I purcahsed a digital scale recently. And I have a new set of measuring cups for measuring cups and 1/2 cups of foods. I'm going to be more diligent in my portion sizes. I still refuse to purchase a weigh scale for me to become addicted to all day long.

Looking forward to watching all of your progresses along with mine. It's been wonderful having you all as a peer group with the same goals.

Thanks for all of you here, and Happy New Year to all of you.
Lynne

Aw! Sorry to hear you were sick. Are you better now? I got sick just before xmas and it peaked right on Xmas day. Ugh!

My intestines seem to be settling down (knock wood). My jaw is better (horray!) still have some random aches and pains though.

Hi Lynne,

What a good plan you have...if you can train yourself to eat less, which is what I have been doing BTW, it works. The startling thing to discover for us food addicts is that you will feel entirely full if you allow 20 minutes to expire after eating the
'half' portion. What this says of course is that formerly we were eating double portions!! This has been a revelation. Some things, like eggs, make me feel full almost straight away.

I am not following any particular plan other than keeping it low fat (for the calories) but not no fat, and keeping carbs to low GI when I have the option. So yes, that's similar to So Beach, isn't it. I discovered some lower carb wheat tortillas here and had two last night as beef tacos. I have also had the occasional sweet treat, but am trying to keep this to fruit when at home...e.g. a dish of fruit salad with ff yogurt.

Whatever you call it, it is working, helped I am sure by the weight lifting. This morning I am in VT at 144.5...I am startled that the weight loss continues despite not feeling particularly deprived at all. I ate pretty much whatever I wanted at the ethnic food stalls at the festival, but still kept portions small and
asking for some sub's now and then for rice, etc. I expected to have put on water because I ate quite a few carbs, so if I did, this must mean that there was a net loss because I didn't gain anything. I haven't tried to go keto since returning, and the weight loss continues at around a half pound a pound a week so far.

So this can happen for you too Lynn, if you decide that you were formerly eating double portions and that you can still enjoy everything without having to adopt an 'all or nothing' approach to eating. When you get closer to goal weight you can then re-address calories and perhaps watch the fat a bit, as I am doing...there are enough low fat sub's to make this pretty easy I am finding. My low fat pumpkin cheesecake was really amazing for example.

Hope you are back to the painting again, and less gadding around!! LOL.

Yah, 63 pounds off, I can't believe it. I am really wanting those 5 off so that I can be in onederland again. This is about the weight I was about 2 years ago when doing LC the first time. I haven't lost anything in a few days because my TOM came after 3 weeks. When I do LC I usually get an irregular TOM, but then it balanced out. Three weeks ago, it was lighter, so maybe that is why it came back again. So I most likely am retaining water, but I really want to lose a few pounds! I can taste onederland, but I can't get there! Stupid TOM!!!! Grrrr.....

Nancy, I'm so sorry your knees are hurting. I hope you can find something to relieve it. Nancy, tell me about some of your new menu's. I'm curious as to gluten-free meals.

Val, you are soooooooo right. less food, less weight. I also noticed that as you deplete the fat intake, your body starts becoming leaner. If you don't exercise, your skin will sag worse. You're doing the right thing, Val.

I'm painting a series of beach scenes on small 11x14 canvases. I need smaller items for inventory for an art show. tyfa.

PB Girl, you and Cindy are doing magnificently with your perserverence and determination to become lean. I admire you.