Perseverance is what wins this in the end!

I love that! With over 100 lbs to lose perseverance is the only thing that will allow me to accomplish my goals.

When I'm at work and I feel a sense of frustration ~ nearly every day there ~ I would love to stick my hand in that cookie jar or candy dish. I tell myself everytime I look at them, "don't do it or you will not be on your low carb diet." Because even if the scale showed me a gain that morning, I know I need to stick with the plan or I'll gain back what I lost at an even faster rate then the rate I lost the weight.

Thank you for writing that. I am going to add it to my signature.

My struggle continues with no weight loss since 5/25 and nearly went off the deep end.........with everyone telling me if I added more carbs (like Cake Yesterday that looked great) it would help me finally start to loose. I almost wanted to believe it but I know me and I would tend to just regain all I have lost since February.............and be back where I was or worse...............

I have been less than excited ..............feeling very sad about this and how hard I have fought to fight this war and feeling like my fat is now fighting me and winning............ today I was very close to dissapearing myself~~~~~~~~~~~~ then I thought of this thread and reread it.

We all have struggles I just don't understand the stopping weight loss I remember losing 2 -3 pounds per week and never had 5 weeks of no weight loss..........I bought the keto sticks and they barely change went weeks with only meat/cheese......and now am back to eating what I did when I started.

I feel like I am whining and have just no idea what to try next...........
Gloria

I went through something similar: lost 1.1 pound in February, 2 pounds in March, and then it slowly picked back up. So when I was starting to get discouraged about it, a non-LC-ing friend suggested the same thing--"shake it up". Go have a blow-out. Can't say I didn't consider it--but in the end, knew it wasn't the right choice for me. I've lost 18 pounds in the last five months--and before that I was averaging 7-8 pounds a month like clockwork.
But during that same time frame, I have been shrinking, losing inches. I happened to measure on the same day I stopped losing scale weight, and three weeks later I'd lost about 3" in the hips, as I recall, w/no loss of weight whatsoever. We've gotta trust our bodies a little bit w/this process.



As long as you're eating on plan, you're winning. Glad you decided to get on here and share what's going on. Wish I had words of wisdom, but all I can offer is commiseration. I know, it's hard. But if you keep going, it works out--it just takes time--a lot of it, for some of us.




Keto-stix and I parted company long ago. I just keep eating the way that I know works for me, and have to believe that the weight will come off eventually. Some people tweak--I have had too many years of eating w/restriction to want to go back into a weigh-measure-count-eat-by-the-clock mode, so that's me. But we are each an experiment of one.

Could be that you're not getting enough carbs in allowed veggies. Could be your body wants lighter fare: turkey-chicken-fish-veggies rather than meat and cheese. Could be that exercise will be the key. More water?

Giving up is the one thing that doesn't work, for sure.

Hang in there. I think most of us have our discouraged times. That's when we get on here, and ask for help. Which you did. So that means you're using successful strategies---another sign of hope.

I predict that this will get easier. You may have to white-knuckle it for awhile, but the time will come when you just won't care.

I found it helpful to keep dark chocolate (not SF, Lindt 85% cocoa) and walnuts in my file drawer--makes me feel pampered when I need the lift, easy to pass on that other stuff.

You're right, we're going to be at this for awhile. Good to have friends on the journey.

[

Nice statement. I think I'll adopt it and treat it as my own if you don't mind. Thanks!

I am back once again, and hope that I can be as much support to those who support me. Keep fighting the good fight!

Nicole

Some of us are relics in more ways than one... (saying this as my 62nd birthday quickly approaches..............)

Thanks, Charran! This is a great thread!

Welcome back! Wishing you every success on the journey.

I just found this thread and decided to bump it up because I think it's so important! I've loved reading everyone's comments. I'm sort of a newbie here - only been a member here for a few months.

I'd been struggling along on my own for a while, lost 60 pounds over three years in a half-hearted LC diet, then decided to get strict in 2009, lost 20 more, and then hit a brick wall.

So I decided what I needed was a community and support system, and I began checking out LC groups on the internet. This group seemed lively and active and I decided to make my "home" here.

I was thrilled to find the TDC club - since I started my journey with a good *200* pounds to lose! I see some of you old-timers say you miss a deeper sense of community. That's what I was hoping to find here, and I do like this place. But did hope for something maybe a little more substantive than a lot of the posts I've found here for challenges and weigh-ins and things.

I'm sure those things *help* people, but I had hoped for more real discussions about issues that TDCers face. And when you are dealing with a long stall (as I am, been basically stalled since the end of February) it's hard to see all those folks merrily posting their losses in the monthly challenges. Not that I don't wish them all well! I surely do. But it's hard when you can't join in the general fun for your own sake.

A few times I have tried to start threads here that I hoped would lead to a bit of discussion, but they mostly just fizzled out. It would be great to see more going on here.

I have not "fallen away" since I've only been a member here a few months. I hope I don't. It does get hard when your stall goes on and on and on - and you see others all around you losing. But I don't want to seem like the specter in the corner at the party, whining on and on about my problems while others are elatedly racing down the scale.

But those of you who have had losses in fits and starts give me encouragement too - that it's not all linear. Maybe for *most* it is not - yet the ones for whom it is always seem to be high profile!

Thank you, Debbie, for bumping this. I appreciate the reminder.

As one who is experiencing weight loss, albeit at a pretty slow pace, my heart goes out to all of you who are *really, really* working hard at this, and whose bodies are holding on to the weight, for whatever reason.

I don't feel like one of those folks who are "merrily racing down the scale" (you have such a way with words!), but that I'm at the high end of what is a normal range for me--can fit into 14's, feel like I could pass the turnstile test, no longer have to fear booths, meeting strangers, etc. It's kind of a brave new world, and I greatly, daily appreciate the blessings. And yet, I'd also really like to shift the last of this weight and be done with it.

And yet. One thing we very much have in common: this is about the part we can control--our behaviors. Neither one of us can make our bodies part with one pound that it's not ready to let go of. So it continues to be about the eating, the emotions, the adaptations of living fat in a thin world. And about contributing to, shaping, and appreciating this community.

I don't know if this will give you comfort or despair, but I've been a member of this community for five years now. The first year saw me lose 80 pounds before I turned around and went back the other direction. It's taken me since then to get back this far again. Sometimes what looks like fast and steady loss is really one of those `ten-year-overnight-success stories'. All I can tell you is that for me the thing that worked was never, ever, ever stopping wanting to make it. I won't say I was always working towards this goal--I wasn't. But I never lost sight of it as a goal.

Hoping that you find the key to becoming the next person around here who inspires and gives hope to the newbies . . .

I've been gone; on vacation with limited access to the web, and off plan. But I always planned on coming back, and I am back on plan. The funny thing is, after almost a month off plan, I didn't gain anything. In fact, I may have lost a little. I did a huge amount of walking on the trip, and even though I was off plan I wasn't really eating anything too horrid and not really snacking. But I still thought I'd gain. Lucky me! Part of it could also be that I struggled all summer, so going totally off pan wasn't as big of a shock to my system as it might have been.

Getting back on plan is not that hard; I in fact looked forward to it for several reasons. Keeping up the walking is what I struggle with now. I can't seem to fit it in my routine again, and I know without question how very important it is to my health. At home, I was walking mostly downhill or flat surface; that was NOT the case in hilly Sydney or even Melbourne. I thought I might pass out a couple of times. So now I'm adding the hills--I had avoided them for the most part so I wouldn't quit, but now I'm ready.

So that's me then. Back on track, miracles and struggles and all.

I never felt I belonged in this part of the forum - after all, what do I know about having over 100 pounds to lose! My 40-50 lbs was minuscule comparatively, BUT ... before I made it to goal, I had a major stall with 15 lbs still to go. A full year without movement on the scale or the tape measure. I was following the rules, climbing the ladder as our Dr. A. prescribed, but .....

Then I went for a regular blood work exam and my doc informed me I was no longer in the pre-diabetic range - I was full-blown. He sent me for an HbA1c test but, before I went, just for fun I cut out all sugar-alcohols for 3 days before. That worked! It came back under the radar (although still pre-). I eliminated most sugar alcohols (except i still add some erythritol to baking recipes along with other sweeteners) and my weight began to move downward again.

I don't know if it was the elimination of sugar alcohols or just that my body decided to cooperate again - what I do know is that the support and camaraderie I found here, plus feeling better all around on this WOE, kept me on the straight and mostly narrow! Some off-plan, of course, but never enough to throw me back to my old bad-eating habits!

Debbie, thanks for bumping this thread back up, and I'm glad I caught the title in the side-bar and was intrigued enough to have a look-in. I agree ... it should be in the general forum!!!

What kept me going was firstly the friends I made here and the constant encouragement, secondly the fact that I felt so well on this WOE that I knew I should never go back to low fat hi carb again! What keeps me here, is the same friends, plus the new ones, and the knowledge that I need the support to stick with it through life-long maintenance plus the knowledge that I WILL be diabetic if I go back to lots of carbs. Not to downplay the help I may be able to give someone else. I prefer health and I'm in this "neighbourhood" for the duration!!

I keep a post that was left by a one-time visitor.

The post is long and shows somebody on rock bottom. I hope that person found a way to improve their health.

If I ever go away it will be due to one of two reasons -- I'm too old and in maintenence and can't get here. Or I'm dead. Because if I ever go back to eating how I did that got me to almost 500 pounds, I will be dead.

I'm in it for life as my health allows. That's it.

Good luck. I look at the stats of the original poster here and see great success. Go back to the beginning and reach your goal -- OR -- examine your goals and make sure they are realistic. I know I may have to do that. My final goal weight is 248, but I have a friend who is a triathlete and he weighs 260. I may get somewhere around third goal, which is 277, and find my body has found its happy medium. Still, for now 248 is my weight goal, by L/C is my life goal. And this is a lifestyle change.

It's nice to see that this thread has been bumped back up. I love reading the stories of the posters here.

mpj46- Thanks for your kind words and I will be sticking around until I reach my goal and even after that because I have taken so much advice and wisdom from those who have gone this route and made it. They can offer such hope and inspiration and I want one day to be that person for others. Many times those who have reached their goal disappear. I think they should stay. First of all, you're never too old to make positive changes in your life. Second, if you are in maintenance and can't get there, either keep trying, or as you say, readjust your goals. And third, the dead part really hits home right now and makes me incredibly sad. I just learned this week of the passing of a TDC member and it just reaffirms for me how important this journey is for all of us.

For anyone out there reading this- This journey is a long one for many of us. We do need the support of each other. Reach out to someone who you might notice is struggling or just needs a friend. Drop them a line in their journal to show them that there is someone out there who cares. I love when someone new posts in my journal to give me a pat on the back or to offer some support or for whatever reason. Too often we get tied up with our own little journal world and friends ( which is great), but then we miss those to whom our words or actions can mean so much. We've all experienced times when someone has said something that really hit home for us and changed our thinking in a positive way. We've all had that warm feeling in thinking that there is another human being out there who understands and cares.

So a challenge to you all....Visit someone this week that you never have before. You never know what great things might happen because of it.