Are you looking for support on your health and fitness journey? If you are, then this thread is for you.

There are no expectations in this forum. Post as often as you like. Post anything that you feel is relevant to your own personal health and fitness goal. Here are some ideas:

• Monthly health and fitness goal
• Daily health and fitness goal
• Progress (or setbacks) in reaching your goal
• Personal stories about why you are joining this topic
• Healthy recipes that you feel others will enjoy
• Links to articles or books that you feel others would find helpful
• Food Choices (healthy or unhealthy)

Remember, your health and fitness journey is your own. There is no one program, method, or philosophy that is right for everyone. This thread is for support only.

May goals:

• do PT
• eat no sugar
• try Sensa app
• get blood test to check thyroid levels
• take BP measurements 

Happy May 1st All. Hope it's a great month for everyone.

I'm starting out the month at 250.2, which is 4.4 lbs. heavier than I was on April 1st. Not happy about that but it is what it is. Ate a lot more than I should have thru-out the month and I did it with my eyes wide open. So this is going to change this month.

I know if I put my mind to it, I can drop the weight, so I'm really going to push myself this month and see just how much I can manage to lose. My goal is to drop 10 lbs. this month. Can I do it? Time will tell. Sure going to try.

Well, I met with the doctor about my knee today.

he did give me a referral to PT. That is to minimize pain, build strength, lose weight.

I really liked him, but he won't do my surgery unless I lose 15 pounds first.

he said my knee is so bad that there is no point in doing anything other than a full replacement. I can do it whenever I want ... as he put it, whenever I can't stand the pain any more. He could give an injection to maybe help the pain, but it's honestly not that bad yet.

he said I can do whatever I want with pain as only limitations, as it is so bad that whatever I do can't make it need more help than what it needs already.

can I just say, it is not easy to lose weight when it hurts to walk?!

so, May goals:

• do PT
• eat no sugar
• try Sensa app
• get blood test to check thyroid levels

I ordered a bike but it has not come yet. I'm hoping I can bike since I can't walk very well. Biking at the gym is fine.

Margaret, it's pretty much hard to lose weight even if it doesn't hurt to walk, but I'm sure that doesn't help.  Did you give up on IF?  Biking should be much easier on the knees than walking is.

I am having trouble with IF scheduling around some required eating events, but I'm keeping to it as much as I can.

I saw my nephrologist today. Good news. My A1c was normal at 5.7.  She considers me prediabetic rather than fully Type 2. My kidneys are stable. My BP is normal. I did all this with diet and a lot of focus!!!  Today I ate whatever I wanted. Tomorrow... Back on track.

Great news, Teri! My dad did the same thing, got his A1C down to the pre diabetes level with diet and exercise. This is a great accomplishment, Teri! You should by proud!

im doing a buy nothing month, mostly to cut back on fast food, and I can't believe what a strong habit I had of stopping for fast food after work! I keep thinking of places I could stop and then having to say to myself, nope, this is buy nothing month. I lost 2 pounds this week, but of course that pace will probably slow soon.

I did just make an appointment for PT and so that is going to happen Wednesday. I also got a text that my new bike was delivered, so I guess I'll be putting it together when I get home. Maybe I can get it ready to ride before dark and take a short ride.

".....cut back on fast food, and I can't believe what a strong habit I had of stopping for fast food after work! I keep thinking of places I could stop ....."

Margaret, every time I go to town I see places I used to stop for snacks or meals....every time, every where.  Today, as a special treat, I let myself have a big wonderful burger AND fries at Applebees. I always go out after my nephrologist visits and then I buckle back down.

Great job Teri.

Margaret, I hope you enjoy your new bike.

I'm in Omaha this morning, but heading back to Wichita this afternoon.  Flying home tomorrow.  Quick trip, but it's been good.

More once I am home.

Happy Saturday ladies, You've all done great this week. You should be super proud of yourselves. I'm down 1/2 lb from the 1st so I'm making progress. Been really watching my portion sizes. Still have a few shingles on my forehead, but it is MUCH better. Hopefully by this time next week it'll be gone completely.

Have a great weekend.

I must confess that April was a bad month for me because my wife died 5 years ago. So I ate, ate, ate, and I wasn't really conscious of it or why I felt so driven to look for comfort.  This morning I weighed in at 206. Yeah, not good. But I've moved on after I realized what was going on. I am feeling my focus strengthen. I'll be back under 200 in a few days. Now that the rain has stopped I'll get outside and work more.

So sorry for your loss Teri. It'll be 2 years on the 22nd of this month since I lost Bob and the closer the date gets, the more it hits me, and I think I've been comforting myself with food as well. Or not, I simply don't know. It looked like I was doing ok all week, and was down 1/2 lb yesterday, but I'm up 1.3 lbs this morning. My current weight is 252.3.

Good morning.  I'm home from vacation, but I didn't have a scale to weigh on first thing this morning.  I think I might be up about 2#.  I'll wait to next Sunday for an official weigh-in and see if it sorts itself out.

Vicki, I think portion sizes are maybe the hardest thing to control.  I can make really good food choices, but just eat too much of it.

Teri, sorry April was hard, but I understand.  I don't know that the entire month of May will be hard for me (the month DH died), but I can feel that anticipatory grief trying to rise up as the 14th approaches.

We all just do the best we can I guess, but focus and good habits go a long way in the process.

205 today so my hard work yesterday got me started back toward my goal in addition to not making poor food choices. Its not hard to see how I got to my top weight before!  Vicki, Lisa.....hang in there as your "anniversaries" approach. I think grief is an essential part of a whole-life view...a part none of us had any choice about.  It gets better with time.

Teri, it does get better with time.  And, I agree it's an essential thing.  When we try to just deny the grieving process we compensate in other ways that are not healthy for us.

I weighed 157.8 which is 3.8 pounds up from what I was on April 30.  But, that April 30 week was 4.8 down from my April 16 weigh-in due to my being sick with covid.  So, this morning was 1# down from April 16, and however I want to look at it, it's a win for me.  I've been traveling a lot where my eating is off schedule from IF and where I'm eating with an "I'm on vacation" mindset, so I'm happy with where I am now.  I hope this week to be back on track, and to stay on track until I go on vacation again June 10.  If I could get back to 154 by June 10 I'd be ecstatic.

Unfortunately I do have an eating out engagement this week that is Chinese food.  Always good for a 2# weight gain, although it can disappear fairly quickly if I'm good about my water drinking.

I have lost a couple of pounds, but hopefully will get in better shape with PT, and the first appointment is Thursday.

I have not put the bike together yet.

Vicki, I'm glad your shingles are better.

Teri, I have bad months in February (my birthday and Valentine's Day) and August (wedding anniversary) so I completely understand! I was doing better, but this year was bad again, I guess due to all the changes in my life.

my friend has challenged me to make positive goals (I will drink x cups of water) instead of negative ones (I will not eat candy) so I'm going for three servings of vegetables a day. Do you think the rhubarb crisp my mom made counts as a vegetable serving?

204 today. I did work hard yesterday trimming a big lilac shrub. But I'm not making bad choices either like I did last month. I think the nonstop rain the last few days of April contributed to my low mood. This week, the sun is out, its warmer and I'm working outside.

Today I have my annual eye exam.

my friend has challenged me to make positive goals (I will drink x cups of water) instead of negative ones (I will not eat candy) - This is soooo good.  How we phrase things matters.  "I will not" just makes us want to even more.  It's not always as easy to think of a positive way to phrase things though.  Requires thinking of what the replacement is.  Like for candy, maybe it's fruit - so, I will choose fruit when I want something sweet, like candy.

I need to work on the self talk with my goals.  :)

Today's weigh in floored me. I'm 253.5 lbs. That's just not acceptable. I think I've just been fooling myself but now it's to the point where I've got to seriously make changes. Just got to figure out how.

Me too, Vicki! Mine was 250 and I thought I would never see that again. And I'm eating ok, except I admit I did not eat the best yesterday.

I had too much salt and while I did focus on getting three servings of vegetables, one was rhubarb crisp! So a lot more sugar than what I usually have.

can't wait for PT appointment tomorrow so I can figure out how to exercise better with bum knee.

Still struggling to regain my focus. Still at 206.  I've given this thought and I think I can see where some of the problem is.  I looked back in my Carb Manager food journal, back to the time period when I weighed 197 consistently.  Less carbs, smaller portions.  I still think there's something to the concept of resistant starch but I think my portion size continues to be my downfall. In fact, I'm not sure WHAT I eat would matter as much if I could control HOW MUCH  I eat.  I also think that I feel hungry more often the more I eat. So....today I must decide what to eat for a snack when I feel hungry between meals.  Nuts, hardboiled egg, cheese. Apple. Hot tea. Seltzer. Thoughts?

Teri, I think you are right that what we eat wouldn't matter so much if we were controlling portions.  That's my downfall too.  Certainly less carbs is probably beneficial, but by itself it doesn't do the trick if we don't control portions.

Snacks - Nuts are pretty high calorie, but I buy those portion controlled packs that are 100 calories/pack (Emerald) and that makes a good snack.  I often choose flavored sparkling water which is only 5 calories, but somehow the flavored sweetness and the bubbles make me less hungry.  Maybe apple and peanut butter or celery and peanut butter.  Hardboiled egg is probably good too if that's something you keep 'ready to grab.'

For me snacking is a dangerous thing.  I do sooooo much better if I just eat two meals a day, preferably one that is smaller like breakfast and then a good main meal.  My favorite IF schedule is eating from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. and then being done for the day.  Snacking tends to sort of 'set me off.'

Activity is a better way for me to counter hungry between meals.  Most of the time it isn't real hunger but boredom hunger.

Up and down. Well, tonight I will do the PT so that should start some muscles growing!