Hellobee Boards

@Iced Tea: body recomp is awesome! Definitely take measurements! If your clothes aren’t fitting that’s way better than losing weight because fat loss is way harder than just weight loss! I’m down 60+lbs in the last year but I’m basically the definition of “skinny fat” because I have zero muscle mass!

Gaining muscles is amazing and awesome and I bet you look fantastic! Losing fat is great because you know for sure you’re makinh huge improvements in your health. I carry so much weight in my abdomen it makes me really worried about all the fat on my organs!

@lamariniere: mine is to enjoy myself but not eat food that will make me sick. I have a tendency to go overboard and then feel crappy because I ate crap! So I focus on eating to fuel a great vacation, which includes some indulgences, but not to go overboard.

@Hypatia: HAHA! Inhaling the smell of bread/desserts is totally my MO. I'm glad someone else admits to this. Sounds like you're doing awesome.

The good: I lost 27 lbs.
The bad: I stopped the diet three days ago.

So, everything was fine (well, let’s be real, dieting is miserable, but I was trucking along), until I got a kidney stone. The most common types are caused by excess calcium and/or sugar, which could not be the case here because I eat basically no sugar and very little calcium (only in the form of cheese, and I honestly don’t eat much of that). But there’s another type of kidney stone caused by uric acid, which comes from eating a lot of meat. 🤔

I went through twelve hours of vomiting and pain that made labor look like a walk in the park. I went to the ER after becoming severely dehydrated (couldn't keep anything down). The doctor warned me that either this stone might not have passed and went back into my kidney, or there might be other stones to come. So for three more nights, I had 6 - 8 hours of more vomiting and pain (the only thing the ER did for me was give me morphine, so I wasn't about to rack up another bill there). I drank alkaline water and took lots of vitamins to try to combat it, but I don't think it made much difference.

So the caveat is, it could be that I might have gotten kidney stones regardless. The doctor didn't know whether it was the diet or not. Lots of people do keto without a problem. But since the keto diet is so high in purines, I'm guessing it was at least a contributing factor. I did eat lots of leafy green veggies while on the diet (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, spinach, etc). But that doesn't cancel out all the meat I was eating.

So for at least the time being, I'm calling it quits. It makes me sad because I really feel like I could have lost the final 20 lbs. in another month or two. But I am still a lot healthier than I was, and if I can maintain this weight, I might be able to lose the rest down the road. Right now I'm just focusing on putting as little stress on my kidneys as possible and limiting my meat intake.

@Hypatia: eek, sounds miserable. Our doctor recommended Keto recently, but I decided it was just too restrictive for our current stage of life. I’m doing really well with lower carb, plant heavy diet though. I guess it’s closest to Mediterranean. I’ve lost 30ish pounds this year.

I am so psyched because I opened my boxed up skinny pants, and I was able to zip all but one. Success!!! There are some shirts I won’t be able to wear for awhile because I’m still breastfeeding my one year old, and the boobs are still oversized.

At this point, I’d like to continue doing the same things to build some more muscle tone and reduce the fluffy misection. Now to get my husband on board....

Can I still join you all?

Been trying to lose weight as well for PCOS and other reasons.

@MrsDynamiteGal: Please join! Maybe you'll help motivate us all to get back on track

I'm down 1 lb from last week. I head out for a weeklong vacation tomorrow though so I'll be lucky to be at the same weight when we get back. I've decided that I'll kick my butt in serious gear in August

Thank you @northstar, @jennypenny, and @ajsmommy. Happy to be joining you! My biggest motivation right now is my health, my family, and preparing for #3. I have PCOS but beyond that everyone in my family has diabetes. Same for my husband. That makes my children's risk even greater. Letting myself go in recent years has brought so many health issues to the forefront. It's been a wake up call.

@newlypregnantlady: I am solo quite a bit also, and it's tough to make healthy choices when you're so stretched. My compromise was to start intermittent fasting as often as possible. So I eat dinner early with the kids and don't eat again until late breakfast or lunch. It limits my calorie count and gets me to that fat burning state. Then I feel like I haven't totally tanked my progress, even if I had pizza and ice cream with the kids! I also try to do take out from healthier places like the Mediterranean place Zoe's Kitchen.

@newlypregnantlady: I've only ever heard of Intermittent Fasting (great things!), but never personally tried it. Maybe I'll make it a focus this month.

And speaking of which, August is about one week away! It's a new month!

@newlypregnantlady: Do you drink coffee at all? I tried IF 16:8 but didn't give up my coconut milk latte so maybe it would be more effective if I gave that up?

Also I totally need to get back on track with working out. New month so might try to do 30 minutes of something every day.

@hilary: I do drink black coffee. But you could always just drink your latte and not eat food? It’s really just a tool to help me compress my eating times by creating a set of rules. There’s no magic bullet that makes IF work better than anything else (it all just comes down to calories). I absolutely take little cheating things like having a bite of my kids’ breakfast or whatever. I just make sure to be honest about it, if I’m not losing weight it’s because I’m eating too much.

Some people find that breaking their fast makes them hungrier sooner than if they totally abstain from food (they don’t like to “break the seal”). That doesn’t happen with me as long as I’m not eating a whole meal or snack. A couple bites of eggs don’t make a difference for me. I’m pretty down about my recent gain but it’s all about the long game. Ultimately I’ve still lost 50lbs so I’ve had a lot of time to work through strategies that do and do not help me eat less food. And it’s such a fine line! For my height and activity level the maintenance calorie difference for my current weight versus my starting weight is only like 300 calories. That’s not even a decent dessert! Because I like bigger meals I like IF because I can have two decent meals vs three measly meals.

Officially under 150 today! 149.6!

I would to join for Aug!!!!!!!!!! New school, aummer over Ready to be fit!!!!