Friday, October 30, 2015

June through Oct 2015

NS did close its forum site down so a group of us switched to myfitnesspal. During the summer June through Sept  the group had a few weight loss challenges going on and I participated. I lost 27 pounds. This month Oct I lost another 5 pounds. I have now lost a total of 179 pounds and am just a bit over halfway to my goal. Yep that is right I am still  obese and have another 165 pounds to lose. It took me a long long time to lose that 179 pounds and I am hoping the next 165 pounds will leave more quickly.

I really don't have much to say this month but will report again probably in Jan.

Saturday, August 29, 2015

MAY/JUNE

Hi Everyone

So the last time I posted was in April weighing 349 pounds. I continued with NS off and on for all of May once again gaining weight and ended the month at 352. In June a guy I had chatted with back in 2012 (had arranged a meeting with him, but he canceled the night of the meeting) contacted me again. He told me he had weighed over 500 back in 2012 and since then had the sleeve surgery and had lost 150 pounds. He wanted to lose even more but this time was willing to meet. When we meet we spoke of the surgery and the weight I have been able to lose on my own-145. After he left I wanted more  information so I went back to bariatricpal where I had been posting in 2008 when I tried to get the lapband but was turned down by insurance.  I did some extensive research about the sleeve and when I saw my PCP in June I told him I wanted to check into  the WLS.   I asked to be referred to the same Dr as my friend and that Dr was on my plan. After filing out pages of information I finally met with Dr Vaughan on  June 17th. 

He was impressed with the 145 pounds I had lost on my own and asked why I didn't want to continue with that plan. When I responded it took me over 8 years to lose that weight he began to understand.  HE told me my insurance requires a 5 month supervised diet, a psych eval and various other testing. I told the Dr I thought I had a hernia and he wanted a catscan.  He told me to continue with the NS plan, get the catscan and see him again in July. 

I am getting tired and it is time for bed, so tomorrow I will write a posting about July and Aug. So until tomorrow gave a healthy and happy night. 

April 2015 Still slowly moving along

HI Everyone
Not sure what is going on with the NS boards and for how long I will still be able to blog here. A lot of the groups I am involved in have moved over to MFP and I was a member over there since 2012 so I joined the new NS groups over there. I also have a blog over there and will be moving my stuff from here over to that site. I have the same name over there so if  you are following my journey it should be easy to find me.
Wel over the past two months I have had some disappoints and a lot of stress in my life. As you know I follow the weekend off plan as I can't afford anything else. So on some of those days off I really didn't eat like I should have. Kind of gave myself a license to over eat and ate the wrong kinds of food.  However I have managed as of today to lose 5 pounds. Not much but at my age almost 60 I will take every pound that does come off. Not wanting to really write much more as I have no idea what will happen to this NS website. So if this is my last blog here I
THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT
Hope to see you over at MFP
Stay Happy and Healthy

Posted Monday, Apr 27, 2015 on the NS site

First 2 months of 2015


Today is the last day of Feb. I just re-read my last posting which was in Dec and thought now would be a good time to post on what I did these past 2 months and if I kept my promise:

I am  making a promise to myself and in writing here today Dec 29th 2014 that
1. I will follow the NS plan so I can get below 250 by Jan 24 2016. I am secretly hoping it will be below 200. However I am afraid to set it at that number because I have failed so many times before.  I don't want to face humiliation again if I don't make it below 200, so I am shooting for 250. I always have the option to change that goal later in 2015 if I see I am losing beyond the 250. 
Am following the weekend off plan. However I don't do the weekend off  I do a meal or two off of the NS food but try to follow the NS plan. There were a few times I had eaten completely off the plan and did gain a pound on Feb 8th and again on Feb 22nd. However for these past 2 months I lost a total of 15 pounds.

2. I will change my weight loss ticker to show the recent weight increase. 
I did change my weight loss ticker to show the Nov/Dec weight gain and gains in Feb as well.

3. I will change my exercise ticker from Nov to Jan. 
I did change my exercise ticker for Jan and Feb.However only exercised the last week of Feb. See promise 5 as to why.

4. I will look for and join a weight loss only challenge group as I can't do all the exercise challenges other groups do.
I joined a weight loss challenge group as you can see the badges on my postings. Starting tomorrow (March) they have included a exercise badge. It came at the right month as I just this week started riding my tricycle again. 

5. I will get back to biking on my Tricycle 4 times a week as soon as this cold I have is gone.   I can hardly breath so getting on the Tricycle isn't possible today but as soon as this cold is gone I promise to get back into biking again.
I had hurt my right hand really badly and couldn't hold the handlebars let alone anything else for about 3 weeks. I started triking again the last week in Feb and did go 6.9 miles in 4 days. My room mate usually rides with me but he couldn't seem to get his back wheel on his bike unlocked so I told him to use my electric mobility device as I wanted to trike and he did go with me. We still need to find out why that back wheel will not move. My exercise ticker is ready for March and my plans are to ride my tricycle 5 days per week and ride at least 20 miles this Month.
One thing I would like to add which was not a goal was that I made NS Meal Cards to help me keep track of what foods I ate daily. I made a card for each NS Meal and 5 cards for my PF and SC and vegetables. They are in an opened holder box on the refrigerator. Each time I go to the refrigerator or pantry I take one of the appropriate cards and move it to the back of the box. So when the cards are back to NS breakfast and it is 9 pm I know I have nothing left to eat but vegetables.  I am finding this so much easier to use than Myfitnesspal.  That logging drove me crazy and almost caused me to stop the program all together. I never did like the NS charting either. So I had to come up with something that would work for me. If by some chance you are interested in knowing more about these meal cards please feel free to email me. 
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So as you can see I did pretty much keep my promises and I am feeling great about the fact that I did. I have been on the plan this time since June 2014 and I had set a goal back then to stay with the plan for 6 months, then re-evaluate the situation to see whether I wanted to continue.  I was very unsure what I was going to do especially when I had gained some weight during the Holidays. However the New Year came and after much soul searching I decided to stay with the program. I promised myself I would:
1. get to my long term goal of losing 247 pounds (long term goal weight 250) by my Birthday in Jan 2016. I am still 105 pounds from that goal. I sure hope I can make that goal.
2.  overall long term goal is to eventually lose 307 pounds to get down to 190. I have no date set for that goal yet. When I get to the long term goal I will start thinking about setting a date for the overall goal.
3. short term goal lose 5 pounds or more by the end of March so I can meet my short term goal of losing 40 pounds since June 2014. I originally had this goal set for March 5th but because I goofed off during the Holidays I doubt that I will lose the 5 pounds in 5 days to meet that goal. 

4. short term goal  to continue to ride my trike so I can meet my goal of 20 miles in March, get and keep that exercise badge each week in this challenge I am involved in.


This about wraps up my promises for this year and month. I thank you for reading my posting and making any comments. I hope you will come back and visit often to see my progress through the Spring. Until than Stay Healthy and Happy!!

Posted Saturday, Feb 28, 2015 on the NS site

END OF THE YEAR 2014

It is Monday Dec 29 2014. For the last 6 weeks  I have done nothing! How sad is that to have to admit I fell off the wagon and didn't even care until yesterday. I haven't even changed my tickers and know that I should.  I became discouraged as I had not been losing like I thought I should have been. I hosted a Football Birthday party on Nov 7th and since that day I have not really been on the program like I should have been. Yes  I was still eating NS foods every now and then but I also ate all kinds of  junk foods.
Yesterday I got on the scale as it was long overdue.  I knew I had to do it even though I would not like the results.  The scale  read 370 which is up 12 pounds from what I had lost. So since June 1st till now I only lost 20 pounds. Those 20 pounds lost were very difficult for me to lose and it was a slow process and it came off in small increments. I really do not even feel a difference  with those additional 20 pounds gone. I am very Thankful I am not still 497 pounds which is what I was in 2006 but I am not where I want to be for 2015. A total of  127 pounds gone in 9 years and I am still obese, tired all the time and can't walk or do much of anything let alone fit into store bought clothing. In 2016 I am going to be 60 years old. I can't see myself functioning at this weight when I am 60.

I am  making a promise to myself and in writing here today Dec 29th 2014 that
1. I will follow the NS plan so I can get below 250 by Jan 24 2016. I am secretly hoping it will be below 200. However I am afraid to set it at that number because I have failed so many times before.  I don't want to face humiliation again if I don't make it below 200, so I am shooting for 250. I always have the option to change that goal later in 2015 if I see I am losing beyond the 250.
2. I will change my weight loss ticker to show the recent weight increase.
3. I will change my exercise ticker from Nov to Jan.
4. I will look for and join a weight loss only challenge group as I can't do all the exercise challenges other groups do. 
5. I will get back to biking on my Tricycle 4 times a week as soon as this cold I have is gone.   I can hardly breath so getting on the Tricycle isn't possible today but as soon as this cold is gone I promise to get back into biking again.
This weight loss journey has got to come to an end. I have to lose this remaining weight  for the kind of life I wish to lead as an older citizen. Being alone I do not have any family support and my fat friends will not offer any support either. So I am asking for your support if you are reading this. I know I have to get back into my June 2014 group and other groups I had joined but was not very actively involved in. I just hope and pray they will understand my absence and welcome me back.   I hope some of  you will check back on my profile to see that I followed through on changing the tickers and started to biking and offer support as you see fit.

Thanks for reading this and I hope you have a Wonderful, Healthy 2015! 
Posted Monday, Dec 29, 2014 10:06 AM on the NS site

FIVE MONTHS -34 pounds

As the title says I have 5 months behind me but I am only down 34 pounds.  I find that  to not be as well as in 2006. The last time I was on NS I had lost 59 pounds in 5 months. Granted I was 8 years younger and my disability was not as bad as it is now. However I am not as pleased with this 34 pounds. At this rate I will not be at 190 by my 60th birthday.  I just wish I knew what to do to get my body to release more weight.  When I spoke with the counselor she upping my calories to 1800 and it didn't help. I fact it made it worse.  Now I am at 1500 and the weight loss is still not happening like I feel it should.  One week I lose 2 pounds and the next 2 weeks I lose nothing.  This is a very expensive program for me to be on and my beading business isn't bring in the money like I hoped it would.
I just wanted to post something here as it has been 3 months since I last posted.  Hopefully the remainder of the year will be better.  I would like to lose 12 pounds by Christmas so I can say I have lost 153 and am half way to my goal. Than the other 153 hopefully will come off in another 13 months. Wishful thinking I suppose as my body is really messed up big time.
Posted Sunday, Nov 2, 2014 on the NS site

Second Month- Disappointing

What a disappointing month this has been.  I don't understand what happened.  The first week in July gained 1,
second week gained 3,
third week lost 7,
this week stayed the same.  Total loss for the month 3 pounds HOW HORRIBLE IS THAT??????

I really do not understand what is happening. I didn't even use all my flex days
(Am on weekends off) and when I did flex I still followed the program.  I have charted everything I ate on paper and don't see any issues that would cause gains and no weight loss.  The only thing I can figure is my metabolism is messed up from having been on diets since the age of 12 and I having to take a lot of meds.  So those two things must be affecting my weight loss. I know I am eating healthier and have my 3rd BBB due on Tuesday so I will just have to wait and see what happens in Aug.

I  have 2 Costco cards left to pay for Sept, so I will be doing that month as well. After than I will have to reevaluate and see where I am and if it is worthwhile for me to continue on this plan at this price and get such slow results.  My beaded 3 dimensional and personalized  frame business is not bring in any money so I may not be able to continue beyond Sept.

 I was hoping to get three pounds below my 10% mark by the end of Sept so I could pick up biking again. That is another 20 pounds and I am not sure I will lose that much in 2 months if I only lost really 3 this month.  As it is now I am still too big to get back on the tricycle. Even though  it is a Miami Sun it does have a weight limit plus I know when I am below 350 I can bike better and don't have as much pain biking. 

Well I will continue on for 2 more months and will post again next month.  So sorry folks I didn't have a more inspirational month to talk about and don't  blame you if you don't read beyond this posting.  Good luck to all of you and I hope you are having better success at losing weight than I am.

This was first Posted on Sunday, Jul 27, 2014 1:18 PM on the NutriSysytem website blog. However NS closed down their blog site so I tranferred the NS posting over here

Weird Activity With My Blog

Hi Everyone in Jan 2015 I came here to try an blog about what had been going on for the past 6 months and I couldn't get into the blog. So I started another one and have been posting over there. Today Aug 28  I was able to get into this blog and not the new one I had started. So I think I will delete the second one and add the posting from there over to here and then just continue with this original one.  Just wanted to explain what was happening as my posting will probably  have two dates.  They will have today's date  but I will leave the original date I wrote them at the bottom.