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Not a happy camper...

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Where do I start? Well, January 12th was my 3 year Sparkversary. I have to say I have stuck with Sparkpeople the whole time, learned many new healthy habits, lost weight and I am healthier over all. So what's the problem? I hit my low weight of 144 about 6 months after I started Sparkpeople. Ever since then I have had a very, very slow but steady weight gain. I have now re-gained 15 pounds of what I lost.

I am really upset about this for several reasons. As I said before, I have embraced this healthy lifestyle and have not fallen off the wagon. I drink my water and eat my fruits and veggies daily. I still track at least some of what I eat most days. I thought I had a handle on maintaining my weight but recently it has become obvious that it's not working completely. Especially the last few months. I am now at 160.2 and no matter what I do it won't go down. I still exercise 2 or 3 times a week, mostly Walk-Away-the-Pounds videos, at least during the school year. I did manage to lose 2 or 3 lbs. last summer but at the time I was swimming almost everyday, lots and lots of laps. I simply don't have time or energy for that when I am working full time and taking 2 college classes.

The holidays didn't help but that's not the whole problem either. Now that it's January and I have really jumped on it with both feet; still, nothing is moving. I thought after the holidays were over and I started tracking everything and holding my calories to 1300 to 1400 everyday that I would begin to see changes; so far, nothing. Since I have been eating right all this time, I have no big changes I can make. I don't drink softdrinks (not even diet), or fruit juices. I don't hit McD's for breakfast anymore or Burger King for lunch.

I just turned 48 so maybe age is a problem. I have had some stress in my life recently but I have put a lot of effort into NOT using food for comfort.

I wouldn't worry about the weight so much except that I have grown out of my size 8 jeans that I love and I'm afraid I won't even be able to hold the line here. I will just die if I grow out of the 10's also.

I just want my jeans back. Is weight gain unavoidable at this age? I don't know what else to do. I am extremely frustrated.
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  Member Comments About This Blog Post:

PROVERBS31JULIA 8/14/2012 3:54PM

    Hi Barbara -
I haven't lost much weight too as I got closer to the 50's and now that I'm 51 it seems to have gotten worse. Not sure if it's a menopause or a lazy thing or both.

I've often thought the SparkPeople articles on Plateaus were interesting and would be useful to look at again once I got in that situation. Which ... come to think of it... is about now?

http://www.sparkpeople.com/reso
urce/fitness_articles.asp?id=51
6

I'm not seeing a "add link" button here so not sure if it will be a clickable link, or if you'll need to copy it and then paste it into a new page/tab/window (depending on your browser.).

Hope it all gets better for you soon!
emoticon

Julia


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KLONG8 2/21/2012 10:51AM

    I just thought I'd check in with you today and WOW! There's a lot going on with you. I feel your pain. When I was in my late 40's...well, that's when things got tricky. All the things that used to work didn't so much any more. I thought for the longest time that I was doomed to slowly increasing weight gain. That's a frightening thought for anyone who has taken weight off and watched it begin creeping back.

For myself I had to revamp things. I started (restarted) writing down every morsel of food that passed my lips (and was sometimes surprised to see that I was routinely 100-200 calories over where I really needed to be). I changed my exercise a bit. Added an extra walk at lunch 2-3 times a week. I started working out with hand weights - nothing dramatic but just added to my routines.

The result? The scale started to move down again. The dreaded M weight gain began reversing itself. Now I understand that it's all about a lot of vigilance. It's about eating right (as someone said before) because its what my body needs not just to lose weight.

You can do this...and I hope by the time you see this (I realize I'm late to this party) you'll be making noticeable progress again because it isn't much fun when your jeans don't fit. I'm rootin for you and all of us!

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DUSTYPRAIRIE 1/22/2012 1:22PM

    With me it was meds that made me put weight on after losing. Not to mention the dreaded "M".

Stay with us. It's about being the best you can to yourself.

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TISHTOES 1/20/2012 5:41AM

    Make sure you are getting enough sleep. I read somewhere that getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night can help you lose weight, event without other changes.

Unfortunately, as we grow older, metabolism changes. You can eat less and still not lose. Change up the exercise and don't give up. Go for healthy and how you feel and the rest will follow. Try not to get frustrated. Look for some new recipes (there are many on SP) and even change your meals around (breakfast for dinner). Have you tried eating often instead of 3 meals a day? Eat small amounts throughout the day. Be sure to drink your water.

You can add exercise throughout the day. I do plies while I brush my teeth in the morning. Sit on "nothing" while you're on the phone (against a wall, bend your knees like sitting on a chair but without one), take the stairs, park farther away, dance during commercials, etc. Get creative.
emoticon

Comment edited on: 1/20/2012 5:43:09 AM

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CMRAND54 1/19/2012 8:48PM

    I can feel your frustration. I wonder if some of your weight gain is muscle mass? It sounds like you are doing everything right. Stay healthy and try not to worry about the jeans size.

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BAREADER 1/19/2012 4:23PM

    Yeah, I know I need to change up the exercise routine and do more strenght training. I will put forth more effort in that dirction and see if I can't move at least a little of this "junk". I will continue to eat as well as I can and keep it in the low range as much as possible.
thanks for all the comments and encouragement!


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MSTIRES 1/19/2012 3:29PM

    I know the frustration. Check out the January issue of Prevention magazine. It has some great "reset" articles for nutrition and exercise that my husband even likes! We started the "resetting" on Monday and I've started losing my holiday weight gain.

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MEADSBAY 1/19/2012 2:40PM

    Welcome to my world!
I lost (almost) 30 pounds in 2009.
Plateaued for over a year
then regained 10 in 2010
and another 10 in 2011.
Amazing how less than a lb a month can add up after a while.
LOVED FloridaJoe's words of wisdom and guess that is how I have come to live with it.
I am doing my best to be a very active healthy person who eats only good natural healthy food almost all of the time and that will just have to do.
Do I wish I weighed less? darn right!
My only advice is to try to change things up once in a while if you haven't already- try a month of low carb or a few weeks of strictly vegetarian or one day a week of 2000 calories or calorie cycling or ...
But, in the meantime, we are doing the best we can.
btw- I am part of a wt loss study that begins this week so keep an eye on my blogs.
(used to be ewestcott)
emoticon

Comment edited on: 1/19/2012 2:41:40 PM

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HAPPYHOLBROOK 1/19/2012 1:54PM

    Ugg...the dreaded plateau! I agree with MOXYJONES: sometimes you need to shake up your routine to get the scale moving in the right direction again. Try different workout videos from the library or Netflix to confuse your body. Our muscle memory can be a powerful thing: once we do something many times, our muscles can do it more efficiently and we don't have to work as hard, hence the plateau. Keep up the hard work, and best wishes for better results!

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NAVYMOM133 1/19/2012 1:11PM

    Barbara,

I have been a member since 2008. I initially lost 30 lbs but could not maintain it due to my eating quality, and lack of consistency. I regained almost all of it.
In January of 2011, I started anew. This time I was consistent and approached my nutrition completely differently. I am eating 110% better than ever, and almost everything that I eat is minimally-processed healthy food, or whole food itself. I also follow the 90/10 rule and just don't indulge most of the time.
I am a believer of those experts who say you cannot exercise yourself thin; it's the food! As soon as I cleaned up my diet and stuck to it no matter what, I was successful and have maintained my new low weight since July. I got through the holidays with minimal detours into holiday food land and am back to my "regular" diet of whole food. I go heavy on the vegetables, maintain a 30+ g fiber daily, low-end-range complex carbs diet and my calorie range is as close to 1200 as I can get. I am 5'4" and will be 50 this year. I do not eat higher than the ~1200 calories. When the diet is mostly whole foods/single ingredient foods, the 1200 calories goes a LONG way.
I won't be getting a consistency award for nutrition tracking this month, with having to travel to my parents so many days/nights, but am back to it in the last four days. Open tracker if you want to see what today's ~1200 looks like.
I agree that changing it up is good as well, regarding the exercise.
emoticon ... and I totally agree with the fella who just posted. In it for keeps!

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FLORIDAJOE1 1/19/2012 11:42AM

    Wow! That sounds frustrating to the max. I wouldn't know what to tell you about whether you will ever lose the weight again. I can, however, tell you what I tell myself when my weight goes astray or I get frustrated:
I have to eat right and exercise just because it's the right thing to do for my health. I know that eating right will ALWAYS be better for me than eating wrong. Yes, I'd like to get skinny as a result but even if I don't get desired results I will still stay committed to doing the right thing because it truly is the right thing.
I hope this encourages you to keep on keeping on. May God bless you with the desire of your heart as you continue to do the right thing.

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NORASPAT 1/19/2012 11:39AM

    I have been on a plateau for 15 months and the only way I can budge this is with strength training. I am using resistance bands and even though that scale did not budge, my health issues now need no meds and more important is I have gone from 18/20 to 14 that was a surprise. Now I have stashed the scale and I use my belt notches instead.
It is harder as we age I am 68 years young but the strength training has built up arm and leg muscle and stamina. I use resistance bands and Coach Nicoles 20 minute seated Resistance bands work out. emoticon for me. Maybe emoticon emoticon emoticon Pat in Maine.
PS See my pics!!it shows.

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MOXYJONES 1/19/2012 11:39AM

    From everything that I've read, both here and elsewhere, the trick is to doing something different with your exercise. The things that worked for you before are things your body has become accustomed to so it's not making the same difference (or any difference). Try to find a different, new workout or exercise focus and perhaps that will help?

Good luck, you'll do great!

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