I did it! (OT - a bit!)

Don't get so excited. One little slip can let the sugar monster out of his cage and he's a d***slippery b****** to get back in. Recently lost 25lbs and gained back 15 and my back knows it. Be careful, AK in PA

Congratulations, Kate! Back in the 60s, when Jean Nidetch began the WW program and a chapter opened in Gretna, LA, one of my sisters and a friend joined it. One of them gave me an original recipe book, autographed by Jean, which I still have today. It is quite interesting. Emily

Oh Kate!!!! That's wonderful!!!!! I'm so proud of you. I completely understand what an Huge achievement that is. Great going!

And don't worry about it coming back. You know what to do now. You know how to adjust for one night of total food debauchery. (we all have them. 'round here we call those "food crimes.") You've been at this long enough that now you have made new food habits, and that is what keeps the weight off. Good job!!!!!

I spent most of my life as a RTW size 12 or bigger. (Significantly bigger, like a RTW 24 after I had my son. Hovered there for almost 2 years before I could get it coming down.) Now, I've been a RTW 4 or 6 (depends on the brand of jeans) for almost 4 years. Every now and again, I will have a spate of food crimes (first part of March is loaded with birthdays in my family, that is a tough couple of weeks) and I will gain a little. Then I just go back to Somersize stage one for a couple weeks and everything is fine. When my hips fell below 40" and my waist below 30", I almost fainted. Took me a while to figure out why garments were coming out so big on me. lol Dug out the tape measure and did the Bugs Bunny eye popping out of my head thing. lol

So I really am very proud of you. Great job!!!! Give yourself a huge hug for me. :)

Sharon

Congratulations!!! I'd love to be able to say the 20 pounds I lost last summer stayed off, but the holidays are so filled with yummies.... I'm working on it again, now. So do be cautious about "just this once" temptations.

I'm envying your sewing for the "new you", have a ball!

Beverly

What a vistory! I am proud of you! Cindy Hutchison

Well done - that's a great achievement. I can't help but see that food has become an obsession - how else can you explain the colour description of the velour as "bitter chocolate". Maybe dark brown would be less food like!!

Jean

Wow! Congratulations Kate! What really amazes me is that you actually have time to eat, much less eat properly

Congratulations! Job well done, and we know it wasn't easy.

Awesome Kate. Well done!!

I've been at this losing game for a while, and sweet things (along with fatty stuff, red meat, red wine, coffee, and several others) are on my Be Careful! list, as they set off bouts of excruciating pain - a hangover from gall bladder disease that once had me dragged into hospital in a hurry! The gall bladder is long gone, but the pain comes back to keep me on the straight and narrow! I eat these things occasionally (well, except the red wine), but only in small portions as occasional treats. I don't have a particularly sweet tooth, and never did. It wasn't so much sugar or fat or over processed foods that made me fat, just too much food, picking between meals, and sitting on my ever increasing bum for 20 years!

Now I exercise regularly (I swim 2-3 times a week for an hour or more, and walk whenever I can), eat reasonable sized portions, and when I get the mad nibbles, zero point soup, raw carrots, and piles of salad keep me going. :)

Hm... Need soup ingredients!

Thank you! :) I'd love to see one of those early books.

I think the regime is much kinder to us now. The point system is so easy to follow! And I can eat what I like (well, so long as it doesn't trigger the evil pain!) so long as I account for it and point it.

Thanks! It feels great! I lost the last 5lbs this week - my biggest ever loss other than that dreadful week when I was hospitalized with the exploding gall bladder and on liquids only and intravenous antibiotics!

DH and son also follow me: I'm too damned idle to cook different meals for different folk, and James has always liked Real Food better than what Jamie Oliver so eloquently termed 'bollock burgers'! ;) we are all salad freaks too, and fruit bats, so that also helps. My downfall was the cookies and extra sandwiches I tucked into between meals rather than a poor basic diet, and just eating waaaaay too much! Oh, and sitting on me bum for 20 years! Now I own six (yes SIX!!!) size 10 swimsuits! And they all get used regularly!

Birthdays (will attendant chocolate and glop cakes!) are a worse time than Christmas! Our Christmas never has consisted of wall to wall fatty stuff and tins of Quality Street in every room. We tend to have venison (very lean! :) ) and don't actually eat more than at any other time. The extras come in as things like mince pies for desert rather than fruit salad. Those odd extras are soon worked off, though.

Thanks! I will. Right now I'm looking at going up from 18 points per day for losing to 22 points for maintenance, and wondering how the hell do I eat a whole nother meal in a day? I can't do things like have a slice of gloppy cake, or use cream on my fruit salad, or have a bacon roll for breakfast if I want to stay pain free! This will need careful thought...

Ah, there I'm lucky - I have the pain of overdoing it to keep me in check! gall bladder may be gone, but it left a painful legacy!

The chocolate velour has been waiting for the scissors for some years now, so cutting it will be cathartic! :)

Thank you! It's been a fun journey.

Nope - I bought it well before I started losing, and that was what it was described as in the Croft Mill catalogue. There's another I have that it milky cocoa coloured... Looks very yummy!

I used to eat a lot of chocolate, but not now. I have chocolate in the house for months on end, and if I get a craving, I go and have a sniff then put it back. That usually cures me, but if not, one or two squares usually does it. I'm not keen on milk chocolate, so that doesn't affect me at all. One or two squares of 80% is usually enough for anyone!

Food cravings for me are usually reserved for bread! Dry bread, too... I plan the meals on a weekly basis (did it yesterday for the coming week) and write the shopping list. Then DH does the shopping! I don't get tempted by extras, and once the food is planned and bought, I just forget it until cooking time each day. Occasionally we run out of tomatoes or cucumber or lettuce half way through the week...

Yup - I'm sticking to my high fibre, low calorie diet! ;)

My prezzy to me will be the fat quarters to make a chocolate quilt!

Thank you. :)

I love cooking! We have at least one cooked from mostly fresh ingredients meal a day. The joy of working part time from home is that the hours I would spend commuting can be spent cooking proper food!

It was ssllooww! But thank you. :) It's taken 3 years, but hey - I got there in the end, and I'm fitter than I have been for many years.

Now, y'all know how I HATE alterations, but I have this big white dress I need to take in for a party next year... Yup - The Wedding Dress is too big and we get to celebrate our silver wedding next summer. I was going to dance in it with Alan on the day, but it's a bit slack...