I am not pleased at all with my progress. I feel ”heavy.” Not exactly weight-wise, but just leaden. Could be the time change.

Yikes.. it is already the middle of November! The next two months are going to go quickly! I dont feel well prepared so I will need to focus on that in the coming days and weeks.

I am still pretty stalled in my weight loss so it is time to revert back to what has worked in the past. I have lost 83lb since 2020 but only 10 in the last 2 yr. I cant blame my body or menopause, I just havent been focused. I am going back to intermittent fasting -- not for weight loss but for the routine and because I feel better when I stop eating in the evening. I am also going back to the repetitive, low calorie formulaic eating during the week. I resist eating the same thing day by day but it does work for me! I will allow more flexibility on weekends and holidays but still stay mindful of calories and snacking. I am even going to start tracking calories for at least a few weeks to get back in the groove.

This will be my strategy for the holidays also-- I will stick with the above during the week/non-holiday events and allow myself more freedom when I go out or celebrate. I tend not to be drawn to the holiday treats/desserts but I do indulge more in my meals. I am not going to deny myself completely but balance indulgences with clean healthy eating on "regular days". Not sure that will reflect on the scale but I am comfortable with that approach

Not a healthy behavior .. but I have noticed that my fav Soma bras are getting worn out and that affects how my body looks in my clothes. I dont know how often we are to replace bras but it seems they are lasting about a year. I have plenty of them so I suspect it is how I am laundering them. Either way, they have great sales so I will buy more with their next sale.

How are things going with you all?

Bbstx-- same! And it isnt just you and I!

I was to go out for coffee and book shopping this morning and friend just sent me this and begged my forgiveness for her bailing on our plans ..

Btw.. how cool is that. Not that I need a report to tell me my a$$ is dragging but I know it also provides other helpful info and metrics.

Do any of you use an Oura ring? I am seriously considering one..

DD has considered wearing an Oura, but doesn’t want a ring on her index finger. Looking at the pictures on the website (but not reading the material), I see people wearing them on their 4th finger. Wonder if something has changed since she last looked?

I have been thinking about an Oura ring too, for about a year?! DD has one and she’s the size of a 12 year old, so if she can wear one comfortably on her tiny hands, I can too. An apple watch is too much for me so I’m just out here living my life with no monitoring, LOL. If I had an Oura ring I think I’d be getting that message too.

I will spare you all my complaints but just kinda blah here. However, I got home from a week at our beach house (where it was cold and ridiculously windy) and filled my fridge with sooo many pretty fruits and veggies!

I just ordered the oura sizing kit from amazing. Baby step.

LOL Sue.. I ordered the sizing kit too.

Sorry you are feeling bleh .. I am too. That's one of the reasons I am returning to intermittent fasting. It isnt some miracle panacea but I find my mood is more even when I am following it. I cant change much of what is bugging me but I can manage how I let it affect me. I'll take any help I can get.

Funky, that is amazing success!

So far I have been working out with my trainer at the gym. Yesterday I went by myself. Working toward my 100 Workout goal!

Nothing interesting food-wise. Weight-wise, down another pound. On the cusp of a new decade which always motivates me.

my fav Soma bras are getting worn out and that affects how my body looks in my clothes

I just bought new bras. Very important.

repetitive, low calorie formulaic eating

It's nice to have some options like that. Meal prep is such an endless chore. Anyone see the Ethicist this week?

This dumdum is currently at the doggie hospital. Thinking he ate something he shouldn’t have, as he’s been vomiting and acting sad for 2-3 days. Pets are included in our health updates, right? He is cute but is missing a brain.

awww

Awww poor guy!

I just logged today's food and weight into My Fitness Pal.. Apparently I havent updated my weight in a year so it is showing an 8.3 lb loss. I should have lost much more in a year -- but ya know what? It isnt a gain.

I am also about to send my grocery order to be delivered tues (I try to never have Monday deliveries.. dont want the weekend dregs) I have plain oatmeal, fruits, veggies, split peas. That should get me through the week along with what I have on hand.

Great progress and commitment, Mtn. One of my doctors told me consistency is way more important than intensity. That has stuck with me-- but consistency is where I struggle these days (well, that right after getting my butt out of the chair)

I track me weight in MFP too. My data goes back to 6/2013!

showing an 8.3 lb loss. I "should have" lost much more in a year

That is super! I really think you are doing this the right way. We can all hold our breath and eat nothing but crudites and lose weight. But so what?

I subscribe to The Ethicist but missed yesterday’s installment. Boy, can I identify with the letter writer!

I don't have an Oura Ring but I wear a Garmin and am currently wearing a CGM so I believe in data. I have learned a lot from my Garmin and changed some of my habits around stress and sleep and of course the CGM clued me into some bad eating habits and helped me connect what I was eating to how I felt and slept and worked out.

I ate better last week - at home more and more variety. That's good for me. I started taking melatonin again just when the new study came out :) But I saw definite improvements in my sleep metrics so I'm going to stick with it awhile longer. I read some reviews of the study and I think I'm ok given my low dosage and heart history.

I sucessfully finished my stepbet - and won $9! Woohoo :) I'll probably start another one because it does keep me at least moving which is better than nothing - and very good for my blood sugar.

Wearing the Oura ”sizer” now and it’s good that they recommend wearing the sample for 24 hours, because my first instinct was to take it off and throw it away, but I’ll see how I feel tomorrow after wearing it for a while. At the moment, I think it feels too bulky. I have small hands and wrists so all these fancy trackers are just too big, darnit.

Interesting, Sue.

I worked out with my trainer today. I was teasing him about his playlist, which is great, and which is clearly not his playlist. He said, oh ... that's the playlist for my Parkinson's class. HA!

I set up my Apple watch to track my sleep last night. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a good night to start tracking my sleep routine. I hope tonight is more nearly normal.

Why? everything ok?

my sleep has been wrecked lately too — hope tonight is better, Bbstx!

i forgot about my oura sizing kit! im contemplating getting up to get it .. but, naw. well maybe. im concerned about the bulk too and i have big ol man hands.

Bbstx, I feel like something is off, too, and I think it's the time change. It's not impacted me before, other than a day or two to adjust to the light changes. But for the past week, my body and mind have slowed down by 5 pm.

Let's just give ourselves some grace and time to adjust.

I am up for the 2nd time tonight. I was up 2x last night. It is worse than usual. Best of times I get up 1x for an hour then back sound asleep til morning. This time change has really upset everything worse than it has in past years. I have been very busy during the day so it isn’t due to inactivity. I am going to try something different if it doesn’t get better. Will follow up results. 🙏

Edit: Back up at 6AM. Going to be a long day.

I must be adjusting to the time change. I got a fairly good night’s sleep last night, 7 hours and 45 minutes as compared to 4 hours and 30 minutes the night before. Interesting, I got the same exact amount of deep sleep both nights. (All of this according to the sleep app on my watch.)

One difference between the two days is I made sure to eat 4 oz of lean protein at supper last night. And I ate supper 3 hours before bedtime*. Sunday my eating schedule was all messed up. I didn’t eat a proper supper, just had a protein bar, and I woke up at 4 a.m. starving.

Probably a combination of lack of sleep and time change, but if I’m sitting down reading at 5 p.m., I’ve been falling asleep. I think I’ll plan to be doing some activity around that time today to see if I can stave off the falling asleep.

*Anyone else heard of the 3-2-1 rule? No eating 3 hours before bedtime; no fluids 2 hours before bedtime; and no screens 1 hour before bedtime.

I also think that I am finally adjusting to the time change. This one seems to have taken me longer to adjust to than any that I recall. For some reason I did not do very well with my eating last week, so am trying to doing better this week. I ate way too many carbs and felt sluggish. I'll just blame it on the time change!

Pilates has been going well, ankle continues to get stronger. I am sad to say that my trainer has flaked on me (I am assuming that she took on too many clients). After our last workout, she quit responding to my texts and emails. So odd, but I am moving on to finding someone else. Even if she contacts me, I am moving on because imo that was very unprofessional.

@Funkyart Please do not be hard on yourself. You have lost an unbelievable amount of weight. More importantly, you have kept at it and kept it off which is usually the most dificult part.

@Sueb20 Hope your baby is feeling better.

@Still trailing I hope that you are able to get some rest tonight.

Oura ring is a no. It’s just too uncomfortable for me.

HA! If I’m going to wear an uncomfortable ring, it better be because the diamonds are too big. 😂

I am wearing two oura ring testers right now on the ONLY two fingers I can tolerate them. It is fine on my left pointer finger .. not where I would normally wear a ring but it is easy to wear and doesnt offend me. Also wearing one on my thumb-- ok, I am pretty sure that wont work for biometrics but I am going to look it up. I have wanted a wide band thumb ring for ages and I actually love how it feels on that finger.

SO has some kind of biometric watch-- garmin, I thnk? He doesnt wear it and offered it to me.. but I don't think I'd wear it (i have watches I love) and I definitely wouldnt sleep in it.

In other news, I am SO glad I started tracking my food again -- I very quickly discovered that some of my fav meals are more calories than I thought. My rosemary sourdough/hatch chile grilled cheese is actually very small (because the bread size is small) but the sandwich is way more than I'd prefer. I won't cut it out but it will be reserved for days when I have fewer calories otherwise. That is the kind of awareness that I find very helpful .. I wont do this always but I'll keep it up for a few weeks.

Thank you so much, Texanjana .. I appreciate the boost. Also, I am so glad to hear you continue to heal and get stronger. But whoa, what an odd thing with your trainer!

ETA I guess you can wear it on your thumb but they *recommend* index, middle or ring. The middle and ring fingers are a no-go for me. I need to think about it and research a little more. I really like it on my thumb!

Thank you @texanjana I hope so too. I’ve spent the morning making yogurt and then getting the boxes and gift cards together for the 9 Seniors for Santa that I adopted this year. So many needy folks. It makes my complaints trivial. 🙏

It's interesting to hear your thoughts on the Oura ring. I too have been considering one for a long time. I just don't like the way they look and I fear I will not wear it because of that (in addition to perhaps being uncomfortable). I've also been considering a Garmin watch. They are pretty (I do not like the look of Apple Watches), not terribly expensive and I think they track all the same things.

I think I am going to order the watch once this month's AmEx bill closes. It's a doozy (January vacation payment was due). DH tells me I'm crazy. What diff if I charge it now or next month? I know, I know, it's just the bill gives me heart attacks when it's THAT huge. Call me crazy.

I'm continuing to walk on the treadmill 5-6 times per week. The scale is moving in the right direction although still very slowly. But I feel better so that's good.

Yesterday I really did not feel up to working out. I had no energy at all. I forced myself to just do a shorter session on the tread. The whole time I was doing it I was wondering what the Oura ring would be telling me about my energy level. I often wonder if my feelings are real or my imagination/excuse.

I'D NEVER heard of an Oura ring. Love it! Looks like my thumb ring. I'll wait and see what you all report back on it. Not planning on getting another "monitor". I stopped wearing my Fitbit. I like my Tag Heuer Link. It's low tech & goes into the sauna-room @ the gym, no worries.

I'm also feeling "fluffy". Need to cut back what I'm eating. Been sitting on a floor scrubbing off glue on the new wood floor....don't ask....for 4 days now. It's not aerobic, not going to the gym while I'm 'working". Temporarily out of balance with my weight...

My bestie loves her Oura ring, but no way could I wear a ring that thick on my finger. Plus, I don’t really want all of that monitoring…I gave up my fitbit a long time ago.

Yes, i was surprised how much i minded the thickness on ring and middle fingers. Apparently the oura 3 is even thicker.

Im in bed with them now (still wearing 2 tester rings)… i do want to take them off. i dont normally sleep w rings but i suppose i could get used to it. SO wondered if i would get tired of the monitoring … I could definitely see that happening. Not sure what Ill do.

I like that it monitors your health/energy level. Like I said, I often wonder if me thinking I'm so tired and don't want to work out is me making excuses or I really am low energy. I think it would help force me to workout when I'm not feeling it.

A friend of my DD has an Apple Watch and her doctor told her it saved her life. I don't remember the exact thing she had but her watch was alerting her for a while. She was trying to ignore it but her DH finally made her go to the doctor. There was something seriously wrong that had to be corrected (surgery? I don't remember the details) quickly. That story has stuck with me (obviously not the details!). It made me consider an Apple Watch but I know I won't wear it because I don't like the look.

The other thing that I don't like about the Oura is it may not be very accurate tracking your steps. I like to track my steps per day to make sure I'm moving. I've read that moving your arms makes the ring count that as steps. I don't want that.

My iPhone obviously tracks my steps but I have to have it in a pocket while on the tread and I don't like that. I'm thinking the Garmin watch would be better. Maybe.

Yeah, they all do things a little differently. Some better, some not so much. I am considering the Oura ring only because it is the one I will actually wear. I think lol. I don't like the look of the watches and I absolutely won't wear them to bed.

Let us know what you decide!

How adorable!

I have heard of several people whose Apple watches have discovered their Afib.

After my Apple watch died I switched to a Garmin. I've learned a lot. I'm sure I've said this before, but the heart rate and sleep data helped me decide to entirely give up alcohol. It was so clear the difference in my deep sleep, stress and heart rate that alcohol was doing me no favors. The body battery and stress scores on my Garmin are features my Apple didn't have that I've also learned a lot from. I exercise earlier in the day, realize that rest days help me sleep, and showed me that hydrating after intense exercise sped up my recovery.

But you can learn all those things in a few weeks :) Then you still have a watch. I'd like to try an Oura ring, to see if it told me something new, but not enough to pay for it and do the monthly subscription. Does it still require that? I do like counting steps for my stepbets, and I like the vigourous minutes goal to get my heart rate up enough every week. I recently tried adding melatonin to my sleep hygiene plan and the change in data was pretty convincing there too.