————————————————————————————–
MARCH WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE - DAY #30
Totals:  Monday, March 30, 2009

————————————————————————————–

If you’re new here and wondering what this challenge is click here.
————————————————————————————–
Eileen - Day #267 - Monday
 Daily intake goals::  20-35g carbs / 1200-1700 calories / 64+ oz. water
Total net carb grams Monday:  22.7  calories:  1479
————————————————————————————–

WOOOOHOOOO LOOK AT ALL THOSE RED STARS!!!!!!!!!!!

ONE MORE DAY!!  I kinda pooped out at the end of this challenge and I haven’t exercised at ALL lately - SIGH - I feel really bad about that BUT tomorrow is a new day!!!  I’m gonna ROCK the April Challenge, so everyone get ready!!

In case our March challengers didn’t see my message on the w8challenge.com site:

If you want to continue using your same login and password for April, I can switch you over AS SOON AS YOU LET ME KNOW that you are finished entering your March stuff.  When you are switched over to the April group, you will lose all the records of your daily stars - so if you want to print it out or something, do that before giving me the go-ahead to switch you over.

Here is the list of everyone who has let me know they want to participate in April:  brseay, delitaagain, hveeck, Joy, goodlife, photogirljen, beerab (all switching from March), inkheartmeg, shallweshrink, sterling, katiesmom, and whitters (all already signed up for April).  Including me - that’s thirteen.  =D

Edited to add:  Yay!  One more - canttellya - joined the April Challenge!  (No, I’m not saying I can’t tell ya her name, lol, that IS her name!)  So now we’re at fourteen! 

13270

————————————————————————————–
MARCH WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE - DAY #29
Totals:  Sunday, March 29, 2009

————————————————————————————–

If you’re new here and wondering what this challenge is click here.
————————————————————————————–
Eileen - Day #266 - Sunday
 Daily intake goals::  20-35g carbs / 1200-1700 calories / 64+ oz. water
Total net carb grams Sunday:  23.3  calories:  1241
————————————————————————————–

Okay I realllllly messed up on Saturday food-wise.  I thought maybe I could switch to calorie-counting so I got up that morning and ate a healthy low-calorie breakfast which consisted of so many lovely low-calorie carbs!  Not even 90 minutes later, though, I felt hungry.  By the two-hour-mark, I was ravenous.  I gave into my hunger/cravings and ate a big ol’ apple fritter, coated with sugar.  From there the day went steadily downhill.  I’d already screwed up, right, so I proceeded to eat bad stuff until that night.

That night I barely slept!  Apparently my body is not used to all that junk anymore because I was in the bathroom all night.  It was unpleasant enough to convince me that I really need to stay on the low-carb.  When I stay low-carb I don’t crave junk - period.  I stay away from it with really no willpower at all. 

So I will go back to doing both - carb and calorie counting.  *Sigh*

BUT!!!  I will step up the exercise because… 

THE APRIL CHALLENGE IS STARTING IN JUST TWO DAYS!  

Woooohooo!  =D

——————————————————

I figured out a buncha stuff on the website last night!  My poor hubby was sitting in the same room with me, listening as I grumbled and moaned and made funny noises because I couldn’t figure something out and then he laughed at me when I would cheer and get up to do little happy-dances when I finally got something to work.  LOL!!

Anyway, here’s some of the stuff I did:

- I got the Daily Stars table on the Personal Page to automatically sort by date.
- I got the Group Stars table to sort by stars so the leader is automatically at the top!!
- I got the Group Chatter table to sort in descending order so that most recent comments appear first! (obviously the whole sorting thing was a needed skill!!)
- I figured out how to post TOTALS for the Daily Stars table on the Personal Page!!  YAY!!
- I added two new tables to the Group Page (at inkheartmeg’s suggestion, thank you meg!), one for everyone’s daily food goals (sorted by the person) and one for everyone’s daily star input (sorted by date so the newest appear first).

Now I’m trying to figure out how to automate the STARS table so that the stars graphics come up automatically for each person based upon their input into the Daily Stars table.  I’m hoping maybe whitters can help me with that - she is a PHP programmer and offered to help me!  (OH YAY!!).  Whitters, in case you don’t see where I wrote it in my comments, please email me:  eileen@w8challenge.com

13182

————————————————————————————–
MARCH WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE - DAY #27
Totals:  Wednesday, March 27, 2009

————————————————————————————–

If you’re new here and wondering what this challenge is click here.
————————————————————————————–
Eileen - Day #264 - Friday
 Daily intake goals::  20-35g carbs / 64+ oz. water
Total net carb grams Friday:  21.5
————————————————————————————–

I had to travel unexpectedly for work last night, got only about three hours of sleep and was at an event at six-thirty this morning!  I should get a star or something for that, lol.  By the time I got home this afternoon I could barely keep my eyes open, so I took a nap.  Ahhhh naps are so delicious.  I can’t believe I fought them so hard when I was a youngin’.

The March Challenge is winding down (only three more days!) and I’m SO looking forward to a brand-spanking-new April!  I’m gonna kick BUTT in April!  =D  I’m doing some serious thinking about how I’m gonna change things up in April because I haven’t been losing weight anymore.  I lost 50 lbs. in five months - and then the next three months I lost ZIP.  So I need to do something different.  I stepped up the exercise and that didn’t work, so it’s time to change the eating again.  So yeah, I’m really excited about April.  It’s a new start.  A fresh beginning!!!

I posted the standings up there but some haven’t updated their stars for a few days.  Okay so here’s an announcement:  EVERYONE HAS UNTIL MIDNIGHT ON APRIL 1 to post their March stars!!!  At that point, whether you’ve reported your stars or NOT, a winner will be named!!  If you don’t feel comfortable with the website, just let me know what your stars are and I’ll post them for you!

By the way, I’m very happy that Joy (callmejj) has decided to join the April Challenge - AND - has offered to donate an actual PRIZE for the April winner!!!  (The prize is a HUNGRY GIRL cookbook, which is VERY cool!!!)  WOOHOOOO JOY!!!!  Thank you!!

By the way, on the www.w8challenge.com website, I did add another way for people to post their daily star graphics.  I think it’s a bit easier for those who don’t feel comfortable with the whole zip-file thing.  (The old way still works too.) 

13090

————————————————————————————–
MARCH WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE - DAY #26
Totals:  Wednesday, March 26, 2009

————————————————————————————–

If you’re new here and wondering what this challenge is click here.
————————————————————————————–
Eileen - Day #263 - Thursday
 Daily intake goals::  20-35g carbs / 64+ oz. water
Total net carb grams Tuesday:  31.9
Friday Weigh-in:  237.0    Total Lost:  48.2
————————————————————————————–

Okay, yeah, this morning I weighed in.  No, I’m still not down to the 50 lb mark again, BUT I’m not up in the 240’s either, so I’m happy about that.  Last Saturday I took a peek at my weight and it was over 242!  But I’d taken two days off from my eating plan and had consumed a bunch of salty stuff so I decided not to count it or record it - well, except I just kinda did now.  =D

The website thing is an interesting challenge.  =)  I’ll figure it out yet!!  I just this morning thought of a different way of handing the whole stars thing, and I think it will be much easier and MUCH simpler.  We’ll see!  I’ll work on it tonight.

Meanwhile, THANK YOU to all of you who have decided to do this challenge AGAIN in April!!!!  WOOOHOOOO!!!  I know I know I know that the March Challenge made a big difference in my eating and in the amount of exercise I put in and it’s ALL because I had friends here to DO IT WITH ME!  I am SO looking forward to starting a fresh month!!!  =D  =D

13006

————————————————————————————–
MARCH WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE - DAY #25
Totals:  Wednesday, March 25, 2009

————————————————————————————–

If you’re new here and wondering what this challenge is click here.
————————————————————————————–
Eileen - Day #262 - Wednesday
 Daily intake goals::  20-35g carbs / 64+ oz. water
Total net carb grams Tuesday:  43.2  <— went over  =( 
————————————————————————————–

I’m gonna keep posting the standings here in my blog until the official end of the MARCH CHALLENGE.  It’s cool, though, because now I can just take a snapshot of the standings screen at the new website!  Also, you might notice that the table is sorted with the highest score at the top. (Wooohoo Delita for scoring a RED star!!)

In case you’re confused by this, the website I’m referring to is www.w8challenge.com which you can read about in my blog entry yesterday.

So far the site seems to be working okay but the downloading and uploading of the actual stars is confusing.  What I’ve decided to do is to hire someone to do the PHP programming that I can’t figure out how to do.  WHAT I WANT is for the stars to just AUTOMATICALLY appear on the list, based upon the total daily stars reported from each participant!  WHAT I WANT is for the personal daily stars charts to actually show TOTALS at the bottom!!! (Ya’d think I could figure that one out, but honestly, I am stumped!!!).  WHAT I WANT is for the entire site to be totally automatic and simple and easy to use!!!!

So yeah, I’m gonna hire someone, but not today.  I would like to pull together a comprehensive list  of what I want, before I start looking for someone to do it all.

In the meantime, I am SO excited that a couple people already signed up for the April Challenge!!  And I couldn’t be happier with who those couple people are:  shallweshrink and sterling!!!  YAY!!!  If anyone from the March Challenge wants to continue in April, let me know, and then on April 1st I can switch those people over to the April group.

Please let me know what you like or don’t like about the site - I really wanna tweak it and make it a nice place to visit!!!  =D

Also, let me officially say THANK YOU to everyone, you’ve all been so wonderful and supportive while I’ve been stressing over my mom’s health!!!

12899

————————————————————————————–
MARCH WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE - DAY #24
Totals:  Tuesday, March 24, 2009

            beerab………….
            brseay…………..
            delitaagain…….
            eileen2blean….
            feathers………..
            goodlife………..
            grabthebull…….
            hveeck………….
            inkheartmeg….
            janthea………….
            jaxie……………..
            joy………………..
            photogirljen….
            whitters…………

————————————————————————————–
1 green star   =  10 gold stars
If you’re new here and wondering what this challenge is click here.
————————————————————————————–
Eileen - Day #261 - Tuesday
 Daily intake goals::  20-35g carbs / 64+ oz. water
Total net carb grams Tuesday:  16.6 oops! 
————————————————————————————–

Well, I have good news - and good news!

First and most importantly, my mom is doing well!  She is recovering (somewhat) and was moved to a residential rehab facility last night.  The doctors are expecting her to stay there for about 2-3 weeks.  We found out yesterday that the reason the nephrologist was throwing around words like “terminal” and “hospice” was because my mom had signed a Living Will that specifically says ”no life-prolonging treatments” if she has an “end-stage condition” (Stage IV kidney disease would be considered end-stage).  In other words, he thought she was refusing dialysis.  When she made it clear that she had no objection to dialysis, then his outlook for her improved dramatically.  She is still very sick right now but with treatment and care, she could possibly outlive us all.  =D

Okay - the other good news!  I would love to say I lost ten pounds, but nahhh, that’s not it.

It’s about this March Challenge thing.  Earlier this month, once it got rolling, I was so excited and inspired!  OMG people were actually skipping snacks or exercising 15 more minutes - just to get a star!!!  I had never experienced anything like it, and I thought it was pretty cool!  The fact that it was a competition BUT that it wasn’t a competion about weight-loss - that made it different.  So I started looking around.

I found a competition on the 3FC message board that was actually very similar to the one I’d come up with (it had been there all along, I just had never noticed it, ha!).  It too was not about weight-loss - but the difference was that participants earned points for exercising, even if it was only 15 minutes.  So, yeah, similar, but not the same.

So I looked on the web (I am the google queen!  lol!) and guess what - I didn’t find much of anything that was similar.  I did find a couple weight loss buddy/team sites, but most of them weren’t free, and none of them were competitive in nature (well, except for little “The Biggest Loser” contests but those are, of course, about weight loss).

SO - back on March 10th, I picked a domain name, and started building a website.

It was almost done, almost! when my mom went into the hospital.  I wanted so bad for it to be up and running before the end of March!  I wanted this website to be all set up with all of the March Challenge members in it and all their stars recorded!  I also wanted it to be functional so that people could log and control their own stars - and so that others could open challenges and host their own contests. 

I finally got to work on it yesterday and today and… it’s ready for unveiling!! 

Now, keep in mind that I am NOT a webmaster by day.  Going into this I had no idea how to set up membership and login and databases and tables.  I still really don’t know what I’m doing, but I’ve tested it (with you all, though you didn’t know it!) and it all seems to work.  Well, mostly.  There were a few things I couldn’t figure out, but I’m still working on it.

Okay so the website is:  www.w8challenge.com and there are accounts already set up for all the March Challengers, so all you need to do is click on LOGIN and enter your username and password.  I had to get creative with the passwords, lol. 

Anyway, I hope y’all like it!  I’m gonna do a bit of online marketing and see if I can get some other traffic - but even if I don’t, it was definitely a learning experience for me! 

P.S.  Janthea - I was in the middle of trying to develop this site when you volunteered to take on the April challenge, and at that point I had NO idea whether I would ever get it up and running!  So I’m sorry if I’m stealing your thunder but THANK YOU so much for being so willing to host the next challenge.  (You of course, can still host a 3FC contest if ya wanna).

12790

————————————————————————————–
MARCH WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE - DAY #23
Totals:  Monday, March 23, 2009

            beerab………….
            brseay…………..
            delitaagain…….
            eileen2blean….
            feathers………..
            goodlife………..
            grabthebull…….
            hveeck………….
            inkheartmeg….
            janthea………….
            jaxie……………..
            joy………………..
            photogirljen….
            whitters…………

————————————————————————————–
1 green star   =  10 gold stars
If you’re new here and wondering what this challenge is click here.
————————————————————————————–
Eileen - Day #260 - Monday
 Daily intake goals::  20-35g carbs / 64+ oz. water
Total net carb crams today:  I dunno, haven’t logged my food yet 
————————————————————————————–

I am SO sorry that I have not updated this page for three days!!  When I took on this Challenge idea, I only considered my work & travel schedule.  Of course I couldn’t have known that my mom would end up in the hospital.

As you all guessed, my Mom is not doing well.  As it turns out, she has Stage IV kidney disease.  The nephrologist (kidney doctor) is telling her all kinds of scary stuff and her six living adult children are freaking out a bit.  We (my brothers and sisters and I) actually had a conference call last night and are now passing emails back and forth like wildfire.

So I’ve been spending a lot of time going to and from the hospital, which is over an hour away from where I live.  I did manage to get back on the food-wagon, but I haven’t exercised in days.  I decided not to weigh-in on Saturday - it’ll keep for a while longer.

Again, I apologize for the delay in updating those stars up there!

12673

————————————————————————————–
MARCH WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE - DAY #20
Totals:  Friday, March 20, 2009

            beerab………….
            brseay…………..
            delitaagain…….
            eileen2blean….
            feathers………..
            goodlife………..
            grabthebull…….
            hveeck………….
            inkheartmeg….
            janthea………….
            jaxie……………..
            joy………………..
            photogirljen….
            whitters…………

————————————————————————————–
1 green star   =  10 gold stars
If you’re new here and wondering what this challenge is click here.
————————————————————————————–
Eileen - Day #257 - Friday
 Daily intake goals::  20-35g carbs / 64+ oz. water
Total net carb grams yesterday:  waaaay over
Total net carb crams today: waaaay over again
————————————————————————————–

Well it’s 1:00 in the morning and I’m just now getting to post.  I’m tired!

Mom is doing well.  No one actually knows specifically what caused her to have such severe pain in her leg, but the cardiologist gave us an “educated guess” and said it was probably a blood clot which caused internal pressure on the nerves.  Actually, “blood clot” is not the actual term because it wasn’t actually a clot, it was actually the opposite of a clot. 

My mom has a pacemaker and has been on a low dosage of coumadin (a drug that thins the blood) for years.  Her doctor usually keeps a close eye on her I&R levels (how thick/thin her blood is) but for some reason lately she hadn’t been checked.  When she was admitted to the hospital Thursday morning, her I&R was over eleven - it’s supposed to be between 2 and 3.  Because her blood was so thin, the slightest bump to her flesh made her bleed - not open bleeding, I mean under the skin.  She had bruises all up and down her arms and legs, small ones which she swore she could not remember any trauma related to them.

The doctor thinks she bumped her shin and bled, deep down within the tissue.  The pressure of the blood in such a constricted area (there isn’t a whole lot of flesh between your bone and skin on your shin) caused pressure on the nerves resulting in the sensation of severe pain and cramping. 

She was very lucky to have had this happen.  The damage to her was minimal and she will likely recover fully.  The damage to her could have been quite severe if she had not come in when she did.  She was already starting to go into kidney failure - and could have bled to death internally from just about anywhere in her body.  Had she had a severe cut, she would have bled out in minutes, her blood was so thin.

There’s a reason for everything.  It definitely wasn’t her time to go.  I’ll tell ya why.

My brother wasn’t going to take her to the hospital.  My mom has recurring gout and when it happens she has severe pain in her legs, very similar to what she’d been experiencing.  I called my brother (who lives 5 minutes from her) to tell him that Mom was really in pain and wanted to go to the hospital and he actually kinda yelled at me for overreacting.  “Yes, I talked to her, it’s gout, it’s no different from any other time, she doesn’t need to go to the hospital!”  He told me to call her and I said I was planning to.

Well, I didn’t call her right away.  Brother said it was gout so I wasn’t worried anymore.  It was getting kinda late so I thought, “I’ll call her back in the morning.”

In the meantime, my mom called him and said, “I think I need to go to the hospital.”  Brother ASSUMED that I had spoken to Mom and told her Brother’s position on that subject and that I told Mom to call him and say she wanted to go to the hospital ANYWAY.  So he came right over (at 10:30 at night) and took her to the ER.

He called me from the ER and said, “Well?  Are you coming here?”  I said sure, but why are you all pissed at me?  He said, “It’s your fault we’re here, you told Mom to call me.”  I’m like - Uhhh I didn’t even speak to Mom!

So anyway, she ended up at the ER because of a misunderstanding.  I don’t believe in coincidence!

——————————–

Ack, for the first time this month, in fact, the first time since our vacation back in January - I went off plan!  OMG WAY off plan!  Now I have the lovely challenge of getting back into ketosis and past the carb cravings!  ARRGGGHH!  I’m supposed to weigh in tomorrow and between the last two days of eating hospital cafeteria food AND not exercising since my bike ride on Tuesday (!!!) I can just IMAGINE what my weight is gonna look like tomorrow!  Yikes!

——————————–

Also, thank you to everybody for all your warm and thoughtful comments!  Your wishes and prayers are all wonderful and appreciated!!  (And they helped a LOT!!) 

((((((((BIG HUGS)))))))))

12477

————————————————————————————–
MARCH WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE - DAY #18
Totals:  Wednesday, March 18, 2009

            beerab………….
            brseay…………..
            delitaagain…….
            eileen2blean….
            feathers………..
            goodlife………..
            grabthebull…….
            hveeck………….
            inkheartmeg….
            janthea………….
            jaxie……………..
            joy………………..
            photogirljen….
            whitters…………

————————————————————————————–
1 green star   =  10 gold stars
If you’re new here and wondering what this challenge is click here.
————————————————————————————–
Eileen - Day #255 - Wednesday
 Daily intake goals::  20-35g carbs / 64+ oz. water
Total net carb grams today:  15.3
————————————————————————————–

I’m so sorry I didn’t post last night and that I really don’t have time right now for a real post but I at least wanted to update everyone’s stars.

My mom went into the hospital last night.  I was there in the emergency room with her from 12:30 am last night until they finally got her admitted into a room at 7:15 this morning.  I left her before noon and came home to get some sleep but haven’t really gotten much with the phone ringing all day.  (I have a big family, lol.)

She’s okay but they still don’t know what’s wrong with her. 

12375

————————————————————————————–
MARCH WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE - DAY #17
Totals:  Tuesday, March 17, 2009

            beerab………….
            brseay…………..
            delitaagain…….
            eileen2blean….
            feathers………..
            goodlife………..
            grabthebull…….
            hveeck………….
            inkheartmeg….
            janthea………….
            jaxie……………..
            joy………………..
            photogirljen….
            whitters…………

————————————————————————————–
1 green star   =  10 gold stars
If you’re new here and wondering what this challenge is click here.
————————————————————————————–
Eileen - Day #254 - Tuesday
 Daily intake goals::  20-35g carbs / 64+ oz. water
Total net carb grams today:  25.3
————————————————————————————–

Yeah I was gonna put in two hours of exercise this evening and I started off well.  I put in 30 minutes on the exercise bike and then since I was all hot and sweaty I thought it would be fun to go for a ride on my real bike.  By myself.  After dark.  There was a cool breeze and my muscles were warmed up already so I felt strong and healthy and alive!  I rode up the hill (on my street) and then took a cruise through our little historic downtown area and then came back to my street.  I coasted to the bottom of the hill and then raced to the top - then coasted to the bottom and raced back up to the top.  I did this five times!  Though I was only out there for a half-hour, it felt like more of a workout than anything I could do inside!

So it was my intention to jump on the elliptical and put in two thirty-minute sessions - but I found myself limping!  I don’t know exactly when I did it, but I apparently put a bit too much stress on my injured knee.  That’s it!  Anytime and every time I feel even a twinge from that knee, I stop.  So no more exercise tonight.

But I really felt great about the exercise I did get!  I felt like a contestant on The Biggest Loser, doing a challenge, riding my bike up and down that hill as fast as I could handle it!  What’s cool is that when I first started riding my bike, I couldn’t make it up that hill.  Not even close.  If I wanted to get to the top I had to get off my bike about 2/3 of the way up and walk, panting, trying to catch my breath. 

I am a freakin’ warrior now!  Ha!!

I had a lunch appointment today at a Bahama Breeze restaurant.  There’s only 21 of these restaurants in the whole U.S. so I don’t expect a lot of you have ever heard of them, but OMG the food is amazing.  The server was so cool, he really went the extra mile to make sure that my meal was low-carb and delicious even though the stuff that I ordered was not exactly one of the selections off the menu.  I had sliced jerk chicken and broccoli in a bowl with a side of parmesan-herb cream sauce and a romaine salad with italian dressing on the side.  The lady I was meeting for lunch hadn’t seen me in about four months and she said she really noticed a difference, so that made me feel good.  =D

I’m still not weighing in.  It feels really weird but I’m kinda liking it.  Kinda.  LOL this is a harder addiction to kick than the carb addiction was!

—————————————————

One last thing:  janthea offered to host an April Challenge on her blog!  YAY!  I have some big work things coming up in April so it would be very cool to “do” the challenge as a participant rather than as a host!  Thank you janthea!!!

12237