Good morning, Blueser!

Just dropping in for a quick 'Hello' then it's back to the job for me. I'm running up against a looming deadline on my current project and I'm waaaay behind. But, I won't use food to relieve the stress....I promise. I'm not sure if exercise will be included in my day today. I will probably be riding the desk chair well into the evening.

Sonja - I plan on re-starting the C25K program next Monday. This week, my focus will be to just get this butt moving again. I'll start with daily walks with Hubby. We haven't walked since last Wednesday.

For those of us who's official weigh-in day is Monday, next Monday is fine for our first weigh-in. Just don't forget to post earlier in the day. I have firsthand knowledge at how easy it is to forget to post your weight and miss the deadline.

Hope everyone has a great on-plan day. Go Blue!

Morning Ladies and Gents!

Just wanted to let you know first off that Daffy29 is a team member of ours even though she's not on our team list right now. She signed up and weighed in on time, but I must have missed her on accident cause she didn't get placed on a team!

Anywho Ti'an!

I was a good girl this morning so I gave myself a little pat on the head. I had 2 scrambled eggs, a teaspoon of olive oil and a soy caramel macchiato.

Normally I would have had : a sausage egg and cheese Mcgriddle, a hashbrown, a medium diet coke and a whole milk caramel macchiato.

Just to give you an idea...

My normal breakfast: 1000 cal 45g of fat 1810 mg sodium 106g carbs

My new breakfast: 520 cal 24g of fat 400mg sodium 53g carbs

Thats a difference of: 480 cal 24g of fat 1410mg sodium & 53g carbs

Well, since I had such a good week this week (down 3.4 pounds!), I've decided to reward myself with a digital food scale! I'm currently using this cheapy kind I picked up at the grocery store that is very imprecise and the weights are open to interpretation depending on from what angle you view it. Yay! What a nice reward for myself, right? My DH thinks I'm a nut weighing everything, but then again, he's been surprised by how many calories certain things can have. I like seeing the numbers and knowing what I'm putting in my tummy!

OK, I'm back.

What do you prefer to be called? Velvet, Velveteen, V, Renée
We talk a lot about being OP? What is YOUR plan? I am a Lifetime Weight Watcher (I maintained for 3 years, had a nervous breakdown, gained it all back) so I pretty much follow that plan. However, I eat as clean as possible and try to incorporate superfoods in my diet every day.
How can we help you acheive your goals? Being part of this team, giving and receiving support and "job well done"'s should do the trick
Is there any specific request you have? Looking for a partner to hold you accountable for calories, exercise, etc? Do you need some inspiration each morning? I would never turn away a partner or a buddy, but I don't necessarily need that right now - though I'm more than willing to be that person to someone who does need it!


A little about me - I am 39 years old, mostly active in the Alternachicks forum, been a member of 3FC since 1999 with a break between 2001 - 2006 (was not a great idea to be away from here) I believe. I am getting married in October to a fine Dutch fellow and officially become stepmom to two great kids (SD 10, SS 7). I have two cats and three fish. At the moment I live on the EAST of the country in Arnhem, but I work all the way west in Amsterdam so I'm pushing my limits daily trying to get my food plan right and get myself to the gym (this could be changing soon - I may be renting a room for during the week in Amsterdam... I LOVE my job and the company I work for so this is a good option). My DF is extremely supportive and wants to do everything he can to help me succeed
(which means he has to cook MY/ WW way and he's not the biggest fan of cooking!).

I don't have a lot of spare time but I can say my hobbies/interests are: music, traveling, photography, alternative films and books. I also love all things '40's and '50's (one of my cats is Frankie, the other Elvis), rockabilly, pin-up girls, and cool classic cars, just to name a few

Since I'm in the Netherlands, you'll have to forgive me if I miss a lot of the chat around here - I'm generally sleeping when this board is most active!

I am just starting week 2 of C25K and so far I'm loving it! I have always wanted to be a runner, but was afraid to start because I thought I might hurt myself. That's why C25k is perfect for me because it does it gradually. Good Luck!

Chellez!

DMPLS!!!

Well I'm hoping for a good on plan day today! Hope everyone has a great day!!


GO BLUE!!!

Chellez- Very healthy decision, you are doing well for yourself! I had a skim caramel mach- easy caramel, working my way to a skim latte down from a mocha, LOL. Fellow starbucks addict here!

Welcome to all the newbies to the blue team - its greatto have you on board!!!

Well - as you guys start the day - I am ending the day - I drank my water and I did my Walk away the pounds video - but reflecting back I had other opportunities to make better choices... so tomorrow I am going to make those choices better - starting with my lunch - today I had a catered lunch and tried a bit of everything- so I am off to make my lunch for tomorrow and make sure I start and end the day totally on plan.

I'm here! I can't believe how much this thread has blown up since I checked it last night. Now that I have time to post.. well.. here I am.

My name is Karen, I'm 28 (i'll be turning 29 shortly after this challenge ends) and this is my first TBL challenge. I have been working my WL for the last 4 years.. I'm a slow loser - I hope I don't hold the team back! :/
Let's see... about me.. I live in Connecticut (born and raised) with my boyfriend of six years and my kitty. hm... I can't think of anything terribly interesting that I do.. so onto the questions...

* What do you prefer to be called? Karen is fine, karmuz is equally as fine if there is another Karen on the team and we need to prevent confusion.

* We talk a lot about being OP? What is YOUR plan? After all of this time, I have worked out my own personal plan. It mainly consists of whole, unprocessed foods, I avoid added sugars and artifical sweeteners (both impact me negatively), and I limit my intake of most "whites."

* How can we help you acheive your goals? Keep me on track! Remind me to take lunch to work! When work gets busy I tend to fall into grab-and-go food choices, and while I still try make the best choice available, If i indulge and have something like pizza (made from scratch where I work) the sodium content seriously effects me (one slice of pizza = 2lbs of bloat for 2 days). I really want to reach goal/100lbs lost by my birthday, which means that I really need to lose AT LEAST 15lbs during this challenge.

* Is there any specific request you have? Looking for a partner to hold you accountable for calories, exercise, etc? Do you need some inspiration each morning? I definitely need to get motivated to do extra exercise. I'm in the middle of doing C25K, but i don't have a fall back indoor plan for rainy days like today. In general, I am not the best at keeping exercise goals. I am getting much better at it but a kick in the rear would really help me!

Would anyone be opposed to posting daily menus here if we feel the need? It sometimes keeps me a bit more honest, but I wasn't sure if I should just do it here in my normal posts or if we might start another thread for daily menus/exercise accountability.

Anyway, my day looks to be shaping up like this:

• diet Pepsi and 2 NSA Carnation Instant Breakfast packets in half skim milk, half almond milk
• yogurt
• peanut butter and jelly sandwich
• banana
• ham, turkey, cheese, and mayo sandwich
• Kashi GoLean chewy oatmeal raisin cookie bar
• chicken breast tenders in diet Pepsi and NSA ketchup (SBD Cola Chicken) served with broccoli
• Kashi granola bar (if I need an evening snack)

It seems like a LOT of food, but it comes to 1,829 calories. It's a carb-heavy day for me, but still over 100g protein. Also, too much sodium, with the major offender being the on carb ketchup in my dinner. I'll have to see if I can find a better ketchup (or a better recipe for my own).

EDIT: If I make my lunch sandwich with 1 slice of ham instead of 2, then my sodium for the day comes out to be 2,999mg My goal is 3,000, so WOOHOO! It also changed my calories to 1,799 for the day.

Morning everyone. Man does this board move fast! I am sure I will miss tons and tons of posts, and will never be able to keep everyone straight.. so please have some sympathy for me..lol.

I'm excited to see that there are 2 other homeschooling moms here! At least I'm not the only one who is totally insane here!

Pintobean, glad to see you on the same team as me.. you know me from the blogs as crazymama!

Well, I need to go find my 9:30 snack, and pretend to play with the kids.. little do they know they are learning from it! Hope everyone has a great day, I will try to check in a few times a day.. and I'm sure that won't be enough to help me stay caught up with all of you!

vixjean - WW is treating me well I pop into the 20-somethings occasionally but it was just so much to keep up with! It is good to see some familiar faces down here in the TBL section too. Funny how big these forums are!

LBG - I think I must have some really common traits or something, I've had quite a few people say "You look just like my friend/sister/..." It's kind of disconcerting but I guess it's nice that people find me familiar before they know me??

momof4 - Way to have a plan! 2 hours conditioning and an aquafit class, huh? Color me impressed! My day's not nearly as exciting... 7am fight the alarm, 8am be at work, 12pm eat lunch, 5pm leave work, 6pm have dinner, all evening work on my final paper for school.... Nothing worth sharing but since you asked!

chellez - your 2nd breakfast sounds MUCH better. WTG!

jill - ditch the offending piece of ham! I love reading about what other people are eating, so I sure don't mind if you post menus here.

As for the WIs, I've already seen a loss since I posted my starting weight but I guess I'll wait until Saturday, my next official WI day, to post anything. I don't know if that's cheating or anything, since the first WI will really be more like a 2 week loss than a 1 week? Still deciding what to do there. Being a n00b at this is hard!

I'm really struggling with getting consistent exercise in. It's kind of eluding me. Saturday I had about an hour of running around after a soccer ball with DH, which was fun, and yesterday we went for a nice long walk before the rain started, but I don't forsee any exercise for me this week... Maybe I'm just finding excuses but ALL of my evenings are busy busy this week! And getting up even earlier sounds about as appealing as a shot in the foot. Grumble grumble... this is an area I know I need to work on... Anybody have any wisdom to share?

Sorry for the spotty responses but there's just so much here already Hope everyone has a good Monday!

Go Hoosiers!!! My BA and MPA are from there.

You know, the Dave Ramsey thing has me considering this as well. I was thinking of Kohl's. Honestly, we will finish baby step two in about 18 months (or less, DH does some consulting on the side, but it is not consistent), and I would be fine with that. But when I listen to the podcast, I get all whipped into a frenzy.

That is crazy awesome. I have no desire to ever do a marathon, but I would like to do a half. There is one in the fall here that I am considering. For me, it is just horribly hard to find time to do the long run.

The message is for Rhonda's husband: Take your woman for a walk!

mmmmm....product

Ready to book a flight to come visit...what works for you!

The skinny latte got me off sweet coffee forever. I am down to milk in my coffee only.

Morning,

There appears to be some confusion on the WI dates. This WI week ends on 3 May according to the dates in the FAQ. I WI on Wed, so I WI early. Technically, if you are a Monday weigher (is that a word???), based on the dates, you would need to use today's weight, not next Monday's weight as that day is the 5th and past the dates listed for this week.

WITH THAT BEING SAID ... I don't think we have any scale police (OH please tell me we don't!!), so If you WI on Monday (the 5th) and use that weight, no one will know that but you.

I hate doing a WI on Mondays, even though I weigh everyday, it just seems like a totally evil way to start my week and would only give me one more reason to (like garfield) hate Mondays!

Chelle can tell you for sure, whether using your 5th weight would be bending the rules or not, but this is how I see it (IMHO)

After you put up the links for the cool rockabilly/pin-up clothes sites, I've determined that I simply MUST have a couple of those outfits -- goal reward! All that stuff is just WAY cute!

I think that would be GREAT, I'd be thrilled to see what other people are eating. I think there are at least a couple of other vegetarians/vegans on the thread! I'm a vegetarian who just transitioned to vegan a couple of days ago, so I like looking at people's food and getting new ideas!

GO BLUE!