Hope you don't mind that I'm starting this, but I wanted to make commitments as early as possible, which for me is 7:30 pm on Sunday. It's been a rough weekend.

My commitments for 12/18 are:

Eat on plan, which means no fudge!
Journal on Fitday.
One hour cardio and 35 min. weightlifting plus stretching.
Eight glasses of water.
Wrap some presents.

Thanks for starting us out, Sheila! Your goals look like good ones! Fudge is a rough one at this time of year...

Good morning lovely ladies. I hope everybody had a fantastic weekend as we approach a real tough week and weekend ahead. On one hand I am excited for the upcoming events that I have, so many people who I am anxious to see, but on the other hand - so much tempting food. Day after day. "Gotta be strong, gotta be strong. I want to be thin, more then I want the food, I want to be thin more then I want the food. Anything in MODERATION. Anything in MODERATION." she says as she tries to hypnotize herself.

I had a pretty good weekend. Stuck to all my commitments, could have nibbled a bit less. Although when I think about it my nibbling really is minimal and I stay within in calorie range. I was someone who was/is/was an all day grazer and I guess this is my way of getting around it. We shall see, for now it's staying as part of my daily commitments. Had my daughter home from college so of course shopping was a priority for her. She needed new glasses so we went to 5, count em 5 different places, but we found the most stunning glasses. And she needed boots, snow, she's up in Boston and she wanted a pair of black suede knee high boots. (just the kind I'd like for myself eventually - oh to dream, and oh yeah it's official, my calves are now wider then my thighs, I kid you not). Anyway we were successful but we walked for hours, so yes that was a great amount of exercising but today my knees are in AGONY. Gosh I hope one day this is not the case. I literally don't think I could have made it another step. OF course my daughter could have gone on for hours more. Oh to be 19, oh and yeah to be not so darn overweight.This is NOT, I repeat NOT how a 43 year old woman should feel after a day of shopping. One day, one day.

And on that note I was rewarded with a 4 pound weight loss for the week!!! I'm down to 218. Onderland is getting closer and I for one can't wait to get there!!

My commitments-

-Drink lots of water
-Stay under 1300 calories
-EXERCISE, EXERCISE, EXERCISE
-No nibbling
-Headed to the mall, I am determined to find something nice to wear for these holiday parties. Oh and daughter needs stuff too. I hope I can walk, right now it's not looking too good.
-Remember that I want to be thin more then I want the food.

Have a great and successful day everyone!

Good Morning Everyone!! Sheila53 - thanks for starting us off, it was a rough weekend for me as well! Actually, I did pretty good on Saturday.... but Sunday was a whole different story. We had some friends over for dinner, so I spent the day cleaning and preparing a nice dinner. It was actually a pretty healthy dinner. I did make a dessert though, but I made sure it was small so I wouldn't have a ton of leftovers. The downfall... wine. I decided I would let myself have two glasses of wine. So I had my first glass at 3:00pm when I started preparing the dinner, and the second followed shortly there after. By the time we had dinner I was on to my third glass.... and let's just say that somewhere between 3:00pm with my first glass and 9:00pm, I had finished a bottle almost entirely by myself. Uuugghhhhhh. As long as I'm coming clean, I also had seconds on dessert

Okay, so today is a new day..... so let's start with some commitments

Lots of water!!!!
Fruits & Veggies for snacks
Get my house clean from the party!!!
Make a healthy dinner
Take Vitamins

Okay ladies.... good luck to all. Let's start the week off right!!!

Happy morning to you all...well its almost afternoon at this point...I'm running a bit late today cause I had a meeting this morning. Well the weekend went well...yesterday was a success. Holiday cards and shopping is done, hit the gym and upped the intensity of my cardio....I hit 5 miles on the elliptical in 1hr 10 min...which puts me at a 12 minute mile average...which is actually average....when I went back to the gym in early November I was averaging a 17 minute mile so its a huge improvement. I also treated myself to a birthday manicure and some new gym clothes...and they may be stretchy pants but I bought them from the normal section in the store and they were only larges...not extra large and the jacket was an XL...not beyond that so its making me feel like I'm finally having some visible changes which is so cool. Most place I'm noticing it is my vanishing lower belly...if it wasn't for my oversized breasts I think I might be able to see my feet! Ha Ha.

Well anyway rock on for starting us out for this week Sheila. The week of truth is upon us...the holidays are here! I came into my office today and not only is the table in the kitchen loaded with goodies...they spread to my desk! A bag of cookies and a card from a girl in our marketing department. I said thank you and I'm not even going to open them...just throw them away when no one is looking...after all its the thought that counts not me eating them! I'm going to see the Boston Gay Men's Chorus Holiday Spectacular tonight which should be a hoot....but also includes dinner before...hopefully we can figure out where we are going early so I can see if they have a website with a menu so I can do some advanced planning!

1. Survive dinner, pick what I will have early in the day if there is an online menu
2. Possibly a glass of birthday wine...but I'm gonna try to stick with diet coke.
3. get home and be in bed as early as possible...Just cause I can't get to the gym today doesn't mean I'm not going tomorrow.
4. um....renew my license...it totally expires today...bummer.
5. step away from the office treats and hit the carrots
6. water water water!

Thanks for starting us out Sheila!
Rockin Robin-I like how you tried to hypnotize yourself haha... I'll have to keep that in mind when next Sunday rolls around ... My mom is making my favorite meal: enchiladas. She told me she was going to try to make a few changes to it to make it a little bit healthier. And like you said, "anything in moderation" right?
Nalynn- You are absolutely right- Today is a new day. We all have those weekends, especially around this time of year. What is important is that you get right back on track the next day.
Sunshine-Great Job on that 12 minute mile average. That is amazing!! Have fun tonight, that is a really good idea to find a menu on the web before you go. Way to plan ahead.

Well today was my weigh in day and I'm sooo happy!! I lost 2 pounds which means I have surpassed my 10 point mark and I made it into the 160's!!!!
I am sooo happy about this I had a great weekend, I am really proving to myself that I can do this.
My commitments
Drink Lots of Water
Go to the grocery store and get a lot of healthy foods for me to eat this week
EXERCISE EXERCISE EXERCISE!

Hello everyone!

I do not usually post in the weekly committments but I think it is a good idea. Hopefully it will make me feel like my week is more organized!

My committments:
-Go to the gym at least 4 times with hubby
-Drink at least one nalgene bottle of water every day
-Eat on track for all meals except those that are special (just 2 this week)
-Get the house clean & finish getting ready for Christmas

Good luck everybody!

Welcome Lifeguard!
I have the Nalgene rule too! I keep one in my car, one in my office, one in my bag and one in my house...too funny
so alright girls its been decided....we are eating at the cheesecake factory tonight...if I haven't mentioned before how much I love the cheesecake factory ....well you can imagine. I'm thinking the best choice I can find on the menu is on the sandwich menu...Renee's Special...half a turkey sandwich (and I'll hold the mayo) and if the people I'm with get an appetizer I'll ask for my soup first so I won't nibble on anything else. What do we think? Any other suggestions?

http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/menu.htm

I'm going to try to avoid the cheesecake itself...because let it be known that I'm pretty sure I could live on nothing but a combination of the white chocolate caramel latte and the peanut butter cup chocolate ripple cheesecakes....It is my birthday today so if I decide to go for the indulge in a slice I'll share it with folks at my table and stick to a slice that isn't absolutely ridiculous..!

Good morning!

Well I had so much fun last night at the party, and while I could have done better, it could have been worse. They were serving gin and tonics when we got there (Argh! I love those!), but I kept my portions small at dinner. I did have a little ice cream and a cookie though. Oh well. Today's a new day! Oh yeah, and I did 21 minutes on the ellipse yesterday before I went to the party!

Sunshine, I searched for "healthy Cheesecake Factory" on the web and found one recommendation: the herb crusted filet of salmon. Ask that it be served without the sauce, and with double veggies instead of veggies and a starch. Fantastic job on the exercise!

CaseyGail, congrats on the 160's girl!! That's awesome!

Nalynn, does your head hurt? Just think, though, it would have been worse if the dinner you cooked wasn't healthy. That part goes in the small victories column!

Robin, nice job on all the walking! Hope it doesn't hurt today!

Lifeguard, great commitments!

Busy day today so here goes:
Bounce back from dinner last night. It's a new day.
Get some exercise
Drink water
Wrap some presents!
Take vitamins

Good Afternoon Ladies

Not much to report for me... I'm kinda hanging in lol, best as I can. Guh, was talking about my super athletic 6 year old... was poking her in the belly today, and she flexed... she has a very defined 6 pack... sick and wrong, I tell you, sick and wrong LOL!
--------

Robin... Hubby and I both had serious back issues after our last shopping trip... he said that's motivation enough to start losing weight... we were hobbling like we were 90 for a while :| wtg on the 4 lb!

Nalynn... I have a weakness for wine too... Merlot, stopped keeping it around lol, it'll get me everytime.

Sunshine... Happy Birthday Have fun, sounds like a blast, I'm sure you'll find a suitable dinner Oh, and a large, I can only dream right now lol.

caseygail... wtg on the 160's w00t

Lifeguard... hi! *waves*

C.C.... still tacking on those minutes! gogogo!





My Do's for the day... hmm, I never really think ahead on these, even though I always say I will LOL

Take All vitamins & supplements, been slacking on some of my extras lately

Drink at least 2 big mugs of water
Exercise... in front of hubby if need be

Try not to obsess over my calorie count

Finish my year-end clean sweep early! (OK, this one will have to be for the whole week...ha)

Good morning everyone!!! Hope you all had a fantastic and commited day. This is a thread about commital afterall. Just a quick check in for now.

Great going on the 2 pounds Caseygail!!! Sounds like you had a great weekend, what a great feeling it is to make it out of the weekend feeling that way. Weekends are SO, SO tough.

CC, glad you had fun at the party, that's what they're all about.

PNg, yeah one day it would be nice to shop all day long without feeling like I've just completed a triathalon.

Glad to see you on board Lifeguard, I hope you find posting here as useful as I do.

Sunshine, I've never been to The cheesecake factory. But the cakes you described, WHOA. I would absolutely have to have a sliver. And I hope you had a very, very happy birthday!!!

Nalynn, I find having guests over very, very difficult. I like to put out a nice spread and serve wine as well. And then eat from that nice spread and drink the wine as well. Sounds like you enjoyed yourself. Good, that's what you should do.

Not much to tell you today, you all must be breathing a sigh of relief on that one. Yesterday was another decent day, although since I was so busy I did slack off on the water.

Today's commitments:

-Stay on course with the eating
-Exercise, exercise, and more exercise, I already got a bunch in today
-Don't forget to drink lots of water
-Keep nibbling to a minimum
-Remember that I want to be thin, more then I want the food.

Have a great day folks, I'll check in later.

Mornin Ladies...Alright so dinner last night was an absolute catastrophe. We got to the restaurant at 6pm and our show was at 8:00pm so we didn't have tons of time...The place was packed but they told us it was a 15 minute wait. Needless to say it was nearly 7:00PM when we sat down. I said to the waitress right off the bat that we were going to be in a hurry and would need to order right away and all of that....she was a sweet girl but obviously didn't get that we were in a hurry at that point. I have a lot of patients for the food service industry cause I spent YEARS waiting tables (I would like to thank my degree in theatre for that one) but she was just no good at recognizing the customers needs...like really sweetie we've been standing in the lobby for an hour, we know whats on the menu, lets not take time with the specials, our leisurely dinner was squashed by your hosts who don't know how to quote a wait time....sorry for the rant but my threshold for clueless people is rather low in those situations. Anyway at that point all thoughts of healthy ordering were out the window in hopes for whatever was quick so pizza it was. They were small slices so I probably had the equivalent of 2 regular slices of pizza....but it was real heavy on the cheese...I tried to take some of it off but that was a bust too. We got a bottle of wine and I nursed 1 glass and a big mug of water so that was ok.

I suppose it could have been worse....I put everything into fit day and it wasn't so bad, still within my goal range. I also got on the scale this morning and have suffered no set backs so I feel a bit better now. In the end we didn't have time for cheesecake which was sort of a relief (though the not so brilliant waitress still didn't get that we were in a hurry and actually tried to negotiate with us about it to upsell her check average....) We then had to run (in heels) down Huntington Ave to the conservatory to make the show so I hopefully burned a few calories. I didn't have anything else for the rest of the night and even though it was late when I got home I stayed up and steamed some broccoli and grilled some chicken for lunch today so I wouldn't stay off base.

When I look back on what other people ate yesterday... mainly my boss....I don't feel so bad. Girl plowed through like 12 cookies and 4 rum balls by noon...she had a salad for lunch....covered in this bbq dressing that smelled like a bag of Doritos....and dinner for her last night was....wait for it...fried mac n cheese.....that by itself makes me, and my arteries for that matter, feel much better about an overall healthy day and a bit of a splurge on some pizza!

Anyway I'd go through everyone one by one but I've already done enough blabbing for one post I think so for today...

1. Continue the bored at work crusade against the holiday cookies (it is seriously so dead in my office my boss and I are considering catching a movie)
2. Don't get down on pizza...I mean really...if I think I'm gonna go the rest of my life without eating pizza I'm crazy, just as long as its not an every day thing
3. Gym tonight I had no gains this week but I also had no losses...time to up the exercise!
4. Along with upping the exercise I think its time to try to cut the calorie intake too...I've been between 1700 & 1800 since I started almost 2 months ago so I'm going to make my first reduction to 1600
5. water water water!

cheers

CC-Good Job on your party! And 21 minutes? work it girl!!
PNG-That story about your 6 year old was cracking me up
Rockin Robin- Thank You
Sunshine- I think you did an amazing job on your night out. You stayed within your goal range so great job!

Well I had a good day yesterday. Except I ate popcorn after 8 last night. I know that isn't that bad of a snack and it didn't send me over my calories but, my stomach felt terrible when I woke up this morning. I don't know if it was the popcorn or the fact that I ate it after 8. Either way no more eating after 8!! lol. Other than that I had a good day
my commitments-
-Eat more fruits and veggies
-Lots of water
-It's a beautiful day-take a run outside

Good morning!

Brrrr! It's cold here in CA. Well, cold for us. I'm housebound for the next few days with a plantation shutter installer who talks to himself. A lot. Loudly.

Anywho, I kept all but the exercise commitment from yesterday. Man, that's the hardest thing for me. It isn't that I don't have time, it's pure laziness. Those physicists know what they're talking about: a body in motion tends to stay in motion, a body at rest tends to stay at rest. My body wants to stay at rest and pass on the motion... Bad C.C.!

So for today since I have the food thing down right now, I have one commitment:

EXERCISE

Oh yeah, and don't scream at the installer to "shut up".

Have a good day everybody!

Welp, I'm here... ha, I've had the window open for a while, but I'm rebuilding after having to reformat my computer last night...guh so I keep getting distracted, trying to hunt down all my great knitting links that I lost... oivey.

I covered most of my bases yesterday, didn't get as much exercise in as I wanted, ended up cramming in 20 minutes doing upper body with dumbbells, was trying to fix my stupistupidstupid POC computer.

Today, I need cardio... w00t... sweaty out of breath day lol... so my exercise commitment today is to break out the goddess workout disk one, and give it my all... once again, in front of hubby if need be *eek*

OK, so for today:

Exercise, Goddess Workout or, if all else fails, as long as I can manage on the bike. (forgot I have an extra kid tonight)

Water, 2 more big mugs o' water

Food... urg, I'm not even like remotely interested in food today so far... some people might find that a good thing, but it scares the crap out of me lol but I guess my goal is to stick with my planned menu for the day, and only have ONE snack, no matter what my calorie count says.

and still trying to get that clean sweep done... yick, cleaning every corner, nook and cranny.

Now, need to find everything all over again... man, what a pain... I'll try to catch up with everyone later lol, I'm so scattered right now :|