I've got to get my head in the game. Seriously. My husband is gone almost all week except for dinner time and an hour afterward so I'm struggling. He's wanting all these foods like liver and onions, fried potatoes, fried chicken, mexican food - AH! Don't take me wrong - I have always, ALWAYS refused to do more than one fried food at a meal and we eat a LOT of veggies too. I told him tonight to enjoy his junk food because my job as "executive chef, nurse and also head (translated ONLY) grocery shopper that I am sick of us all being sick and unhealthy. So tomorrow....we change. At least a little. ;) I packed him his gravy & biscuit for breakfast, then light soup and crackers with yogurt for lunch and I think we'll have a veggie-full yummy stirfry with rice.

I have a four year old and a two year old. Lunches for them a few times a week usually is a sandwich with a pickle and chips, chicken nuggets and chips, or homemade lunchable style meals with sliced lunch meat, sliced cheese, ritz crackers, chips and a cookie. I really would like to move away from feeding them so much processed foods. Anyone have ideas for lunch for the kids? My 4yo isn't as hip on veggies which is totally my fault so I need to work on him, but my 2yo will eat just about anything - last night he denied dessert to have pickled beets. ;)

I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far!
I was super productive this morning and cleaned the downstairs of my townhouse (which is half bath, kitchen, diningroom, and livingroom). I always feel so much better when my environment is clean. Although admittedly i did it mostly because my BFF is coming over today-- I hate, hate having people over when the place isn't tidy (even though I know my friends don't care, it's a matter of pride on my part).
I am weirdo and actually like cleaning for the most part-- except doing laundry. I despise it, which is probably why my bedroom almost always looks like a volcano of clothes exploded. Oh well---
Just checking in and good luck to eveyone on tomorrows weigh in!!

Good for you for trying to think of ways to feed yoru kids healthy foods. now is definitely the time while they are young!

I recommend wheat bread and lunch meats, instead of chips, give them carrots with dipping sauces or sliced apples. There are a ton of websites out there devoted to mothers trying to find simple and healthy treats/lunches/snacks for their kids. A cookie a couple times of week won't hurt them but everyday...and chips? Not setting them up for a good time in the future.

I recommend googling healthy lunches for kids. a TON of pages will come up!

Good luck!

IrishRose I think I would have huge difficulty limited carbs to 20 grams...I also calorie count, and I love it. Sorry the book was a let down for you, but at least you got some interesting points of view from reading the reviews online! Yay for the clean house :)

I'm about to weigh-in because it's Sunday where I am. A simple bbq last night turned into a party unfortunately, but I am really proud of myself for not even turning it into a higher calorie day. I had a few drinks, included everything in my calorie count, and ended up just over 1600. Pretty good I think.
Hope everyone is ending the week well!

amylou: I have no kids but I remember as a kid I wasn't a huge fan of most veggies (apparently as a really little kid I liked everything but was later influenced by my picky eater older brother to "ewwww" many things), my mom used to blend (with a blender) veggies into our soups and sauces and stews and curries, so that whilst they looked bland, they were filled with nutrients etc. Another thing I can think of is grilling things (chips, chicken, beef, meatballs etc) as opposed to frying. Another thing is to maybe occasionally turn cooking into a project that they can participate in: most people involve kids mainly in baking sweets etc and so of course they have long-time positive associations with sweets and baking and so on, but I think there are kiddy cookbooks in libraries and probably online where you can find child-friendly recipes. Another idea is that most kids like cheese and ketchup so for a pickier eater, you can grate a little cheese (parmesan or whatever cheese) on their veggies and allow them to have their veggies with ketchup or mustard or whatever sauce they want to mask the vegetable taste. Also chopping veggies into very little pieces and hiding them in mash or rice is helpful; I'm 24 and even though I now eat broccoli, I'm still terribly grossed out by the look of it.

Sunday & Monday: I plan both meal and exercise. I've been a little lax with meal planning in the last couple of months because I used to plan the whole week ahead but now I only plan a few hours ahead. I still never just open the fridge to grab whatever to eat, there's always a plan, unless I'm being bad. Exercise-wise, I know I should go run at the gym twice a week irrespective (Tu/Thur or Wed/Fri) and I like to follow DVD work out plans like 30DS or 30 Day Slimdown or now I'm doing Turbo Jam for the 1st time and following the 4-wk schedule and loving it. I need to have a specific DVD workout planned for a day if not I tend to slack off.


After gradually getting to a low of 200.5 on Thursday (turning into an unofficial daily weigher of sorts), i expected a good weigh in this weekend, then i woke up Friday feeling bloated, PMS-y and incredibly snacky. And what do you know now it's TOM and I've gained 2 lbs from my weekday low and have seemingly lost nothing from last week. Yeah I'm kind of miserable. Sorry Team! Hopefully next week will be better! I hope you all have wayyyy better weigh-ins than I have. Happy Weigh Ins!!!

Sunday's Q:
I don't plan meals or exercise. I've tried the whole meal planning thing, but I always end up not wanting what I planned, end up eating something I shouldn't and then feel like a failure because I didn't eat what I "should have". At least for me, I've found it's best just to keep a bunch of healthy options on hand (seriously my freezer is filled to the brim with frozen meals)- so that I can always find soemthing appealing and stay on plan at the same time. The only time I'll kind of plan is whenn I know my boyfriend is cooking-- because although he tries its never as healthy as if I had made it, so I try to plan the rest of my day accordingly.

I don't plan much at all because for dinners, I'm still at the mercy of my boyfriend's parents or my parents depending on where I'm sleeping - but I think I'll have to start planning more once I'm living somewhere else in a couple of months! Can't just wait until dinner to make dinner, I know from experience it ends up more expensive that way and I'll end up stressed!

I have decided that when I get home tonight I am going to pack up all my "skinny clothes" and store them away. It's kind of a tough thing for me to do because only 6-7 months ago they fit. I found that one of the big things I did last time around was completely get rid of my thin clothes (most of which were from college) it actually helped a lot. I know that for a lot of people keeping stuff around that doesn't fit is great motivation, but for me it's just a reminder of how I have failed.
I feel like a horse with blinders on because I know what fits in my closet and I just zone in on those clothes and all the other ones just seem to get in the way. The problem comes when all the clothes that fit are dirty and all I have left are a bunch of clothes two sizes too small. It's depressing. And I will feel sooo much better when I can look into my closet and know that everything in there will fit me.

Sunday & Monday Question: I never plan for anything XD I guess I just sort of get a feel for my day, and know if I have wiggle room or not. With exercise, I exercise when I want to =P which is like, all the time.

Add In: Okay so I was about to just post what is below a propos de nothing. But then I felt like because it's a little long, I should put in a disclaimer. It's a pretty pointless whine so please feel free to skip over it. It's one of those things I wish I could just sit with my best friend and just say and cry in her arms but 1.) she's not where I am and 2.) she's going through a lot and in the grand scheme of things, this is inconsequential! So you my (poor) team is getting it. Now that it's done, I feel better, more rational, maybe purged even, having gotten it off my chest. So thank you. I hope everyone is doing well and on plan and here's to a great week to us all! Go Team Red Lace!!!

You know what's funny about daily weigh ins??? When i get a good number midweek, I obsess about whether or not it's a fluke, but when I get a bad number, I'm crushed, broken, stomped into the ground, in the absolute depths of despair. So after weighing in the 202s from Friday to Sunday, I woke up yesterday weighing 209! Yes 209!!! 7 effing pounds in 24hrs!!! I was soooo upset, I started to giggle. I laughed till tears ran down my still incredibly chubby cheeks. Negative self-talk??? I was all over that, but somehow it was funny. Yeah... I was hysterical. Fast-forward 24hrs to today at 206.5... I'm so over this whole thing! The only thing that's keeping me on track is that I know at some point in 6months, I won't be so over it any more, and I don't want to have to start this whole thing over again.

I think everything's been building. I had an NSV first week this year of fitting into size 12 jeans. 6 months ago I would have killed, taken out a rib, done my own surgery, whatever to fit into size 12 jeans and now that I do, it's like meh, I don't really see a difference. And I don't mean this in a body dysmorphic way. I'm always the 1st to think I'm slimmer than I am. Obviously I realize there's a tangible difference between my old size (18/20) and my current size (i'm still somewhat rational, even mid-rant/whine) but I feel like I look exactly the same in my new clothes as I did in my old clothes... if that even makes sense. Don't ask me what I expected to see because I don't even know... But maybe I just pictured this size and this weight to be smaller on me somehow...

And I do feel bad being this whiny and this obsessive over scale numbers. I'm not even particularly a daily weigher for this exact reason. It's just that I've gotten into the habit of stepping on the scale every morning right before I get dressed "just to see <nervous giggle [as I say that to myself]>... I suppose I'm momentarily happy when I see a good number but that's soon overtaken by worries if "is it real?" "will it stick?" etc etc... <sighs> I was super well-adjusted as a teenager, I hear myself whine like this and wonder what has happened to me; I'd have slapped the whine out of myself right quick by now! Maybe I'm hormonal or something, or maybe I was just a better person back then... But that's another whine for another day.

toasted - I kind of talk about something like that in my blog today but moreover read this article and see if you see any similarities.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31489881...womens_health/

This article helped me tons. Not sure if you will relate but figured I'd throw it out there =)

Kriz That was a really interesting article.
toasted As a daily weigher myself I can relate to your pain. A while back I had to stop doing the daily weighing thing because it turned into too much of an emotional rollercoaster for me. I tend to lose weight more weight overall when I weigh in daily though so I've gone back to it. For me though, I've been doing it long enough that I know at least once a week my weight will spike up at least 2 pounds overnight. Usually within 3 days it will be back down again. I've had to teach myself that it's a normal thing for my body and learn to ride the rollercoaster instead of letting it ride me. LOL. But size 12! That is awesome. Give yourself some time to adjust to it. I'm sure you look fabulous!

toasted I know what you mean about thinking you'd be smaller at a certain weight/size...I definitely thought I'd be smaller than I am now at 67kg (147.7 pounds). I just thought I'd be smaller, probably because last time I was this weight, I was smaller around the stomach and boobs. Stupid boobs grew. And it worries me because if I'm not as small as I thought I'd be now, maybe I won't be when I reach my goal of 55kg (121 pounds)...which means I'd have to lose even more and it's hard enough having that number in my head - I'm also a near-daily weigher...and I totally get how you feel.
Rant whenever you need to, someone will always read it :) Hope you are feeling better now and less hysterical. I sometimes feel like I'm going a little insane when I step on the scale.