Well, today was more of a bust than I planned. I was good, except for the chocolate croissant, the brownie, and the delicious quesadillas for dinner. But whatever, it's only my birthday once a year and I'll be better tomorrow.

Katie - I do the same thing! I have a big calendar for every time I complete a day of C25K and eat well!

Joyra - How's C25K going for you? I've started it so many times and always been frustrated because it never feels just right. Week One is coasting for me, but if I jump ahead it'll be super hard and I suck at following plans... Ugh.

joyra- lucky girl.....and I'm sure you'll be looking good.

So I got snowed in today and didn't go to work and it worked in my favor. I did great eating, didn't fall off plan at all. Here's how it went;

Breakfast- Hard Boiled Egg, fruit salad
Snack- 3oz. turkey and .5oz cheese
Lunch- Salad
Snack- 1 cup veggie soup
Supper- Pork, wild rice, green beans and 12oz milk
Snack- 5oz red wine (dont know if that is really a snack
Calories- 1497
Water 120 oz

I however did not exercise, so it is hard to get too excited.

I had a good day getting back on plan....not perfect but good

Lucky Charms and Milk (150 cal)
Some sesame bar with chocolate (230 cal)
Parmesan crusted chicken breast (200 cal)
Peas (60 cal)
A little more parmesan chicken (150 cal)
Tall nonfat caramel macchiato (140 cal)
Slice of cheese pizza (210 cal)
Red wine (200 cal)

I only ate the pizza because my husband and I were at an end of semester party for one of his classes and I only had one piece. I resisted the tortilla chips and popcorn and bread and dip and brownies and beer and soda! I had a couple glasses of wine though. But right now I'm at 1340 calories. Below my goal of 1500! Yay! And I did 35 minutes on the elliptical and some easy knee strengthening exercises.

Viatre: Good attitude about it being your birthday. One not so good day won't ruin everything.

Niclyn: I should start keeping track of my water too! I hardly drink anything all day.

Niclyn, good job staying home and staying on plan. I do far worse at home. Maybe it's because I live in a studio apartment but I get so bored at home that I am always wanting to eat. Like Sunday, I probably had like 6 snacks!

Katie, good job avoiding all that party food. For me, if I have one thing it's generally a snowball effect and I just gorge myself. ... pretty much start carrying the chip bowl around with me.

My good day yesterday is paying off.. this morning the scale read between 74 (162.8) and 73.5 kg (161.7). I hate manual scales! But I guess I like them if they are descending... .. today is going well so far too, I just have to keep up the momentum with exercising. Today I plan to walk home from work (just shy of 2 miles) and then try the 30 Day Shred Level 3. When I was doing it everyday, I quit during Level 2. I figured I need some high intensity since walking it pretty low-impact.

Another good day, kind of.

Exercise:
35 minutes - walk home from work (1.75 miles)
30 minutes - DDR, low intensity (170 cal burned)

Food:
Bfst - Frosted Flakes, banana, yogurt
Lunch - K food (leafy soup, kimchi, pickles, rice)
Dinner - Pasta, beans & veggies, crackers & cheese, Reese's Pieces
Really late night snack - Banana
Total: 1460

I would have been 1370 if not for the banana but I went to bed STARVING. Couldn't sleep for about 2 hours and finally ate it and felt better.

I also started to get these feelings that I had last time I was really pushing myself with diet and exercise--like... is this the rest of my life? All while I was laying in bed, I thought about all the foods I used to love to eat. I can't eat them here in Korea, they aren't available but I fantasize that when I'm back in America I will eat them everyday. I know I can still eat them sometimes and maybe by the time I'm back there in 9 months I will have changed tastes (hopefully!) but staying OP is REALLY HARD. One day staying OP makes me so proud and the next I feel so overwhelmed at the thought of doing this forever.

I hit my new low since starting weight loss today, 161.7 (73.5 kg). I'm happy but.... I really need to just suck it up.

How's everyone doing?

Today is good so far. I did my 20 min Shred video in the afternoon.
I had homemade pancakes for breakfast with my coffee, then lunch was progress 0 point soup, and kashi crackers with cheese
Dinner is pasta and sauce- not a big fan of pasta so i usually don't eat too much. I'm also having a slice of italian bread and smart balance butter.
I'm at 1101 so i'll probably have a snack later too, probably popcorn. That will be 1293 total.
Great day except for my water intake, i need to start chugging.

Joyra - the only advice i have for you is to take it one day at a time. Don't think about all the stuff your missing out on, if you can. Focus on staying OP in Korea, and then by the time you get to America your new habits will be second nature.

Let's see...
Today for breakfast I had a lean cuisine, lunch was a pbj, cliff bar, pineapple, and an orange. I really shouldn't have eaten that cliff bar, I was just craving something more substantial. Then dinner I had some carrots and ranch dip, leftover ham, a very little left over dressing and mashed potatos, and a baked potato. Not my finest day. The high point, however, is that even though I didn't control my portions very well, I did avoid any sort of massive junk food binge.

For exercise, I'm going to go to the gym after watching House if I can get a ride (just my luck, my driver's license expired so I'm stuck without for a couple days)

It sounds like everyone's doing pretty good! Just stick too it Joyra, it really will be worth it

Day 2 for me: so far so good!
Lucky Charms for breakfast (I'm on a lucky charms kick!), Lunch was a turkey sandwich and peas, I had some trail mix (dried fruit and nuts) for a snack, and Lean Pocket for dinner.

My husband just brought a bowl of potato chips down so I'm munching on some. At least there's some portion control cause it's only this bowl and I have some calories to spare. I need to go shopping for some veggies.

I did 35 minutes of cardio at the gym. I went to the gym BEFORE coming home which is very important. Whenver I come home first I rarely get back out to the gym.

Keep up the hard work everyone!

I know that it is probably all water weight, and my body coming down from my thanksgiving binge, but...I lost 2.5 lbs!!!! since Sunday.

Day 2 diet went good for me. There was a potluck at work, so to resitst temptation I ate at my desk. I did how ever grab one bite of chili...but I looked it up on calorie king and realized that one bite cost me 25 calories. So it helped keep me on track for the rest of the day.

Breakfast- Hard boiled egg, fruit salad
Snack- .5oz cheese
Lunch- Salad, Hard boiled egg, 1 cup veg. soup
Snack- one bite chili
Supper- BBQ chicken, fake fried potatoes, corn
Snack- 3 chocolate covered peanuts
Total Calories- 1239
Water- 128 oz

Yesterday at work I slipped on the ice and fell flat on my a$$. Thankfully today is my day off because I am so sore today. I have to go to the Dr. (for the work comp. claim)...but I'm sure I'm fine, just sore.

The really crappy part was that I actually took my gym clothes to work and was going to go on my way home. So again no exercise.

Katie3181- I have to MAKE myself drink water. I hate it. I bought a bag of lemons which seems to help. I used to try to drink water instead of coffee and soda, but it never seemed to work. So now instead of giving them up, that is my reward. So when I drink a bottle (24oz) of water I can have 2 cups of coffee. Seem's to be working much better.

joyra- Your doing GREAT...and you should be proud of one day OP, that is all we have. Kindof like the AA motto, one day at a time....but more like one MEAL at a time.

Well, today went really well for me. I just did C25K W1D2, which was nice and easy still. I at just shy of 1300 calories, without feeling hungry or deprived or anything, so I figure that I can probably trim that down a little more, since so many of those calories were unnecessary (a small piece of cake, ranch dip with my carrots, butter on my bread, etc)

I hope you're feeling better, niclyn, with the injury!

Keep up the good work guys!

Another good day yesterday!
Exercise:
27 minutes of DDR - 330 calories

Food:
Bfst - Frosted flakes, strawberry yogurt
Lunch - Japchae (clear noodles with veggies--yum! A whole serving was almost 400 calories, but I only took a little bit), Kimchi, Rice, Chajang (Black bean sauce), Rice soup (so gross but I feel pressure to take a bit of everything.. lot of wasted calories!)
Snack - Jolly Rancher
Dinner - Ramen & Cheese, honey roasted peanuts
Snack - Clementine
Total: About 1375

It was 1325 without the black bean sauce. I couldn't figure out how many calories were in that, all online recipes didn't include the ingredients that this sauce had. I'm guessing 50 since it's pretty much just veggies in it.

And I lost another .25 kg again. So I'm down 1.6 lbs in 3 days. I'm OBSESSED with reaching my goal by the end of next week... 3.5 more lbs to go. I haven't reached a goal yet since dieting so it will be great to hit that number.

Was doing well until the end of my shift at work (I worked till 10 pm) when I bought a bag of popcorn...I thought, this isn't so bad. 150 calories for 2 and a half cups....but I ate the WHOLE BAG! (500 calories) I still came in just at my goal of 1500 calories for the day but I wish I didn't eat all that popcorn.

Worked out---burned 500 calories

weighed 160.4 lbs on Sunday and 157.4 lbs today! woo hoo! I know it's mostly water weight but it's nice to see the scale go down!

Katie, I used to always eat the whole bag of popcorn.. it didn't taste as good if I saved it. And for a long time I seriously thought a whole bag of popcorn was healthy... I never realized that there were 3 servings in there.

Yesterday was another on point day, even with unhealthy items scattered within it.

Exercise:
25 minutes - C25K W2D2
60 minutes - Wii Sports (not exactly high intensity but my arms were sore after playing baseball, boxing, bowling, tennis and golf with my boyfriend)

Food:
Bfst - Clif bar, banana
Lunch - 2 bites of tofu, 3 bites of seaweed salad, 2 bites of kimchi and rice. I mention all the bites because yesterday's lunch sucked! It was meat and fish galore and so I ate two cubes of tofu from the fish soup and a couple bites of seaweed from the seaweed & squid salad. I was so hungry for lunch and when that was it, I was quite crabby (and starving) after lunch.
Snack - Crackers & cheese, clementine
Dinner - Parmesan pasta & broccoli, small glass of beer
Snack - Ice cream waffle (delicious and hi-cal but thanks to almost non-existant lunch, had plenty of calories to spare)
Total: 1390

My weight was back up that half-lb from yesterday but that's okay. Can't lose everyday! I am a bit worried for the weekend. My light breakfast & lunch has made sticking in my calorie range much easier. On the weekend when I can eat more during the day, I'll have a tougher time at dinner keeping my calories in check.

Keep up the good work everyone! And checking in here all the time has been great for me. I can really share my successes and admit to my mistakes. It really helps.

Lets see, today has been good for me so far!
Breakfast: Apple, Banana, Piece of whole wheat toast with margarine
Lunch: Ham/Cheese tortilla wrap, carrots with ranch dip, 3 clementines
Dinner: pork chop, rice, salad
For exercise, I had an hour and a half lacrosse practice that kind of kicked my butt.

Oh! And this morning I weighed in at 181.5, after weighing 184 just on Sunday! Which sounds awful fast, but I up until now I've probably been eating a good 800 calories more a day, so it's going super easy right now!

Sounds like you had good days joyra and Viatre!

Today I had:
Breakfast - hardboiled egg, piece whole wheat toast with tomato and garlic
Snack - mandarin
Lunch - Tuna, beet salad with balsamic vinegar and goat cheese
Supper - Seared tuna with wasabi vinagrette on mixed greens, squash soup with pan bread, glass red wine, bite of brownie (staff Christmas supper!)

I am just shy of 1700 calories (my goal is 1800/day max), so good its a good day, particularly because of my staff dinner tonight!

Though... we did a gift exchange and I ended up with 9 enormous peppermint brownies... ugh. ! I haven't had one though I want one soooo badly. Please convince me not too!!