Down some more today! TOM is just about to disappear - I think it's gone but I never want to get too excited in case it pops up again haha - sometimes it does that. So I'm 77.3kg this morning, 170.4 pounds!

I'm going to get a massage today and make today also my day off exercise to give my muscles a chance to heal a bit - that doesn't mean day off eating OP though, just had myself a nice blueberry and banana smoothie.

Stargzr I found a recipe somewhere around this site for individual turkey meatloaves that you cook in a muffin tin - it seemed to be diabetic friendly (my dad is diabetic) so I'm thinking I might try to cook those tonight and serve with some steamed veges and something else as well. Hope the bruise from the car trunk lid isn't too bad! I am such a clumsy person, I end up with bruises everywhere sometimes hah!

Hope the rest of you ladies are well ^_^

flythinlyns aw feel better soon. I don't eat that great when I am sick either. Just drink tons of water and tea.

stargzr I am glad you are having a great time! Ouchy on the trunk. Hope the bruise goes away soon. way to go on eating in calories :) always a feeling of accomplishment.

rainbowstripe how great that the pounds are dropping! have fun at your massage...sounds so good :)



So my day was not the greatest foodwise.. I made potato filled salty pastries and had a couple too many...sigh..drank alot of water and did my run so hopefully I kept it in check/....we shall see in the morning.lol
well good night for now

sun Those pastries sound good - I'm sure you won't have done too much damage! Good for staying positive!

~~

I nearly threw up my lunch today, I think the chicken I used in my stir fry was a little past it's best, so I've spent the last hour in bed and now I feel better. I'm about to make dinner - turkey meatloaves, I hope they're good! Going to do my other "official" weigh in on my Wii fit in the morning - hopefully that shows me 77kg even - I would love that!!

Hi ladies! I'd love to join your accountability if you don't mind. I have been on and off the wagon, gaining and losing the same 10 lbs for almost two years. I decided it is time to re-commit and do this for good. I really need to lose the 'all or nothing' attitude and realize this is a lifestyle change and I'm going to make mistakes. I'm ready to do this and I would love to be able to check in with you ladies and stay accountable!

sun and stargzr, it's been a while since I've chatted with you and I've missed you! :)

Hello to rainbow and flythin, I look forward to getting to know you!

I hope everyone is having a good Thursday so far!

fashin! its been so long :) welcome. Lets get on track together.

So I am a lb up from water weight. Going to go to yoga today and shake it and more off! :)

Hey fashinjunkie!I look forward to getting to know you too! Let's all stay on track together!

sun Hope yoga is good! Say goodbye to that pound!

~~

I just went for the same 2.5 kilometre jog/walk I did on Monday and it took me 3 minutes less today! I wasn't trying to beat my time or anything but it happened. That means I only did 21 minutes of exercise - but it was so sunny and I forgot to wear sunblock and I had no idea of how long I'd been out while I was out so I just did the route I'd planned. I was so hot and sweaty, I feel like even if it was only just over 20 minutes, it was still a good workout.

Going out for dinner tonight for a friend's birthday - I am pretty sure I'll go slightly over my usual calories but I'm going to try not to and also will keep my calories lower today to try to account for it. The restaurant is almost impossible to tell calorie counts from, it's yakitori (grilled veges and meat on sticks) and you order things individually. Here is the website in case any of you ladies have a chance to give me an idea of what to eat haha! http://www.kenyakitori.co.nz/

I feel like it might not be as bad as I think as long as I don't order anything deep fried.

OH and the turkey meatloaves I made last night were so good! SO good. I am proud of myself. Having a leftover one for lunch today! Weight is 100gm down from yesterday, which is not really a proper loss, but I'm going with it haha.

Hope Friday treats you ladies well when you get to it!

Thanks sun, it feels great to be back on track!

rainbow, great job on beating the time of your last run! Even if it was 20 minutes it sounds like a great workout! What did you end up going with for dinner last night?

Yesterday was perfectly OP and expecting today to be as well. TGIF! :)

steph, I want to remember how it feels to lose! Hehe, but I am taking a slightly different approach this time and not putting so much importance on the scale and it's daily fluctuations. I'm going to (try to) only weigh once a week this time. Great job getting back on track right after that big dinner, those situations are the worst for me too.

So, I had brought my Lean Cuisine for lunch today but it really wasn't sounding good and lo and behold when I went into the breakroom to make my lunch, there was pizza and ranch (my weakness) leftover from a luncheon. I ended up having two slices of cheese pizza with about 1.5 oz of ranch. Not the best, but considering I can easily put away 4 slices (plus they had all kinds of cookies and dessert pizzas too), I'd say I did pretty ok. I looked up my calories online and I still have enough to have my planned dinner and a light yogurt for my afternoon snack :D.

I hope you are all having a wonderful Friday so far!

rainbow good job on your run! it may not be what you normally do but every little bit counts!
stargzr i totally know what you mean about rerealizing how nice it is to loose. i fell off the weightloss wagon when i went on vaca for my sister's wedding and have starting loosing and am loving it! keep going!

fashion If you were in your calories I wouldn't worry about it :) just drink tons of water so the sodium flushes out.

I did ok today not the best choices but in calories. I haven;t run yet and its 900 pm but I will go and do it now. sigh

Thanks sun! I've stopped weighing every day for now so I won't have to deal with little sodium fluctuations thank goodness. But, yes I am still drinking lots of water! Did you get your run in? Do you run outside or on a treadmill?

fashinjunkie Thanks for the encouragement! Because the serves are very small (2 skewers with about 35gm of meat per skewer, if that) I ordered what seems like a lot but was actually a pretty well balanced meal, if perhaps a little protein heavy: chicken, beef sirloin, kumara (similar to sweet potato), mushrooms and broccoli with sesame mayo. The worst part in terms of calories was probably that sesame mayo, but it was tasty and I stayed under my upper calorie limit for the day so I'm not worried. Congrats on being OP! And yay for sticking in your calories even with the unplanned pizza! I love that about calorie counting.

stargzr It definitely felt like a good workout! I'm not so worried about it not being "enough" - it felt good, I felt like I was doing something good, so I most likely did actually do something good! Yay for the 2lb gain being temporary - eating at other peoples houses always scares me a little.

sun I hope your late night run was good! You are so dedicated, I am impressed! I think the best thing about calorie counting is that it's ok to sometimes not have the best choices but stay in your calories. But I also know I don't always feel as good if I know I've made some not so great choices.

~~

I've been right on plan with calories for the weekend. I'm at work on Sunday now, I haven't exercised officially this weekend but did spend yesterday morning walking around a pet and animal show getting excited over kittens and puppies. I'm still deciding whether I'll exercise tonight. Right now I'm thinking no, I usually never do on a Sunday and I'm not feeling like it AT ALL. I know I will get back into it tomorrow so I don't think it's too horrible if I don't. I'm sticking to calories and I'm proud of myself for managing to go out for dinner and some drinks on Friday and stay completely in control of what I consumed. I'd been worried that alcohol would make me make bad choices or make me drink more alcohol than I planned but I was really impressed.

Also last night my boyfriend and I went around to another couple's house (our friends) for dinner and after dinner we watched a dvd - my self control in counting out 6 cheetos-esque chips for myself AMAZED me (and my boyfriend). I stayed in calories and I felt great. I'm feeling pretty pleased!

I'm now down to 77kg / 169.7 pounds. It feels so good to have lost 8 kilograms! 2 more kg and I'm 1/3 of the way there!

fashin thanks for the encouragment...I run on the treadmill until I am a little more confident. lol

rainbow great job on keeping your calories in check! Great job on getting your weight down! I totally love doing the math :)

Today was great... I went to yoga in the morning and kept perfectly in my calories...tomorrow is my official weigh in..so fingers crossed. I am going for yoga in the morning again..usually sunday is my day off but I really feel like I need another workout.
my mom is coming the day after tomorrow for a 2 week visit from India and I am soo excited. anyhow hope you guys have a great sunday!

rainbow, your choice at the restaurant sounds healthy and delicious! Way to go on the moderation this weekend, and the loss too! Very exciting to see results!!

sun, great job being OP this weekend! I have my fingers crossed that you will have a good WI tomorrow, keep us updated!

So we went to the state fair today and I stayed completely within my calorie range and I am very proud of myself considering all the tasty temptations that were around! But, it was fair food after all so it was not healthy, but I feel like I got a pretty good workout since we walked a lot and I either carried my son or pushed him in his huge stroller. Yay for OP weekends! :)

As for the scale, my official WI day is not til Wednesday, but I hopped on to take a peek this morning and it said 159.2! That means I have lost all the 'weight' I put on in the two weeks of being not so great food-wise. But, now comes the hard part. For some reason, I always end up giving up around this time, but not this time!

I hope you are all having a great and OP weekend! :)

fashin sounds like you are doing great! :) I know what you mean about finally loosing what we put on!

So I went for yoga again,,,i think I am becoming addicted. Tomorrow running. I went down a lb so yay...was hoping for a little more but oh well. its late but i still haven't had dinner. maybe some soup. Tomorrow I have a long drive to Atlanata to pick up my mom...so I have it all planned out in my head! lol subway is my friend..haha
good luck for this next week my lovely ladies.

fashinThanks for the encouragement! When you order food at a place like that and it comes out all staggered (like..over the course of 45 minutes) it seems like you're eating a lot more I think. But it was fun! And I felt good! I cannot even imagine the temptation of a state fair - we don't really have anything like it in New Zealand. All that comes to mind for me is American tv shows I watch and also the book Charlotte's Web haha...I can imagine it's a tempting place to be in terms of food so well done you! And yay for having lost the weight you put on/being unofficially in the 150's! Awesome stuff!

sun I can think of worse things to be addicted to than yoga! I've actually never tried it (aside from in Turbo Jam workouts where at the end in the cool down the instructor says the one of the moves is a yoga pose) but I hear it's great for posture and toning and strength? I hope your long drive isn't too tiring - and Subway is sometimes a really good friend right?! I don't have it that often but I know what I can order and how many calories it is and that it's a lot more nutritious than some of the choices I could make!

~~

So it's Monday here for me. I'm a little bit disappointed - I found out (by adding something to my calorie tracker that I'd forgotten) that I was actually slightly higher on calories on Saturday than I would have liked but only by about 70 calories so I guess it's not the end of the world - I just didn't intend to have 2 higher calorie days in a row. We learn though! It's not that bad I suppose really.
I'm feeling really tired today for some reason but I said I'd get right back into my exercising today and I will - planning to either jog/walk or stationary bike when I get home from work, depending on the weather. I really don't feel like it but I know I'll feel worse if I don't - plus I will have you ladies to answer to :P
I've also been feeling REALLY hungry today and I have no idea why. I'm not eating any more than I usually would though - still have no idea what is for dinner (boyfriend's mum is cooking as is usual on a Monday) so I kind of have to allow for that. We always eat fairly healthily but I never like to run the risk of going over my calories with dinner.

sun, great job on the yoga and the lb down! I can't wait to see 152!! Have fun with your mom!

rainbow, you are doing so great don't get down over a few calories! I have done that before, too and it does suck but you're right- we learn!

Stephanie, I'm sorry you didn't get your run yesterday, but at least you are going tonight yay! :)

Another OP day- yay! I hope everyone is having a great Monday!

stargzr Hope your run is/was good! I'm sure running around with nieces counts a bit hehe. And I think it's ok to not post your weight, it's so easy to get obsessed with the numbers (I know all too well).

fashin Congrats on another OP day!

So I just wanted to check if you ladies would prefer to be addressed by your actual names rather than your screen names as I see that both stargzr and fashinjunkie have your names in your signatures? Let me know ^_^

My stationary biking exercise last night was really good. I really didn't feel like it but after about 10 minutes I started to enjoy it a bit and when I got to the end of my 30 minutes, I did another 12 as well. Felt really good!

My boyfriend's mum got us fish for dinner - and she crumbed hers and his and didn't crumb mine - I was so happy that she left my piece as is as she knows I'm counting calories and stuff but I'm usually at the mercy of whatever they cook - luckily she was thinking about me!

My lunch today was higher calorie than I would have usually eaten for lunch, leftovers from dinner on Sunday, so I'm going to have to be extra careful with dinner I think to stay in my range, but I have full confidence in myself to do it.

Not exercising today as I won't have time/I never exercise after dinner... I guess I could start doing this but I hate exercising on a full stomach so first thing in the morning or after work always seems perfect for me.

Looking forward to a sleep in tomorrow! I don't work Wednesdays and have been so tired this week, I think it will be good.

Stephanie Hehe on the other activity, counts as a workout to me :P I hope you reach your secret goal! As for Halloween...so far I haven't even decided if I'll be doing anything. It's nowhere near as big in New Zealand, so I'm not sure. I love dressing up in costumes, but I guess I'll just see if anything is happening around my area or if my friends are doing anything! I also have a weight goal for Halloween but I'm not sure I'll make it.

~

Kind of frustrated today. Scale is the same as it was for last weeks weigh in. Urgh. My birthday goal is seeming pretty unattainable right now, and while I'm not so pissed off that I won't make that goal, I'm more pissed off that my loss has slowed down so much. It's making me wonder if I'm doing something wrong or if I need to change my calorie intake in some way. Bleh. So annoyed. Tempted to eat a whole lot of junk today, but of course it won't make me feel better or make the scale change (at least not in a good way) so I know I won't. I just feel like it haha.

sorry ladies... I don't have time to read all the posts just now. Been super busy with my parents here and throwing my daughter's 2nd bday party. It was fun! Went over my calories with cake and lasagna because I wasn't counting but oh well....off to yoga in the morning to rectify some of the damage :)
here is a link to see some pics of the party! I will delete it when you guys have taken a look :)

sun Cute! That cake is so awesome, I wanted one like that when I was a child haha. Looks like a fun party, glad you're having a good time with your parents around - it's good to be busy so no need to apologise to us! Hope the yoga is good - I'm about to force myself to exercise as well.

rainbow and Stephanie, I'm sorry you are not seeing much movement with your scales. I'm glad you're both keeping a good attitude. I always tell myself that if I just keep eating right and exercising, the scale can't not go down! Ha ha I've got my fingers crossed for you both, but you're doing great!

sun, beautiful pictures thank you for sharing!

So this morning was my official WI day and I am back in the 150's thank goodness. Now comes the hard part. We can do this!

Planned a little splurge for lunch today, hopefully it won't mess with the scale too much. I guess we'll see! You ladies have a lovely day!

Stephanie Yeah the birthday is just around the corner! I kind of love and hate birthdays. I like presents (who truly doesn't?) but I'm not good at having so much attention on me. I wanted to have a party or something, and I've organised a small one, but I'm scared of people coming to celebrate my birthday haha, and I'm also terrified of receiving presents because I always think I'm not showing enough gratitude. Yours is pretty soon too! I hope your run happened and was good!

Ashlee Thank you for the encouragement! I mostly try and stay positive, but I have to admit that my boyfriend does hear a bit of whining from me on days like this haha. I was super childish yesterday and said something to him like "I think I'm just meant to be chubby forever" haha. So ridiculous. Yay for the 150's! I hope your splurge lunch is nice.

~~
Yesterday was fairly good for me...I went on the treadmill for 10 minutes and had planned to do like 1-2 minutes jogging to 1 minute walking for those 10 minutes. I did 1 minute walking and then started jogging...and kept jogging for 8 whole minutes! I was so surprised I could actually do it. The speed was 7.5km an hour, and I know it's easier on a treadmill, but it still felt really good to be able to achieve that!
I ate slightly low during the day on my calories and then my parents came home with gross takeaways - some beef and potato curry, very heavy looking. Of course I could have found something like veges in the freezer, but at this point I'd already cooked a really healthy chicken and vege lunch...so I calculated how many calories I had left and I decided to have McDonald's. I know it's not an amazing choice, and even if it is within my calories it's still a lot of sodium, but it kept me under my fat intake for the day and my calorie allowance, and I think it will prevent me from doing a drive through on another day as I've been craving a cheeseburger for ages. I only had a cheeseburger and small fries. And then had some peaches for dessert. So I don't think it's too terrible.
Going to try and jog on the treadmill again very soon, will see how much I can do! Hope you ladies are going well!

stargzr I know what you mean when you feel like the week is going by and you see no improvement. I am sure if you keep it up you will see something by your weigh in day.

fashin glad you are in the 150s again! Just push through :) we will be in the 140s together soon.

rainbow great job on the joggin! this week I am suppose to go run/jog for 5 minutes and walk for 5 for about 20 minutes!~ I am scared. Will let you know how I do after tomorrow.

Thank you for the compliments Ladies! I had fun making the cake and my cookie was happy.

I did go for yoga today and surfed with hubby. I even stood on the board all thought not very straight. We ate at Moe's but i was careful and chugged water so hopefully the scale will be kinder then today was. I gained 2 lbs over night from the birthday..lol. Hope you all have a great thrusday!

it's really good (and also really hard!) to stay motivated, good job!!!

sun Woo! Go you on the surfing! That is pretty awesome! Thanks for the encouragement.

Hey shamrockin!

~~

So I did 36 minutes on the treadmill today! Walked for the first, then jogged for 8, then walked for 2, jogged for another 8 (the second 8 was hardddd) and then did some more walking and 2 more 2minute portions of jogging. Total of 20 minutes jogging! Felt amazing. SOOOOO sweaty as well.
It's my sister's husbands birthday tomorrow so we're going there for dinner. My sister is making ribs and has asked us to contribute a side...I've just made mine (24 hours in advance haha, I won't get a chance tomorrow) - it's green beans with tomato puree, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and some cinnamon and paprika. Might sound weird but it's really good, my mum has made it for ages it's supposedly a Lebanese recipe (I'm part Lebanese).

She just texted me and told me she bought amazing cupcakes and that I should save some calories :S Worrying!

rainbow, wow way to go on the jogging! And I think you did really well with the McDonald's. It's all about moderation and you did it for sure! Good luck at the birthday party, I'm sure you'll do great. :)

sun, I would love to be in the 140's with you soon! Although I'm sure you'll get there way before me- you're doing great! And I love Moes! What did you get there? Their chips and queso is my weakness! Great job on all the exercise too, surfing sounds so fun!

Stephanie, I just joined your Thanksgiving challenge! I'm with you, I splurged yesterday and had a pretty greasy lunch (although I will say I didn't eat near as much as I would have in the past) and I was miserable for the rest of the afternoon. But, this whole thing is one big learning process and I'd say we're doing pretty good! :) I hope you get a run in soon!

I hope everyone is having a good week, and it's almost Friday yay! :)

rainbow way to go on the running. I just started to run 5 minutes in a row yesterday. I thought I was going to die! It felt good to get it done though. be careful of the cupcakes! my daughter's birthday set me back some unfortunetly. ugh not sure i am going to go down a lb this week.

stargzr I hope you get to running soon :) atleast you are not doing nothing! Hope you have a great friday :)

fashion I had the instant friend(quesadilla) but my hubby got the nachos and I ate some :( :)

I had a good run yesterday and was good until I ate two slices of pizza last night and today my scale is still showing 154 ugh. I think I really need to get going with getting back on track because i am going to start to backslide. Its so not easy with my mom being here and bringing my favorite sweets. we shall see tomorrow. Atleast my exercise is going good. I made a deal with my hubby for my yoga and the next 3 months are going to be my anniversary and xmas presents so i am happy about that. :)
also I took a photo after 2 months for some encouragement
http://i905.photobucket.com/albums/a...ne/2010110.jpghttp://i905.photobucket.com/albums/a...greene/002.jpg

sun, holy crap! Lol wow you can tell a huge difference in two months!! Do you mind me asking what your weight was in the first pic? Maybe I should take a starting picture too, hmmm....

Having a good OP day so far, hope everyone else is too! :)

Steph, I know how you feel, it bums me out to think I was down to 156 this time last year and where I would be if I had just kept going. But, I refuse to look back 1 year from now and have the same regrets (especially since I will hopefully be getting married Sept 10)! We can do this girl!
Have fun tonight! I think me and the bf are going to go to the fair this weekend, but get a babysitter for the little one and have some 'us' time, I'm pretty excited! :)

Hey ladies, just a really quick check in!

sun You can definitely see a difference! You're looking goooooood!

Stephanie Hope you have fun in San Diego!

fashin Hope the time with your husband is nice!

~
Yesterday/last night wasn't too bad! I stayed approximately (I say that because it's impossible to tell exact calories in the foods that were prepared, though I did weigh everything) in my calories until I got back to my boyfriends haha... I stayed up for a few more hours to smoke a shisha pipe with him and his friends and ended up eating some peaches and a yoghurt because they were eating cheesecake and leftover cupcakes I brought for them. I ended up going 100 calories over my lower limit..so I guess I was still in my limit, but still feel a bit bad since I didn't exercise yesterday. Tis ok though! At least I ate healthy snacks!

Today we went for a walk to a local cafe to get coffee which was nice...and then to a french bakery where my boyfriend bought a fresh out of the oven pain au chocolat - I was literally staring at it drooling haha, but I resisted trying it. We also bought a baguette but that's ok, I'll just have a slice or so.

I think this weekend will be fine overall, no real plans but I'm just going to try to stick to my calories and get some exercise in. My parents and boyfriends are all away now so meals are up to me which is great!

Hope you're all well!

fashion Thanks :) I was around 160-162 at that time and have come down to 152. it helps me when i can see whats going on. You should totally do it! you will be so surprised I have pics from the very beginning of my weightloss journey.
stargzr I know what you mean about taking a break....I went to India in April and fell off the wagon for until August! and went up 10lbs! But now we are back and who cares as long as we get there right? There is no time limit. We can look perfect a few months late but we WILL look perfect. Hope you had fun with your husband.

rainbow Great job on keeping in your calories almost perfectly! And also resisting the yummy sounding treat your bf got:) hope you enjoy cooking your own food,

So I did ok for today not my greatest and the scale is down to 153 but I don't think i will see the desired 151 tomorrow morning :( ah lesson learned. no overeating on your daughter's birthday and just no visits from your mother while you are trying to lose weight. My mom is horrible with making all my favorite things and indulging me. haha. Anyhow we shall see how tomorrow goes. Either I will be happy or depressed:(
Will check in tomorrow! have another yoga session planned...feeling happy just thinking about it.

sun Hope the yoga was good! That's so awesome it makes you good thinking about it in advance - I usually only feel good about working out in hindsight - like, I appreciate whatever it was I just did haha.

Stephanie The baseball game sounds fun! We barely have baseball here - my boyfriend's mum is over in the US at the moment and she got herself a ticket to go see (forgive me if I get the teams wrong) the Boston Red Sox vs New York Yankees. Sounds fairly exciting, and I don't even like to watch sports that much! Your date night sounds good and your weekend too! I'm sorry you've hit a plateau with your weight - same here :( A shisha pipe, also called a hookah pipe, is a kind of ... middle eastern smoking pipe - you smoke flavoured tobacco through it and the smoke goes through water in the bottom of the pipe which cools the smoke and also creates some vapour - it's kind of hard to explain! My boyfriend collects the pipes and also likes to smoke them, and I enjoy it as well - it's not as bad on the lungs as cigarettes (I used to smoke) and since I've managed to get it down to a maybe once or twice a week thing and only in the weekends, I don't see it as too harmful. I know it's not good for me, but I think of it as bettter than drinking a whole lot of alcohol and it's something I enjoy so I won't be giving it up. Hah sorry that was an essay!

I'm STILL stuck at 77kg. I haven't really weighed on either of my "proper" scales (digital or Wii Fit) so I don't know for sure, but I use the needle scale almost daily just to check in and it mostly says the same thing. I'd love to see a drop as I don't know what I'm doing wrong!

This week is filling up fairly quick, I've got some organising to do for my birthday dinner and party on Saturday night and also some annoying errands to do...warrant of fitness for my car, have to help out at my parents office for a few hours since they're away at the moment.

My sister is taking me shopping tomorrow for a birthday present, she said she was thinking of getting me some MAC makeup! And I'm thinking about buying myself a (cheap) new dress or perhaps some shoes to wear on Saturday night.