30 Something's Daily Chat:Friday, 6/12
 

Hey girlz! And Good Morning! I went to bed super early last night and have been up since 5 or so. I have plans for an hr of cardio (30 min step, 15 eliptical, 15 bike). Made a hungry girl faux chicken alfredo last night that was da bomb. Mix Smart Taste pasta (portions are about a lg handful per person dry), steamed brocc, 4 laughing cow cheese wedges (light) and about 2 tbs of reduced fat sour cream. I season with fresh ground garlic, salt and pepper. About 380 cal per serving and 7 g of fat. So good!

So what are you all up to today? Since it is raining, I am thinking my daughter's golf lessons will be canceled and the school had a Spring BBQ planned that will probably be postponed. Looks like I am renting movies and chilling with the fam! Not a bad alternative!

I have a few questions for you girls, How much exercise is too much? What do YOU think is optimum? AND How many calories/fat are you taking in on a daily basis? I am losing so slowly and just wondering if I have this wrong. I read online and it is honestly different everywhere. I have read 30 min 5 times a week to an hr of cardio a day (which is what I am doing). Im doing about 1200 calories and about 15-25g of fat per day. I try to do 3 meals and 2 to 3 snacks in order to get there. Thoughts?

Workout Song of the Day: Not Fair by Lily Allen (my FAV song by her)

GOOD MORNING! TGIF!
Yeah...I get to do yard work this weekend! Nothing burns some calories like a complete yard clean up!

I was good last night. I went and got a $5 foot long and split it with my youngest. We split it 3 ways...well almost 3 ways. My youngest doesn't eat much of nothing, so my and my middle child ate the majority of it. Grilled chicken & tons of veggies. It was pretty good. Then we played around for about 30 minutes and then walked around the mall for a bit. It was good bonding time.

In regards to what I think about exercise: I think a good average for a person in my age group/weight/strength/fitness level...I like to do 20 minutes on the treadmill (don't know why, but I just gotta) then 20 minutes on either the bike or eliptical. Then I do my strength training (alternating upper & lower). I guess I spend about 20 - 30 minutes on that (including stretching). I think an hour - an hour & a half working out is about "normal" for me...5 or 6 days a week. (Lately it's been just a mere 3 times a week)
I try to keep my calories about 1400 - 1700 daily. I don't want to get stuck in a rut. My doctor told me that if I consume around 1500 per day that would enable me to lose approx 2 - 3 lbs a week (with my regular fitness level). I really don't keep up with total fat per day, but I do try to watch the fat content & sodium in my foods. Keeping it as low as possible, but I am NOT going to eat food without flavor. I know that I won't be able to keep up with this change if I just start eating bland tasteless foods.
I also do the 3 meals & 2 snacks a day. I try to eat about every 2 - 3 hours.
8 am - breakfast
10:30am - snack
1pm - lunch
3:30 - snack
6:30 - dinner
(then after they gym I have one of my "smoothies" to refuel)

Oh...I lost 2 lbs this week! I wasn't able to hit the gym or do any real workouts, but I did what I could and still lost.

Mornin' All! :wave:

Sam, CONGRATS on the loss! :cheer:

Laurie, Can't help ya' there. My exercise, besides cleaning the house and doing laundry, is the ridiculous hill I have to walk up and down at school twice a week! :lol: And since I'm following WW (when I'm not chasing the wagon I fell off), I do points.

This morning has been good already! It is my WI morning, and I am 217.6, which is a loss of 6.4 pounds. I love that first week. It makes it easer to keep going when the losses are closer to 1-2 pounds. Of course, it also illustrates just how bloaty and ICKY I was to begin with... I can't wait until I'm allowed to have a signature! I have all my goals planned out and I want them on my posts!!!

Anyway, as far as exercise, I think that an hour of cardio 4-5 times a week and 2-3 resistance training sessions are sufficient for most people. I know that federal guidelines are something totally different, but if I can get up to a schedule like that and keep it up for the rest of my life I would be happy. At least for me, a schedule like that keeps me fit and keeps me from getting too sore or hurting myself. As I get back into activity, however, I'm going to try to keep my workouts more varied that I used to do. I will probably fail at this, though, because it's much easier and requires less thought and less planning to do the same thing every day rather than coming up with different equivalent activities.

I went back over everything I ate last week and I think my calories are a little too low, so I'm going to add in more skim milk. I LOOOVE milk, but I have a weird thing against drinking ANY of my calories. So I'm going to keep my meal plans the same and aim for 25 points. However, since my 25 points is only 1300-1400 calories a day, I'm going to add two 8 oz glasses of skim milk a day. They won't be added to my point calculation, but I'll use them to get closer to my 1500 calorie goal. I know I could do the same thing by bumping up my points goal and just always drinking the milk, but my brain doesn't like that. Instead my goal will be 25 points PLUS two 8 oz glasses of milk. We'll do that for a week and see how I like it.

I walked this morning, I'm going to walk at lunch, and I'm planning on hacking one and maybe two horses after work, so my activity should be good for today. I'm starting to crave some weight lifting so I think this week I'll add in some weights and then NEXT week I'll bump up the intensity of my cardio. I still want to walk with the dogs, which isn't very high impact, but I like the mornings with them, so I'll have to figure out where to add in my extra cardio. Maybe evenings...

Sorry this is kind of a novel. I guess I'm kind of using the daily thread as a journal. I hope that's okay!!

:)