[thinchickie]

Okay, I was excited today to go to the gym to see what I might have lost... well, to my surprise I had only lost a .2 of a pound.

I thought it would weigh a little higher because I don't eat salt much and last night I had tortilla chips, homemade chicken noodle soup, which was too salty and some popcorn.

I drank a bunch of water last night trying to flush it. My feet were super swollen today before weigh in. My son said, work out first and go to the sauna... I did neither..

I asked the trainer what she thought, she said 6 people had gained 3-4 pounds and she thought it was water weight. She said we'll see next week at that weigh in.

I drink only water, she thought I was dehydrated, but then concluded not because of the amount of water I take in. I think it was all the salt. Which I knew better, believe me I knew better.

However, that didn't stop me from nearly shutting down. I have been walking every day, I was at 1 mile and am up to 2.5 miles a day now and lifted weights 3 days last week.

This might be were I am messed up.. the food logging... I had homemade veg lasagna and didn't weight the cheese, went nuts maybe?? But my calories averaged out around 1400 when I go back and look.

I think I might be kidding myself about 'picking' at food when I go back in the kitchen at night.

I will be weighing it all this week to see if that is problem. To be painfully honest in the food journal.. maybe there are things sneaking in, the extra handful of popcorn, the few baked chips here and there??

I am painfully disappointed. My son, told me to look at all the positive I did though, I am now walking and am very aware of what I am eating.

I didn't think I cared about the subway card until I saw the weight. A guy lost 9 pounds and a woman lost 8 pounds since last friday.. I don't know if I will catch up, but I have to stick to my original plan, this is mainly to wake me up and keep me on track.

I go back next friday and get weighed in and my new work out with the trainer. I told her to make this next one more intense. This is my third package with her, and it is all weight lifting, which I love.....

Anybody else out there having issues with the little white lies that don't make it to the food journal???

[cobra]

I know that our foods out there are very high in sodium and it really makes a difference if you usually don't eat salty items. I have learned to read the labels and the sodium is the first thing I look at. If it is more than 300 mg per serving, I put it back and look for an alternative. I was told here in Canada that we should only have 1500 mg per day so I would aim for no more than 500 mg per meal.

Would you be able to drink 2 8 oz bottles of water after a meal? This worked for me and I am down 5.4 lbs in 2 weeks.

Good luck and keep smiling......

[sweetcakes736]

Did your body fat percentage change? Is your TOM coming soon?

[oneLess]

You know maybe just maybe you need to eat a bit more. 1400 calories a day with exercise and your weight might be shocking your body in to holding on to its fat. I would suggest 200 more calories a day in good food (maybe dairy) and/or sticking it out for at least 2 more weeks and let your body adjust.

But I still want to say you are doing awesome and I am very proud of you for doing this. Weird to say I am proud of a stranger but I am above your weight just a bit and I wouldn't have the guts to join the BL challenge.
How many weeks do you have?

[koceank29]

You're doing great... I would suggest if you aren't already, closing your kitchen at least 3 hours before you go to bed. I stop eating by 6pm and usually head to bed around 10:30pm, ever since I've started doing this I've started losing again, this may help you. Good luck! I'm at 1.5 miles right now...can't wait to be at 2.5 like you! Don't let the scale be your only guide, inches count too!

[Karen925]

Originally Posted by thinchickie

I am painfully disappointed. My son, told me to look at all the positive I did though, I am now walking and am very aware of what I am eating.

I have to be honest, to me this is the most important sentence in your post. Your son is absolutely correct. Without self awareness, you cannot change anything- whether that is money, calories, intellect, etc...

I encourage you to continue to log your food, weigh (because it is easy) yourself and your food every day. Then you will have information to make informed choices.

Best wishes to whatever you decide.

[kaplods]

For me, it's important to acknowledge my successes as well as my mistakes.

It is important to be very aware of your eating and exercise. It is very easy for even small instances of carelessness to camouflage counterproductive behavior.

So understanding where you may be miscalculating is important, but so is acknowledging the healthy behaviors. Often, because exercise doesn't result in rapid weight loss (or can even stall weight loss in the short term) many people start to believe that exercising is unimportant or should even be avoided because it isn't helping (in the short term).

Balancing the short-term and the long-term goals and behaviors is a challenge. Trial and error is what you're left with, mostly.

This is definitely a race a turtle can win, though. So progress is a lot more important than perfection in the scheme of things.

[thinchickie]

I want to thank everybody for the great responses, it is nice to have a place where people understand.

I have 8 weeks left in the contest. I talked to my trainer today and she had told me that people got hurt in the class from going from no exercise to intense exercise. They had do cut the intensity.

I have class at the college when they run that and not really sure I would go if I could. I am going to go back to the pool, as well. I seem to melt fat off pretty easily there.

I have pulled out the food scale, which I use half the time and measuring cups the other half. Now, I am going to weigh it all. That will be the best way to do it.

I have a clean eating diet for the most part, thanks to my Chinese doctor. She has brought me a million miles away from where I used to eat. I just have to be VERY AWAKE when I am eating things like avocados and anything with shredded cheese on it. I have a tendency to fall asleep while the cheese magically hits the food, then wake up while I am eating every delicious-calorie laden bite.

The good thing is, I don't eat cheese very often, it just happened to show up in two great recipes this week. I had a clean eating Turkey enchilada. It was great, but then I noticed on the last two, I again fell asleep and let the Monteray cheese rain down without measuring. This cheese is 100 calories an ounce....this is the lying to me part...

I didn't necessarily get those enchiladas but I knew they were there, and I think I got one the next day for lunch. They could have been 200 calories, at least, higher than I was logging.

I took today off from walking. I was sore, but tomorrow we have plans to walk a trail here with the dog. That should get me about 3 miles easy. For as big as I am, I surprise myself at how far I have had to walk on some of my vacations and not dropped dead.

We walked Salem for 8 hours straight on Halloween without stopping, except to eat. We did that for a week, all over the place.. yet when I got home did I keep walking?? No....

My doctor has asked me to walk for 90 minutes a day. He said I could do it in two or three segments, he didn't care, he wanted me walking. So, I guess he is just thrilled now.

Now I know, no salt like that. Keep it clean and keep it weighed.

Thanks again to all you guys for the support!